Jessica Straus Fire & Ice RGX 2025 Interview – Professional Voice Actor Talks Street Fighter’s Juri, Wolf’s Rain, and More
With decades of experience, professional voice over artist Jessica Straus has made a tremendous impact in more than 100 roles across a number of iconic video games and anime.
Gamers Heroes recently spoke with professional voice actor Jessica Straus about her rich line of work, from Street Fighter bad girl Juri Han to Wolf’s Rain’s Blue – learn more with our interview.
Jessica Straus Fire & Ice RGX 2025 Interview – Professional Voice Actor Talks Street Fighter’s Juri, Wolf’s Rain, and More
Gamers Heroes
It’s an honor to speak with you – I’ve heard you in so, so much! I was there day one for Super Street Fighter IV.
So Juri is huge – I’d like to know some of your favorite fan stories at events like Fire and Ice RGX. I saw a Juri cosplayer dressed to the nines yesterday!
Jessica Straus
This year, I’ve just started going out to conventions again, and I’ve seen more and more Juri cosplayers each convention.
A lot of fans are very passionate about Juri!
When fans come up, they’re always interested in multiple items, and they know everything about her.
I think there’s something about her that really affects people. She’s sort of bad, but she also has this energy of overcoming anything and courage.
I think the fans like that badass quality mixed in, as she’s sort of likable as well.
When fans come up, and I start talking about her, I get chills and get excited with them!
I love meeting the fans, and it’s definitely been an honor voicing a character over an arc of 15 years.
Gamers Heroes
I love how you gave IRONPINKY a shoutout at the event as well!
Jessica Straus
Yeah, it’s wonderful! Edwin Huang [IRONPINKY] gave me three posters.
I told people to go over and look at his stuff, and he was one of the first artists that I met when Super Street Fighter IV came out.
I have some of his posters on my wall!
Gamers Heroes
So I love indies!
I saw you’re going to be in Battle Suit Aces, and played the demo.
After you posted about it, I did a story for the site and followed the studio on social media – Trinket Studios is truly fantastic!
What I love is that Battle Suit Aces has so much life to it. There are so many stories, and there are so many voices – I really appreciate that.
What made you want to take on this release?
Jessica Straus
When they offered me the role, we were still on strike and they had an interim SAG-AFTRA contract.
I had worked with the guy that was casting the project before and it was a very good experience. I auditioned, got cast and their team was so positive & fun to work with!
Val was a super cool character to voice. She was so wise, grounded, heartfelt, and badass all at the same time. And, she was a new type of character for me. Also, I got to voice multiple characters on the game, which I really love to do.
The people at Trinket Studios and the director were wonderful to work with, and the writing was excellent.
Gamers Heroes
You posted a video about your range of voices – I saw a bunch of people coming to your booth for Infamous and the like!
I believe there’s also stuff like children’s characters, Leapfrog characters, and more.
Do you have a particular style that you prefer?
Jessica Straus
I like doing a mixture of characters!
Evil, badass women are fun, but if I was doing it all the time, it could get …”Boring!” [Juri]
But my normal voice has a sort of lower, badass pitch to it, so that gets me cast a lot. I love using my full vocal range!
I love doing kids voices especially, but they don’t cast adults as kids as much these days. However, when they do, it’s just so much fun to play them!
It’s like, “Oh, I get to be a five-year-old today!” Voicing innocent roles is a great mental space to exist in.
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely!
So I’ve interviewed a number of VAs, and what I found is that they’re often friends with each other.
For instance, there’s a project I covered not too long ago called Date Everything! that featured over 100 VAs!
What are some of your favorite collaboration stories?
Jessica Straus
When I go to conventions, I always try to help out other actors!
For Street Fighter specifically, several years ago I did a picnic where I invited all the Street Fighter actors to come by and sign a 30th anniversary poster – we had a great time!
People came and signed it, and it then went to a charity auction.
I also got collectable cards from Udon of the characters from Street Fighter 6 and Street Fighter 5.
While everybody couldn’t make it, I had another picnic and I distributed it to the people that showed up – people got collectable cards!
Gamers Heroes
Changing gears…
When it comes to Wolf’s Rain and FLCL – they both have a lot of fans. I’ve seen a lot of AMVs!
With people inspired by Toonami and Adult Swim, what has it been like inspiring so many people – like me – that grew up with your work?
Jessica Straus
It’s amazing!
My favorite story of Blue so far comes from the conventions.
There was a great guy that watched Wolf’s Rain. He got married, had a little girl, and named her after Blue!
He then brought the daughter to my table, and had me sign the picture for her.
She’s probably about 10 now, and I have a picture of her. Somebody named their daughter Blue – that’s just so amazing to me!
She’s s a powerful character. I’ve also had people write papers about her for class and say:
“I wrote a whole philosophy paper around Wolf’s Rain and Blue!”
I think it’s a story that’s timeless.
FLCL was one of the first anime series that I voiced, and it’s amazing how popular it is still to this day.
Gamers Heroes
Finally, what advice you have to give to the next generation of voice actors?
Jessica Straus
It was so different back then!
Back when I started, we didn’t even have home studios – we were always going to our agents.
My advice is to do it if you’re passionate about it, and get acting training or some kind of performance training.
Make sure that you love performing in front of other people, and you love transforming yourself into characters.
If you want to get into video game or anime acting, you got to take direction and turn your emotions on a dime.
Make sure to do it because you love it, and get training as well.
If it comes naturally to you, and you feel like this is where you belong,
“YOU SHOULD GO FOR IT!”
Gamers Heroes
I really appreciate your time. Nothing but respect!
Feeling social? Be sure to follow Jessica Straus on her Twitter/X, Instagram, and Bluesky social media accounts!
Thank you to both the Sac Gamers Expo and Fire & Ice teams for arranging the interview, and Jessica Straus for her time!
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