Hi, I'm Miami, Alec. And I'm Jonathan Cohen. And welcome to our breakdown. We're kicking off the new year with a bang and with some good excitement and hilarity. Many of us are setting fresh intentions and trying to build momentum, trying to think about what healthy habits can take us through 2026. So we are revisiting an episode that we did with Tara Strong, one of the world's most recognized and recognizable voice actors. She has voiced power puff girls, fairly odd parents, Harley Quinn. She was the voice of Hello Kitty. The list goes on and on. This is a hilarious episode and a really significant one for the work that we do here at

My our brains can actually help us achieve and get the things that we want as well. Tara opens up about her own manifestation process for attracting positivity her way and she's able to tune in to something greater. Also, I have a long history of friendship with Tara. So I make sure to ask her to explain in detail her belief in magic and angels. It's a really great conversation and also, reminder, check us out on Substack. We're putting up some really fun, exclusive content there, engaging with the Substack community all year long. So please check it out. And now we hope you enjoy this revisiting of the episode with Tara Strong. Break it down. Tara, welcome to the breakdowndown. Thanks for having me. In reading your bio, it is worth mentioning, you work on many television shows at the same time. Yes, that's true. Like, I think I counted eight. Yeah, I think sometimes it's like four and sometimes it's 10 at the same time. So you and I used to audition in kind of the same circles at the same sort of period of time. And there was a time when I got voice over work and then we ended up getting to do an episode of recess together. And then I stopped getting work. I realized you were getting more and more work. By the way, we also did Lloyd and Space together. We were two headed monster. We were a two headed monster. That's right. But it's really, it's an astounding, impressive resume that you have in that. You are able to have your voice on so many different platforms at the same time. And I have to ask, was this like a dream of yours as a child, like I have an amazing voice, and I'm gonna get to be on 10 shows at the same time? No. Okay, I knew when I was five years old that I think you're the same, wanted to be singer dancer actress. It's all I wanted. And I knew that before I knew it was a career. It just looked fun and that's I came here to perform. And no one in my family was a performer, except a grandfather who was a cantor. But nobody knew anything about showbiz. I grew up in Toronto. My mom was a caterer. My dad was a pharmacist. We had a toy store. I grew up in this toy store. My parents were the first import Hello Kitty into Toronto. I have a picture of myself as a five year old with my dad in a Hello Kitty furry costume. And like we didn't have a lot of money, but they were very supportive of me fulfilling this dream. And I had lots of acting, singing, dancing classes, my whole life. My first sort of professional performance was at the Yiddish theater. I spoke Hebrew not Yiddish, but I learned it phonetically and all the boobies called me the Vundermaid Luck and it was very wonderful. And then I finally got an agent and I got my first theater production at Toronto's Downtown Lime Light Theater, which was the music man and a lot of people's first show was the music man and my first on-camera show, which was a show with Mr. T and my first cartoon, which was Hello Kitty. I was the first I was the first English speaking voice. The first time she had a mouth was way at 13. This blew my mind. I didn't know this about you. I started around 13. And you were Hello Kitty?

First, first series.

That was the title role of Hello Kitty. First time she had a mouth. It's the first time she had a mouth. What did she sound like? What did he say? He said, The Wizard of Paws. That's exactly what I think Hello Kitty should sound like. Yeah, she does. Yeah. So I did it. And in Toronto, I had a very well-rounded career.

I did, I had a sitcom that was, you know, I was the kid in the sitcom. I had lots of film and TV roles, a lot of runaway production stuff that went to Toronto that I shot and tons of cartoons, Beetlejuice Care Bears, my pet monster, you know, garbage pale kids, all kinds of crazy stuff. So that when I came here, it wasn't a blank resume, right? I had a very extensive resume, but even with that,

it did take some time. I was eviction notice broke for like two years and great story. The person who gave me Hello Kitty saved my LA existence and called me and said, would you be on the new Inspector Gadget Show? It's called Gadget Point Heather. So she gave me Hello Kitty And then she gave me the job that kept me in Los Angeles, and her name is Marsha Goodman. So she's my voice over angel. She's your, yeah, a fairy god mother. So, okay, so I wanna go back to what you did with your voice when you did your Hello Kitty voice. I can't do that with my voice. A lot of people can't do that. When did you realize you had this kind of ability to create voices very distinctive from yours? Are you sure you can't do that? I can't do that. I think you just think you can't do that. But I bet if you had the challenge to do that, what if they're like, okay, we want you to play June for A in her lifetime story. You're up to I bet you're being very humble because everybody has different vocal cords and everybody has different musculature. And they're in those parts. Like you do things with your voice and with your vocal cords that don't hurt your voice. Like I can do things with my voice, but I can only do it a couple of times. When did you realize that you had the ability to sort of do a variety of different sounds? Then most people can make. Probably pretty young, because I did always do funny voices. My sister and I had our own little fake radio station and we record ourselves. And I was the kid at six, seven years old that would take my mom's hand and say, let's pretend we're from England in this store.

Like I loved doing accents and voices always. So it's definitely like, I think like, look, Maim, you came with a brilliant brain and a gorgeous singing voice and acting abilities. There's no question. There are kids that come that play the piano guitar. We know these kids can paint shit at like, I don't know, can we say shit on this show? like five years old, right?

Like you come with certain gifts,

so I think one of mine is the ability to... I don't know guitar, we know these kids can paint shit at like, I don't know, can we say show on the show at like five years old, right?

Like you come with certain gifts.

So I think one of mine is the ability to manipulate my voice, create characters that seem to make people feel something which is what really matters, right? A lot of people come to me and say, Oh, I really want to do voice over. And that's their voice. And I'm like, have you had any acting experience, right?

Because it's not about having an interesting voice

or a unique voice.

It will work for some commercial careers or promo careers or like a job here and there that they have a very distinct voice that that works for. But to sustain a long career where you are creating multiple characters, you do need to have most of us have that can do this a pretty normal sounding voice and can manipulate our sound to become other characters, which is what happens right you don't just change your voice you for me in my process. I see them in my head. They live in my head when it's their turn to come down. They do and I become these characters so that it makes people feel something when they're watching it and And you know, have you gone to Comic-Con's?

Yes. You know when you go and people are like, you are my childhood. You, I, you know, I didn't have friends till this show, right? I thought I was the only person like me till this show. And then when you realize the impact that you have on people, it's so beautiful. So I consider it like this beautiful gift that I was given to like share love and light.

And like I feel so lucky. Every time I book something even now, I start of most 13 I'm 51. Even now I like dropped to the floor hands up to the sky like yes like because I love it. It's what I do. So when you just dropped into that character a moment ago and you just said they live in your head like is it busy in your head? Yes, it's very busy and I think a lot of people have busy brains but I don't know if they have them in all the different voices. I have a lot of. It's not that they're all speaking at the same time. It's that they live there in their own little spaces and when it's their turn to come out and play.

It's not like I do anything. It's like breathing. I can't really describe it. They just come out. I know, I know when it's my, it's this character's turn. And I also know specifics, right? Like I've played maybe five, six, seven, 10 versions of Harley, right? So Holly Quinn on a video game might be like,

oh, you know, let's try to kick the ass

and she's like more like action.

And then on a video game might be like,

oh, you know, let's try to kick some ass.

And she's like, more like action.

...