Tress MacNeille

Born in Chicago in 1951, voice actress Tress MacNeille grew up loving cartoons. Her dream since the age of 8 was to become a voice actress, but she worried that her career dreams were too impractical. Instead, she graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and went on to attend broadcasting school, after which she became a professional disc jockey. For a couple of years, MacNeille did odd voice-over jobs, TV demos and other work. She also worked as an assistant to legendary voice acting talent agent Bob Lloyd. In 1979, he and another agent, Rita Vennari, were able to get MacNeille her very first voice over gig on an episode of animated series "Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo" (ABC 1979-1983). Her first regular series role came in 1984, when she voiced the character of Queen Merla in the TV series "Voltron: Defender of the Universe" (Syndicated 1984-85). That same year, MacNeille joined the cast of "The Littles" (ABC 1983-85), and voiced the characters of Lavender MacDade, Bertha and the Wife in the TV movie "Cabbage Patch Kids: First Christmas." By the dawn of the 1990s, MacNeille was one of the biggest names in voice acting, starring on "Tiny Toon Adventures" (Fox 1990-95) as Babs Bunny and "Animaniacs" (Fox/WB 1993-98) as Dot Warner, She also was one of the key support players on "The Simpsons" (Fox 1989- ), playing irascible Agnes Skinner, schoolyard tough Dolph and many other minor characters. She performed similar duties on Matt Groening's "Futurama" (Fox 1999-2003, Comedy Central 2008-2013), most notably as hard-edged business executive Mom. In 1999, MacNeille became the voice of Daisy Duck in various Disney properties, and took over the role of Wilma Flintstone following the death of original voice actress Jean Vander Pyl.