Who is Erika Harlacher?
Erika Harlacher was born in Camarillo, California, USA, on 29 August 1990 – her zodiac sign is Virgo, and she holds American nationality. She’s a voice actress, perhaps known best for her work on English versions of popular Japanese video games and anime series, such as “The Seven Deadly Sins”, “Hunter x Hunter” and “Persona 5”.
Early life and education
Erika grew up in Camarillo, alongside her younger sister Natalie. Erika started acting during middle school, in local productions of plays. She became interested in voice acting when she was nine years old, after watching an interview with the famous voiceover artist Christy Carlson Romano, who voiced the title character in the Disney animated series “Kim Possible”.
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However, her parents didn’t like her idea, and even told her that it’s ‘not a real job’, and that she should only consider acting as a hobby.
Erika’s first exposure to anime was though “Dragon Ball Z” and “Pokémon”, which she watched as a kid. She later read the popular manga “Fruit Basket”, which really sparked her interest in Japanese manga and anime culture. Erika studied at La Reina High School, and during her time there was active in the Speech and Mock Trial team, even attending a national event.
She matriculated in 2008, and enrolled at the California State Polytechnic University in Pomona, majoring in graphic design. During her freshman year, Erika attended the Anime Expo for the first time, where she participated in her first voice acting workshop, conducted by Tony Oliver.
Tony noticed Erika’s voice acting talent, and convinced her to change her major to theatre, and continue taking voice acting lessons and participating in workshops.
At one point in college Erika had health issues, which led her to take a break from classes and acting, so she briefly worked as a production assistant. Her parents thought that it would make for a more practical career, but she later returned to school, and continued working as an actress, graduating college in 2012. She then did an internship at Bang Zoom! Entertainment, where she had a chance to sit in on some of their recording sessions.
Career as a voice actress
Erika made her voice acting debut in 2010, when she voiced Keiko Ida along with several other incidental characters in the English voiceover of the anime series “K-On!” Her next voiceover role was in the video game “Battleship”, based on the eponymous 2012 movie, in which she lent her voice to the main character, Grace Harland. Unfortunately, the game wasn’t well received by the critics, who apparently were particularly disappointed by the voice acting.
In 2013, Erika voiced the title character in the role-playing video game, “Atelier Ayesha: The Alchemist of Dusk”. Although Erika has said that she loved doing the voiceover for the game, mainly because she finds Ayesha to be relatable, she received mixed reviews for her performance.
In the following year, she voiced Koyoke Kirigiri, in the visual novel adventure game “Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc”, also in 2014 working on English voiceovers for anime series “Accel World”, “Sword Art Online” and “Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic”. Her biggest role of that year was of the popular but mean high school girl, Ami Kawahima, in the romantic comedy anime “Toradora!” This time, she and the rest of the cast were universally praised for their performance by both the critics and the audience, with some saying that they did an even better job voicing their characters than the original Japanese voice actors.
In 2015, Erika worked on English dubs of several anime series, including “Kill la Kill”, “Yuki Yuna is a Hero” and “The Seven Deadly Sins”. In the same year, she had her own panel at the Sac-Anime convention in Sacramento, California, which was praised as one of the best panels at the event, and in December 2015, the production company Manga Entertainment named her one of the best English voice actresses.
In 2016, Erika landed the voiceover role of Kurapika, one of the main characters in the 2011 action anime “Hunter x Hunter”, and in the following year she voiced Ann Takamaki, in the Japanese turn-based action game “Persona 5”. In 2018, she voiced Violet in “Violet Evergarden”, Yumeko Jabami, in “Kakegurui – Compulsive Gambler” and Yugo, in the third season of “Wakfu: The Animated Series”.
More recently, in 2021, Erika had voiceover roles in several video games based on anime series, such as “Demon Slayer: The Hinokami Chronicles”, “Shadowerse: Champion’s Battle” and “NEO: The World Ends With You”.
For her voice acting work, Erika has been nominated for six Behind the Voice Actors Awards, for her performances in “Fate/Apocrypha”, “Shigatsu wa kimi no uso” and “Toradora!” among others. In 2019, she was nominated for a Crunchyroll Anime Award in the Best Voice Acting Performance (English) category, for her work in “Violet Evergarden”, but lost to Billy Kametz, who voiced Naofumi in “The Rising of the Shield Hero”.
YouTube and Twitch channels
Erika launched her YouTube channel, withakgames, on 29 December 2014, uploading her first video entitled “Welcome to withakgames!!” a few days later. Since then, she’s been posting gameplay videos, mostly of games in which she had voiceover roles, such as “Genshin Impact” and “Persona 5”.
As of November 2021, Erika’s YouTube channel numbers close to 100,000 subscribers, and over four million views, while her most popular video is “Soldier, Poet, King – Venti Cover (Genshin Impact Music Video)”, which has been viewed more than 650,000 times since it was uploaded in September 2021.
Erika has also been active on Twitch since July 2016, with her channel numbering more than 60,000 followers, and close to 300,000 views; she streams her gameplays of various popular titles, such as “Super Mario 64” and “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”.
Love life and husband
Erika married her long-term boyfriend, Luke Stone, on 14 October 2020. They met in college, and dated for several years before becoming engaged in October 2018. The two currently reside in Northern Hollywood, with their two dogs.
Appearance, age and net worth
Erika is 31 years old, with long blonde dyed hair, and brown eyes. She’s 5ft 6ins (1.68m) tall, and weighs around 117lbs (53kgs).
As of November 2021, her net worth is estimated at more than $1.6 million.
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