Andrea Romano
Andrea Romano is an American casting director, voice director, and voice actor, whose work includes casting, and voice directing Batman: The Animated Series, Tiny Toon Adventures, "Animaniacs", "Pinky and the Brain", Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, and multiple Warner Bros. Animation/DC Comics direct-to-video films, including: Wonder Woman and Green Lantern: First Flight.
Romano grew up in Long Island, New York. She pursued undergraduate education at State University of New York at Fredonia, graduating in 1977, before attending Rutgers University, from which she chose to not graduate. At this time, she began auditioning for plays in Manhattan. While keeping a steady job during the day, Romano would perform in plays at night, often auditioning on her lunch break.
In 1979, Romano moved to San Diego, where it was difficult for her to find theater work. After working in a couple of plays, she was offered a temporary position at Abrams-Rubaloff, a talent agency in Los Angeles. Within months, due to the temporary position lasting longer than expected, Romano was franchised as an agent.
After leaving Abrams-Rubaloff, Romano joined Special Artists, a smaller agency, and began their voice-over department. While at Special Artists, she would also direct the potential client auditions. It was during her time at Special Artists that Romano began attending some of her clients' recording sessions at Hanna–Barbera. After a short time at Special Artists, she was asked to audition at Hanna–Barbera for the position of casting director.
Romano joined Hanna–Barbera, in 1984. While at Hanna–Barbera, a position which lasted more than five years, Romano worked on such programs as The Smurfs, The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, and the 1987 reboot of The Jetsons, among others. On all of which, working alongside director Gordon Hunt. She also worked on Jetsons: The Movie, though she had her name removed from the credits when an executive decision resulted in Janet Waldo being replaced. Near the end of recording for Jetsons: The Movie, Romano witnessed George O'Hanlon, who voiced George Jetson, die, as the result of a stroke, in the recording studio.
Romano was approached by Disney, which was developing DuckTales at the time, to audition for the position of voice director of the series. Disney was auditioning five directors that would each direct one episode, after which, they would choose a director to direct the remaining episodes. One director did the first episode, then Romano directed the second episode; it was at this time that Disney chose to stop the audition process and have Romano direct the remaining episodes. Romano directed sixty-five episodes of DuckTales. While serving as voice director of DuckTales, for Disney, Romano remained on staff at Hanna–Barbera, as casting director, until some of the Hanna–Barbera executives chose to leave and form a new company. Knowing she would not be able to direct in this new company, Romano chose to become a freelance director.
Romano became a freelance casting and voice director, in 1989. The first series she did, which was for Warner Bros., is Tiny Toon Adventures in 1990. This was followed by: Batman: The Animated Series, in 1992; Animaniacs, in 1993; Pinky and the Brain, in 1995; and Superman: The Animated Series, in 1996; all for Warner Bros. She also was the voice director for the all-CGI series ReBoot beginning in 1994.
In addition to series, Romano also voice directed many direct-to-video films, including: The Land Before Time II, The Land Before Time III, The Land Before Time IV, The Land Before Time V, and Wakko's Wish.
Since 2000, Romano has served as casting, and voice, director for series, including; Justice League, Teen Titans, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Batman, SpongeBob SquarePants, Ben 10: Alien Force, and Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
She has also done the DC Comics direct-to-video films, including: Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: The New Frontier, Batman: Gotham Knight, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern: First Flight, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, Batman: Under the Red Hood, and Batman: Year One.
On video games, Romano has stated, "I only do special ones [...] they aren't challenging to me and they are taxing on an actor's voice.” Romano did her first voice direction of a video game on 1999's Descent 3. Since then, she's done: Animaniacs Splat Ball, in 1999; Floigan Bros. and Batman Vengeance, in 2001; Teen Titans, in 2005; Diablo III, in 2008; and StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, in 2010.
Romano's first credited voice role was in a 1996 episode of Animaniacs. She has also voice-acted for the series Justice League and Teen Titans. In addition to these, Romano also played voice-roles for some of her direct-to-video films: Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman, Batman: Gotham Knight, Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, and Superman/Batman: Apocalypse.
Romano is "renowned for considering 250-300 actors for lead roles", according to UGO. She doesn't like to replace actors, and that's why she values actors who aren't celebrities, because, as she has said, "replacing a celebrity ... that's really uncomfortable." Romano has joked that fans can sometimes tell what she has been watching on television or in the movies by who she casts. She sometimes intentionally casts the same actors with whom she has worked previously, "because it was fun, it was good and I know they can do the job."
Her reputation includes Wired's Ken Denmead's description of Romano as an "iconic voice director". UGO refers to her as "arguably the best known casting/dialogue director on the animation scene today."
Wil Wheaton, an actor and voice actor whom Romano has worked with, has said, "I owe Andrea my whole animation career", after she cast him in The Zeta Project and Teen Titans.
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