Ellen McLain

Ellen McLain
McLain at a signing at Kitacon 2012, UK
Background information
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee
Occupation(s)	Singer, voice actor
Instruments	Soprano voice
Website	ellenmclain.net

Ellen McLain is an American opera singer and voice actress from Nashville, Tennessee. She is known for providing the voice of GLaDOS, the computer antagonist of the Portal video game series, the voice of the Jaeger A.I. in Pacific Rim, and the Administrator, the narrator of the video game Team Fortress 2.

Career

McLain provides voices for many characters in several video games from Valve Corporation. Among them are GLaDOS, the artificial intelligence antagonist in Portal (for which she won an AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance) and Portal 2, the announcer in Team Fortress 2, and the voice of the Combine Overwatch for the Half-Life 2 series.

McLain sang "Still Alive" and "Want You Gone", the ending credits songs to Portal and Portal 2, respectively, both of which were written by Jonathan Coulton. She also sang the soprano song featured at the end of Portal 2, named "Cara Mia", and officially called "Cara Mia Addio". It is sometimes called the "Turret Opera."

In December 2011, she won the Spike Video Game Award in the category "Best Performance by a Human Female" for her voice acting as GLaDOS in Portal 2.

In 2013, McLain lent her public support to gathering donations for the Kickstarter-funded LGBT gaming convention GaymerX. She later was a special guest at the convention in August 2013.

Personal life

McLain is married to John Patrick Lowrie, a fellow voice actor, who also worked on the video games Half-Life 2, Dota 2 and Team Fortress 2. In Half-Life 2, her husband voiced the citizens who assist the protagonist. In Team Fortress 2, Lowrie voices the Sniper.

Filmography

Year	Games/Films	Role	Notes
2004	Half-Life 2	Combine Overwatch
2006	Half-Life 2: Episode One	Combine Overwatch
2007	Half-Life 2: Episode Two	Combine Overwatch
	Portal	GLaDOS / Turrets / Curiosity Sphere / Cake Sphere	AIAS Interactive Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance Sings "Still Alive" See also: Critical reception to Portal and reception to GLaDOS
	Team Fortress 2	Administrator (also referred to as "The Announcer" and "Helen")
	Godzilla: Unleashed	Vorticia	Features only in cutscenes.
2009	Left 4 Dead 2	Witch
2011	Portal 2	GLaDOS / Turrets / Caroline	Sings "Want You Gone" During the credits, Caroline is not credited, whereas both GLaDOS and the turrets are.
	Defense Grid: The Awakening	GLaDOS	Appears in the DLC "You Monster".
2012	Dota 2	Broodmother, Death Prophet, GLaDOS Announcer
2013	Pacific Rim	Jaeger A.I.
	Poker Night 2	GLaDOS	Appears in a supporting role as the game's card dealer.
2015	Bee and PuppyCat	Temp Bot	Episode 5
2015	Lego Dimensions	GLaDOS / Turrets	Appears in a supporting role. Sings "You Wouldn't Know" (credits song).

External links

• Official website
• Ellen McLain at the Internet Movie Database
• Ellen McLain speaking at the Anime Midwest 2011 convention