Taliesin Jaffe
Taliesin Jaffe (born January 19, 1977) is an American voice actor, voice director, screenwriter, and former child actor based in Los Angeles, California.[1][2][3] He is best known for his extensive work in English-language dubbing of anime and video games, as well as his role as a co-founder and primary cast member of the web series Critical Role, where he portrays characters such as Percival "Percy" de Rolo and Mollymauk Tealeaf.[4][2] Jaffe has voiced over 100 roles across animation, video games, and other media, including notable performances as Eizen in Tales of Berseria, Thancred in Final Fantasy XIV, Blanka in Street Fighter IV, and Basil Hawkins in One Piece.[3][4][2][5] Jaffe began his career as a child actor in the early 1980s, appearing in films such as Mr. Mom (1983) as Kenny Butler, 2010 (1984) as Christopher Floyd, and Explorers (1985) as Ludwig Müller.[2][4] On television, he played recurring roles like Danny Slater in The Facts of Life and Jimmy Hassett in St. Elsewhere, as well as Kenny Granger in She's the Sheriff.[2] His early work earned him two Young Artist Awards—for Child's Cry (1986) and The Facts of Life—along with three additional nominations in that category.[4][2] Transitioning to voice work in adulthood, Jaffe became a prominent figure in anime dubbing, directing English adaptations for New Generation Pictures on titles including R.O.D the TV, Hellsing, and co-directing BECK: Mongolian Chop Squad with Christopher Bevins for Funimation.[1][2] He also served as an ADR director for video games such as Street Fighter IV and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and contributed to commentary tracks for Neon Genesis Evangelion: Death & Rebirth and The End of Evangelion.[2][4] As a screenwriter, he has scripted dubs for anime and written articles on the industry, while lecturing at universities and libraries.[1] In 2015, Jaffe co-founded Critical Role, a live-play Dungeons & Dragons web series that has garnered a massive following and led to the animated adaptations The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein on Amazon Prime Video (the latter premiering in November 2025), for which he serves as an executive producer.[4][2][6] His multifaceted contributions to voice acting and production have also earned a nomination for a Behind The Voice Actors Anime Dub Award for Fairy Tail: Priestess of the Phoenix.[4][2]Early life
Family background
Taliesin Jaffe was born on January 19, 1977, in Los Angeles, California, to actress Nina Axelrod and film producer Robert Jaffe. He has two brothers and a sister.[2][7] His entry into the entertainment world was deeply influenced by this familial immersion in Hollywood, where both parents maintained active careers in acting and production, providing early exposure to the industry's inner workings.[8] Jaffe's Hollywood lineage extends further through his grandparents: his maternal grandfather, George Axelrod, was an acclaimed screenwriter, director, and producer known for works such as The Seven Year Itch (1955) and Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), while his paternal grandfather, Herb Jaffe, was a prominent film producer behind projects like The Idolmaker (1980).[7] This heritage of creative professionals shaped Jaffe's upbringing, fostering an environment rich in storytelling and performance from a young age.Childhood acting debut
Taliesin Jaffe made his acting debut at the age of six in the 1983 comedy film Mr. Mom, directed by Stan Dragoti, where he played Kenny Butler, the middle child in a suburban family navigating role reversals after the father's job loss.[9] In a notable on-set moment, Jaffe improvised the line "Can I have a moment to myself please?" after forgetting his scripted dialogue during a family dinner scene, which director Dragoti retained in the final cut.[10] Jaffe's early film roles continued with supporting parts in science fiction productions. In 2010 (1984), directed by Peter Hyams, he portrayed Christopher Floyd, the young son of astronaut Roy Floyd (John Lithgow) aboard a spaceship mission to Jupiter.[8] The following year, he appeared as Ludwig Müller, a German boy involved in a backyard spaceship adventure, in Explorers (1985), directed by Joe Dante and starring Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.[11] On television, Jaffe transitioned to episodic and series work during the mid-1980s. He guest-starred as Danny Slater, a neglected latchkey child befriended by the main characters, in the The Facts of Life episode "Next Door" (Season 5, Episode 14), which aired on January 4, 1984.[12] More prominently, Jaffe had a recurring role as Willy Mansfield, the son of the fictional first female U.S. President (played by Patty Duke), in the short-lived ABC sitcom Hail to the Chief, which ran for seven episodes from April to May 1985.[11] Reflecting on his time as a child actor in 1980s Hollywood, Jaffe has described the era as a "strange time" that isolated him from typical childhood experiences, fostering an "alien" perspective shaped more by media than everyday interactions.[10] He has spoken of convincing his parents—leveraging their entertainment industry connections—to support his entry into acting as a low-risk trial, though it ultimately contributed to social challenges, including severe bullying during his freshman year of high school.[10] Jaffe later expressed that he "certainly wouldn’t want to do it now if I were young," highlighting the behind-the-scenes chaos and emotional toll on young performers navigating adult-dominated sets.[10][13]Professional career
Transition to voice acting
As child acting opportunities waned in his early teens, Jaffe pivoted to voice work in the mid-1990s, leveraging his enthusiasm for anime to enter the dubbing industry.[14] Around age 18, following high school, he created demonstration tapes from amateur fandubs of series like Ranma ½ and Neon Genesis Evangelion, which impressed industry veteran Carl Macek and secured him entry at New Generation Pictures.[14] This self-taught approach, honed through experimentation without formal training, marked his initial foray into professional anime localization.[14] Jaffe's early dubbing credits included minor roles in anime OVAs, such as voicing the Frog Demon and Fei-Oh in the English adaptation of 3×3 Eyes, recorded between 1994 and 2000 by Pioneer Entertainment.[15] He also contributed voices at studios like Animaze, building versatility in character performance amid the burgeoning U.S. anime market.[16] By the early 2000s, this foundation extended to video games, with appearances in World of Warcraft starting from the 2004 base game and notably as Darion Mograine in the 2008 Wrath of the Lich King expansion.[17] These projects emphasized his growing adeptness at delivering nuanced, dialogue-heavy performances in fantastical settings. A pivotal moment came with the 2001 anime Hellsing, where Jaffe served as both voice actor—handling roles like the Army Helicopter Pilot—and voice director for the English dub produced by ADV Films in 2003, blending performance with behind-the-scenes oversight to refine his skills.[18] This dual involvement, influenced by mentors like Macek, solidified his transition, allowing him to explore voice direction while expanding his acting repertoire in high-profile genre work.[14]Critical Role involvement
Taliesin Jaffe joined Critical Role as one of its founding cast members when the web series premiered on Geek & Sundry in March 2015, participating in live Dungeons & Dragons campaigns alongside fellow voice actors including Matthew Mercer, Laura Bailey, Travis Willingham, Ashley Johnson, Liam O'Brien, and Sam Riegel.[4] In the first campaign, titled Vox Machina, Jaffe portrayed Percival "Percy" de Rolo, a human gunslinger and inventor driven by vengeance against the Briarwood family who usurped his hometown of Whitestone; Percy's arc involved themes of redemption, technological innovation, and moral ambiguity, culminating in his resurrection and eventual marriage to Vex'ahlia. For the second campaign, The Mighty Nein, which ran from 2018 to 2021, Jaffe played Mollymauk "Molly" Tealeaf, a flamboyant tiefling blood hunter and circus performer with a mysterious past tied to the Tombtakers; Molly's early death in the story led to Jaffe introducing Caduceus Clay, a firbolg cleric, before Molly's essence influenced the character Kingsley Tealeaf. In the ongoing third campaign, Bells Hells (2021–present), Jaffe embodies Ashton Greymoore, an earth genasi barbarian and member of the smugglers' group the Nobodies, whose narrative explores trauma, identity, and the Path of Fundamental Chaos subclass.[19] In 2023, Jaffe expanded his role within the Critical Role universe by co-creating and serving as the Lightkeeper for Candela Obscura, a horror-themed actual-play series using a custom tabletop RPG system developed with Chris Lockey, Spenser Starke, and Rowan Hall under Darrington Press.[20] As Lightkeeper, Jaffe oversees the narrative structure and player arcs across chapters, blending cosmic horror elements with personal stakes for investigators combating otherworldly "Bleed"; the series premiered on May 25, 2023, and has featured rotating casts including Mercer as a game master, emphasizing Jaffe's contributions to world-building and atmospheric tension.[21] Jaffe also performs as a player in select circles, integrating his voice acting expertise to heighten the eerie tone.[22] Jaffe's involvement extends to Critical Role's animated adaptations, where he reprises his Campaign 1 role as the voice of Percy de Rolo in The Legend of Vox Machina (2022–present), an Amazon Prime Video series adapting early Vox Machina adventures with expanded lore on Percy's family legacy and inventions. The project originated from a record-breaking 2019 Kickstarter campaign launched by Critical Role Productions, which raised $11,385,449 from 88,887 backers to fund initial specials, surpassing previous animation crowdfunding records and enabling a multi-season deal with Amazon.[23] Looking ahead, Jaffe will voice Mollymauk Tealeaf in the upcoming animated series The Mighty Nein, set to premiere on November 19, 2025, on Prime Video, with the first episode made available early from November 14 to 16, 2025, adapting key arcs from Campaign 2 with a focus on the group's morally complex heists and battles against threats like the Cerberus Assembly.[6] The series highlights dynamics such as Molly's charismatic yet enigmatic rapport with Caleb Widogast (voiced by Liam O'Brien), exploring themes of found family and redemption in a darker, more cinematic style than its predecessor.[24] Produced by Titmouse, Inc., and Critical Role, it features the full cast reprising roles, with guest voices including Ming-Na Wen and Alan Cumming.[25] Throughout these projects, Jaffe holds co-production credits, notably as an executive producer on The Legend of Vox Machina, contributing to creative decisions on adaptation fidelity, character development, and production oversight alongside other cast members.[18] His multifaceted role underscores his influence in transitioning Critical Role from web series to multimedia franchise.[26]Acting credits
Live-action roles
Taliesin Jaffe began his acting career as a child performer in the early 1980s, appearing in several notable films and television productions before largely transitioning away from on-camera work in his adolescence. His early roles often featured him as young characters in family-oriented comedies and science fiction narratives, showcasing his precocious screen presence alongside established stars.[2] In his film debut, Jaffe portrayed Kenny Butler, the eldest son in a chaotic household, in the 1983 comedy Mr. Mom, directed by Stan Dragoti, where he shared scenes with Michael Keaton in the lead role. He followed this with the part of Christopher Floyd, the son of astronauts, in Peter Hyams' 1984 science fiction sequel 2010, a high-profile project that highlighted his ability to handle dramatic family dynamics amid interstellar tension. Jaffe's third major film role came in 1985's Explorers, directed by Joe Dante, in which he played Ludwig Müller, a inventive kid collaborating on a homemade spaceship, contributing to the film's adventurous tone with co-stars Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.[27] On television, Jaffe made guest appearances in the mid-1980s, including as Danny Slater in a 1984 episode of the sitcom The Facts of Life, for which he received a Young Artist Award in 1985. He also appeared as Jimmy Hassett in an episode of St. Elsewhere that same year. In 1985, Jaffe took on a recurring role as Willy Mansfield, the son of the first female U.S. president, in the short-lived ABC sitcom Hail to the Chief, appearing in all seven episodes and earning a nomination for another Young Artist Award. His television work continued with the lead role of Eric Townsend in the 1986 CBS TV movie Child's Cry, a drama about child abuse that garnered him a second Young Artist Award in 1987. Additional credits include the 1987 TV movie Convicted: A Mother's Story and episodes of She's the Sheriff as Kenny Granger around the same period. Jaffe has reflected on these experiences in interviews, noting the challenges of child acting, such as long hours on set with Keaton during Mr. Mom, where he learned about improvisation from the veteran comedian's energetic performance.[28] After a hiatus from live-action roles in the late 1980s and 1990s, Jaffe made a sparse return in adulthood. In 2025, he starred as himself in the podcast series Weird Kids, co-hosted with Ashley Johnson on Critical Role's Beacon platform, where the duo appeared on-camera in a retro-styled format to discuss their shared histories as child actors, including anecdotes from Jaffe's early film sets and the peculiarities of Hollywood upbringing. This series marked a reflective return to live-action performance, blending personal storytelling with visual elements across its episodes.[29][30]| Year | Title | Role | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Mr. Mom | Kenny Butler | Film | Family comedy; co-starred with Michael Keaton |
| 1984 | 2010 | Christopher Floyd | Film | Sci-fi sequel; family-focused subplot |
| 1984 | The Facts of Life | Danny Slater | TV (1 episode) | Sitcom guest; Young Artist Award winner |
| 1984 | St. Elsewhere | Jimmy Hassett | TV (1 episode) | Medical drama guest |
| 1985 | Explorers | Ludwig Müller | Film | Adventure sci-fi; ensemble child cast |
| 1985 | Hail to the Chief | Willy Mansfield | TV (7 episodes) | Sitcom regular; Young Artist Award nominee |
| 1986 | Child's Cry | Eric Townsend | TV movie | Drama on child abuse; Young Artist Award winner |
| 1987 | Convicted: A Mother's Story | Grant | TV movie | Courtroom drama |
| 1987–1989 | She's the Sheriff | Kenny Granger | TV (episodes) | Western sitcom recurring |
| 2025 | Weird Kids | Himself | Podcast series (on-camera) | Co-host; discusses child acting experiences |