Long before audiences heard her voice bringing comic-book heroes to life, they saw Rotaru on screen.

For many actors, voice work is still viewed as a separate corner of the entertainment industry, a career path that exists somewhere between animation, gaming and commercial work.

Elysia Rotaru has never seen it that way.

Over the course of a career that has moved between television, film, animation, video games and performance capture, Rotaru has spent years building the kind of versatility that has become increasingly valuable across the industry. Audiences may recognize her from her recurring role as Taiana Venedikto on CW’s “Arrow.” Others know her through performances in the worlds of DC and Marvel, where she has portrayed characters including Black Canary and She-Hulk.

What connects those experiences isn’t the medium. It’s the work itself.

“The fact that you got the audition is already a win,” Rotaru says.

It’s a perspective shaped by an industry that has changed dramatically during the past decade. The rise of remote recording, streaming animation, performance capture and AAA gaming has created more opportunities for actors, but it has also transformed expectations. Today’s performers are often expected to move seamlessly between mediums, adapting to different formats while maintaining the same level of preparation and professionalism.

For Rotaru, that evolution feels less like a disruption than a continuation of something actors have always been asked to do: keep learning.

The Audition Never Really Stops

The image many aspiring performers have of voice acting rarely resembles reality.

What audiences hear is the finished product. What they don’t see are the dozens, sometimes hundreds of auditions that happen before a role is cast.

Rotaru speaks openly about the volume of submissions that have become routine throughout the industry. Between commercial campaigns, promo work, animation and video games, it isn’t unusual for actors to spend more time auditioning than performing the jobs themselves.

That reality can be particularly difficult for newcomers, many of whom arrive expecting clear feedback and predictable career progression.

Instead, they encounter an industry where opportunities are often measured in possibilities rather than outcomes. One of the conversations Rotaru finds herself returning to most frequently involves helping actors reframe what success looks like.

The booking matters, of course. So does the callback.

But long before either of those things happen, there is another milestone that often gets overlooked: being invited to audition in the first place.

Casting offices receive thousands of submissions. Agencies regularly narrow opportunities to a small group of performers before scripts are ever distributed. In that context, simply receiving the audition can be evidence that the right people are already paying attention.

The challenge, Rotaru argues, is avoiding the mental spiral that often follows rejection. Actors spend so much time wondering why they didn’t book a role that they sometimes lose sight of the fact that they were being considered at all.


From “Arrow” to the Recording Booth

Long before audiences heard her voice bringing comic-book heroes to life, they saw Rotaru on screen.

Her recurring role as Taiana Venedikto on “Arrow” arrived during a pivotal period for superhero television. The CW series was helping redefine what franchise storytelling could look like on the small screen, laying the foundation for what would eventually become the Arrowverse and introducing audiences to an interconnected universe years before shared universes became the norm across television.

For Rotaru, the role represented more than a high-profile credit. Looking back, it occupies an interesting place within the broader trajectory of her career.

At the time, there was little reason to view “Arrow” as a stepping stone toward animation, gaming or performance capture. Yet many of the skills that served her on set would later become just as valuable behind a microphone. Building character, understanding story, taking direction and making specific creative choices remained central to the work regardless of the medium.

That distinction is something Rotaru returns to frequently when discussing voice acting with emerging performers.

Voice work is often perceived as a separate discipline, particularly by actors who are just beginning to explore the space. The assumption is understandable. Animation, commercials and video games can appear dramatically different from television or film when viewed from the outside. 

Throughout our talk, she repeatedly emphasized that the strongest voice performances are rooted in the same fundamentals that drive every other form of acting. Character remains character. Story remains a story. The microphone may change the environment, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for preparation, emotional truth or a clear understanding of who you’re portraying.

She has developed through years of moving between mediums. While technology, recording techniques and production workflows continue to evolve, acting fundamentals remain remarkably consistent.

That perspective has become increasingly relevant as performance capture, gaming and animation continue to overlap with traditional screen acting. Modern performers are often expected to move fluidly between sound booths, motion-capture stages and live-action productions, sometimes within the same year.

Rotaru’s career reflects that reality. Rather than treating voice acting and on-camera work as separate tracks, she has approached them as different expressions of the same craft. It’s a mindset that has allowed her to navigate television, gaming and animation without feeling confined to any one corner of the industry.

For actors looking toward voice work, that may be one of the most important takeaways from her journey. The voice booth isn’t a replacement for acting fundamentals. If anything, it’s another place where they become impossible to hide.

Carrying the Legacy of Black Canary and She-Hulk

If “Arrow” introduced Rotaru to superhero audiences, her work as Black Canary and She-Hulk brought a different kind of responsibility.

Unlike original characters, iconic comic-book figures arrive with decades of history attached to them. Every performance becomes part of a much larger conversation that extends beyond a single project. Fans bring their own expectations. They have favorite storylines, favorite portrayals and, in many cases, deeply personal connections to characters they’ve followed for years.

For performers, stepping into those roles can be both exciting and intimidating.

Rotaru remembers feeling that weight when she was cast as Black Canary, one of DC’s most recognizable heroes. While every role comes with its own challenges, franchise characters introduce an additional layer of expectation. Audiences already know who the character is. The challenge becomes finding a way to honor that legacy while still bringing something personal to the performance.

“I was like, oh my God, I’m stepping into one of the most iconic roles that we all know,” Rotaru says. “That was a little cool and freaky because I didn’t know how it would be received.”

The experience ultimately became one of the highlights of her career. Not only was the performance embraced by audiences, but she was invited back to continue portraying the character.

When She-Hulk entered the picture through Marvel’s gaming universe, Rotaru found herself navigating a similar dynamic. Once again, she was stepping into a role with an established fanbase and a character whose history extended far beyond any single project.

“That too was like, pinch me,” she says.

Over time, those experiences have shaped the way she approaches franchise work. While audience reaction is impossible to predict, commitment to the character isn’t.

“You can’t please everybody,” Rotaru says.

It’s a perspective that reflects a broader reality across film, television, animation and gaming. Every actor eventually discovers that audiences will respond differently to performances. Some viewers connect immediately. Others may have a completely different interpretation of who a character should be. For Rotaru, the answer isn’t trying to satisfy every expectation. It’s focusing on the work itself.

That approach has served her particularly well in animation and gaming, where performers are often tasked with introducing beloved characters to entirely new audiences while still respecting what made those characters resonate in the first place. In many ways, it requires the same balancing act that has defined her career more broadly: understanding the legacy that exists while remaining confident enough to bring your own voice to it.

Why Community Still Matters

If there is one theme that surfaces repeatedly throughout Rotaru’s reflections on the industry, it is the importance of community. It’s a topic she returns to often, particularly when discussing actors who are just beginning to navigate voice work.

The observation feels especially relevant at a time when much of the business operates remotely. Auditions that once took place in casting offices are now recorded from home studios. Meetings happen over Zoom. Even voice sessions that traditionally brought performers, directors and engineers into the same room are increasingly conducted from separate locations. While those changes have created flexibility, they’ve also altered some of the organic connections that actors once developed simply by being present in shared creative spaces.

For Rotaru, that shift has made community more important, not less.

One of the strongest moments in the conversation comes when she reflects on the network of performers and creatives who have supported her throughout her career.

“I think one of the biggest strengths. Let’s say you can’t do the classes, you can’t do the casting director workshops and you’re just starting out… this is what I say… you want to start with your community.”

Rather than viewing community strictly as networking, Rotaru describes it as a practical resource. Fellow actors can provide feedback. Directors can offer perspective. Writers, producers and casting professionals often bring entirely different ways of looking at a performance. In an industry where so much work happens in isolation, those relationships become an important counterbalance.

The Work Continues

One of the more striking aspects of Rotaru’s perspective is how little she talks about career milestones compared to the work that happens between them.

The entertainment industry has a tendency to focus on outcomes. Conversations often revolve around the role that changed everything, the franchise credit that elevated a career or the breakthrough moment that finally arrived after years of auditions. Those moments matter, but they represent only a small fraction of an actor’s professional life.

Most careers are built in the quieter periods.

Throughout the conversation, Rotaru repeatedly returns to the idea of training, preparation and continuous development. Whether discussing dialect work, motion-capture training, commercial reads or traditional acting classes, she speaks about performance as something that requires constant attention rather than occasional maintenance.

“It’s a muscle, right? It’s like working out at the gym,” she says.

The comparison comes up frequently when she discusses actors who become discouraged during slower periods. While it can be tempting to view those stretches as setbacks, Rotaru tends to see them differently. A slowdown in auditions or bookings creates space to sharpen skills, explore new techniques or strengthen areas that might become valuable later.

That mindset has helped her navigate an industry that rarely stays still for long. Over the course of her career, she has watched voice acting evolve alongside advances in technology, changes in casting practices and the growing influence of gaming and performance capture. More recently, conversations surrounding artificial intelligence have introduced a new layer of uncertainty for performers across the industry.

Rotaru acknowledges those concerns, but she remains focused on the aspects of the profession that actors can actually control. Training. Preparation. Relationships. Craft.
At one point in the conversation, she recalls hearing from productions that experimented with AI-generated voices before returning to human performers.

“So many times have I had jobs come back to me being like, we had an AI voice. We want a human. It’s not converting.”

For Rotaru, the comment reinforces something she has observed throughout her career. Technologies change. Platforms evolve. Audition processes shift. Yet audiences continue to respond to performances that feel authentic and emotionally grounded.

That belief ultimately shapes much of her advice for actors interested in voice work. The industry may look very different than it did a decade ago, and it will almost certainly look different again a decade from now. What remains remarkably consistent is the need to keep developing the skills that brought you there in the first place.

The careers that endure are rarely built around a single booking or breakthrough moment. More often, they’re built through years of showing up, adapting and continuing to learn long after the excitement of the last role has faded.