Projects with comic book connections have been a major part of Lauren Lapkus' acting world this year. After a guest appearance on the comic book-based "Lucifer" and two episodes on "The Big Bang Theory" playing a comic book store worker, she's now one of the voice talents on the new Netflix cartoon series "Harvey Street Kids." Lapkus provides the voice of Lotta in the production from DreamWorks Animation Television, which debuts on the streaming service Friday.
"I am very happy about what has been happening, especially getting to be part of this show," Lapkus says.
The series is based on three female characters _ Lotta (Lapkus), Dot (Kelly McCreary) and Audrey (Stephanie Lemelin) _ who appeared in Harvey Comics from 1947 to the mid-'70s. Although they were never as well known as the two biggest stars of the Harvey line, Richie Rich and Casper, the characters represented three strong young women in the comic book world. In the case of Lotta, she has always been a young person with a lot of confidence in who she is and how she looks.
"Harvey Street Kids" will have a musical element as Joey McIntyre (New Kids on the Block), Nick Lachey (98 Degrees), Joey Fatone ((ASTERISK)NSYNC) and Shawn Stockman (Boyz II Men) voice and record original songs as the Harvey Street Kids' favorite boy band.
Lapkus admits she was not a big reader of Harvey Comics when she was growing up, as "watching a lot" of television and children's theater took up most of her time. Halfway through the recording sessions for the initial batch of shows for the first season of "Harvey Street Kids," Lapkus learned about the comic book connection and bought back issues online.
"The characters are so cute in the comics, and it is nice to see how they have been reimagined in this world," Lapkus says. "It's exciting to be part of a show that has such strong female characters. They are part of a crew of great friends who are as strong as the boys and there is no great debate about it."
Lapkus didn't need a history of Harvey Comics to play the role. She knew exactly how to give the character a voice as soon as she saw the initial drawings of Lotta. In the group, Lotta looms above both her friends and the boys. Lapkus found it easy to relate to that character's trait because she was always one of the tallest people in her class.
Her take on Lotta has been she's sweet and loving, but also can get to a point where she's loving things a little too much. Lapkus describes those moments as being very intense and the character will "Hulk out."
Finding a voice for a character is nothing new for Lapkus, as she has worked on "Ginger Snaps," "Adventure Time" and "Bob's Burgers." Recording sessions are done either with one actor at a time or with a group. Lapkus loves that she gets to be in the booth with McCreary and Lemelin so they can feed off each other's performances and improvise a little.
During her senior year of high school, she began taking improv classes. While attending DePaul University, Lapkus continued performing improv most nights and eventually got involved with the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York.
She has been working on a lot of scripted productions, including "Orange Is the New Black," "Jurassic World," "The Middle," "Hot in Cleveland" and HBO's "Crashing," but Lapkus continues to get to do improv work through "The Harvey Street Kids" and through her own podcasts, one called Raised by TV. Her work on the podcast With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus features her doing a lot of improvising and creating character voices.
Being a voice actor was something Lapkus always wanted to do.
"I wanted to be an actor since I was 10 and cartoons _ like 'Ren & Stimpy' and 'Doug' and 'Rugrats' _ were a huge factor in my life," Lapkus says. "As I started getting acting work I kept thinking how much I would love to get in voice-overs, but it is a very tough thing to break into.
"And, thankfully, I started getting more work after I had done a few little things. I think being in the podcast world has led to me getting voice-over jobs. A lot of the jobs I have had in the past year have come from podcasts fans who work on cartoons. I think the podcasts were a great way to transition into the voice-over world."
