Lauren Tom has spent the best part of thirty years as two of American animation's most durable families, sometimes voicing the daughter and the mother in the same scene. It is quiet, exact work, and it deserves more notice than a voice credit usually gets.
Fi1m perspective
In King of the Hill (1997), when Connie Souphanousinphone argues with her mother Minh, both ends of the argument are Lauren Tom. Nothing in the drawing tells you, and nothing in the sound does either, which is the point. We admit we did not notice for a long time, and when we did we went back and listened to the pair of them again with something close to admiration: the daughter weary and reasonable, the mother quick and certain, and no join between them that we could find.
The career behind that trick began on stage. She joined a touring company of A Chorus Line at 17, went on to Broadway in Doonesbury and Hurlyburly, and took small film parts on the side, including the Lady Broker in Wall Street (1987), a role we did not single out and nor did Oliver Stone. The part that made her name was Lena St. Clair in The Joy Luck Club (1993). Television followed: Julie, Ross's girlfriend, in Friends (1995–96), then Grace Under Fire, and later Supernatural and Andi Mack.
From the late 1990s the microphone took over. King of the Hill came first, then Futurama (1999), where she is Amy Wong, and we rate both series among the best of their kind. Futurama is a first-rate joke for five seasons and a warmer, less funny one in its revivals, and she has stayed with it through all of them. Amy is wholly American; Minh is not. Tom has said she has no objection to accented parts but that "it's always nice for me to alternate it with characters that are completely American like Amy", and the alternation is what you hear across the two shows: the same performer, two quite different people, nothing forced in either.
What does not work is not hers to fix. The credits read narrowly: East Asian girls and their mothers, again and again, in one cartoon after another. Her own account of voice work is that nobody can see her, so she can play anything. The evidence is that she has been asked to play a fairly small number of things, very well, for a very long time. A performer who can be a mother and a daughter in one breath could plainly manage more.
If you have only ever heard her as Amy, go back to the Souphanousinphones and listen with the picture off. The show that wouldn't die keeps coming back, in her phrase, and so far she has come back with it every time.
Biography
Lauren Tom is an American actress and voice actress. Born on 4 August 1961 in Highland Park, Illinois, she began her career on stage. She appeared in the Broadway production of A Chorus Line and other shows including Hurlyburly and Doonesbury, and won an Obie Award for an Off-Broadway performance.
Tom's film roles include a part in Nothing Lasts Forever (1984) and Lady Broker in Wall Street (1987). She gained wider recognition as Lena St Clair in The Joy Luck Club (1993). On television she played Julie in Friends (1995–96) and Linda Tran in Supernatural (2012–14). Her voice work includes Amy Wong in Futurama (1999–2013) and characters in King of the Hill.
