Ellen McLain

American opera singer and voice actressTemplate:SHORTDESC:American opera singer and voice actress[[Category:**Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'Module:Pagetype/config' not found.**s with short description]]

**Ellen McLain** (born December 1, 1952) is an American soprano and voice actress. She is best known for providing the voice of GLaDOS, the computer antagonist of *Portal*, the Combine Overwatch in *Half-Life 2*, and the Administrator, the announcer in *Team Fortress 2*. Her voice roles also include the Jaeger A.I. in *Pacific Rim* and The Witch in *Left 4 Dead* and *Left 4 Dead 2*.

## Career

McLain provides voices for many characters in several video games from Valve. 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), *Portal 2* and *Bridge Constructor Portal*; 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 sang "Cara Mia Addio" at the end of *Portal 2*. It is sometimes called the "Turret Opera". In December 2011, McLain 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, she 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. In 2014, she portrayed Fairy Godmother in the online video series *[Wish It Inc.]*. In 2015, she portrayed Lisa Clarke in the gay independent film, *Winning Dad*. This film was also promoted on Ellen's YouTube channel.

McLain has played roles in many radio dramas on the radio program *Imagination Theatre*.

## Personal life

McLain has been married to fellow voice actor John Patrick Lowrie since 1986. In *Half-Life 2*, her husband voiced the male citizens who assist the player character, Gordon Freeman. In *Team Fortress 2*, Lowrie voices the Sniper. McLain now spends her days as a voice instructor, teaching at local community and children's theatres.

## References

1. ↑ Hamilton, Kirk (2013-07-01). "How GLaDOS is GLaDOS in Pacific Rim?". http://kotaku.com/how-glad0s-is-glad0s-in-pacific-rim-pretty-glad0s-636252650. Retrieved 2014-04-19.
2. ↑ Hatfield, Dameon (2007-10-31). "GLaDOS Speaks". IGN. http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/831/831900p1.html. Retrieved 2010-01-24.
3. ↑ "Game Music Showdown: Mirror's Edge Vs. Portal". IGN. 2008-10-22. Archived from the original on 2009-12-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20091221091929/http://music.ign.com/articles/922/922638p2.html. Retrieved 2009-08-25.
4. ↑ "Portal 2 Turret Opera". Valve. 2011-04-19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_kPyGvqNn4Y. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
5. ↑ Video Game Awards (2011-12-13). "EVERY VGA WINNER FROM YEARS PAST". SPIKE. http://www.spike.com/articles/6aoa62/vgx-2013-every-vga-winner-from-years-past. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
6. ↑ Polansky, Lana. "Ellen McLain Summons GLaDOS to Voice Support for GaymerCon". http://www.gameranx.com/updates/id/8191/article/ellen-mclain-summons-glados-to-voice-support-for-gaymercon. Retrieved 2014-09-12.
7. ↑ "Wish It Inc. (2014) - IMDb". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3572838/.
8. ↑ "Winning Dad (2015) - IMDb". https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3030580/.
9. ↑ "Video Games and Audio Dramas Meet at Imagination Theater". 2020. https://mailchi.mp/4e681ca8808f/video-games-and-audio-dramas-meet-at-imagination-theater.
10. ↑ "Married to John Patrick Lowrie". http://johnpatricklowriebooks.com/about-john. Retrieved 2016-10-07.
11. ↑ Plunkett, Luke (2010-07-29). "The men and women behind gaming's most iconic characters". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5597081/the-men-and-women-behind-gamings-most-iconic-characters/gallery/16. Retrieved 2010-08-03.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 12.6 12.7 12.8 "Behind the Voice Actors – Ellen McLain". *behindthevoiceactors.com*. https://www.behindthevoiceactors.com/Ellen-McLain/. Retrieved January 2, 2019.
13. ↑ Narcisse, Evan (2012-10-11). "Guillermo Del Toro's Next Movie Has a Little GlaDOS in It". Kotaku. http://kotaku.com/5951086/guillermo-del-toros-next-movie-has-a-little-glados-in-it. Retrieved 2012-10-13.
14. ↑ *Portal* GCF archives Template:Full citation needed
15. ↑ Macgregor, Jody (2019-11-21). "Alyx Vance will be voiced by a new actor in Half-Life: Alyx". PC Gamer. https://www.pcgamer.com/uk/half-life-alyx-cast/. Retrieved 2019-11-21.

## External links

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* Template:Official
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* Ellen McLain on YouTube, Anime Midwest 2011 convention

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