Amanda Winn-Lee

"ZOMFG TEH REI!!!!11!1"

Amanda Winn-Lee is an American voice actress, writer and ADR director who works mainly on anime dubs. She was the voice of Mimiru in .hack//SIGN, Rally Vincent in Gunsmith Cats, Yohko Mano in Devil Hunter Yohko, Momiji Kushinada in Blue Seed, and was featured most notably as Rei Ayanami of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame. Aside from voice work she has quite often handled production, ADR direction, and the scripting of various projects for her dubbing company Gaijin Productions, LLC. She has also been credited as Amanda Winn, before she was married.

She can also be heard in the commentary for the Region 1 The End of Evangelion DVD along with fellow voice actors Taliesin Jaffe and husband/Gaijin co-owner Jason C. Lee (credited as "Jaxon Lee" under the S.A.G. to avoid confusion with the other Jason Lee).

Said commentary has gained a reputation for being somewhat controversial among fans, and to this day (decades later) she gets hate mail about it. Is it a crime against art, or a rollicking good time? Check out a a few excerpts here and decide for yourself.

Expanding on her anime work, Winn-Lee also provided the voice of Konoko, the protagonist of the Bungie Studios video game Oni.

Winn-Lee served as ADR director, dub script writer, and producer for the English versions of The End of Evangelion and Evangelion: Death and Rebirth. She also directed and performed leading roles in the English versions of Dead Leaves and the Read or Die OVA.

She had been working with ADV Films for years before she moved out to create Gaijin Productions.

It was suggested by Spike Spencer (her friend as well as fellow voice actor) at Nan Desu Kan 2007 that she was interested in reprising her role(s) in the then-upcoming Rebuild of Evangelion films. However, in May 2009, North American anime distributor FUNimation announced that the role of Rei for the first film Evangelion: 1.0 You Are (Not) Alone would be voiced by Brina Palencia.

While she hasn't worked on anime in several years so that she could take care of her son's leukemia and subsequent health problems resulting from treatment, you can still hear her in video games, especially Atlus titles, such as the PlayStation 2 version of Disgaea, Luminous Arc, Digital Devil Saga, Persona 4, and Trauma Team.

Winn-Lee is also famous/infamous in some fan circles for antics at various cons in the late 90's, most of them involving alcohol. Despite being best known for voicing Rei, it's amusing to note that she has a lot more in common with Misato Katsuragi.