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Merle Dandridge is an American actress who provided the voice for Alyx Vance in Half-Life 2 and its episodes. She was due to reprise her role Half-Life: Alyx, but was replaced following a change in the game's direction towards the end of development by Ozioma Akagha (Dandridge's voice performance is still present in the Alyx reveal trailer).

Biography[]

Early life[]

Dandridge was born in Okinawa, Japan[1] then moved to Beale Air Force Base in Sacramento, California, then to the Strategic Air Command Base in Bellevue, Nebraska, where she spent the majority of her childhood. She attended Papillion La Vista High School and participated in the play production class and theater department there.[2] She then attended the Theatre Conservatory at Roosevelt University (currently called the Chicago College of Performing Arts) with a scholarship that she earned at the International Thespian Festival. While there, her love of acting developed.

Career[]

Dandridge began her career appearing in Chicago theatre productions. She has gained a wider audience as the voice of Alyx Vance in the award-winning action game Half-Life 2 and its sequels, Episode One and Episode Two, and also as Marlene in The Last of Us. In 2006, she was cast as Kala in the original Broadway production of Tarzan.

Dandridge earned a BAFTA Award for her voiceover performance in the 2015 game Everybody's Gone to the Rapture. On television, she guest starred on NCIS, 24, Criminal Minds, The Newsroom and Drop Dead Diva. In 2012, she was cast in a series regular role as Chief in the NBC drama series Chicago Fire[3].

Dandridge also had the recurring roles in the FX drama series, Sons of Anarchy as Rita Roosevelt, and short-lived The CW teen soap Star-Crossed in 2014. In 2015, she co-starred in the second season of NBC medical drama, The Night Shift as Gwen Gaskin.[4]

In 2015, Dandridge was cast as the lead character in the Oprah Winfrey Network drama series, Greenleaf opposite Lynn Whitfield. She plays the role of Grace Greenleaf, Greenleaf's estranged daughter.[5] [6] Dandridge has received critical acclaim for her first leading screen role.[7] [8] [9]

Dandridge starred as Papa Ge the God of Death in the Broadway musical revival of Once on This Island, at the Circle in the Square Theater from November 9th 2017 to January 7th, 2018. [10] [11] She returned to the role of Papa Ge in a limited run from June 18 to August 19, 2018. [12] Along with cast, she received Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album nomination for cast recording. [13] Also in 2018, she had a recurring role in the CBS comedy series Murphy Brown playing the role of a network boss. [14] In 2020, Dandridge was cast in a series regular role in the eight-episode HBO Max thriller drama series The Flight Attendant.

According to Valve's Bill Van Buren, Merle was chosen among the last five over more than one hundred actors auditioning for the part. The team wanted "someone with a beautiful voice, who could be charming, very feminine, and warmly intimate, but could then go into intense circumstances and be a strong, confident, and believable action character."[15]

Works[]

Filmography[]

  • Nothing But The Truth (2008)
  • Grounded: Making The Last of Us (2013)
  • Resurrect (2018)

Television and voice acting[]

  • Angel (2003)
  • The Edge (2003)
  • NCIS (2003)
  • Third Watch (2005)
  • All My Children (2005)
  • Guiding Light (2005
  • I'm Paige Wilson (2007)
  • The Deep End (2010)
  • 24 (2010)
  • Matadors (2010)
  • CSI: Miami (2010)
  • Lie to Me (2011)
  • Love Bites (2011)
  • Ringer (2011)
  • Criminal Minds (2012)
  • Sons of Anarchy (2011-12)
  • Company Town (2013)
  • Nikita (2013)
  • The Newsroom (2012-13)
  • The Mentalist (2014)
  • Star-Crossed (2014)
  • Drop Dead Diva (2014)
  • Stalker (2014)
  • NCIS: Los Angeles (2014)
  • Perception (2015)
  • Suits (2015
  • The Night Shift (2015-16)
  • Rosewood (2016)
  • Greenleaf (2016-20)
  • Murphy Brown (2018)
  • The Flight Attendant (2020)
  • Half-Life 2 (2004)
  • Half-Life 2: Episode One (2006)
  • Half-Life 2: Episode Two (2007)
  • The Orange Box (2007)
  • The Last of Us (2013)
  • Dota 2 (2013)
  • Everybody's Gone to the Rapture (2015)
  • Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (2016)
  • The Last of Us Part II (2020)

References[]

  1. https://www.ibdb.com/broadway-cast-staff/merle-dandridge-76172
  2. https://www.playbill.com/news/article/diva-talk-chatting-with-spamalots-merle-dandridge-plus-betty-buckley-at-bir-153879
  3. https://www.broadway.com/buzz/160550/merle-dandridge-lands-role-on-nbc-pilot-chicago-fire/
  4. https://tvline.com/2014/11/07/the-night-shift-season-2-cast-merle-dandridge-jordans-friend/
  5. https://deadline.com/2015/08/lynn-whitfield-merle-dandridge-desiree-ross-cast-own-drama-greenleaf-craig-wright-oprah-winfrey-1201504761/
  6. https://web.archive.org/web/20150826221035/http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/lynn-whitfield-desiree-rossmerle-dandridge-and-desiree-ross-cast-in-owns-church-drama-greenleaf-20150824
  7. https://variety.com/2016/tv/reviews/greenleaf-own-tv-review-oprah-winfrey-lynn-whitfield-keith-david-merle-dandridge-1201795621/
  8. https://ew.com/article/2016/06/21/greenleaf-own-merle-dandridge-oprah-winfrey/
  9. https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/reasons-watch-oprah-winfreys-series-greenleaf/story?id=40020529
  10. https://www.onceonthisisland.com/castandcreative/
  11. https://www.playbill.com/personlistpage/person-list?production=0000015b-c587-dec3-a97f-dfafcf2f0000&type=op#oc https://www.playbill.com/article/merle-dandridge-returns-to-broadways-once-on-this-island
  12. https://www.playbill.com/article/merle-dandridge-returns-to-broadways-once-on-this-island
  13. https://www.grammy.com/grammys/awards/61st-annual-grammy-awards
  14. https://deadline.com/2018/10/murphy-brown-merle-dandridge-recur-cbs-revival-candice-bergen-1202481061/
  15. Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar

External links[]

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