Hello and welcome back to "Hey, It's That Voice!", where we look behind the voices of your favorite Steven Universe characters and see what else they have done! Today, we will look at the voice behind Beach City's favorite grandmother, Nanefua!
Mother of Kofi Pizza and grandmother of Kiki and Jenny Pizza, Nanefua is a very fun character to me. I absolute loved her the first time I saw her. She's playful and likes to joke around, even to the point of teasing her own son when he is stressed. Honestly, she is the character I would love to see more of around Beach City. But who is the voice behind this incredible grandmother? Why, that would be Toks Olagundoye!
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| Who wouldn't want a relative like Nanefua? |
Born September 16, 1975, Olagundoye was born in Lagos, Nigeria to a Norwegian mother and a Nigerian father. As a child, she was educated in Nigeria, Switzerland, and England. Olagundoye, who's full name is Olatokunbo Susan Olasobunmi Abeke Olagundoye, graduated from Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts where she recieved a Bachelors of Fine Arts.
Olagundoye started her acting career on the stage, taking a number of roles. One such play was Saint Lucy's Eyes, which she would star opposite of Ruby Dee. In 2005, she co-founded Three Chicks Theatre which produced Andrea Lepcio's One Nation Under.
In 2002, Olagundoye made her debut on both television and the silver screen. Her first appearance on television was on a single episode of The Education of Max Bickford. She would go on to have guest starring appearances on other television shows such as 3 lbs, two different episodes of Law & Order, Ugly Betty, CSI: NY, Switched at Birth, NCIS, Prime Suspect, and The Fosters. Olagundoye's first regular role would be in the ABC sitcom The Neighbors. She would later join the cast of ABC's Castle for it's final season as Hayley Shipton.
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| Top: Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olagundoye) and Larry Bird (Simon Templeman) in The Neighbors. Bottom: Alexis Castle (Molly C. Quinn) and Hayley Shipton (Olagundoye) in Castle. |
As for her work with films, Olagundoye had her first appearance in the 2002 film Brown Sugar. She would go on to star in a few other films, including The Salon, Absolute Trust, and A Beautiful Soul, and Deomcracy At Work.
Out side of live-action roles, Olagundoye has also lent her voice to a few projects. Steven Universe was her first cartoon role, but she has lent her voice to the Telltale video game Game of Thrones as the voice of Beskha. She has also provided the voice of a few character's in the webseries Vixen, voicing the main character's mother. Finally, Olagundoye will be providing the voice of Mrs. Beakley in the 2017 reboot of Ducktales that is scheduled to air this summer.
And that will do it for this edition of "Hey, It's That Voice!" Join me next time when we take a look behind Sadie's mom and the greatest mailwoman in all of Beach City!
