- Born
- Erika Scheimer is a retired American voice actress, working for the animation studio Filmation for decades. She was the daughter of studio co-founder Lou Scheimer (1928-2013), and was recruited to perform voice work in early life. She is mostly remembered for voicing several supporting characters in the science fantasy series "She-Ra: Princess of Power" (1985-1986). Her roles for the series included Flutterina (a humanoid butterfly with control over real butterflies), Frosta (whose main power was cryokinesis), Imp (a shape-shifting spy), Granita (a humanoid with a rock-like body), Loo-Kee (a humanoid chipmunk whose main ability was stealth), Peekablue (whose power was remote viewing), Perfuma (who controlled plant life), and Queen Angella (a winged humanoid with light-based powers).
One of Scheimer's earliest roles was voicing Marcia Brady in the second season of "The Brady Kids" (1972-1973), an animated spin-off of "The Brady Bunch". She replaced actress Maureen McCormick, who had voiced Marcia in the show's first season. Scheimer was only 13-years-old while voicing this role. She also voiced Susan Turner (one of the main characters) in "Lassie's Rescue Rangers" (1973), and regular characters Carol (a blonde girl) and Kim (an Asian girl) in "Mission: Magic!".
A few years later, Scheimer voiced the pint-sized robot Peepo in the live-action series "Space Academy" (1977). She voiced the pocket robot Wiki in the replacement series "Jason of Star Command" (1978-1979). In the television special "A Snow White Christmas" (1980), Scheimer voiced protagonist Snow White II (a daughter of the original Snow White). In the special, Snow White II has to face the wrath of her step-grandmother the Wicked Queen, who has been revived after years spend trapped in a block of ice.
Scheimer's next memorable role was voicing one of the main characters in "Hero High" (1981-1982), a series about a school for superheroes. She voiced Brat-Man, whose temper tantrums manifested in seismic and concussive blasts. Scheimer voiced various minor and incidental characters in "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: (1983-1985), but most of them were one-shot characters. She instead voiced much of the supporting cast in the spin-off "She-Ra: Princess of Power" (1985-1986).
Scheimer voiced the sentient elevator Skelevator in "Ghostbuters" (1986), in one of her last recurring roles in animation. Filmation shut down in 1989, and its staff was laid off. Scheimer's voice acting career ended abruptly, though it was not clarified whether she was unable or unwilling to seek other employers.
Over the following decades, Scheimer remained popular within Filmation's fandom, though she rarely offered interviews. In 2007, Scheimer publicly declared her own homosexuality, surprising her fans. She mentioned in a subsequent interview that her homosexuality never bothered her co-workers at Filmation, since the company was gay-friendly. By 2022, Scheimer was 62-years-old. She is among the youngest living cast members of Filmation's various series.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I
- Parents
- Daughter of Lou Scheimer - whose numerous animated series she frequently wrote, directed and/or lent her voice to - and the late Jay Scheimer.
- Sister of Lane Scheimer.
- As a child in the late Sixties, Erika preferred watching old Westerns with Randolph Scott on Saturday mornings instead of the cartoon series produced by her father.
- The 1968 Filmation cartoon series Fantastic Voyage (1968) featured a character named "Dr. Erika Lane", named after Lou Scheimer's daughter Erika and son Lane. Lou himself used 'Erika Lane' as a pseudonym whenever he was credited as a composer on one of his productions.
- [on coming out as homosexual] I was a strong female voice myself, and-guess what?-I happened to be gay. Does that make any difference about anything? I'll tell you one thing, it didn't matter, because Filmation was one of the gayest places in town. (2007)
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