Sumalee Montano

Sumalee Montano (Thai: สุมาลีรัตน์ มอนทาโน;[1] RTGS: Sumalirat Monthano) is an American actress, voice actress, and writer. She worked as an investment bank analyst in New York City and Hong Kong before starting her acting career. Sumalee is best known for her roles as Duvata Mahal on the TV show ER and voicing the space reporter Pudding from the Space Channel 5 series.

Sumalee Montano
Montano at the 2019 WonderCon
Alma mater	Harvard University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1999–present
Known for	Pudding in Space Channel 5 Duvata Mahal on ER
Spouse(s)	Craig Zimmerman ​ (m. 2011)​
Website	sumalee.com

For TV and film, Sumalee has appeared on Close to Home, Days of Our Lives, Nashville, Scandal, The Young and the Restless, This Is Us and Veep. As a voice actress, she has provided the voices of Pudding in the Space Channel 5 series, Arcee on Transformers: Prime, Cali in the Skylanders series, Katana on Beware the Batman, the President in Saints Row IV and Yuna in Ghost of Tsushima.

Sumalee Montano resides and works on her career in Los Angeles, and also guest starred as Nila on the web series Critical Role.

Early life

Montano is of Filipino[2] and Thai descent and grew up mostly in the United States, but also spent a few years in Bangkok, Thailand. During her high school career, she began acting as an extracurricular activity.[3]

Education and acting career

She graduated from Harvard University in 1993 and is a U.S. Fulbright scholar.[4] After graduation, she worked as an investment-banking analyst for Morgan Stanley for a few years.[5] After realizing investment banking wasn't something she was passionate about, Montano quit and went backpacking through Africa before realizing she wanted to pursue acting professionally.[6]

Montano has taken on a variety of different roles, both live-action and voice-over. She is talented in using many different accents, including Chinese, Filipino, British, Southern, Thai, Vietnamese, Eastern European and Japanese.[7]

Her first major role was playing the nurse Duvata Mahal for three seasons of the TV show ER.[6]

Filmography

Video games

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1999	Space Channel 5	Pudding		[8]
2001	SimCoaster	Additional Voices
2003	The Sims	Sim
2003	Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic	Lashowe, Belaya, Rahasia Sandral, Duel Spectator
2003	Gladius	Additional Voices
2006	CSI: 3 Dimensions of Murder	Lucy Canelli, Maya Nguyen
2007	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Hard Evidence	Liz Schmidt, Nicole Simms
2007	Commander in Chief	Air Force Reporter
2008	Sega Superstars Tennis	Pudding	Voiced alongside Larissa Murray
2010	Army of Two: The 40th Day	Mei Lin
2011	Call of Juarez: The Cartel	Shane Dickson
2011	Dead Island	Yerema		[8]
2011	X-Men: Destiny	Mystique		[8]
2011	Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure	Cali		[8]
2011	Star Wars: The Old Republic	Shae Vizla
2012	Mass Effect 3	Nyreen Kandros	Omega DLC
2012	Diablo III	Eirena the Enchantress		[8]
2012	Guild Wars 2	Janis, Marjory Delaqua, Sayida the Sly
2012	World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria	Liu Flameheart, Suna Silentstrike, Sun Tenderheart
2012	Skylanders: Giants	Cali
2012	Transformers: Prime – The Game	Arcee		[8]
2012	Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed	Pudding
2013	Saints Row IV	The President		[8]
2013	Skylanders: Swap Force	Cali
2013	République	Abal Ammash		[8]
2014	The Elder Scrolls Online	Female Redguard, Female Khajiit #1, Additional Voices
2014	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	Whitney Chang		[8]
2014	WildStar	Tresayne Toria, Vesna Taranoft, Nuriam
2014	Skylanders: Trap Team	Cali
2014	Dragon Age: Inquisition	Female Inquisitor (American Accent)
2015	Saints Row: Gat out of Hell	The President		[8]
2015	Skylanders: SuperChargers	Cali		[9]
2015	Fallout 4	Rachel, Female Gunners, Institute Scientist
2015	StarCraft II: Legacy of the Void	Tal'darim Mothership
2016	XCOM 2	Female Soldier
2016	Mirror's Edge Catalyst	Erika Connors		[8]
2016	Master of Orion: Conquer the Stars	Terran Advisor
2017	For Honor	Ayu		[8]
2017	Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series	Mantis		[8]
2017	Prey	Morgan Yu (Female), January (Female)		[8]
2017	Destiny 2	Suraya Hawthorne
2017	Batman: The Enemy Within	Renee Montoya, Casino Patron, Newscaster #2		[8]
2018	Lego DC Super-Villains	Katana, Huntress
2019	Anthem	Aunt Cardea
2019	Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order	Mystique		[8]
2019	The Outer Worlds	Zora Blackwood
2019	Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order	Mari Kosan
2020	Ghost of Tsushima	Yuna	Also motion capture
2020	Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege	Aruni	Operation Neon Dawn expansion	[10]

Film

List of voice performances in direct-to-video, feature and television films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2011	Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters	Su Wu, Wing Wu, Wan Wu	Short film	[8]
2012	Superman vs. The Elite	Newscaster		[8]
2013	Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising	Arcee		[8]
2015	Justice League: Throne of Atlantis	Mera		[8]
2016	Only Yesterday	Kiyoko	English dub
2016	10 Cloverfield Lane	Voice on Radio		[8]
2019	Justice League vs. the Fatal Five	Emerald Empress		[11]

Animation

List of voice performances in animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2010–13	Transformers: Prime	Arcee, Raf's Mother		[8]
2013–14	Beware the Batman	Katana, Additional Voices		[8]
2016–18	Bunnicula	Fluffy		[8]
2017	The Loud House	Maria Santiago		[8]
2017	Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!	Arachne, Harpy	Ep. "Greece Is the Word"	[8]
2018	Voltron: Legendary Defender	Admiral Sanda, Principle		[12][8]
2018–19	Spider-Man	Yuri Watanabe, Nurse		[8]
2019–20	Star Wars Resistance	Agent Tierny		[8]
2019	Love, Death & Robots	Young Yan, Woman	Ep. "Good Hunting"
2019	Kung Fu Panda: The Paws of Destiny	Shi Long	Ep. "Curse of the Monkey King"
2019	Amphibia	Additional Voices
2019	The Casagrandes	Maria Santiago
2019	Cannon Busters	12welve, Additional Voices	English dub
2019	Carmen Sandiego	Lady Dokuso	2 Episodes
2019	Cleopatra in Space	Administrant Khepra, Musti
2020	Where's Waldo	Wizard Flambé	Ep. "Mad About Madagascar"
2020	DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders	Fanthom	Ep. "Divewings"

Television

List of acting performances in television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2002–05	E.R.	Duvata Mahal	10 episodes
2003	Strong Medicine	Med Student #2	Episode: "Vaccinations"
2005	Judging Amy	Helen	Episode: "The New Normal"
2005	Medium	Nurse #1	Episode: "Penny for Your Thoughts"
2005	The Comeback	Producer	Episode: "Valerie Stands Out on the Red Carpet"
2005–06	The West Wing	Vinick Reporter #1	2 episodes
2005–07	Close to Home	Melinda Mallari	6 episodes
2006	Bones	Alexandra Combs	Episode: "The Graft in the Girl"
2006	Commander in Chief	Air Force One Reporter	Episode: "Happy Birthday, Madam President"
2007	Cane	Christine Kim	2 episodes
2007	Lincoln Heights	Nurse Tan	Episode: "The Vision"
2007	Shark	Arlene Pierce	Episode: "Every Breath You Take"
2007–08	The Young and the Restless	Dr. Maya Bagano	5 episodes
2008	Boston Legal	Dr. Linda Corbin	Episode: "Kill, Baby, Kill!"
2009	Big Love	Dr. Gowan	Episode: "Empire"
2009	Nip/Tuck	Dr. Wu	Episode: "Briggitte Reinholt"
2010	Glory Daze	Kim-Ly Franklin	Episode: "Papa Don't Pre-Game"
2011	Harry's Law	Dr. Erica Christie	Episode: "In the Ghetto"
2012	The Finder	Lee Scott	Episode: "Little Green Men"
2012	NCIS: Los Angeles	Yen Tran	Episode: "The Dragon and the Fairy"
2012	Parenthood	Malea	Episode: "What to My Wondering Eyes"
2013	Monday Mornings	Lynne Iverson	Episode: "Wheels Within Wheels"
2013	Touch	Nurse Liz	2 episodes
2014–17	Days of Our Lives	Dr. Yuen, Dr. Ong	3 episodes
2015	The Mentalist	Susan Nguyen	Episode: "Green Light"
2015	NCIS: New Orleans	Melanie Pratt	Episode: "Touched by the Sun"
2015–16	Nashville	Dr. Kitley	4 episodes
2016–17	Veep	Joyce Cafferty	3 episodes
2016	Rizzoli & Isles	Judge Huang	Episode: "65 Hours"
2016	Grey's Anatomy	Lena McCallister	Episode: "Catastrophe and the Cure"
2016	Shameless	Turks	Episode: "Hiraeth"
2017	NCIS	Nicole Taggart	Episode: "Rendezvous"
2017	Kevin (Probably) Saves the World	Tracy Haslett	Episode: "Rocky Road"
2017	Dynasty	Deirde	Episode: "Company Slut"
2018	Scandal	Maria Campo	4 episodes
2018	Critical Role	Nila	2 episodes
2018	Animal Kingdom	Melanie Southards	2 episodes
2018	This Is Us	Dr. Gail Jasper	3 episodes
2018–19	S.W.A.T.	Gwen	3 episodes
2018	Blue Bloods	Inspector Jane Kimura	Episode: "Trust"
2018	The Gifted	Dr. Taylor	Episode: "iMprint"
2019	How to Get Away with Murder	FBI Agent Nancy Bayer	2 episodes
2019	Magnum P.I.	Judge Majorie Kamaka	Episode: "Murder Is Never Quiet"
2019	SEAL Team	Agent Susan Craver	Episode: "The Ones You Can't See"
2019	The Resident	Trish Tintoc	Episode: "Out for Blood"
2020	Star Trek: Picard	Dahj and Soji's Mother	Episode: "Remembrance"
2020	Hawaii Five-0	Yang	Episode: "He kauwa ke kanaka na ke aloha"

Film

List of acting performances in films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2002	Teknolust	Nelia	Uncredited
2002	Cherish	Officer Montano
2002	Minority Report	Talking Billboard	Uncredited
2003	Water Under the Bridge	Sara
2006	Danika	News Reporter
2008	Hancock	News Anchor	Uncredited
2009	Eating Out: All You Can Eat	Pam
2011	Losing Control	Breanna Lee

References

1. "Transformers: Prime". Netflix Thai (in Thai). Retrieved 2018-02-02.
2. Farris, Christopher (February 11, 2019). "These Filipinos Are the Voices of Modern Cartoon and Anime Characters". Esquire (magazine). Hearst Communications. Archived from the original on July 8, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
3. "Voice Actor Interview: Sumalee Montano | BWTF". www.bwtf.com. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
4. "Sumalee Montano". Sumalee Montano. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
5. "Sumalee Montano". Sumalee Montano. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
6. "Voice Actor Interview: Sumalee Montano". BWTF. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
7. "Sumalee Montano". Sumalee Montano. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
8. "Behind The Voice Actors – Sumalee Montano". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved 27 June 2017. – green check mark indicates roles that have been verified by BTVA through closing credits
9. Vicarious Visions. Skylanders: SuperChargers. Activision. Scene: Closing credits, 7:13 in, Voice Actors.
10. "Here's 20 seconds of my newest alter ego from @Rainbow6Game #Aruni #RainbowSixSiege". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-11-09.
11. Couch, Aaron (January 7, 2019). "'Justice League vs. The Fatal Five' Sets Voice Cast (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved January 8, 2019.
12. "Sumalee Montano🎙🎥🎮 on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-08-26.

External links

• Sumalee Montano at IMDb
• Sumalee Montano at Behind The Voice Actors
• Sumalee Montano on Twitter