Before I begin, I’d like to say, for the record, that I’ve always loved the veteran voice actress in question professionally since I was about 7 or 8 years old.

 

 

 

 

 

Prior to the 1991 debut of Rugrats on Nickelodeon, I had heard her as Princesses Starburst and Tiffany in the 1980s My Little Pony cartoon, Fifi La Fume and Lil Sneezer in the original Tiny Toons, and Linka in Captain Planet.

 

Since late 2020, roughly seven months prior to the release of the Rugrats reboot on Paramount Plus, and five months prior to the controversies surrounding both the redesign and last minute voice replacement of the Lola Bunny character in Space Jam: A New Legacy, I’ve developed a renewed interest in Ms. Soucie, for certain reasons I wish not to divulge, and have wanted to meet her in person, which at this point is an impossibility, given her introverted and enigmatic nature.

 

However, I once read a rumor online from some female who claimed she saw Soucie at a coffee shop in Aptos, California, a small town in my county, way back in 1994.

 

Note: The wharf in the above photo was recently demolished after sustaining massive damage from the January 2023 storms.

 

The female poster in question, who was either a child or much younger adult woman back then, even claimed to have talked to her, but didn’t know at the time that she was a famous voice actress. Why Soucie was in Aptos, what exact date in 1994 was she there, and where was she even heading to, if anywhere at all, have all yet to be answered. Being 10 or 11 years old myself at the time and very heavily into cartoons, it has made me wish badly that I could have been there to personally meet her, get her autograph, and maybe even have a photo with her, if I were to have a camera with me.

 

With all that said, let’s dive right into it:

 

Katherine Ellen Soucie (sometimes Kathi with an I, and sometimes Kathy with a Y), commonly known as Kath Soucie, is an American actress whose career has expanded 45 years. For over 35 of those years that she has been a voiceover artist, she can be heard in a variety of kid and adult cartoons, TV commercials, movies, computer games, and video games. I would argue that she’s the most talented of the original Rugrats cast, often taking on three roles at a time, really stretching her vocal abilities as an actress.

 

Some of her most iconic roles include Princess Sally Acorn from Sonic SatAM, Phillip and Lillian Deville from Rugrats, as well as their mother Betty in the original series, the replacement voice for Janine Melnitz in The Real Ghostbusters, following the departure of Laura Summer, and the iconic animated rabbit, and girlfriend to Bugs, Lola Bunny from Space Jam, and later New Looney Tunes. Her roles, often humerous, have ranged from cutesy, sometimes tough, young girls and boys, to sexy, mature, motherly, and in the case of Betty Deville, even butch women, voicing both human and anthropomorphic characters.

 

Other than a love of kayaking on the Pacific Ocean near her home in her spare time, very little is known about her private life, as she herself is a very private person in Hollywood who doesn’t attend conventions and rarely makes public appearances.

 

Perhaps the biggest conflict of interest on the Internet is her date of birth, with many websites like Google listing it as such below:

 

 

Others have listed it as the following, making her 69 years old, soon to be 70, as of October 2023:

 

One website in particular, the Internet Movie Database, or IMDB for short, has often flip-flopped on it over the years, with no explanation at all for the changes:

 

 

While a lot of people have celebrated it on either 02/20, 11/18, or both, how exactly can one have two very different birthdays and be two very different ages, you might ask? In the immortal words of Ron Burgundy:

Absolutely no living creature on the entire planet can have more than one birthday between January 1 and December 31, or be born in two very different years. While on the surface either birthday is a possibility, seeing how Soucie has been unmistakably an adult since the start of her voice acting career in the later half of the 80s, one of them simply does not add up from a timeline perspective at all.

No official statement has been made by either Soucie or any one representing her as to which birthday is the real one, but based on circumstantial, as well as direct evidence collected from various media, as well as people I’ve talked to who know her very personally, the facts presented here should give everyone a more crystal clear view.

Back in November 2020, when I first saw a website listing her birthday, I’ll admit I was shocked and didn’t want to believe that she was slightly older than both my parents by three years, making her 66 at the time, soon to be 67 in a couple weeks. It wasn’t until early 2021, however, that my suspicions began to rise about the legitimacy of her age when I noticed people on a Facebook group dedicated to her wishing her a happy birthday on February 20, making her 13 years younger than previously stated.

You do the math.

 

It was at that very moment that I became an Internet detective and began to conduct my own extensive research on this matter. At some point, I was able to put together a timeline of events based on my documentation of all the clues I collected on Soucie, leading me to believe the older birthdate to make a lot more sense.

 

Even with all the evidence, it has caused me to have countless arguments with others online and challenge their preconceptions of Soucie being much younger than she really is. 

Some have conceded to my argument, with absolutely no rebuttal, while others (such as above) have clung tenaciously to theirs, refusing to be swayed by facts, and believing themselves to be correct based on their personal feelings and/or superficial sites like Google (which by the way, is NOT a real or reliable source of information, but rather a tool to help people search for it).

 

Where Kath Soucie was born is not as big of an issue as when, though the internet is very split on whether she was born in either New York City, New York or Cleveland, Ohio. While both are valid, as it is possible to be born and raised in one place or be born in one place and raised in another, (with myself as an example, born in Mountain View, California, but raised in Santa Cruz; or voice actress and colleague from Tiny Toons and Dexter's Laboratory Candy Milo, born in Palm Springs, but raised in San Jose), neither New York nor Ohio is her actual birth place. According to an old mentor of hers from the 70s named Paul that I spoke with directly on Facebook, Soucie was really born in Newburyport, Massachusetts (shown above), northeast of Boston.

For unknown reasons, she and her family moved to a small suburban town outside of Cleveland when she was just an baby.

Not much is known about her childhood, but she had developed an interest in acting from a very early age, even spending her youth performing in plays and various amateur productions. She also watched classic movies, adoring stars like Katherine and Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, and perhaps her biggest idol, Lucille Ball.

 

 

She has also idolized veteran voice actor and future colleague Frank Welker. While the 1967 and 1953 birth year theories are still plausible at this point, ’53 seems more consistent, especially with the aforementioned movie stars of the time, and the fact that I Love Lucy was one of the most watched sitcoms through much of the 50s during the early years of television, which continues to thrive in reruns to this day.

 

Senior Year 1971

 One factor that greatly debunks the 02/20/67 theory is her time at Valley Forge High School in Parma Heights, Ohio, as presented in old archived yearbooks that can be found online, courtesy of classmates.com, which I discovered after being tipped off by an anonymous source.

 

 

During her attendance from 1967 to 1971, she was in drama club, glee club, and two choir groups. This raises an obvious question: how can one be born in the same year that they entered high school and graduate four years later? Unless you live in the completely delusional, make believe world of Baby Geniuses, or have the same condition that Robin Williams’ character had in the Francis Ford Coppola movie Jack, I repeat my Ron Burgundy quote from earlier:

 

 

Also, unless they were stuck in a very bizarre time warp, the fashions and trends of the student photos presented in these yearbooks are undoubtedly from the early 1970s, especially with one page of it from senior year mentioning the glee club doing a rendition of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, with both the song and musical duo being wildly popular at the time.

 

While Kath Soucie was definitely not born in New York City, she had resided there in the mid 70s while attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, under the tutelage of the late Manu Toupou, leaving no doubt that she was in her 20s at the time. Prior to her attending that school, Soucie had originally studied the culinary arts, intending to become a chef, since there was no guarantee that she would make it big as an actress. However, while attending AADA, she had done a series of odd jobs just to make ends meet, including selling jewelry, which she soon got out of it after she found out it was stolen. During her time on Broadway, she discovered that she did not have the right vocal projection required for stage acting, especially since extensive microphone systems did not exist in the 1970s like they do currently.

 

 

Moving forward to later in the decade, another factor that debunks the 1967 theory is Ms. Soucie’s only known on-camera role as a pregnant mother-to-be named Becca giving birth to a baby girl in the TV movie The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel, starring Lindsay Wagner. Based on the broadcast date of January 2, 1979, and configuring the math done on both birthday possibilities, had she been born in 1967, that would have made Soucie 11 years old at the time of the movie’s filming and release, but had she been born in 1953, that would have made her 25 years old upon release.

 

It is most likely that she was 24 during filming, but based on her appearance here, she was unquestionably an adult woman in the late 70s.

 

The actual young girls featured in that movie, without a doubt, look like children, including future Growing Pains star Tracey Gold, who was only 9 years old at the time. Unless Soucie was fed very dangerous and potentially illegal growth hormones from a young age, no 11 year old girl in the history of the entire human race has ever looked like a mature and developed woman in her 20s. Also, for moral, and obvious legal reasons, no director or studio would ever green-light a storyline in a movie or TV show about a prepubescent child getting pregnant and giving birth. Brooke Shields’ character in Blue Lagoon does not count as Shields was 14 at the time of that movie’s filming, and well into puberty in the late 70s and early 80s.

 

According to her story featured in the 2004 book “The Magic Behind The Voices”, written by Tim Lawson and Alisa Persons, in 1985, just before beginning her voice acting career, Soucie was rejected from playing the role of a daughter in an undisclosed TV soap opera due to her age. While her memory is fuzzy on being too young or too old for the part, I would argue more for the latter.

Going back to basic math, had she been born in 1967, she would have been either 17 or 18 at the time of her audition, which would still be age appropriate to play a child or teenager. However, had she been born in 1953, it would be more aligned with the theory of her being too old since casting agents in Hollywood usually hire 18 to 29 year old adult actors to play younger on-camera roles. Soucie would have been either 31 or 32 then, which is definitely past the cutoff point to play that kind of character.

It is highly unlikely with the 1967 birth narrative that Soucie would have just gone straight into a voiceover career at the hypothetical ages of 18 and 19, as studios are more partial to adult actors with prior experience in stage and screen work, and years of formal training and mentorship to hone their skills. While it is a very fun, but very competitive field to get into, especially now with the presence of the Internet, voice acting was not seen as a very popular career choice back in the mid 1980s as A.) Hollywood and the Screen Actors Guild didn’t really view it as real acting, and B.) animation at the time was viewed primarily as children’s entertainment, with many cartoons on TV being produced as vehicles to sell toys. It should be also noted that by this time, Soucie became weary of the restrictions of on-camera acting and decided devote herself fully to voiceover work to show off her skills and talent a lot more and explore other opportunities. This gives the theory of Soucie being born in '53 a more consistent timeline.

 

 

The final argument I’d like to make to the birthday conundrum is her information in public records. Google and a bevy of other websites, for some odd reason, have listed it as such above, without doing any actual fact checking.

 

Public records have proven to be more reliable and accurate with people’s information across the board, even though they don’t provide place of birth. Sadly, Wikipedia does not allow that information to be used as a reference due to its rules against violation of privacy, with personal addresses and phone numbers of the person being listed (with one shown above rightfully censored), as well as its strict policies against the use of primary source material.

To view discussions about Kath Soucie, please visit this link:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Kath_Soucie

 

I personally have spoken with a number of Kath Soucie’s colleagues, including Nika Futterman, with whom I met at a convention in Santa Clara in 2022, as seen in this picture (my apologies for the terrible lighting). Futterman, who has worked with Soucie on Hey Arnold and The Loud House, has assured me that she was not born in 1967, but claims to have no knowledge of actual birth year.

 

In August 2021 and February 2022, I messaged her Rugrats co-star EG Daily on Facebook, concerning both a scam artist with whom I was in contact (more on that later), as well as the issue of a number of people wishing Soucie a happy 55th birthday. Daily sent me the following message:

In mid January 2023, I got in contact with an old friend of hers named Jimmy through the Kath Soucie Fan Club page, after he posted this photo of him with Soucie and his wife the night of Soucie's high school reunion, circa 2001. The house in the background is her old childhood home in Ohio where Jimmy and his family currently reside. He had personally confirmed with me more than a month later that 1953 is her real birth year after I brought up the issue of most of the Internet wishing her a happy 56th birthday on February 20. In reality, Soucie is a Scorpio, not a Pisces, and had turned 56 fourteen years prior on November 18.

 

 

Again, you do the math.

 

However, fellow Rugrats co-star Cheryl Chase once wished her a happy birthday in a Facebook post exactly one month earlier on January 20 (as shown above), despite the fact that she is neither a Capricorn nor an Aquarius. While her age or birth year were not revealed, I challenged Chase's claim in the comment section by bringing up public records, which caused her to change the text in her post.

 

Back in late Summer 2021, I had been in communication with what I initially believed to be Soucie, but found out quickly to be a scam artist.

 

 

Despite some flirtation back in forth, and being asked to buy a very specific gift card, which I most certainly did not, I only shared photos of myself, as well as my email address, which I of course redacted in public post for obvious reasons. That person also gave me the younger birthday, using the more European standard of day before month, when I quizzed them about it, to which I accused them of being both completely incorrect and a phony. The account was ultimately reported to Facebook and the profile has since been terminated, but screenshots of my chat with the person remain on the Kath Soucie Fan Club page, which can be found in full on this link:

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1576640435946418/permalink/3020956954848085

 

Many of Soucie's colleagues that I have met at various conventions and talked to about it are quite shocked, but usually not all that surprised, given the vast number of celebrity scams conducted regularly on the Internet.

 

While no official confirmation has been made for the following claims, it has been speculated that Kath Soucie has either retired or has been planning to retire from voice acting and focus on other projects, especially with how very few gigs she has been getting in recent few years, compared to decades past.

 

It could also be theorized that a certain global pandemic from 2020 (that shall not be named), and the temporary suspension of many movie and TV projects has caused many studios and agents to neglect her.

 

Lastly, Soucie may very well be another victim of modern day Hollywood’s alleged age discrimination, especially with her currently being in her late 60s, and the mistreatment of the voice acting community, in lieu of younger, more A-list celebrities.

 

In 2021, following the disastrous release of the much anticipated, but controversial follow up to the first Space Jam, this Tweet was posted online:

 

Even current Bugs Bunny voiceover Eric Bauza confirmed this allegation, and had expressed his ire in this Instagram post:

 

 

Neither Soucie nor Warner Bros has issued a press release about it to this very day, but I personally have speculated that she had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the studio either before or after her abrupt removal from the movie, preventing her from talking to the media, or bringing about a civil lawsuit, and the studio's potential loss of profits. Whatever transpired behind the scenes will most likely never be publicly known and Soucie will most likely take it to her grave.

 

 

On a final side note, on April 28, 2023, Kath Soucie was noticeably absent at the Season 2 premiere party for the Rugrats reboot, as seen in this group photo, with no explanation given to her whereabouts, especially with her lack of a social media account.

 

When I personally met with one of her Rugrats co-stars Cheryl Chase at Bakersfield Collectors Con four months later to inquire about the absence, she still did not have the answer to it, leading me to believe Soucie was unable to attend the cast reunion due to a very busy work schedule, personal issues, or family matters. My theory is that either she or close personal loved one has been suffering from some kind of terminal illness for some time, suggesting some kind of retirement or break from her career, and has decided to remain extremely private about it with fans, colleagues, and the media. However, nothing has been set in stone at this moment.

Whatever does happen to Kath Soucie in the future is anybody’s guess, but I think it is safe to say that she has left one of, if not the most indelible marks on acting and cartoon voiceover work over the last four and a half decades. With her reaching a milestone age of 70 this November 18, as of the date this piece was written, I think we can fully appreciate how far she has come in the industry, and the great legacy she will leave behind.

Where the February 20, 1967 birthdate came from exactly will almost always be a topic of discussion, but it’s highly unlikely to have come from Soucie herself. It's also been said that certain people who work in the entertainment industry will have many websites decrease someone's age by a random number of years, because apparently youth sells and makes celebrities look more appealing to the public.

 

Even voice actress and fellow colleague Debi Derryberry, who has worked with Soucie on The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Lady and the Tramp 2, and a 2001 commercial for Mountain Dew, has had her birthday curiously altered. To their credit, all sources across the Internet have the month and day 100% correct, but some websites like Google also claim her birth year as 1967, despite public records showing it as 1960, and her old yearbooks from Indio High School between 1974 to 1978, corroborating that evidence. For the record, I have spoken with Derryberry personally about it on Facebook, and she has confirmed with me that 1960 is her actual birth year.

 

According to Greg Berg, another voice actor and former colleague of Soucie from Yo Yogi! that I’ve spoken with directly on Facebook, much of the entertainment industry doesn't get certain people's information correct. Most of what is taken comes from clerical errors, (sometimes used as placeholder text on websites), or malicious or misguided sources who take whatever information is fed to them, and spread it around like wildfire, where it is misconstrued as gospel truth. Sometimes, a false younger birthdate is issued by talent agents or management companies to help actors gain better employment and cope with Hollywood’s often covert age discriminatory practices. In the case of Berg, one unnamed media source had his birthplace listed as Sacramento, California, when in actuality, he was born in Brooklyn, New York, and even once had to show some form of ID to someone somewhere as proof that he really was who he said he was.

 

The issue of Kath Soucie’s date of birth is still open for debate as neither she nor anyone in Hollywood has given many details about her biography. Some argue that a person’s life story pales in comparison to their long-standing professional career, and that one's age and birthday are irrelevant to their tremendous talent. I very strongly disagree with that because in order to fully appreciate one's talent and accomplishments, one has to also understand and appreciate their origins and rise to fame, which I believe are just as significant as their actual fame. Their stories should always be preserved and studied both before and after their inevitable demise, especially for future generations who wish to learn from them, as well as young people who wish to get into that profession. I also find more beauty in truth, as it is far less complicated to comprehend and keep up with than silly little lies, regardless of who tells them. In conclusion, I believe all the evidence presented in this piece will very heavily convince everyone that 02/20/67 is completely arbitrary and baseless and that 11/18/53 is Kath Soucie’s more true and honest birthday.

 

 For more information about Kath Soucie, check out The Magic Behind The Voices: A Who's Who Of Cartoon Voices By Tim Lawson and Alisa Persons as well as a the following websites:

 

https://www.awn.com/animationworld/nancy-cartwright-chats-kath-soucie

 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1576640435946418

 

https://www.awn.com/.../2.12pages/2.12soucievoice.html