Melissa Villaseñor Is a Woman of Many Voices — What Are Some of Her Best Voice Works?

Sea Published On Thu Mar 12 2020 Modified On Thu Mar 12 2020

Have you heard the real voice of Melissa Villaseñor? Even that seems like she's impersonating someone. A bad 'Kermit the Frog' impression, perhaps?

'Saturday Night Live' had been a longtime target for Villaseñor; she auditioned for the show back in 2009 but only got the job in 2016. When she started coming on, she became an instant favorite. And people started tuning on to her past works as well. She was already an accomplished comedian.

It's always Halloween with Melissa Villaseñor.
Photo Source: Melissa Villaseñor, Twitter

The Mexican-American started in 2010 with a short video, 'The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It', following the SNL disappointment. She had to produce a creditable resume for years, with several voice-over roles, stand-up appearances and her own mildly successful YouTube channel. Her talent is as broad as daylight.

While SNL has produced a lot of talent shows from Villaseñor over the years, there are some people she's impersonated (not illegally?) that are underrated, whilst some remain among the widely celebrated ones.

The 'Lady Gaga' Before the 2019 Grammys

Lady Gaga was set to win four Grammys in 2019 when Melissa Villaseñor entered the Weekend Update on SNL to impersonate her before the ceremony. Scarlett Johansson's fiance Colin Jost was trying to make Melissa admit she was doing Gaga's do and trying to sound like Gaga but to no avail. He even warned her they couldn't afford the rights to her Grammy-winning song 'Shallow'.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Sings as Lady Gaga

The $2 million worth talent flawlessly sings Lady Gaga's songs and impersonates her body movements as well, despite Jost indicating, again and again, that she shouldn't. It went viral when the clip was uploaded on YouTube as she put on the makeup and dress for the entire weekend episode. She's also used a clip of it as a meme for herself responding to relatives asking when she would get married.

Meanwhile, at the 2019 Grammys, Lady Gaga's 'Shallow' won the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance title, while 'Joanne' won the Best Solo Performance award. The former was also awarded the Best Song Written for Visual Media title. On the other hand, Dan Glover's (aka Childish Gambino) 'This Is America' took home the Best Song title with Young Thug.

A Whole Bunch of 'Adventure Time' Characters

Yeah. It's a classic Cartoon Network show. Her talent was put to good use for 'Adventure Time', despite voicing in only 11 of the entire 248 episodes of the show. But she did 15 different voices, from a 'Ham Sandwich' to a bat to an 'Alien'.

Recognize these guys?
Photo Source: Behind the Voice Actors

Despite performing a host of characters, she was only a guest voice actor for the show. Her characters include 'Rainy', 'Grob God God Grod', 'Clerk', 'Sveinn', 'Lauren', 'Animepillow' and a bunch of other inanimate objects & side characters. She came back recurring until 2017 from 2012.

Another Whole Bunch of 'OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes' Characters

It's also one of those many shows she's voiced for and still remains in the dark. Like before, Melissa's voiced just over a dozen characters on 'OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes'. And she apparently stopped voicing on 'Adventure Time' to go on this new one. The 'Adventure Time' ended in 2018.

The 32-year-old voiced a total of 13 characters in 24 episodes, as of now, on the show where she crosses paths with a young boy aspiring to become the world's greatest hero. And of course, she's not the main character of the show; that's Courtenay Taylor voicing 16 characters, many of them being different versions of the main character 'K.O.'

Or these guys?
Photo Source: Behind the Voice Actors

'Carol', 'Punching Judy', 'Drupe', a bunch of babies, a shy 'Ninja', 'Phoebe' are only some of her notable characters, while many of them were also filled in by other voice actors when she was not around from 2017. That's, however, common.

Giving a Singing Class As Christina Aguilera

There are many caricature clips she made before SNL to establish herself as someone extremely suitable for the show. One of those was a collaboration with Más Mejor for a singing class. She took on the role of Christina Aguilera, dressed like her and spoke impeccably like her.

'Thanks. I would be too,' was deemed to be the most accurate way Aguilera would've said anything. The singing class showed how threatened her character was of a nobody who could sing really well in her class, despite claiming she's not threatened by other singers.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Giving a Singing Class as Christina Aguilera

And yeah, she can sing in different voices too. She's covered a bunch of songs and uploaded to her YouTube channel. That just added to her impressive resume heading on to Saturday Night Live in late 2016.

Sarah Silverman: Probably the Funniest of Her 'Daily Itineraries' Saga

In early 2016, Melissa Villaseñor embarked on a journey of making a series of 'Daily Itineraries' impersonating a number of real people. It's not the first time she's done a series of something. A little digging will lead you to her 'S**t Talk' series featuring local guests.

Villaseñor impersonated Jennifer Lopez (you'll love this one), Kristen Wiig, Hillary Clinton, Sonia Sotomayor, Gwen Stefani and Owen Wilson, all in collaboration with Más Mejor. Yeah, it's a limited list as watching it would leave you wanting more.

However, the funniest could've been her Sarah Silverman do. It might have been attributed to all the obscenities she's presented in it for the show. And that funnily disgusting song...

Watch (Viewer's Discretion Advised): Melissa Villaseñor Does Sarah Silverman

People have it praising her for being more Sarah Silverman that Sarah Silverman herself. Another one wrote, "I picture Sarah Silverman auditioning for the part of Sarah Silverman in 'The Sarah Silverman Story'... & losing the part to Melissa!" Yes, it was the best one for the fans at the time it was released, and maybe the best one still.

Singing Sia, Gwen Stefani & Owen Wilson — Fans' Pick of Her Favorites

Gwen Stefani has been one of her favorite people to do the impressions of. Including the 'Daily Itineraries' episode, Melissa has done several impressions of Stefani and uploaded on YouTube. There's one with her facial expressions while driving a car as well.

Stefani is actually a model for Villaseñor when it comes to her dating life. She explains in the video of her facial impression that she would always listen to Stefani to feel strong when she experiences boy & love troubles, since her high school days to this day.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Talks How Gwen Stefani Was a Part of Her Dating Life

There's also a video of her singing Sia's biggest hit, 'Chandelier' dressed like Maddie Ziegler. Meanwhile, she's also covered Owen Wilson, more so than others apparently. It's also one of her favorites since she started doing his voice since 2012. It's included in the 'Daily Itineraries', and she's done a two-parter of him in a meditation session.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Reads 'The Night Before Christmas' in Owen Wilson Makeup

These are just some of her work before she went on to SNL. To say she's come a long way is an understatement as she's achieved enough before SNL already.

Her Actual Favorites List — Kate Micucci, Pokémon

Of all her performances, there are some that she loves more than others. She made a compilation list of her favorites on YouTube in late 2015 that became a defining introduction to her SNL debut.

Also: Top 5 Facts about Netflix's 'You' Forty Quinn Actor James Scully

The list already contains the impersonations mentioned above, like Gwen Stefani, Hillary Clinton and Owen Wilson. And starting off with Pokémon was a good idea nonetheless. She went off with 'Ash Ketchum' asking 'Pikachu' to get inside a Pokéball (from the very first episode of the anime series) and then acted 'Pikachu' getting reluctant to get into it.

Melissa also flawlessly voice 'Mickey Mouse', brought on the charming eccentricity of Bjork, stammered out Bilbo Baggins, and added in Joan Cusack, Julie Andrews, Maria Bamford, Natalie Portman, Wanda Sykes, Whitney Cummings. And oh, her impression of 'The Big Bang Theory' guest star Kate Micucci singing was clearly spot-on as she even looked like her at one point.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Lists Her Favorite Voice-over Roles She Likes to Do

She ended the video with acts from 'The Sims', which her 174,000 subscribers remember her entire web series titled 'Sim Meets World' from.

Others: People You Know and Love (Remember the Standing Ovation on AGT?)

There's not one voice role she's done that can be missed out of being included from the list. But sadly, we can't really cover all of them. Despite being a follower of the comedy artist, there are bound to be something gone unnoticed.

Not exactly a judges' standing ovation, but the audience were on their feet when Villaseñor completed her Christina Aguilera impression way back in 2011 on her 'America's Got Talent' audition. Check it out.

Watch: Melissa Villaseñor Gave It a Go on 'America's Got Talent' 2011

The star's also voiced in 'Scooby Doo! Shaggy's Showdown', portraying 'Shaggy's cousin Tawny Rogers; a short appearance as 'Karen Beverly' in 'Toy Story 4' and as 'Taffyta' in 'Ralph Breaks the Internet'. In addition, she's also voiced out as Julie and Adele in 'Jeff and Some Aliens'. Oh, and she's parodied Iggy Azalea's 'Lonely'.

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