Romano was born in 1955,[1] and grew up in Long Island, New York.[2] Her father is Italian descent and her mother is of Austrian Jewish and Swedish descent.[citation needed] She received her bachelor's from State University of New York at Fredonia, graduating in 1977,[3] before starting a master's at Rutgers University. She dropped out before finishing.[2] At this time, she began auditioning for plays in Manhattan. While keeping a steady job during the day, Romano would perform in plays at night, often auditioning on her lunch break.[2]
Early career
In 1979, Romano moved to San Diego, where it was difficult for her to find theater work.[2] After working in a couple of plays, she was offered a temporary position at Abrams-Rubaloff, a talent agency in Los Angeles. Within months, due to the temporary position lasting longer than expected, Romano was franchised as an agent.[2]
After leaving Abrams-Rubaloff, Romano joined Special Artists, a smaller agency, and began their voice-over department. While at Special Artists, she would also direct the potential client auditions. It was during her time at Special Artists that Romano began attending some of her clients' recording sessions at Hanna–Barbera. After a short time at Special Artists, she was asked to audition at Hanna–Barbera for the position of casting director.[2]
Hanna-Barbera
Romano joined Hanna-Barbera in 1984.[4] While at Hanna-Barbera, a position which she served for more than five years, Romano worked on such programs as The Smurfs, The New Adventures of Jonny Quest, Pound Puppies, and the 1985 revival of The Jetsons, among others. On all of which, she worked alongside director Gordon Hunt. She also worked on Jetsons: The Movie, though she had her name removed from the credits when an executive decision resulted in Janet Waldo's already-recorded work being discarded in favor of Tiffany. Near the end of recording for Jetsons: The Movie, Romano witnessed George O'Hanlon, who voiced George Jetson, die as the result of a stroke, in the recording studio. His wife was at his side.[2]
Romano was approached by Disney, which was developing DuckTales at the time, to audition for the position of voice director of the series. Disney was auditioning five directors that would each direct one episode, after which, they would choose a director to direct the remaining episodes. One director did the first episode, then Romano directed the second episode; it was at this time that Disney chose to stop the audition process and have Romano direct the remaining episodes. Romano directed 61 episodes of DuckTales. While serving as voice director of DuckTales, for Disney, Romano remained on staff at Hanna-Barbera, as casting director until some of the Hanna-Barbera executives chose to leave and form a new company. Knowing she would not be able to direct in this new company, Romano chose to become a freelance director.[5]
Romano is "renowned for considering 250-300 actors for lead roles", according to UGO.[4] She dislikes having to replace actors, which is why she values actors who are not celebrities, having commented, "Replacing a celebrity ... that's really uncomfortable."[6] Romano has joked that fans can sometimes tell what she has been watching on television or in the films by whom she casts.[7] She sometimes intentionally casts the same actors with whom she has worked previously, "because it was fun, it was good and I know they can do the job."[4] Romano is known for having recording sessions with the actors recording lines in one room, rather than recording the actors' lines individually. She has been known for casting more famous names alongside veteran voice actors, most notably casting Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) as The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series (giving Hamill a new career as a voice actor), and regularly casts other famous guests on her shows, including Neil Patrick Harris, Weird Al Yankovic, William H. Macy, Paul Reubens, Shaquille O'Neal, James Hong, Dakota Fanning and Bernadette Peters on various shows, as well as Senator Patrick Leahy (a lifelong Batman fan) on Batman: The Animated Series, among other famous guests.
Her reputation includes Wired's Ken Denmead's description of Romano as an "iconic voice director".[8] UGO refers to her as "arguably the best known casting/dialogue director on the animation scene today."[4]
Wil Wheaton, an actor and voice actor whom Romano has worked with, has said: "I owe Andrea my whole animation career", after she cast him in The Zeta Project and Teen Titans.[9]
Retirement and post-career plans
Late in 2016, Romano announced that she would retire at the age of 65, which she reached in December 2020, and move to Brazil with her husband, who is from that country. She told The Dot and Line that she was training another woman to succeed her as voice director for the Warner Bros. Animation stable of actors, but would not identify her successor until she considered the person ready.[10]
^ abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxy"Andrea Romano (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved April 7, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Andrea Romano.