Overwatch voice actors on the bonds with their characters, Dreamhack and who would win in a fight

It's easy to forget that when we're blasting away, decimating enemies or saving teammates, the characters who are quipping and zesting have hours and hours of relentless preparation and lore behind them.

Overwatch is one of those titles whose heroes need little introduction, but each of the personalities behind the beloved animated shooter franchise - whether it be furry animals or demonic half-dragons - has been moulded and adapted by a voice actor who embodies their souls.

As Overwatch played a central role at Dreamhack Dallas, GGRecon spoke to three of the best actors in the industry (who also voiced in multiple franchises like Apex Legends, VALORANT, Genshin Impact, and more), about just how they helped craft heroes, what its like to see them cosplayed, who wins in a gaming royale rumble of their characters, and dream roles.

Meet Anjali Bhimini, Valeria Rodriguez, and Carolina Ravassa:

First off, how was Dreamhack Dallas?

Anjali Bhimani (Symmetra): I am a diehard DreamHack fan, so I have loved it always. I love how DreamHack operates, I love that they bring in so many charities, so many 501(c)(3)s, and so many organisations that are doing such good in the world.

I love that they donate so much to charity. I love that it's a gaming convention for gamers, by gamers; casual gamers, professional gamers, and anybody who really enjoys this world can come to it. 10 out of 10. Highly recommend - so much so that I keep dragging more friends to it. Yippee!

I love the fact that DreamHack is starting to add things from the TTRPG world and from the actual play world because that's very much a deep love of mine. Started with TTRPGs and then went to video games when I was eight years old, that was my world.

For your respective Overwatch characters, what was the process like of working with the team to build these characters that seem to be very influenced by you three?

Carolina Ravassa (Sombra): What's cool is that in the first session, there's time taken to talk about the character. There was time aside so that we're understanding of the world. Sometimes we get to projects and we have to go without that, but this was more like, "Okay, let's figure it out together". 

It felt very collaborative, in that sense, since the beginning. Obviously, we got cast because we understood the characters to some degree already, and we walked in understanding their basic personality traits. We got to explore that further though, they pushed us a little bit further, like, "Oh, [we need] way more sarcasm here," or, "Sombra can get darker here, she can make fun of them here."

How about you, Valeria? Venture is non-binary, as are you. Is that something that was already set in stone beforehand or was it something that was developed after you became synonymous with them?

Valeria Rodriguez (Venture): Full credit goes to the Blizz team. They already had plans to have a character who is not only non-binary but also a person of colour, because we actually have seen a fair bit of non-binary representation but it's mostly been Caucasian people, which is great, but we brown non-binary folks exist too. It's really cool to have a character like that.

It's sick because I know a lot of writers worked on Venture, but the lead writer Miranda Moyer - Venture is her baby - was always in every session, helping guide it, and we immediately clicked. We both immediately knew who Venture was. There was a tonne of awesome, friendly banter, and the sessions flowed because we both understood the character so well.

It wasn't too much of creating a character, so much as us communicating with each other. We know who Venture is, let's have fun and see what happens with these takes.

What's your favourite element of each of your respective Overwatch heroes?

Anjali: I love that Symmetra, despite her difficult history - whether the challenges she's faced because of her neurodiversity or because of her actual history being plucked from the slums and taken to Vishkar - she's never used any of those difficulties as an excuse to give up. On the contrary, she has used them as a reason to make the world a better place. That everything inspires her to step in and do something better.

Now, whether or not she's hanging out with the right company to do that - we're learning not so much - she didn't really know it until she started to figure it out. But even from that very first comic that came out right before the game came out, A Better World, you can see how much that's a part of her worldview.

She wants to use her unique set of skills, powers, and experiences to make the world a better place. I find that very inspiring in my life as well because a lot of people think that once adversity hits them - How do I say this? We aren't a sum of what happens to us, We're a sum of what we do with it.

Some of the people I know who have had the most difficult childhoods and faced the biggest challenges are also some of the most generous, kind, and supportive people making a difference in the world. I feel that's who she is. I love her so much for it.

Plus, we both run around in high heels very comfortably, and I'm a very big fan of hers.

Valeria: I was originally going to say that I like that they burrow like a mole, but then you said something so poignant and serious.

What I will say is that they're very cheerful, very joyful, even in scary situations. One of my favourite lines is from Everything Everywhere All at Once, where Ke Huy Quan says, "When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I've learned to survive through everything."

A lot of people who adopt survival tactics will become very bitter, closed off to the world, or angry people. But he's similar to me, and Venture is also similar to me in that way. Our survival tactics are being unabashedly joyful in the face of adversity.

It doesn't mean that we're naive to the plights or problems of the world. Rather, we're choosing to be goofy guys. Yeah. And that's my deep answer. There we go. We don't know about being goofy

Carolina: I love that Sombra loves to f**k around. Hell yeah! In Spanish, we say "joder". She loves to mess with people all the characters. She even loves Sigma, they're buddies. She's like, "Hey, old man, let me take care of you."

But she'll f**k with him too. I love that she makes fun of her enemies like Tracer. She's like, "You're so annoying", "Oh, D.Va, you're so annoying." I love that, but then, even with the people she loves, she messes with them.

That's a trait that I think is so Latino and so me. That's my favourite thing about her.

It's admirable to see how hands-on you are and how well you know your characters off the back of your hands because you do have other characters in other series. Anjali, you've got Rampart and Carolina, you have Raze, who both have these deep and intertwining histories with their respective titles.

How much effort does it take to keep up to date with all of your ongoing projects and balance all of your characters? Do you ever confuse them?

Anjali: What is balance? What is this word: "balance"? Ha.

I think they're all so distinct. For mine, Rampart and Symmetra are so vastly different. Symmetra is so elegant and intellectual and Rampart's more me, where she has no filter. She's this tiny woman with a big ass gun. It feels so me running around the house - maybe not with a big gun, but chaos. They're such distinct characters.

~Also, every time we go into a session, there's a recap that we do where we get to hear the voice reference.~

But yeah, each one of them has their own distinct flavour.

I do love the fact that Rampart (Anjali) and Raze (Carolina) are so similar to each other and that the two of us are so close. It's great that we ended up playing two characters in completely different games that are so similar.

Carolina: I think in the beginning, we were very up-to-date with everything Overwatch. Now, we still are when a new character comes out, but sometimes I'm like "What event's happening, where?" because it is a lot.

But, the fans and the gamer community keep us up to date more than we do.

I always find out when stuff comes out in-game because I'll see it on Twitter. We can talk about this. Otherwise, I would be lost.

Valeria: I will say, to their credit, it seems very impressive that I know so much about Overwatch. But if you ask me the same about Genshin Impact or any other project that I'm in, I don't know anything about it.

Fans will be like, "Do you remember that episode of Monster High when blah, blah, blah?" and I'm sat there like, "I don't know. I don't remember that." But because I'm such a big fan of Overwatch, I go out of my way. 

Do you main Venture?

Valeria: Absofruitely, I do. Yes.

Anjali: Does Venture say Absofruitely? Can we get that?

Valeria: No, haha. Can we get one, though? Can we get Absofruitely? That came out of my mouth very naturally. That was cool. 

For Anjali and Carolina, who have Rampart and Raze, respectively, who would win in a fight between the two that you play? So, Rampart versus Symmetra and Sombra versus Raze?

Anjali: It depends so much on the circumstances.

I'm probably taking this question far too seriously, but it's not something that I haven't thought of before.

If it is a pure brute force situation, it's going to be Rampart because she plays dirty. Clearly, she plays dirty.

But if it has to do with, say, strategy or intellect, or certainly if it has to do with keeping your cool, it would have to be Symmetra because I think she's a keen strategist. Also, if it had to do with walking in high heels, it would definitely be Symmetra.

Rampart has no clue. Rampart would not be able to do it. She's got her sneaks, she knows what she's doing. Loba carries that burden for us all.

Carolina: I think Raze would annoy the s**t out of Sombra. She would say, "You are annoying the crap out of me," and "Simmer down, dude".

But I also think they would sit down and have coffee together instead. I could see them teaming up 100%.

I feel Sombra could hack some stuff. They're both really powerful, though. Raze is jacked, but the new, slick Sombra, she's got biceps.

Valorant and Overwatch fans have told me that both the characters are really hard to play - you hate both of them. If you're playing against them, it sucks because they can do real damage. But if you're playing with somebody who doesn't play them well, that sucks.

You have to be really good in order to help the team. This is a great excuse why I don't play them, but they both are very difficult, and I kinda think that's cool.

How do you feel when you see cosplays of your characters at events?

Valeria: It's my favourite thing in the whole world. I love it so much. Love, love, love. Love. Most of the people who cosplay Venture are the same age as me, so it feels like my friends coming up to us at the table.

Most of them are a lot of the same demographic too. I see a lot of queer Latino nerds and I'm like, "Oh, we're the same person. I love you."

It's awesome. I freaking love cosplayers.

Carolina: They feel seen, finally. They're like, "Oh my god, this is me," and then I get to meet me over there on the other side of the table.

Have you ever cosplayed as your own characters?

Anjali: The two of us [Anjali] did at BlizzCon 2019 and Anime Expo 2019 with full prosthetics and the whole nine yards. Her dragon was insane.

Carolina: Your bride of Frankenstein was crazy.

Anjali: She was cool. I've done it four times. Always with the same cosplayer, Melanie Jasmine, who's based here in Texas. She's amazing. And then Kelton FX - Kelton Ching did a lot of the prosthetics for the Dragon Symmetra - they are phenomenal and made us have so much respect for people who do it and the amount of love and hard work that everybody puts into our characters.

I can barely dress myself in the morning, and these folks have created these incredible pieces. So, hats off to everybody who does that, and thank God to Melanie and Kelton for doing it for us so that we could play.

I know there are probably a lot of differences between voicing off-screen and then acting in film and television as well - Young Sheldon, Ms Marvel, and The Affair, etc for you Anjali and Carolina. But, what's the difference between getting immersed in different characters in games, rather than being on screen?

Anjali: The biggest difference is that, usually, we don't get to record with other people when we are doing audio recordings, compared to when we get to actually do the scenes. In Ms Marvel, there were people in front of me and so you get that immersion. I don't want to say it's easier, but the dialogue flows a little bit easier. You don't need someone to explain what the scene is, because you're there in the scene with the other person.

Getting used to finding a sense of connection when the other actor isn't there is a skill.

Carolina: The cool thing though about the video game characters we do get to play is, because they've been going on for so many years and because we go to so many cons, Sombra lives in me.

Other projects that we did five years ago, we haven't revisited, but I go in the booth at least once a year for Sombra. At cons, fans are reminding me of lines too. I forget that I say "been here all along" or little things like that, but fans remind us constantly.

It's such a beautiful thing that it keeps going. They are there [points internally]. Once they're created, they're not going anywhere.

One final question, something a little bit different:

If you could voice or play anybody else from a different universe that you've not been involved with yet, who would it be?

Carolina: From a different universe? I want to do a sidekick in a Disney movie. Someone like Timon (Lion King). The little animal that's next to the warrior. I don't want to do the princess. I want to be the little weird animal. Heihei in Moana.

That's me, and I want to do that. That would be my dream come true.

Valeria: In some iteration, it can be a mobile game, it can be a commercial, it can be anything, I would really like to play some version of Harley Quinn.

That is the legacy role that I would absolutely love to do someday. It could be a five-second sound bite for a tiny TV commercial. I don't care. I have a trillion Harley Quinn comics at home. I love her so much.

I loved Margot Robbie already, but I think that she was incredible for the role too. That's a legacy role that I would to voice someday.

Besides that, I love werewolves. I want to be a werewolf in some way. I want to be a werewolf in something *wink at Blizzard*, because "grrrargh [more monster sounds]."

Somebody write me a character, like tha- A WORGEN!! A worgen! There you go. A worgen NPC. I'm begging. I'm begging on my hands and knees. A worgen would work perfectly.

Or, I've actually talked about this with the World of Warcraft devs who I met at the last BlizzCon, more than anything I want to be a gnome in World of Warcraft for so long. That'd be so fun! I love the gnomes in World of Warcraft, they're so cute, they're so funny. There's a Hearthstone gnome that I really love - I forget her name, Nemsy Necrofizzle?

I'm a total Blizzard nerd.

Anjali: I have been a fan of Star Trek since I was a little kid. I have played a Vulcan in a commercial for Star Trek before, so I've done the whole thing, and I know I look great as a Vulcan. I've got the Vulcan bone structure.

But I also think I want to play a Romulus. Because they're a little bit sassy. They're not so good. I want to explore a little bit more of the villainous side. I want to play a Romulan in the Star Trek universe. Very badly.

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Anjali Bhimini has voiced Symmetra since 2016 when she was first added to the game as one of the first 21 characters when Overwatch released. Her voice actor portfolio also includes Rampart (Apex Legends), Commander Natara (Starfield), Kraven's Hunters (Marvel's Spider-Man 2), and other roles in Diable IV, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and Fallout 76. She also plays roles on-screen in Ms Marvel, Young Sheldon, X-Men '97, and The Sopranos.

Carolina Ravessa has also been on a long journey with Sombra since 2016, although her character was the second-ever post-launch hero, coming six months after Anjali's Symmetra. She once raised $14,000 for charity by shaving her hair akin to Sombra's. Ravessa's gaming character catalogue includes Raze (VALORANT) and characters in Grand Theft Auto V, Cyberpunk 2077, Far Cry 6, and Max Payne 3. In television, she voices Carolina Grant-Gomez in the Disney Channel animated series Hamster & Gretel, alongside Zyanya in Onyx Equinox and Itzel in Victor and Valentino.

Valeria Rodriguez is just 23 years old and has been an avid fan of Overwatch since its release in 2016. They used to main Cassidy, Junkrat, Lúcio, and Zenyatta, before moving to Venture as they landed the role of their voice this year. Rodriguez's tale in gaming already consists of roles in Genshin Impact, Lost Ark, WWE 2K24, and Honkai: Star Rail. They have also featured in TV series as a voice actor, namely Monster High and Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures.