Laurence Crouzet

Laurence Crouzet was born on 31 March 1961 into a family of actors. Her father, Roger Crouzet, was a pioneer of French television and a well known dubbing actor, and her mother, Monique Thierry, was also an actress who specialised in dubbing. Her parents opposed her following them into the profession, but she wanted to become an actress from the age of nine.

After passing her baccalaureate at 18 she left the family home to take theatre classes at the Fratellini circus school. Her days were full: four hours of dance, literature studies and small jobs to support herself.

Crouzet set up a small theatre company and wrote plays. At 24 she rented the Théâtre Déjazet in Paris for an evening, sent 5,000 invitations and played to a full house with Une mouche dans la tête ou les mémoires d'une fille affreuse, sale et méchante, a solo show that won the humour prize at the Conflans-Sainte-Honorine festival. She appeared on stage in L'Éternel Mari, adapted and directed by Jacques Mauclair at the Théâtre du Marais in 1985, and worked as an assistant to Sylvia Montfort and Mauclair.

She entered dubbing in the mid 1980s and quickly became one of the defining voices of the animated series shown on French television, notably Les Chevaliers du Zodiaque (Saint Seiya), where she voiced Shina, Hilda of Polaris, Kiki, Shunrei and June, and Tortues Ninja, where she voiced April O'Neil. Other animated roles included Julie in Julie et Stéphane, Betty in Les Pierrafeu, Lunch in Dragon Ball, Lucille McBernik in Famille Pirate, Mallory in Mighty Ducks and Wuya in Xiaolin Showdown.

In film she became the first regular French voice of Uma Thurman in the 1990s, in Sang chaud pour meurtre de sang-froid, Jennifer 8, Mad Dog and Glory, Beautiful Girls, Batman et Robin, Les Misérables and Chapeau melon et bottes de cuir, and voiced Madonna in several roles. She also dubbed Juliette Lewis, Patricia Arquette, Marisa Tomei, Carla Gugino and Téa Leoni. On television she voiced Tara Maclay in Buffy contre les vampires, for which she was also artistic director of the French version, and Susan Ivanova in Babylon 5. Her video game roles included Athena in God of War and Iden Versio in Star Wars Battlefront II.

Later she worked extensively as a dialogue adaptor, on productions including the first Shrek film, the series Esprits criminels and animated films such as Léo, la fabuleuse histoire de Léonard de Vinci (2023). More than 900 of her works were registered with SACEM.

Crouzet lived in Saint-Germer-de-Fly in the Oise department. She had three children, some of whom occasionally accompanied her to the recording studio.

Laurence Crouzet died on 11 November 2026, aged 65. Her death was reported the same day by outlets including Disneyphile, VL Média and Animkids, which recalled her roles in Saint Seiya, Tortues Ninja and the French versions of Uma Thurman's films. The cause of death and funeral arrangements had not been made public.

For French viewers who grew up with the Club Dorothée era of animation, Crouzet's voice is inseparable from characters such as Shina in Saint Seiya and April O'Neil in Tortues Ninja. Tributes described her as one of the most versatile and endearing performers in French dubbing, whose work as actress, artistic director and adaptor gave a French voice to hundreds of characters in film, television and video games.