Ashly Burch: A Long Way From YouTube

Bringing Aloy To Life

Ashly Burch, better known as Horizon: Zero Dawn's Aloy, has sat down with the IGN crew to discuss her voice acting work. Not only is she super great, she's hardworking. Turns out, she's been working on the game for the last two years.

This is her first lead in a game, but she's been in many anime and video games, including Life Is Strange and Borderlands 2, as Chloe and Tiny Tina, respectively. If that's not enough inspiration, she's playing the lead in a new IP, setting the tone for Aloy, bringing an 18-year-old character to life.

Aloy, The New Icon

And she does do it well. From the little bit we got to play so far, Aloy isn't an obnoxious teenager, isn't overly emotional, and isn't the stereotypical stoic heroine. She's original, she's awesome and an icon for female and male players alike.

In fact, we like her so much, we're going to focus on her in the video coming up over the weekend!

Aspirations

Unsurprisingly, Burch lights up when speaking about Aloy. She's definitely dynamic; the love of her work is clearly evident. So it should be as no surprise that her dream is to voice act in a Mass Effect game.

"I would love to be in a Bioware game. Even if I was just some random Asari, just like, just like that has like one line, you know? Just like 'get her!' "

We can see it, can't you?

When questioned about strong female characters, and her preparations for her role as Aloy, she mentioned Jennifer Hale's role as Commander Shepard. Her inspirations are Princess Leia and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow.

Qualifications

Taking this into consideration, and then analyzing Burch's roles in previous games, she's very much into characters who break molds without being overly "strong female." In fact, it seems she's drawn to roles where the females are raw, honest, and unafraid to be who they are, regardless of what that might be. And after all, isn't that how it should be?

Among her list of qualifications, Burch has written for the kid's (and unashamed adults like us) show "Adventure Time". In fact, she began her career as a YouTuber, known as "Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'?" before moving on to bigger projects. So ladies, if you think it isn't possible, don't be afraid. Women are taking over the world now and what better way than being paid to write and voice act?

In case you're wondering, YouTube is becoming a very popular method of kickstarting a career, and not just with millennials. But it's not without drawbacks: there have been complaints about YouTube not paying much, if at all.