On Monday, October 5, Colleen O’Shaughnessey, the voice behind Miles “Tails” Prower from the second and third “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies, visited a PHS School to Work classroom to lead a Q&A session and engage students on the prospects of a career in voice acting.
School to Work is a specialized PHS program designed to address the needs of all students while preparing them for careers beyond high school. School to Work teacher Cynthia Bregenzer reported that her students were eager to interact with the voice actress, especially when O’Shaughnessey joined the students in a performance of back and forth exchanges as characters from “Sonic the Hedgehog.”
“[A student] wanted to act out a couple of scenes; … he knew the movie better than I did, and he was so excited to do it. Everyone cheered him on and [were] encouraging, and that was just so fun and beautiful to see,” said O’Shaughnessey.
Colleen O’Shaughnessey’s visit was facilitated by a familial connection: her niece Maeve O’Shaughnessey ’28, a student in the School to Work classroom. Inspired by her aunt and mother, a former stage actress, Maeve O’Shaughnessey is pursuing voice acting roles as a student who openly shares that they have autism.
“I am signed by an acting company, [and] they have an entire division for people with disabilities. I’m autistic, so I have a lot of sensory issues, so it’s good to have a division for people with disabilities, [where] they can advocate for actors if they’re uncomfortable with certain fabrics or something,” said Maeve O’Shaughnessey. “I do professional auditions for TV and movies, and I’ve done voiceover auditions. … I’ve gotten very close to getting several parts.”
Maeve O’Shaughnessey is not seeking fame and glory, but rather to bring others joy, especially for those who, like her, found refuge in various forms of media in the face of discrimination and social abandonment.
“It warms my heart to … [know] that’s my aunt, and she’s making all these people really happy. That’s one of the reasons why I want to be an actor, too. ... It’s really a cool job to be able to entertain people and make people happy, said Maeve O’Shaughnessey. “Especially because [I’m] autistic, I have gone through rough spots: in middle school, I got teased a lot, and was kind of isolated and didn’t have a lot of friends, and so watching TV and consuming media, and all of those messages about, ‘Hey, it’s okay to be different.’ … It just makes you feel a little less lonely. … It’s a beautiful thing.”
Bregenzer explained that career-oriented visits are crucial for her students, as she wants to provide them with the knowledge to explore as many different occupations as possible.
“What we try [to] do in our classes [is to] give exposure to the students so they can experience and see where their interest levels are,” said Bregenzer. “We have a lot of kids that are interested in art type [careers] … so I want to give them as many opportunities to understand what takes place in their community.”
The mission of School to Work is to provide everyone with an equal opportunity to find their passion and explore different careers, regardless of limitations. Colleen O’Shaughnessey was thankful that she was able to provide students the opportunity to consider voice acting as a realistic occupation, noting that there are many neurodivergent voice actors.
“Everybody deserves a chance to have a life that they love, a career that inspires them, and a skill that they’re really good at,” said Colleen O’Shaughnessey. “If they [haven’t been] exposed to these particular types of occupations, then maybe they don’t know that they have that skill or have the potential to learn that skill.”