Best Voice Actors of 2019
First Runner-Up: Ashly Burch as Parvati (The Outer Worlds)
Guides Editor Chris Jecks: If there’s one character that’s won over the internet this year it’s… no, not baby yoda… PARVATI!
A naive and sheltered mechanic in Edgewater, initially just tasked with helping you divert power from a Geothermal Plant. Not much later, though, Parvati is excitedly rambling about your ship and nervously asking you if you may perhaps need a hand and some company on your space adventure.
Much like us, the player, Parvati is naive to the world around her. She’s clueless of what lies outside the boundaries of Edgewater and on foreign planets. She’s never left the town, and so on our journey, Parvati is the relatable character, offering up all the excited, surprised, scared, and angry reactions that we as new travelers among the stars would likely have ourselves.
All of this, combined with the nature in which Parvati’s asexuality is explored makes her one of the most memorable characters, but she wouldn’t quite be the same if it wasn’t for Ashley Burch.
The voice actor best known for her roles as Chloe in Life Is Strange and Tina in Borderlands has returned to the booth, this time to voice a truly sincere character.
Every line Parvati comes out with is dripping with her own blend of excitement, surprise, and anxiety. There’s a nervous energy in her voice that goes hand-by-hand with what’s being said. And it makes for one of the most memorable side characters in a game not just this year, but this generation for certain.
Parvati is an excellently-written character, but it’s Ashly Burch that brings her to life in a way that nobody else possibly could. Her own personal flair and style is exactly what this novice space explorer needed, and our time planet hopping in Outer Worlds was all the better for it.
