Interview: Ali Stroker on Feeling 'Free' Doing Voiceover Work in BIG NATE

Ali Stroker is inspiring the next generation of audiences by voicing the role of Amy in the new season of Big Nate.

In new episodes of the Emmy nominated series, Nate Wright and his misfit group of friends tackle new adventures, face epic challenges and unleash their boundless imaginations at P.S. 38. This new season pushes the boundaries of visual creativity, featuring episodes with animation styles including stop-motion, shadow box theater, photogrammetry and claymation. 

After making history as the first wheelchair-using actor to win a Tony Award, Stroker is bringing her vocal talent to the "mutli-dimensional" character of Amy, who also happens to be a wheelchair-user.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Stroker ahead of the new season to discuss how she feels that she can be "free" while voicing a character like Amy, how disabilities make everything better, and what she's most looking forward to by returning to the stage in Rent at the Kennedy Center this summer. Plus, hear her in an exclusive video clip from the series!

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How much fun did you have voicing this character?

I mean, this is such an opportunity. I have loved voicing Amy. I've always been a huge fan of animation. Obviously grew up on Nickelodeon and to be able to give this character so much life and emotion and such fun voices is so cool.

For you as an actress, what is it like to voice an animated character as opposed to being in front of the camera or on stage?

Well, in so many ways it is the same, even though a camera and audience is on you, because your voice reflects and picks up everything. So you can't really like pull back or do things differently. You need to fully commit the way you would on TV and on stage.

One of the really fun parts about doing voice work, I think specifically for me, because of my wheelchair, sometimes I'm figuring how to adapt things and in this situation and doing animation, I don't have to put any attention on that. So I can really be free in the character.

So does that have any effect on your performance? Just sort of being able to be free in that recording booth?

I think so. I mean, I don't know. In all my work, I really try to like give myself permission to do me. But in this particular, when I started doing animation years and years ago and voiceover work, I realized, "Wow, like, this is so cool. I'm not, I don't have to worry about how my wheelchair or how I will move in these scenes. This is just my voice." I always felt so connected to my voice and free with my voice.

It's so exciting that this character is a wheelchair user. What is it like for you to bring this character to children and to have this type of representation on the show?

It's a dream. You know, growing up, I didn't really see any characters in wheelchairs when I was watching animated things. So to do this and to know that this character represents me, I mean, little Ali is so excited.

How do you hope it contributes to a larger conversation in the animation industry?

Well, what I always say is that diversity makes things better. It just does. Especially for kids, I remember growing up, the characters on the shows that I watched were my friends. So in many ways, I hope for kids that being introduced to a character in a wheelchair, they might not have somebody in their life who's in a wheelchair, but all of a sudden they meet Amy on Big Nate and they can learn a little bit. When they do meet somebody in a wheelchair one day, they won't feel uncomfortable because they knew Amy.

I really like that statement about diversity making things better. It's simple yet it's so effective and I feel like it's not something that is really said often enough.

Yeah. To even go further, I think that there's always been this concept around disability that, "Oh, like I hope you get better" if you have a disability. I really believe that disabilities make people better. They make the person who has a disability better and they make the world better.

Yes and everyone around them, too.

Yeah, and Amy is a new kid. She moved from New York City to Redcliffe. In so many ways, like I think that she brings out all different things in all the characters, but that she is flawed, she is real, she's not just like someone who we have just stereotyped. In Big Nate, like we see all sides to her. I love that because I think that there is sometimes a perception of like, "Oh, somebody with a disability is this way." I just love how multi-dimensional she is.

What excites you the most about doing this children's animated series now that you are a mother yourself?

Well, first of all, it's so cool to be able to show Jesse this show at some point, or maybe even now. I mean, he's seven months old, so he's not like watching a lot of TV. I mean, as he's older, it's so cool. He has a mommy in a wheelchair, and for him to watch a show and see a character in a wheelchair, that is his world. I love that it's being represented and that he's gonna be able to see it in the shows that he watches.

While it is exciting to have you in this series, we do miss you on stage. Is there anything that you would want to come back to the stage in?

Yeah, and I actually can share it because it was just announced, but I'm gonna be doing a Rent at the Kennedy Center with a symphony orchestra this summer. I'm excited. I'm playing Maureen. 

So what's exciting you the most about that and playing that character in that production?

Well, I grew up on that show and I think for so long I always like looked up to Maureen and now to be able to become her in the show is so fun and the music. I want to live in that music because I've listened to it for so long but to be able to sing the show is like dream dreams. 

You've also said recently that you do want to go behind the camera with maybe producing. Do you have any ideas of what you'd like to get behind the camera with?

Well, I am working on creating some shows and with that also producing them, as well. So it's kind of like a double win in so many ways. But yeah, I mean, I'm in the works. Unfortunately, right now, obviously, we're paused because of the writer's strike.

I wanna continue to create content and stories about people with disabilities because it's my world and I just don't feel like I see enough of it.

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Watch an exclusive clip of Ali Stroker in Big Nate here:

Big Nate Photo: Nickelodeon/ Paramount+ (C)Paramount International 2023, All Rights Reserved.

Photo Credit: Bruce Glikas