Taliesin Jaffe

From child star to Critical Role founding member, bringing depth to Percy, Mollymauk, Caduceus, and more.

Taliesin Jaffe is an American voice actor, director, and screenwriter who serves as a cast member on Critical Role, a web series where he plays Dungeons & Dragons with other voice actors. Born in Los Angeles to actress Nina Axelrod and producer Robert Jaffe, Jaffe began his career as a child actor appearing in films like Mr. Mom and 2010: The Year We Make Contact. He held Screen Actor's Guild membership at just seven months old. While he enjoyed early roles on shows such as Hail to the Chief and She's the Sheriff, he eventually quit acting after realizing it was an option following a difficult audition. Later, his time in a school AV club creating English anime dubs led to a professional career in voice direction and dubbing.

Quick Facts

Birthplace

Los Angeles, California, U.S.

Other names

Talis Axelrod
T. Axelrod
Taliesin Axelrod

Occupation

Voice actor
voice director
screenwriter

Years active

1983–present

Parents

Robert Jaffe (father); Nina Axelrod (mother)

Lore & Background

In the Critical Role web series, Jaffe has portrayed multiple distinct characters across four campaigns. In Campaign One, he played Percival "Percy" Fredrickstein von Musel Klossowski de Rolo III. For Campaign Two, he took on the roles of Mollymauk Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay, and Kingsley Tealeaf. Campaign Three featured his portrayal of Ashton Greymoore, while Campaign Four introduced Bolaire Lathalia as one of his characters. Beyond the main campaigns, Jaffe co-created the Candela Obscura campaign setting for the Illuminated Worlds system with Chris Lockey. Serving as the Lightkeeper in the monthly horror-themed actual play web series of the same name, he provides mission briefings to the players each episode. This creative expansion followed Critical Role's move from Geek & Sundry to their own production company, Critical Role Productions.

Reader's Guide

Taliesin Jaffe's character roster on Critical Role includes Percy (Campaign One), Mollymauk Tealeaf, Caduceus Clay, and Kingsley Tealeaf (Campaign Two), Ashton Greymoore (Campaign Three), and Bolaire Lathalia (Campaign Four). He is also the Lightkeeper for the Candela Obscura series. The show won both Webby Winner and People's Voice Winner in "Games (Video Series & Channels)" at the 2019 Webby Awards, and was a Finalist plus Audience Honor Winner in "Games" at the 2019 Shorty Awards. Originally on Geek & Sundry until early 2019, the cast formed Critical Role Productions shortly after. They raised over $11 million on Kickstarter for an animated series of Campaign One, far exceeding their $750,000 goal. In November 2019, Amazon Prime Video acquired streaming rights to The Legend of Vox Machina, where Jaffe reprised his role as Percy.

Did You Know?

He was offered the role of Brian Tanner on ALF, but his parents turned it down.
His maternal grandfather was screenwriter George Axelrod and his paternal grandfather was film producer Herb Jaffe.
Jaffe is bisexual and has two brothers and a sister.