An only child growing up in Los Angeles, Mary Kay started her career at the age of 2 by communicating
with her neighbours dog through barking, but was discovered for her true talent while going crazy on a
karoeke machine at a friends Party.
Libby Westby, the agent who found Mary Kay her first voice-over role, got her a part playing a
frightened woman on a radio commercial for an alarm company. From then on, Mary Kay's career
skyrocketed with roles in major movies for Disney, Warner Brother, Paramount etc. Over 400
commercials, including the lead voice of Mrs Butterworth, in an advert for Mrs Butterworths syrup
and she has become most famous for her work in Comedy Centrals "South Park", playing just about
every female voice on the show!
It took Mary Kay 2 years of training before she made her first Demo Tape, and it took about 6 months
to make that tape. It took her 7 years, out of her 14 year career to get enough work in voice-overs alone
before she could leave her part time job, but after she became well known in the vocal industry, she
became so well on demand, and her schedule became so busy, that she had to give up her job as a voice-over
teacher, which she had been doing for 6 years, and says she really enjoyed.
As a child she idolised her neighbour, Adriana Caselotti, the original voice of Disney Snow White,
but years later took over from Adriana as the official voice of Snow White from 1989.
Sometimes credited as Shannon Cassidy, Mary Kay sang almost all the parts for the song "Blame
Canada" from the "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut" movie and singing in 16 different voices,
an accomplishment unachieved by anyone in history, voice-over or otherwise, proves how truly talented
she was.
Mary Kay can also be heard signing with Tress Macnielle in the song "Pretty Fly for a Rabbi".
Mary Kay was nominated for an Award (best actress) at the 1999 Annie Awards, for her work as Sheila
Broflovski (Kyles Mom) in the South Park movie, but was beaten by Eli Marienthal (Hogarth Hughes -
The Iron Giant)
Mary Kay and her husband, Dino Andrade have just finished there movie "Bobs Video" in which she
played her only on-screen performance as "The Lady in Red" as well as performing a few voices
throughout the movie.
Unfortunately Mary Kay was also the victim of mental illness. It is believed that she suffered from an
advanced fear-based anxiety disorder known as G.A.D.
Mary Kay kept her illness hidden from everyone, and eventually it over-whelmed her and led to her
suicide on November the 11th 1999.
Many memorials have been planned for Mary Kay, yet, no one will ever be able to replace this wonderful
woman - - she will be missed by millions, with her curly red hair and big brown eyes, she was truly one
of a kind.
