Melissa Villaseñor
Melissa Villaseñor is an actor, born 1987.
Impressions came first. Villaseñor built a stand-up act on them, and the act got her hired at Saturday Night Live ahead of the show's 42nd season in 2016. She left at the end of the 47th, in 2022, six seasons in. Music and illustration are the other two things she does, which is a lot of separate output for one career.
Almost everything in her screen credits is voice work, and that follows directly from the impressions: animation casting wants somebody who can produce a specific, repeatable character on request and hit it again eight months later. Hence Karen Beverly in Toy Story 4 and again in Toy Story 5, Taffyta Muttonfudge in Ralph Breaks the Internet, Akna in Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight, Nandi in Star Trek: Prodigy, Veronica in Win or Lose, Nellie Ramirez-Humphrey in Primos, and a long run of one-off animated parts across children's television.
The live-action shelf is short by comparison: a cat owner in Hubie Halloween, Cammy in Alone Together. Saturday Night Live is not among the credits listed here, so the sketch work that actually made her name has to be taken on trust from this page. What the credits do show is a performer whose entire value is elasticity, hired repeatedly by people who need a voice to sound like somebody in particular.
Movies (9)
TV (14)
- Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight (2022)
- Star Trek: Prodigy (2021)
- Jellystone! (2021)
- Rock, Paper, Scissors (2024)
- OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes (2017)
- Mulligan (2023)
- That's My Jam (2021)
- Primos (2024)
- Win or Lose (2025)
- Ultra City Smiths (2021)
- Disney Junior Ariel (2024)
- I Heart Arlo (2021)
- Max & the Midknights (2024)
- Alone Together (2018)
Where to start with Melissa Villaseñor
For an actual part rather than a cameo, Kung Fu Panda: The Dragon Knight is the pick. Akna is a recurring role, so she gets to build a person instead of a bit, and the comic timing survives being stretched across a season. Star Trek: Prodigy does something similar in a stranger register.
The big-studio animation credits are smaller than they look. She is Karen Beverly in Toy Story 4 and Taffyta in Ralph Breaks the Internet, both good, both brief. Win or Lose gives her more room to work with, and Dog Man is the throwaway.
Live action is a thin shelf. Hubie Halloween is the one most people have already seen and it asks nothing of her at all. Her stand-up and her sketch work are where the reputation genuinely sits, and neither of those is here.
The Pixar and Disney work
The animation work is the largest part of the career and the most durable. Karen Beverly in Toy Story 4 is a small part she makes memorable, and she is back for the fifth film in the series.
The television animation
A great deal of children's television, generally several characters per show, which is where a career built on impressions turns into steady work. Star Trek Prodigy is the most unexpected credit on the list.
The live action
The on-camera work outside Saturday Night Live, which is thinner. Alone Together is the sitcom she co-starred in, and Hubie Halloween is the Sandler film where most people would have seen her face.