The Voice Cast
James Penrose / Thomas Arlington / Miguel / Robin / Merlene
Alex started this whole thing in 2013, narrating The Cartographer’s Handbook as Thomas, before going on to play a series of eccentric leads and support characters including Seth, Mr Wight, Nathaniel Curtis, Ulysses S. Grant, Raven and (for some reason everybody’s favourite) Carl.
He has a talent for mimicry and always tries to get into the head of whomever he’s voicing. Alex also directs his cast remotely with what he hopes is a combination of a very clear vision as to how it should sound when pulled together, and encouragement for the actors to shape the characters they play.
When he’s not writing, recording or editing The New Century Multiverse Alex is writing, recording or editing the School of Movies podcast. He occasionally sleeps.
Princess Gwendoline / Truth Arlington
Theo lives in Alabama with her dog, Kiki.
A longtime fan of New Century who would occasionally chat with me on Twitter, she bit the bullet and stepped forward when I reached out for more voices, immediately bagging the role of Gwendoline in The Princess Thieves.
This was down to her incredibly natural and soulful English accent, with which she became my favourite princess of all time.
Shy and modest, probably the calmest member of the team, Theo took to her performances with shocking efficiency, inadvertently streamlining the way everyone hands in their lines now.
She is available for voice work, so if you like what you hear, get in touch via the contact email.
Abigail Grey / Mortimer/ Agent Li
Sharon lives in Lincolnshire, England with her husband (me) and our daughter, Lyra, whose voice featured in The Princess Thieves as Lavinia.
Besides prominent roles in New Century, Sharon also played Bruce Wayne's Therapist Dr Whitman in my original audio drama, Batman: Breakdown.
She co-hosts the School of Movies podcast, which she loves because it allows her to put her English degree to use, and holds a diploma in Therapeutic Counselling.
As well as her vocal contributions to New Century, she is an invaluable series of checks and balances for the writing, both catching my grammatical errors and more importantly, giving me a dependable female perspective.
Annie Oakley / Harry Arlington / Viola HeartStone
Laureta Sela lives in Texas and loves her family, her cat and her car.
She is of Albanian lineage, which means huge family gatherings, and lots of pushy grandmothers preoccupied with making sure you've eaten enough food (which is almost always MORE than enough food, whether you want to or not).
I first crossed paths with her in 2013, when she played Barbara Gordon in my audio drama of The Killing Joke, and we've been working together ever since. She is always bursting with energy and enthusiasm, and embraces and embodies her characters each time.
Laureta is applying her immense talent as a voice actor, so if you're hiring, you can get hold of her through the contact page.
Frank Butler / Hakka / The Nag / Captain Baltus
Spencer lives in California and might be one of the nicest fellows you could ever meet, I will verify this if I ever get to meet him.
Stepping forward at the same time as Laureta, Maureen and Matt, during the initial sessions of The Cartographer's Handbook in 2013, Spencer never fails to inject his every delivery with warmth, clarity and humour, mastering a British accent for two entirely different characters with uncanny deftness.
As accommodating and considerate as could be, all of that avuncular charm in Major Frank Butler comes straight from Spencer.
He also needs to see more movies because I'm totally sick of saying "It's like the bit in [insert movie title that everyone has seen]" and finding out he's not familiar. The same goes for Maureen!
Katherine Holloway / Merlene
Maya is a film & TV actress and stuntwoman. She has appeared in The Walking Dead, Doom Patrol, Catching Fire, Mockingjay, Venom, Fast & Furious 7, Doom Patrol, Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame. Making her the conduit between the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the new Century Multiverse.
After several appearances of the School of Movies podcast Maya stepped up in 2018 to provide the replacement voice for Katherine during the remaster of Secret Rooms. and has continued on with the role. She then became the third actor to take the role of Merlene in Uncivil Outlaw.
It’s vaguely possible that she will end up replacing all of us and this will wind up a dazzling one-woman show. Also she could probably kick your ass.
Hrao / Sarah Arlington / Merlene
Maureen lives in Colorado with her mother and her tiny little dog, Sheba.
She sent us an email many years ago, expressing her enthusiasm for an early prototype for New Century, then named "Blue Sun". I dropped the hint that I was looking for voice actors for the updated version (that became The Cartographer's Handbook) and she turned out to have a tremendous voice.
Alternating between being shy and take-charge, Maureen was instrumental to the development of the character of Hrao from Tiger's Eye, lending a very personal, very powerful sense of history and conflicting emotion. She got the first New Century tattoo, Hrao's name on her shoulder, that's how much this purple tiger means to her.
Oberon / Jeremy Pines / Professor Krieger
Matt lives in Pittsburgh and spends every waking hour working on cosplay.
That's not strictly true, he also manages time with his son and partner and full time job AND New Century, BUT when you speak to him, it's always convention time somewhere or other in just a few weeks and he's constructing or augmenting one of his elaborate and striking costumes.
His dedication to both the perfection of his art, and to those he loves is admirable, and he brings an affable sense of colloquialism and spark to every character he plays. Since he's always so busy that usually entails he's on support duty rather than leading the episode, but what support he plays is absolutely vital for enriching these worlds.
His character of Oberon turned out to be the favourite with fans of The Princess Thieves, which I put down to his personal connection to the manifold challenges Oberon faces.
The Artist
Ten of the covers and countless characters have been brought to life by one man. Antonio lives in Australia and is a little bit of a genius with a pencil. He's very modest, but you can visibly track his progress from the first sketched artwork on The Cartographer's Handbook in 2013 to Panther Soul in 2021, with more still to come.
Our collaboration follows set patterns of me describing in excruciating detail, every aspect of the character, their costume, their inspirations and motivations, Antonio nailing it like 95% of the way there in his first sketch, followed by days on end of fine-tuning on detail.
He's incredibly hardworking, observant, level-headed and as you can see, amazingly talented. We settled early in the project on a style partway between Weta Workshop's fantastical-made-real and the classic movie posters of Drew Struzan. I have a no doubt we will one day see Antonio's work somewhere very prominent.