Voice of Doc McStuffins’ Lambie helps COVID-19 awareness efforts in Valley
Allentown native lends name to outreach work
A continent away from her hometown, voice actor Lara Jill Miller saw news reports last month that health officials in Allentown were overwhelmed by the number of new COVID-19 cases.
Miller, who is known to children’s television watchers as the voice of Lambie on Disney Jr.’s “Doc McStuffins,” wondered whether she could help with contact tracing by calling people who have been exposed to the virus and might be reluctant to cooperate.
“I thought hey, listen to my voice, I bet they wouldn’t hang up the phone on me ,” said Miller, who lives in Los Angeles.
Even people unfamiliar with her voice might be curious enough by its timbre to remain ontheline.
So Miller called Allentown Health Bureau Director Vicky Kistler and volunteered to make calls. Then Miller had an idea to reach a broader audience with messages about COVID-19 safety.
She went to the makeshift recording studio in her home, where she has been recording voices for two new children’s shows, and made a public service announcement urging people in Allentown to wear masks, socially distance and stay home as much as possible.
“Although I’ ve lived far and wide for many years, home is where the heart is and my heart is definitely at home in Allen town,” Miller said in the distinctive voice she’s adapted for dozens of animated characters.
“Nothing, and I mean nothing, is more important than keeping my family, friends and loved ones back homesafe.”
Ki st le rs aid she was surprised to get Miller’s first message, but after speaking with her and hearing the first PSA, she asked Miller to record two more messages—about staying home for the holidays and urging cooperation with contact tracing.
“Everyone who heard it thought it was so kind of someone in that position to try and help us,” Kistler said.
The Health Bureau contacted iHeartRadio, which operates five stations in the Lehigh Valley, and asked to have the spots played on air. Ki st le rs aid she shared the PS As on numerous Facebook pages and with nonprofit organizations with the hopethat they will circulate.
“It’s very popular now that they’re putting it all together that she has an extensive career and she reached out to us in Allentown,” Kistler said.
Miller started acting as a child in Lehigh Valley dinner and community theaters. She got her first big show business job at 13 with a role in the Broadway version of “The Music Man ,” where she shared the stage with Dick Van Dyke. In 1981, Miller booked the role of Samanthain the NBC sitcom “Gimme a Break,” which ran for six years.
After that, she graduated from New York University and Ford ham University law school and worked for a number of New York City law firms.
“Let’s just say it wasn’t my passion,” Miller said.
She quickly found her way back to acting, and over the last 20 years has voiced characters in anime, video games and children’s cartoons, including “The Loud House,” “Curious George,” and “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie .”
Miller has encouraged other voice actors to record similar messages for their communities and has asked for the support of her union, Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Her goal is to start a movement among her colleagues “to have people from small towns across America reach out to their communities.”
While Miller said she’s grateful that she has a job she can do from home safely, she knows many people in her broader circle who have been infected with C OVID -19 and some who have died. Although her family and old friends are still in Allentown, and it broke her heart not to come home for the holidays, it wasn’t a difficult decision to stay in Los Angeles to keep her friends and family safe.
Miller hopes her words will lead people in Allentown and the Le high Valley to the same decision.
“If I can help change one person’s mind to not travel and not spread it and not get it, I’ll be happy,” Miller said.