Jessie Flower: 18 Mind-Bending Facts About The Voice Actress!

Jessie Flower

Jessie Flower, is an American voice actress who is best known for providing the voice of Toph Beifong in thirty-six episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. She later returned to the Avatar franchise to voice a young Suyin Beifong in one episode of The Legend of Korra. From relating to the blindness of her characters to leaving her job as a surgeon, here are 18 incredible facts about Jessie Flower! 

Jessie Flower: 18 Interesting Facts About The Avatar: The Last Airbender Voice Actress!

Childhood and early life:

Jessie Flower came into this world on August 18, 1994, in Southern Indiana as Michaela Jill Murphy – this is her real name. When she was four, she moved to Los Angeles, where she resided with her mother. In LA, it was safe to say that she caught the acting bug! 

Growing up, she was into acting:

As a young girl, she began her acting career with work in commercials, appearing in advertisements for Barbie and Mitsubishi. The voice actress has also acted live in performances of Meet Me In St. Louis as Tootie, and Annie as Annie.

Here’s how she got into voice acting: 

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“Funnily enough, my first voiceover gig was actually Finding Nemo, and I was the voice of all the little school fish and the little turtles. It actually almost takes more acting than being on-screen because you have to emote every intention, every subtext clue solely in your voice because you don’t have your body or your facial expressions to help you with that. I have really been discovering that more so in the last few years because as I’ve gotten into more adult characters, I realized that I’m so used to playing with kid sounds and kid energy, and I’m having a weird time transitioning that into adult energy” 

Did you know? 

Her credit in “The Swamp” was as an additional voice, as the name of Toph’s character had not yet been revealed.

This was her favorite part of being in the cast for Avatar the Last Airbender: 

This voice actress is best known for providing the vocals  for Toph Beifong in thirty-six episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

“Honestly, this whole last year because I’m finally an adult. Everybody at the time when I was recording and when Zach (voice of Aang) was recording, we were 12 and 13 while everybody else was over 18 and going to clubs in LA and being cool”, Jessie Flower said in her Illini Union Board interview. 

She continued to say: “So the coolest part is probably been that I’m finally older and I got to reconnect with a bunch of castmates the last couple of years and that started happening before COVID happened, but it just kind of locked it all into place this last year because we were online so much. I really connected with Olivia Hack who voices Ty Lee, Dante who voices Zuko and Jack who voices Sokka”

While she played the role of Toph, she related to Toph because she has horrible eyesight:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“It was fun because I did feel pretty connected to her. People are like ‘how would you do to get into character?’ I was pretty sassy and already had a lot of strong opinions, you can ask my mother, and I was usually running around barefoot in the backyard anyway. I’m not by any means claiming to have the struggles associated with being blind, but I had horrible eyesight and there were multiple times when people tried to talk to me and I didn’t have my contacts in yet or did not have the glasses on and I’d be like ‘I don’t know what you’re showing me!’ There are multiple parallels that came up in the scripts that were fueled by personal experience”.

This is her favorite episode to voice in Avatar:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“The last episode was amazing because they tried to get as many people in the room as possible towards the end so that there was that kind of energy in the recording booth, and I believe there were like seven microphones in the booth. It was great because we got to go through just pages without stopping and just go off of each other and see the other person actually speaking the line at you which was really cool to have it in real time because that doesn’t happen most of the time as a voice actor”. 

She went from becoming a cardiovascular surgeon to voice acting:

When asked about her transition, Jessie Flower said: 

“I just had this desire to be out in the world and working and contributing to the world. My grandfather had to go in for quadruple bypass surgery when I was seven, and when that happened I figured that I’ll just fix them next time or I can fix somebody else’s grandfather if the same thing happens to them. I was recognizing that school is going to be my life for the next 12 – 13 years minimum if I became a cardiovascular specialist in surgery and I realized that this is not for me. I took a screenwriting course because it seemed interesting and it ended up being my favorite part, and I ended up doing a concentration in screenwriting and film”. 

If she were to become any character in Avatar, Jessie Flower would be:

 

“In real life, I’m probably a mix of Toph and Ty Lee which is funny because I did end up clicking with Olivia Hack not because she is Ty Lee but it just worked out that way. I really am into circus arts actually, I do trapeze and some ariel and some poll stuff. I think I would like to be Ty Lee because she is super confident in herself, and I feel like she’s the most level-headed character. She is a little bit of a pushover, I’ll grant her that but honestly thinking of everybody besides Uncle Iroh, who is an abyss of wisdom, I think she’s the most mentally healthy” she said in an interview with Illini Union Board.

Here’s what she thought about Legend of Korra:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“If you watch it as a separate show and don’t think of it as like the sequel to Avatar, it’s fantastic because it’s a completely different tone. It’s a totally different culture, different time and a different animation style. Sometimes people make parallels between Toph to what Bolin ended up being so that was kind of cool because I was like  ‘you’re kind of supposed to be me but now you’re you.’ Overall I think it’s a great show”. 

Here’s what she learned from her screenwriting experience:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I recognize the importance of having necessary dialogue. Obviously you need to further a conversation in the scene because I’ve read so many scripts in my life, and once you read so many ones you wonder what the person is saying. The dialogue is kind of a nugget that I really have been practicing and massaging and taking notes on because regardless of what you like writing or how you like writing unless it’s a silent film, the dialogue is what will carry that through”. 

This is what she thinks of Toph’s progression in Legend of Korra:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I feel like it was pretty accurate and people usually ask ‘don’t you think it’s interesting that she became chief of police? I’m like, no, because internally who you are, when you are like 10 years old, is who you are forever in one sense. But people talk about how Toph always wanted to break the rules and I think that her role makes sense because she is in charge of making them now. She’s at the top so there aren’t any rules to break”. 

She continued to say: 

“Also makes sense that she wasn’t the most empathetic mother and she was probably very intense because she didn’t know how to be kind. Her examples of parenting were Katara or her actual parents, which was stifling, and while she didn’t want to completely stifle the kids, she wasn’t going to let them sit around and do anything because she ran around and had an adventure during her life. It was probably a very interesting dynamic but I thought that they represented them really well”. 

No one recognized her in public:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“Nobody knows who I am. I walked around in my Toph costume at the San Diego Conference and people complimented my cosplay. That’s kind of a plus being a voice actor because no one necessarily knows who you are and what you look like. Social media is changing that, but it’s cool because you finally get to put a face to the voices”. 

If she could bend an element in real life, it would be:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I would probably choose earth, and I know that’s a cop-out but actually, I feel like earth is the most helpful for me and would be the most realistic for me to bend”. 

The Library was the episode that was the most difficult to film because:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I would say early on it might have been one of my favorite episodes, ‘The Library,’ because that was the first episode I had to do a lot of grunting when I was holding up the library. It’s kind of hard on your throat, and I was shot because my voice was so sore after that. I got a little better over time, but whenever there is a high-impact fighting or bending scene my throat was shot because I wasn’t doing that on a daily basis”. 

Here are the shows and anime she enjoys watching:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I love Kim Possible and I used to read the Sailor Moon comics obsessively, and I know that basically because everyone liked Sailor Moon but it’s great. Those were the two big things I watched when I was younger since I wasn’t allowed to watch TV much as a kid and I read things more often”.

This is her favorite bagel:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I surprised myself in the last couple of years. I actually like everything bagels now. I used to be a hardcore blueberry now I’m into everything bagels honestly”. 

This is her favorite piece of advice from Uncle Iroh:

According to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“I referred to this moment a lot because I think Toph and Uncle Iroh are parallels in one sense because they realized that they wanted to do something different from their family’s expectations and had to break away from that and forge their own paths. Both of them end up being little hobbits in the forest, and I love their moment in ‘The Chase’ when they get to sit down and have tea together for a few minutes. In that amount of time, there are little nuggets of solace for each other. I think that’s a big one especially as somebody who likes to do things by myself because I’m independent and how it’s fine letting your friends and family help you. That is wildly difficult for me to do but huge, especially in college”. 

Her thoughts on Zuko and Katara ending up together:

The American voice actress stated at the time of the original series’ run that she thought Toph might end up in a relationship with Sokka, citing that “they are both very sarcastic, and they both love joking around, and like being the boss”.

But when asked about Zuko and Katar according to an interview with Illini Union Board, Jessie Flower said: 

“You know Dante (voice actor of Zuko) actually sells Zutara shirts, and I’ve been tempted to sell Tokka (Sokka and Toph ship) shirts as well. I’m torn because it’s a nice image and they parallel each other so nicely and there is chemistry, but as far as building a family and a healthy environment for the children, Aang is 1000% the better choice for that. I think for the sake of family, health and success Aang is the better option, but for the soap opera version that we all want to watch then yes, they should have ended up together”.

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