Renae Jacobs

Renae Jacobs (February 1, 1957, Lansing, Michigan, USA) is an American voice actress, who is perhaps best known for voicing journalist and reporter April O'Neil in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series.

While working in Los Angeles in 1986, she received a call to audition for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She was directed through the audition by Stu Rosen. The first day Rosen made it clear he didn't approve of her for the role, and had waited to show her audition after exhausting all the others.

She has said that developed her initial personification of O'Neil after reading the description in the casting material, not the comics themselves:

There was a very good character description of her, so I looked at that and I kind of built her based on me. I felt that she should be a very strong character with very good convictions, she should be a loyal friend; she should be serious about her work and she wanted to be taken seriously, not just looked at as another pretty face.

It was also the first role she was awarded that wasn't a "crazy little made up fantasy character".

In June 2014, it was announced that Jacobs would guest-star on season three of Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She played April's long-lost mother in the episode "Buried Secrets" who was, in truth, a Kraang creature that had been infused with the human DNA of the real Mrs. O'Neil as an infiltration experiment.

She appeared as a contestant on the NBC game show Sale of the Century in late 1985 but did not win her game though she did win almost $900 in cash & prizes.

She was also the "Lady of the Maze" in the first season of the Family Channel game show Masters of the Maze.

She has also done voices in other animated series and films including The Glo Friends Save Christmas, It's Punky Brewster!, The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda, Moon Dreamers, My Little Pony and all films of Rose Petal Place.

Year	Image	Character	Title
1984		Orchild	Rose Petal Place
1984		Lily Fair	Rose Petal Place