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Several Voice Actors Lose Homes in L.A. Wildfires; Tokyopop Contributes to Matching Gift Pool for Book, Comics Industry

Voice actress Amanda Winn Lee revealed on social media on January 8 that she and her family had to evacuate their house in the middle of the night that day to the wildfires that are happening in the Los Angeles area of California. She stated a few hours later that she has lost her house. She posted a picture of the lost house on Instagram.

On Thursday, Winn Lee set up an Amazon registry to help replace what was lost in the fire. Winn Lee stated that she would not take money. The Amazon registry is located here.

Winn Lee and her family have since moved into a temporary house.

Win Lee's husband is fellow voice actor Jason C. Lee (Jason Lee).

Similarly, according to voice actress Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in a post on Bluesky, voice actress Melissa Fahn and her family lost their home in the fire. A GoFundMe page to help Fahn's family has launched, and has reached US$44,545 of the US$45,000 goal as of press time.

Relatedly to the ongoing wildfire situation, Los Angeles-based manga publisher Tokyopop announced it has contributed US$10,000 to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation's (Binc) matching gift pool to benefit those in the book and comics industry who have been affected by the wildfires. According to Tokyopop, Binc "offers financial assistance grants and mental health wellness programs to qualified book and comic store owners and their employees."

Tokyopop founder Stu Levy stated, "I've been an Angeleno since birth, so this particular tragedy has hit home like no other." He added, "As our hearts go out to those affected by the fires, we are immensely grateful to everyone who has contributed to this mission-critical community effort."

Binc has posted a form on its website of the donation-matching effort. The website states that Dav Pilkey, Forefront Books, Ingram Content Group, Macmillan Publishers, Mad Cave Studios, and Tokyopop together will match donations of all sizes up to a total of US$55,000.

As of press time, the Palisades fire is 49% contained, and the Eaton fire is 73% contained.

Japanese musician YOSHIKI also had to evacuate his Los Angeles location last week due to the wildfires. The fires canceled the world premiere of the live-action Under Ninja film in the city, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has postponed its Academy Award nominations announcement to January 23.

Sources: Amanda Winn Lee's Facebook page and X/Twitter account, Jason C. Lee's Facebook page, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn's Bluesky account, Press release

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