INPERSON
FROM THE BASEMENT
TO THE BIG TIME
Peters Township’s Natalie Palamides is the
voice of the feisty character, Buttercup,
in the revival of Cartoon
Network’s The PowerPuff Girls.
N
atalie Palamides never imagined that playing
“PowerPuff Girls” with her cousins as a kid in
their Peters Township basements would travel full
circle to her adult career. “I loved ‘The PowerPuff
Girls’ as a kid,” says Palamides. “I would play
[that] with my cousins Nina and Molly like other
kids might play house.”
Palamides was recently contracted by Cartoon
Network to bring life to the voice of Buttercup, the
green-dressed, feisty and easily angered PowerPuff
Girl, during this year’s 40-episode revival of the hit
cartoon that began Apr. 4 after an 11-year break.
The daughter of Becky and Dale Palamides, the
actress grew up in Peters Township and graduated
from Peters Township High School (PTHS) in
2008. Throughout high school, she was drawn to
theater and art and had many favorite teachers,
including choir director Ryan Perrotte and theater
teacher Barry Wood. With fond memories of
performing in several musicals, hosting the high
school’s Coffeehouse event with her friend Jerry
Scheller, and performing as an apprentice at Little
Lake Theatre, Palamides credits Peters Township
for helping to foster her love of theater and art.
“The Peters Township School District offered a
lot of creative classes and activities that helped
me expand my knowledge and prepare me for my
career,” she says.
The actress continued on to Indiana University
of Pennsylvania (IUP) as part of the Robert E.
Cook Honors College and
graduated with a double major
in Theater and Communications
Media, and a minor in Fine Art.
In between her junior and senior
years at IUP, Palamides spent
the summer in Hollywood and
interned on TBS’s “Conan,”
where she worked mostly in
the props department. “Since
the summer of my internship, I
knew when I finished my studies
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at IUP I definitely wanted to move to L.A.,” says
Palamides.
Performing has taken her all over the country,
with shows at the Pig Iron Theatre in Philadelphia,
The Upright Citizens Brigade (both on the East
and West coasts), iO West and The Second City
in Hollywood, the Clubhouse in Los Angeles,
The Art Center in Las Vegas, M.I.’s Westside
Comedy Theater, Theatre by the Grove at IUP,
San Francisco Sketch Fest and up and down the
coast of California at various venues. “Sometimes
I do a show every night...It’s hard to keep track!”
says Palamides.
While trained in all genres, Palamides’ specialty
and first love is comedy. She regularly performs at
the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre as part of its
sketch/improv teams. She does partake in camera
acting as well and is always busy writing and
shooting her own sketches and web series.
Palamides is represented by Abrams Artists
Agency and for “The PowerPuff Girls,” she had
to participate in three rounds of auditions for the
character. “Sometimes I’ll book something off
one audition [or] I have to go through one, two or
three callbacks—it just depends,” she says.
For on-camera auditions, Palamides always
memorizes the script and typically rehearses it
with a coach prior to the audition. For voiceover
(VO) auditions, she goes into her agent’s office
and records the dialogue right there in a booth
after reading through it
a couple of times. “VO
auditions are much less
pressure on the first round
because if you mess up,
you can just do it again,”
says Palamides. “Plus, it’s
a sound engineer in the
booth instead of a casting
director.”
It took a little getting
used to when the actress
first heard her
voice coming from
Buttercup. “It’s
weird to hear your
voice come out
of a character—
especially one that
I loved to watch
growing up,” she says. “It’s very surreal.” She adds
a little bit of gravel to Buttercup’s voice, and it may
be a bit deeper than the original at some points,
but it’s pretty close to the actress’ own speaking
voice—just a different attitude.
Palamides can voice up to three different
characters for the cartoon per session: “Today I
played an old lady—one time I played a zebra—
you never really know!” In addition to Buttercup,
Palamides consistently voices the character Barry.
“He’s kind of obnoxious and a mouth breather,”
she laughs. “For his voice, I keep my breath heavy,
my mouth loose and play around with the register
of my voice like a roller coaster.”
A career in acting most definitely has
its challenges, and although Palamides has
experienced her fair share of ups and downs,
the advice she imparts to aspiring artists is
encouraging. “In acting you face a lot of rejection,
but you need to let it bounce off and not affect
you,” she says. “I just try to stay as positive as I
can. Of course you’re going to get bummed out
on occasion, but you can’t sit in it for too long. It’s
important to keep busy and always be working
on your own projects. That’s why I love doing
comedy—I’m always making my own stuff and
it’s great!”
Palamides’ future plans include continuing to
build on her career step by step. “You just need to
keep chipping away and never give up,” she says.
“Ultimately, I’ll be happy as long as I’m working
in comedy.” n
PHOTO COURTESY OF BEN ECKSTEIN
BY NICOLE TAFE