Murphy was born in Southern Indiana and is of Irish descent.[1][2] She became interested in acting at the age of four, and her mother, Evette, moved them to Los Angeles to begin her career,[2] where she appeared in commercials for Barbie and Mitsubishi. She starred as an orphan in Oliver! when she was five.[3]
At the age of 7, Murphy began auditioning for voice over roles and parts, in which she provides automated dialogue replacement (ADR) and additional voices. Her first voice role was in the Pixar animated film Finding Nemo, where she played one of the school fishes and baby turtles.[4] Murphy played the role of Chaca in Kronk's New Groove,[5] and reprised the role in the spin-off series The Emperor's New School. She later called it the "most fun" voice acting she has ever done.[3]
In 2005, Murphy voiced Meng in an episode of the Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender.[6] Her performance convinced creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino to cast her as main cast member Toph Beifong because of the "energy" she brought to the role. Murphy later told The Tab that she continued voicing Toph until her first year in high school and called the role her favorite voice acting experience[3] and said she felt "pretty connected" to Toph's character,[4] although she was only eleven years old when she was cast.[7] She would also describe the second-season episode "The Library" as one of her favorite episodes in the series.[8]
Murphy later admitted that she is rarely recognized in public, even when cosplaying as Toph at San Diego Comic-Con without any recognizing her as the voice actor of Toph.[4] She later appeared as a guest on the official companion podcast for the series, Avatar: Braving the Elements, hosted by Dante Basco and Janet Varney, where she would talk about Toph and what the character "meant to her," with Basco describing Murphy as a "dear friend" and praising Toph's character.[9][10] In a 2023, Murphy said that while she would "love to come back and do stuff" for the franchise, she supported the vision of the show's creators, including possible recasting.[11][12]
In 2014, Murphy guest-starred in The Legend of Korra as Toph's daughter Suyin Beifong.[6][5] It was later described as helping lay the groundwork of Suyin's "personality while also paying tribute to her original role."[14]
Murphy became an assistant theater manager at Yale University in fall 2014, but did not perform until the next year, joining the university's theater scene, working on a production of Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play and performing in the musical Hello Again, among other productions.[3][15] She graduated from Yale University in 2017, where she majored in a dual B.A. in Theater and Film Studies with concentrations in Playwrighting and Screenwriting.[16][17] Before that, she voiced the English dubbed voice of Eiko Carol in the World of Final Fantasy video game.[6]
In 2021, Murphy provided the voice of Nasse in the English dub of Platinum End.[18][19] The next year, she provided the voice of a minor character in the English dubbed version of Super Cub.[6]
Personal life
Murphy resides in Los Angeles. Murphy is openly bisexual.[citation needed] In June 2021, she celebrated Pride Month in an Instagram post, writing, "Pride is forever...Be kind to those around you, love is love is love!...There have been many who don’t swing my way, on multiple gender fronts, and that’s okay!"[20] She broke up with her boyfriend before she began attending Yale University in 2014, and dyed her hair purple.[3]
In September 2020, Murphy founded Bandit Basics, an e-commerce platform that sells merchandise inspired by Toph Beifong and the Avatar: The Last Airbenderuniverse.[21]
^Glover, Dominic. "Michaela Jill Murphy". Dominic Glover. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved May 9, 2023. Michaela was born on August 18, 1994 in southern Indiana. At the age of four she moved to Los Angeles and began her acting career appearing in advertisements for Barbie and Mitsubishi.
^ abJanet Varney; Dante Basco (April 11, 2023). "Michaela Jill Murphy on Playing Toph Beifong". Avatar: Braving the Elements (Podcast). Omny Studio. Archived from the original on May 9, 2024. Retrieved May 9, 2023. Yeah, so I am from the Midwest. Anybody from Indiana, Hello, Hello. So my whole family is out there and very much like eight or nine generations of Irish people...I'm four years old, and she kept trying to go out to LA
^ abcdefghijklmn"Michaela Murphy (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved September 27, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
