Voice actress Jennifer English is currently heard as Shadowheart in Baldur’s Gate 3. Her partner Aliona Baranova originally also auditioned for the role but lost it to English. On X.com, she has now written about her initial animosities toward English and their slowly unfolding romance.
Who are Aliona Baranova and Jennifer English? Aliona Baranova and Jennifer English are both voice actresses. They auditioned for the role of Shadowheart at Larian Studios. English ultimately got the role.
Jennifer English voices supporting roles in the English localizations of Elden Ring and the Larian game Divinity: Original Sin II. Additionally, she can be heard in roles in the short film Don’t Mention the B Word
and the series The Killer Beside Me
.
By the way, English also takes commissions for short voice snippets:
Baldur’s Gate 3: Player pays the voice of Shadowheart to tell his wife that he is cheating on her
Aliona Baranova later joined the development of Baldur’s Gate 3 as well. She took on the role of Performance Director for the motion capture recordings for the game’s cutscenes. Baranova is mainly active as a voice actress like English. However, her focus is more on short films.
How did the two meet? Aliona Baranova and Jennifer English did not meet during the casting process for Shadowheart, but only later at the beginning of the motion capture recordings.
Baranova joined the crew about six months after the work on Baldur’s Gate 3 began. During the recordings, she got to know English.
What does Aliona Baranova write on X.com? Baranova writes on her X.com account (formerly Twitter) about how much she actually hated English. English was hired for the role of Shadowheart, which Baranova took quite badly since she had also auditioned for the role.
Initially, Baranova did not want to like English at all, but concealed her inner “hate”. Only when she finally saw Jennifer English perform in her role did she change her mind:
I quickly realized that Jen was perfect for the role and that I could learn from her. There’s a reason why Shadowheart is so popular: Jen understood her like no one else, she saw right through her and connected with every facet of her. […] ANYWAY TED Talk aside, back to my story: a lot of exposition in the middle, 1.5 years of collaboration, and then BOOM enemies to lovers. (Except that Jen had no idea we were enemies or that I auditioned for her role or that I wanted to hate her when we first met).
Aliona Baranova, X.com, 24.10.2023
In her post, Baranova expresses her great admiration for English’s performance. In particular, she found it impressive how English could represent the various facets of the character in the respective fateful decisions she could take.
What exactly does Aliona Baranova mean by the different facets? [Spoiler]
Depending on how you decide in Baldur’s Gate 3, your companions evolve. In Act 2, Shadowheart faces the choice of whether to kill or spare the so-called Night Song. Depending on how you influence her with your words (or not), she either stands against her goddess or becomes her most powerful fighter. This in turn influences whether you can for example romance her and how her story progresses in Act 3. However, Shadowheart is also a completely different character depending on the decision, with different personality traits.
Aliona Baranova and Jennifer English became a couple about 1.5 years after they started working together. English herself probably had no idea of Baranova’s initial animosities. However, her partner later told her about it and refers to their joint journey as “enemies to lovers” after a popular romance story genre.
A very rare performance by Shadowheart’s voice actress can be heard when you commit a very bad deed in the third act of Baldur’s Gate 3:
Baldur’s Gate 3: Player commits the ultimate betrayal, breaking Shadowheart’s soul
