K.T. Gray is a small woman from an island in the northwest who writes and performs songs about believing in a better world for tomorrow. But every now and then, Gray heads to southern California and does her best to make that world a living hell in the Hellsing series. Stepping into a recording booth, Gray dons a British accent and becomes Seras Victoria, the policewoman turned vampire who serves as the audience's sympathetic, yet powerful, point of view in both the original Hellsing dub and the more explicitly violent OAV series. "I feel that in the original series we took a little more time," Gray said about her character's transition from human to one of the powerful undead. "There was a more gradual climbing to Seras releasing her vampire side, but in the new series...she's changing a lot faster, she's dropping her voice a few more octaves." The forthcoming second volume of the Hellsing OAV, previewed at Sakura Con, contains at least one scene that shows how Seras - and Gray - switch from timidity to savagery in an instant. "Pretty much that's me, because I'm feisty with people. I can be the sweetest thing in the world, and that's pretty much me...but for now, I can release myself as Seres." Sakura Con was Gray's first anime convention, and she was astonished by the reception that she, her songs, her reputation as Seras and her performance received. She was overwhelmed by the reaction a ballroom of fans gave to the weekend's Hellsing screening. "I said `there's not one adult here,'" Gray said in reacting to the increasingly youthful convention crowd. "Everyone here just likes to watch cartoons, everyone's so comical and spirited."

Taliesen Jaffe, the dub director for both of the Hellsing series, cast Gray in the Seras role. It was one of many southern California auditions that Gray's agent had set up for her, and she was uniquely prepared because of her experience in using accents. Many people are surprised to learn that, despite Seras' convincing accent, she is not British. It took only one reading for Gray to feel she had captured the "essence of Seras," and Jaffe agreed. On the day after the audition, Gray learned that she had the role - but there was another challenge to come. Dubbing a role in an action series such as Hellsing means the actors get into onscreen fights and need to make fight noises. As she tells it, Gray had deliberately avoided screams to preserve her singing voice, and asked if another actor could be drafted to scream for Seras. Jaffe declined, then went up to Gray, got in her face and startled her, making her scream. That did the trick, and Gray provided her own screams from that point. Gray also has performed under Jaffe's direction in the dub of the Beck anime. "I was a girl on stage with a guitar singing a love song  - that was one I nailed that right away," Gray said, noting it was a near-duplicate of her musical performing career. "I rewrote the song, but he (Jaffe) gave me full range so we totally took off with that. I thought `uh oh, this is fun.' I like singing and acting at the same time." You can learn how to order her debut music CD at her web site.