Kath Soucie's Birth Year - Neither Guesses Are Accurate: Here's Why

A voice actress best known for voicing the likes of Linka on Captain Planet, Fifi La Fume in Tiny Toon Adventures, Sally Acorn in Sonic SATAM, Dexter's Mom in Dexter's Laboratory, Dil & Lil on The Rugrats, Maddie Fenton, Kanga in Winnie The Pooh, and a wide variety of other iconic characters from the late 80s into the 2000s. Lately, I've seen buzz regarding debates about her birth date. While historically listed as February 20, 1967, I've seen claims about it actually being November 18, 1953, most notably as argued in a RetroDaze article several years back.

However, I've begun to doubt the 1953 narrative in recent times. While 1967 is without a doubt in my mind NOT when she was born, as indicated by her 2008 interview with Nancy Cartwright, I've noticed some discrepancies that cast doubt on 1953 as well. The most notable one is that the "Kathy Soucie" cited as graduating in 1971 from a Cleveland area school has the middle name "Ellen" while the voice actress has her middle name listed as "Elaine" by the majority of professional sites. In order to keep things simply, I'll refer to the Kath Soucie we know graduated in 1971 as "Ellen" and the voice actress as "Elaine".

The 2008 interview had Elaine recall herself first getting her agent 23 years before said interview, which would mean 1985. This aligns with her 1998 interview for The Rugrats Movie where she similarly described realizing her vocal talent about 13 years before in the 2:44 mark of the video. She also describes herself in the Cartwright interview as having been a "green leaf" when she started voice work for Rambo in 1986. The Retrodaze article tries to compensate for this discrepancy by suggesting she had spent time in the food industry, but this contradicted by the fact Kath described herself busing tables, which is more consistent with an aspiring actress than an outright culinary degree - to say nothing of the likelihood said foodservice was to pay the bills while she learned acting.

Looking at photos of Elaine for promotional events compared to ones that show Ellen in a 1971 graduating class, I also notice that Elaine's cheekbones are more pronounced than on the woman who's supposedly her in the 1971 yearbook. Furthermore, the 1979 TV movie The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel, which supposedly shows one of her only live-action roles as the pregnant Becca, shows her as someone who looks closer to her late teens or early 20s as opposed to the 25 she would be if the '53 birth date is true. Of course, this assumes Becca's actress - credited as Kathi Soucie rather than "Kath" - is the same Kath who graduated in 1971 and was also said to be in AADA's class of 1976. Especially considering that Kath has only gone as such in her confirmed voice acting credits. Further muddying the waters is that legal hurdles mean the AADA has to wait to release the information of "Elaine" is different from the 1976 graduate.

Another issue is that in the Cartwright interview, Elaine states that she didn't have an agent until she signed with Sandie Schnarr in 1985 (the interview was in 2008, and Kath mentions said sign-up being 23 years beforehand - meaning 1985). On top of that, the fact that she didn't have an agent in 1978 would mean that she wouldn't have been allowed anywhere near the set of a film for CBS that included Lindsay Wagner and James Woods. Additionally, Kath cites Manu Toupou as the person who introduced her to voiceover work in a matter that implies she was most likely one of his students during her time at the AADA. In the same interview, she cites "Kate Hepburn, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn" as "vintage stars", evokative of someone who saw reruns of their material growing up rather than someone living in their 50s heyday.

Another piece of evidence supposedly for the 1953 birth date is how she refers to being rejected for a daughter role in a soap opera in 1985. If she were 32 at the time, she'd know that no one in their right mind would cast her as that role to begin with and out go for the role of a much older character. By contrast if she we about 22-24 she'd be well in the range where she's considered too old to play a daughter, but too young to play a young mother or rookie careerwoman.

Lastly, there's also photographic evidence that can be found on Facebook, and other publicly available sources. The majority of the photos with a specific date show her with a physical appearance more indicative of late 20s to early 30s. This is especially true of the Captain Planet cast photo from 1990 available on the Soucieology subreddit, where Kath Soucie is visibly older than Janice Kawaye (born 1970), but only by a relative handful of years, and she is clearly younger than Whoopi Goldberg.

TL;DR: I believe Kath Elaine Soucie's birth date is NOT 1967, but I doubt all the people who say she's a decade and a half older. My theory is she was born between 1958 and 1963, likely gravitating towards the later half of that time period. My theory is the Kath Ellen Soucie who was indeed born in 1953 only acted for a few years in TV roles like the Meg Laurel movie, but retired and did something else around the time the voice actress started her work. 

As such, I believe Kath Soucie's birth date should be moved to "Unknown" until we have genuinely verifiable evidence of her birth date.