Daphne Blake

AGE: 16-17.
PLAYED BY: Indira Stefanianna, Heather Lindsay North Kenney, Kellie Martin, Mary Kay Bergman, and Grey DeLisle
Daphne is a character that really developed over the 4-decade run of the show. In the beginning she was basically sort of a bland pretty female character who seemed to be made to be the pretty girl who lacked Thalia’s bitchiness. She was very pretty, chic, with long legs and a trim hourglass figure, wavy red hair pulled back by a lavender band, and had a great voice. Then the series had cut out Fred and Velma, so she began working with Shaggy and the Doos’ of course sometimes making sure Scooby and Shaggy don’t make asses of themselves (not too successful with Scrappy though). Then came “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo” where Daphne, looking like an ersatz April O’Neill, was more competent in taking care of business. “A Pup Named Scooby Doo” soon shown a louder, Valley Girl-esque, pink clad preteen Daphne which made it perfect by the time the live-action films came around. There was a brief time in the late 90’s when they came out with straight-to-video movies, where she was voiced by the legendary Mary Kay Bergman, who worked in several cartoons and Disney movies (she even took on the job of voicing almost the entire female cast of “South Park”). Unfortunately in the Fall of 1999, Bergman took her own life, yet the role of Daphne was filled by her protégé Grey DeLisle, who is now the highest voice actress in demand and even has a Twitter account, which YOU ALL SHOULD FOLLOW [link] . The live-action movies gave Daphne what TV Tropes calls, Took a Level in Badass, where Daphne had taken up martial arts in order to defend herself against any captors, this was more drawn from the character Buffy the Vampire Slayer rather than Daphne of the early cartoon to give Sarah Michelle Gellar more to work with. But the latest cartoon series gave Daphne some emotional baggage: her parents are self-absorbed, they prefer her genius older sisters, they make it clear she isn’t the favorite, Fred seems oblivious to her affections, and she wonders if Fred loves her; Daphne just shows more vulnerability and a fantastic singing voice [link] . Plus those violet eyes just look so beautiful on her!