Most people attend fan conventions hoping to meet their heroes. Erica Muse went one step further—she became one.
Long before audiences recognized her voice in One Piece, Aphmau, The Fruit of Evolution, or the hit video game Selaco, Muse was simply another teenager standing in convention lines, proudly wearing a costume she had stitched together herself. Like thousands of fans who fill convention halls every year, she admired the artists, actors, and creators from the audience, never imagining she would eventually join them.
Her journey began with a family tradition. At eight years old, Muse watched her father create elaborate Halloween costumes, sparking a fascination that quickly became an obsession. By the time she turned twelve, she was sewing beside him, learning the craft one stitch at a time.
Everything changed in 2006 when she attended her first AnimeFest in Dallas. Fresh from joining her school’s anime club and armed with sewing skills, she walked into the convention wearing a costume she had created herself. For someone accustomed to school uniforms and everyday expectations, the experience was liberating. Conventions became a place where imagination wasn’t just accepted—it was celebrated.
That first event launched a lifelong passion. Nearly twenty years later, Muse has amassed a collection of more than 200 costumes, each representing another chapter in a creative journey that began with a single homemade outfit.
Performance had always been part of her life. She appeared in Christmas musicals beginning at age five, discovered theatre after seeing West Side Story in high school, and worked on her first film set at fifteen. Yet it wasn’t until 2017 that her love of cosplay and performing unexpectedly merged.
Invited to appear as a cosplay guest at a convention, Muse found herself sitting on the opposite side of the autograph table for the first time. During that event she met voice actor Josh Martin, best known to anime fans as the voice of Majin Buu from the Dragon Ball universe. The encounter reshaped her career. For the first time, she realized the voices behind the characters she loved belonged to real people—and that becoming one of them was actually possible.
What followed wasn’t overnight success but years of disciplined preparation.
Following Martin’s advice, Muse studied voice acting under Chris Rager while adding improvisation training to sharpen her acting instincts. She graduated from the John Casablancas Center in 2018, signed with Linda McAlister Talent, and by early 2020 had committed to performing full time across voice acting, commercials, film, print, and on-camera work. Training never stopped, because neither did her ambition.
Today, her résumé spans some of entertainment’s biggest franchises. Anime fans have heard her in Attack on Titan, My Hero Academia, My Dress-Up Darling, and Wind Breaker, while newer audiences will recognize her as Grit in The Ossan Newbie Adventurer. Gamers know her as Gwyn in Selaco and as the voice of the Snow Kitten Bastet skin in SMITE. Her on-camera work includes Insane Like Me?, The Texorcist, and appearances connected to the All My Life feature film.
Yet despite her growing list of credits, Muse has never forgotten where her career truly began.
She remains deeply connected to convention culture, attending dozens of events every year. In 2018 alone she appeared at 34 conventions, and her 2026 schedule continues with appearances including the Dallas Comic Show Spring Spectacular and Seijin Otaku Fest in Colorado. Rather than seeing conventions simply as promotional stops, she views them as communities that helped shape her career.
Her philosophy is simple: everyone who visits her table should leave smiling.
That perspective also extends to the future of the industry itself. Muse has become an advocate for greater accessibility within voice acting, encouraging remote recording opportunities that allow talented performers from anywhere to pursue careers without relocating to traditional production hubs.
It’s a mission that comes full circle every time a young cosplayer approaches her booth.
Muse knows exactly what it’s like to stand on the other side of that table, wondering if impossible dreams might somehow become real. Her story proves they can.
With determination, years of practice, countless hours behind a sewing machine, and one life-changing conversation at a convention, Erica Muse transformed herself from devoted fan into one of the voices inspiring the next generation. Every convention still holds the possibility that another future actor is waiting in line—and thanks to Muse, they now have a living example that dreams don’t have to stay on the convention floor.