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<document>
<title>Nancy Cartw</title>
<authors>Wikipedia</authors>
<publisher>wikipedia.org</publisher>
<publishedplace>network</publishedplace>
<publishedyear>2010</publishedyear>
<edition></edition>
<category>People from Dayton, Ohio</category>
<section id="13517" fatherid="0" title="" lv="" priority="-1" level="1">
Nancy Campbell Cartw (born October 25, 1957) is an American film and television actress, comedian and voice artist. She is best known for her long-running role as Bart Simpson on the animated television series The Simpsons. Cartw voices other characters for the show, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, Kearney and Database.
Born in Dayton, Ohio, Cartw moved to Hollywood in 1978 and trained alongside voice actor Daws Butler. Her first professional role was voicing Gloria in the animated series Richie Rich, which she followed with a starring role in the television movie Marian Rose White (1982) and her first feature film, Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983).
After continuing to search for acting work, in 1987 Cartw auditioned for a role in a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family that was to appear on The Tracey Ullman Show. Cartw intended to audition for the role of Lisa Simpson, the middle child; when she arrived at the audition, she found the role of Bart—Lisa's brother—to be more interesting. Matt Groening, the series' creator, allowed her to audition for Bart and offered her the role on the spot. She voiced Bart for three seasons on The Tracey Ullman Show, and in 1989, the shorts were spun off into a half-hour show called The Simpsons. For her subsequent work as Bart, Cartw received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 and an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in the Field of Animation in 1995.
Cartw has voiced dozens of animated characters, including Chuckie Finster in Rugrats and All Grown Up!, Rufus in Kim Possible, Mindy in Animaniacs, Margo Sherman in The Critic and Chip in The Kellys. In 2000, she published her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy, and four years later adapted it into a one-woman play.

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<section id="13518" fatherid="0" title="Early life" lv="" priority="2" level="1">
Nancy Cartw was born in Dayton, Ohio, on October 25, 1957, the fourth of Frank and Miriam Cartw's six children. She grew up in Kettering, Ohio, and discovered her talent for voices at an early age. While in the fourth grade, she won a school-wide speech competition with her performance of Rudyard Kipling's How the Camel Got His Hump. Cartw attended Fairmont West High School, and participated in the school's theater and marching band. She regularly entered public speaking competitions, placing first in the "Humorous Interpretation" category at the National District Tournament two years running. The judges often suggested to her that she should perform cartoon voices. Cartw graduated from high school in 1976 and accepted a scholarship from Ohio University.Cartw, pp. 9–10. She continued to compete in public speaking competitions; during her sophomore year, she placed fifth in the National Speech Tournament's exposition category with her speech "The Art of Animation".Cartw, pp. 15–16.
In 1977, Cartw landed a part-time job doing voice-overs for commercials on WING radio in Dayton. A representative from Warner Bros. Records visited WING and later sent Cartw a list of contacts in the animation industry.Cartw, pp. 12–13. One of these was Daws Butler, known for voicing characters such as Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Elroy Jetson and Yogi Bear. Cartw called him, and  a message in a Cockney accent on his answering machine. Butler immediately called her back and agreed to be her mentor. He mailed her a script and instructed her to send him a tape recording of herself reading it. Once he received the tape, Butler critiqued it and sent her notes. For the next year they continued in this way, completing a new script every few weeks. Cartw described Butler as "absolutely amazing, always encouraging, always polite".Cartw, p. 14.
Cartw returned to Ohio University for her sophomore year, but transferred to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) so she could be closer to Hollywood and Butler. Her mother, Miriam, died late in the summer of 1978. Cartw nearly changed her relocation plans but, on September 17, 1978, "joylessly"  for Westwood, California.Cartw, pp. 16–18.

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<section id="13519" fatherid="0" title="Career" lv="" priority="3" level="1">
<section id="13520" fatherid="13519" title="Early career" lv="" priority="1" level="2">
While attending UCLA, which did not have a public speaking team,Cartw, p. 19. Cartw continued training as a voice actor with Butler. She recalled, "every Sunday I’d take a 20-minute bus ride to his house in Beverly Hills for a one-hour lesson and be there for four hours ... They had four sons, they didn’t have a daughter and I kind of fitted in  as the baby of the family." Butler introduced her to many of the voice actors and directors at Hanna-Barbera. After she met the director Gordon Hunt, he asked her to audition for a recurring role as Gloria in Richie Rich. She received the part, and later worked with Hunt on several other projects. At the end of 1980, Cartw signed with a talent agency and landed a lead role in a pilot for a sitcom called In Trouble. Cartw described the show as "forgettable, but it jump-started my on-camera career".Cartw, pp. 23–25. She graduated from UCLA in 1981 with a degree in theater. During the summer, Cartw worked with Jonathan Winters as part of an improvisation troupe at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.
Returning to Los Angeles, Cartw won the lead role in the television movie Marian Rose White. Janet Maslin, a critic for The New York Times, described Cartw as "a chubby, lumbering, slightly cross-eyed actress whose naturalness adds greatly to the film's impact". Cartw replied by sending Maslin a letter insisting she was not cross-eyed, and included a photograph. Later, Cartw auditioned for the role of Ethel, a girl who becomes trapped in a cartoon world in the third segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie. She met with director Joe Dante and later described him as "a total cartoon buff, and once he took a look at my resume and noticed Daws Butler's name on it, we were off and running, sharing anecdotes about Daws and animation. After about twenty minutes, he said, 'considering your background, I don't see how I could cast anyone but you in this part! It was her first role in a feature film.Cartw, pp. 26–27. The segment was based on The Twilight Zone television series episode "It's a Good Life", which was later parodied in The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror II" (1992).Groening, Matt; Jean, Al; Reiss, Mike; Castellaneta, Dan; Martin, Jeff; Reardon, Jim. (2003). Commentary for "Treehouse of Horror II", in The Simpsons: The Complete Third Season DVD. 20th Century Fox.
Cartw continued to do voice work for projects including Pound Puppies, Popeye and Son, Snorks, My Little Pony and Saturday Supercade.Cartw, pp. 27–28. She joined a "loop group", and recorded vocals for characters in the background of films, although in most cases the sound was turned down so that very little of her voice was heard. She did minor voice-over work for several films, including The Clan of the Cave Bear (1986), Silverado (1985), Sixteen Candles (1984), Back to the Future 2 (1989) and The Color Purple (1985).Cartw, p. 29. The most notable of these was a role in Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) as a shoe that was "dipped" in acid. She described it as her first "off-screen death scene", and worked to correctly convey the emotion involved.
In 1985, she auditioned for a guest spot as Cynthia in Cheers. The audition called for her to say her line and walk off the set. Cartw decided to take a chance on being different and continued walking, leaving the building and returning home. The production crew was confused, but she received the part. In search of more training as an actor, Cartw joined a class taught by Hollywood coach Milton Katselas. He recommended that Cartw study La strada, a 1956 Italian film starring Giulietta Masina and directed by Federico Fellini. She began performing "every imaginable scene" from La strada in her class and spent several months trying to secure the s to produce a stage adaptation. She visited Italy with the intention of meeting Fellini and requesting his permission in person. Although they never met, Cartw kept a journal of the trip and later wrote a one-woman play called In Search of Fellini, partially based on her voyage.Cartw, pp. 30–33. The play was co-written by Peter Kjenaas, and Cartw won a Drama-Logue Award after performing it in Los Angeles in 1995. In a 1998 interview, she stated her intention to make it into a feature film.

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<section id="13521" fatherid="13519" title="The Simpsons" lv="" priority="2" level="2">
Cartw is best known for her role as Bart Simpson on the long-running animated television show The Simpsons. On March 13, 1987, Nancy Cartw auditioned for a series of animated shorts about a dysfunctional family that was to appear on The Tracey Ullman Show, a sketch comedy program. Cartw intended to audition for the role of Lisa Simpson, the older daughter. After arriving at the audition, she found that Lisa was simply described as the middle child and at the time did not have much personality. Cartw became more interested in the role of Bart, described as "devious, underachieving, school-hating, irreverent, and clever".Cartw, pp. 35–40 Creator Matt Groening let her try out for Bart, and gave her the job on the spot. Bart's voice came naturally to Cartw, as she had previously used elements of it in My Little Pony, Snorks, and Pound Puppies. Cartw describes Bart's voice as easy to perform compared with other characters. The recording of the shorts was often primitive; the dialog was recorded on a portable tape deck in a makeshift studio above the bleachers on the set of the The Tracey Ullman Show. Cartw, the only cast member to have been professionally trained in voice acting,Turner, p. 21 described the sessions as "great fun". However, she wanted to appear in the live-action sketches and occasionally showed up for recording sessions early, hoping to be noticed by a producer.Cartw, pp. 43–50.
In 1989, the shorts were spun off into a half-hour show on the Fox network called The Simpsons. Bart quickly became the show's breakout personality and one of the most celebrated characters on television—his popularity in 1990 and 1991 was known as "Bartmania".Turner, pp. 120–121 Bart was described as "television's best new star" by Mike Boone of The Gazette and was named 1990's "entertainer of the year" by Entertainment Weekly. Despite Bart's fame, however, Cartw remained relatively unknown. During the first season of The Simpsons, Fox ordered Cartw not to give interviews, because they did not want to publicize that Bart was voiced by a woman. Cartw's normal speaking voice is said to have "no obvious traces of Bart", and she believes her role is "the best acting job in the world", since she is rarely recognized in public. When she is recognized and asked to perform Bart's voice in front of children, Cartw refuses because it "freaks them out". Bart's catchphrase "Eat My Shorts" was an ad-lib by Cartw in one of the original table readings, referring to an incident from her high school days. Once while performing, members of the Fairmont High School marching band switched their chant from the usual "Fairmont West! Fairmont West!" to the irreverent "Eat my shorts!" Cartw felt it appropriate for Bart, and improvised the line; it became a popular catchphrase on the show. 
Cartw voices several other characters on the show, including Nelson Muntz, Ralph Wiggum, Todd Flanders, Kearney and Database.Richmond, pp. 178–179 She first voiced Nelson in the episode "Bart the General" (season one, 1990). The character was to be voiced by Dana Hill, but Hill missed the recording session and Cartw was given the role.Cartw, pp. 102–103. She developed Nelson's voice on the spot and describes him as "a throat-ripper". Ralph Wiggum had originally been voiced by Jo Ann Harris, but Cartw was assigned to voice the character in "Bart the Murderer" (season three, 1991).Cartw, p. 107. Todd Flanders, the only voice for which Cartw used another source, is based on Sherman (voiced by Walter Tetley), the boy from Peabody's Improbable History, a series of shorts aired on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show.
Cartw received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance in 1992 for her performance as Bart in the episode "Separate Vocations" and an Annie Award in 1995 for Best Voice Acting in the Field of Animation. Bart was named one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century by Time, and in 2000, Bart and the rest of the Simpson family were awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located at 7021 Hollywood Boulevard.
Until 1998, Cartw was paid $30,000 per episode. During a pay dispute in 1998, Fox threatened to replace the six main voice actors, and made preparations for casting new actors. The dispute was resolved, however, and Cartw received $125,000 per episode until 2004, when the voice actors demanded $360,000 an episode. A compromise was reached after a month, and Cartw's pay rose to $250,000 per episode. Salaries were re-negotiated in 2008—as of 2009, the voice actors receive approximately $400,000 per episode.

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<section id="13522" fatherid="13519" title="Further career" lv="" priority="3" level="2">
In addition to her work on The Simpsons, Cartw has voiced many other characters on several animated series, including Chuckie Finster in Rugrats and All Grown Up!, Margo Sherman in The Critic, Mindy in Animaniacs and Rufus the naked mole rat in Kim Possible. For the role of Rufus, Cartw researched mole rats extensively, and became "a font of useless trivia". She was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program in 2004 for her work on the show. In 2001, Cartw took over the Rugrats role of Chuckie Finster when Christine Cavanaugh retired. Cartw describes Rufus and Chuckie as her two most difficult voices: "Rufus because my diaphragm gets a workout while trying to utilize the 18 vocal sounds a mole makes. Chuckie because ... he's an asthmatic with five personalities rolled into one—plus I have to do the voice the way Cavanaugh did it for 10 years." Other television shows that have used her voice work include Galaxy High; God, The Devil and Bob; Goof Troop; Mike, Lu -anddocsymbol- Og; The Replacements; Pinky and the Brain and Timberwolf. Cartw has appeared on camera in numerous television shows and films, including Fame, Empty Nest, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Flesh -anddocsymbol- Blood, Godzilla and 24.
In 2000, Cartw published her autobiography, My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy. The book details her career (particularly her experiences as the voice of Bart) and contains stories about life behind the scenes of The Simpsons. Laura A. Bischoff of the Dayton Daily News commented that the book was the "ultimate insider's guide to The Simpsons". Critics complained that the book lacked interesting stories and was aimed mostly at fans of The Simpsons rather than a general audience.
Cartw adapted My Life as a 10-Year-Old Boy into a one-woman play in 2004. Cartw has performed it at a variety of venues, including the August 2004 Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland. The play received modest reviews, including criticism for a lack of inside stories about The Simpsons, and its "overweeningly upbeat" tone. David Chatterton of British Theatre Guide described the show as "interesting and entertaining, but not really a 'must see' even for Simpsons fans".
Cartw has shown an interest in stock car racing and as of 2007 was seeking a NASCAR license. In 2001, she founded a production company called SportsBlast and created an online animated series called The Kellys. The series is focused on racing; Cartw voices a seven-year-old named Chip Kelly. In 2002, SportsBlast received a Silver Remi Award from the WorldFest-Houston International Film Festival for The Kellys.

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<section id="13523" fatherid="0" title="Personal life" lv="" priority="4" level="1">
Cartw met writer Warren Murphy on her birthday in 1988 and married him two months later. In her book, she describes Murphy as her "personal laugh track".Cartw, pp. 76–77. The couple had two children, Lucy and Jack, before divorcing in 2002.
Cartw was raised a Roman Catholic but joined the Church of Scientology in the late 1980s. She has said that before becoming involved with the church she was depressed that she did not have a "committed relationship", and wanted to get married and have children. She "thought that maybe she could find a relationship by going to a church". Cartw attended a barbecue at a friend's house and noticed that all of the attendees were Scientologists with "thriving careers". Cartw began reading the works of L. Ron Hubbard and found solace in a chapter about shedding the pain of loss. She said later, "I felt he was talking directly to me, I said to myself, 'I want to stop that feeling.'" Cartw was awarded Scientology's Patron Laureate Award after she donated $10 million, almost twice her annual salary, to the Church in 2007.
In January 2009, Cartw used Bart's voice in an automated telephone message to Scientologists, inviting them to an event in Hollywood, California. She opened the message in Bart's voice, saying "Yo, what's happenin' man, this is Bart Simpson laugh", then used her normal voice in most of the remaining message. In a 2000 interview, Cartw explained that a character's voice is copyed and she can use Bart's voice in public but cannot record original dialogue without approval. Al Jean, executive producer of The Simpsons, said that "the telephone calls were not authorized by us", while The Simpsons creator Matt Groening commented that the issue had been "blown up beyond what was intended".
Cartw actively supports many nonprofit organizations, including Famous Fone Friends, the Make-a-Wish Foundation, and The Way to Happiness Foundation. She is co-founder of "Happy House", a non-profit organization dedicated to building better families, and is a contributor to ASIFA-Hollywood's Animation Archive Project. In September 2007, Cartw received the Make-a-Wish Foundation's Wish Icon Award "for her tremendous dedication to the Foundation's fundraising and wish-fulfillment efforts". In 2005, Cartw created a scholarship at Fairmont High School "designed to aid Fairmont graduates who dream of following in her footsteps and studying speech, debate, drama or music" at Ohio University. In 2005, Cartw was given the title of Honorary Mayor of Northridge, California (a neighborhood of Los Angeles) by the Northridge Chamber of Commerce.

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<section id="13524" fatherid="0" title="Filmography" lv="" priority="-5" level="1">
<section id="13525" fatherid="13524" title="Films" lv="" priority="-1" level="2">
</section>
<section id="13526" fatherid="13524" title="Television" lv="" priority="-2" level="2">
</section>
<section id="13527" fatherid="13524" title="Video games" lv="" priority="-3" level="2">
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</section>
<section id="13528" fatherid="0" title="Awards" lv="" priority="-6" level="1">
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<section id="13529" fatherid="0" title="Notes" lv="" priority="-7" level="1">
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<section id="13530" fatherid="0" title="References" lv="" priority="-8" level="1">
</section>
<section id="13531" fatherid="0" title="External links" lv="" priority="-9" level="1">
Category:1957 births
Category:Actors from Ohio
Category:American Scientologists
Category:American television actors
Category:American voice actors
Category:Annie Award winners
Category:Former Roman Catholics
Category:Living people
Category:Ohio University alumni
Category:People from Dayton, Ohio
Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni
Category:Women comedians

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