April Winchell
April Terri Winchell is an American actress, voice actress, writer, talk radio host and commentator. She is best known as the official voice of Clarabelle Cow in the Disney franchise since 1996.
Winchell is the daughter of Paul Winchell.
Career
Acting
Winchell's projects include the role of Sylvia in Wander Over Yonder, a Disney Channel animated series featuring Jack McBrayer in the title role. Created by The Powerpuff Girls producers Craig McCracken and Lauren Faust, the show chronicles the adventures of "Wander" and his trusty steed Sylvia, as they travel the universe. The series premiered on the Disney Channel in September 2013.As a voice actress, she has been heard in hundreds of animated television series, such as Goof Troop, Recess, Disney's House of Mouse and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Bonkers, Pepper Ann, and Kids from Room 402, The Legend of Tarzan, ', ', Robot and Monster, Phineas & Ferb and Kim Possible.
She has also voiced characters in numerous films, including Antz, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Monsters University and Rob Zombie's The Haunted World of El Superbeasto. Winchell portrayed the "Glendale Federal Bank" lady – a cranky, cynical customer alleviated by the service at her new bank – in a series of highly successful radio commercials, which Winchell wrote and directed herself. The commercials caught the attention of Roseanne, who hired her as a writer on her eponymous sitcom.
Radio
Besides her many contributions to radio advertising as a director, writer, and performer, Winchell also hosted a radio talk show program on KFI, a Los Angeles radio station. This weekend program aired for three years, and enjoyed the fastest growth audience in the history of the station. Subsequent to the end of this program in November 2002, she appeared semi-regularly on the Ask Mr. KABC program, on KABC, an AM station also in Los Angeles – until the show ended in February 2007.In 2005, Winchell signed a deal with U.S. pay-TV service HBO to develop and host a show on Sirius Satellite Radio. However, on her official website on May 3, 2006, she announced that negotiations had stalled out between HBO and Sirius, leaving her program in limbo.
On March 16, 2007, she returned to semi-regular radio appearances on The Marc "Mr. K" Germain Show on KTLK-AM and appeared twice a month. During March, Winchell was "banned for life" from KABC in Los Angeles at the behest of ABC radio host Bill O'Reilly, over a retelling of an occurrence she dubbed "Croissantgate".
Theater
As a musical theater actor, she starred as Ado Annie in the Columbia Artists revival of Oklahoma!, and also appeared opposite Kevin Spacey in .Additionally, Winchell wrote and starred as "Sheila Sands" in her show at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles to sold out crowds. The show was produced by Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, who discovered her at Cafe Largo in Hollywood. Winchell reprised the character to open for Brad Garrett at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas in 2013.
She has also been a frequent panelist on the live-stage version of What's My Line at the Acme Comedy Theatre in Hollywood.
Advertising
In 1992, Winchell and her then-husband Mick Kuisel formed Radio Savant Productions, a radio advertising production company. Since that time, Winchell has received many awards including Cannes, Clio, The $100,000 Mercury Award and The International Grand Andy – it was the only time the Andy was given for radio. Winchell also provided the award-winning radio and television advertising for Big Bear Mountain Resorts for over 20 years.Internet
Winchell's official website contains a link to her IMDB biography and library of unusual and outsider music pieces.Prior to 2009, Winchell maintained a personal Web site that, in addition to the music pieces, chronicled the actor's activities, which include her professional, personal, and romantic life. In October 2009, Winchell launched Regretsy, a blog website which satirized Etsy. Within four days, the site had received nearly 90 million hits. This huge viral success caught the attention of Random House, who subsequently won a bidding war to publish a book based around the Regretsy website. The book, which was published April 6, 2010, features humorous and bizarre crafts and artwork from several different artists, as well as essays about Winchell's personal life, childhood and own crafting failures. As of March 1, 2012, the Regretsy site had raised over $200,000 for charitable causes. The popularity of Regretsy's "Not Remotely Steampunk" section even inspired a viral "chap hop" music video. Winchell ceased updating Regretsy on February 1, 2013.
Winchell made several appearances on early episodes of the internet broadcast series "Talk Radio One," interviewed by former Los Angeles radio personality Marc Germain. She became a weekly guest on the series beginning in 2017.
Other work
Winchell worked on the 1996 video game Toonstruck in which she voiced a number of characters including Ms. Fit, Polly, Punisher Polly and Dr. Payne's Receptionist. Not only did she voiced the characters but she has also worked as casting and dialogue director for the game. She also worked as a punch writer for and wrote three episodes of the American sitcom Roseanne.Personal life
Winchell is the daughter of ventriloquist, actor, and comedian Paul Winchell, and his second wife, Nina Russel. In her weblog writings and appearances on radio, she describes her childhood with many references to the great talent of her father as well as the many disturbing incidents owing to his mental health issues.In broadcasts of her KFI show, on her web diary and several other websites, Winchell revealed she and Kevin Spacey dated for a while after high school.
On August 19, 2005, she announced on her website that she was diagnosed with stage 4 thyroid cancer. To promote solidarity during her radiation treatment, she issued her own "Glow in the Dark" wristbands, so one could "glow along" with April. She made a full recovery.
Winchell is a supporter of charities including Project Angel Food, a Los Angeles-based service providing meals for homebound people living with AIDS. Her website, Regretsy, generated charitable funds through selling of Regretsy merchandise. On, April 17, 2011, Winchell created April's Army, which ran monthly campaigns for which all profits went to a selected Regretsy member who has encountered hardships. On December 5, 2011, Regretsy began a Secret Santa program, collecting donations for presents for needy children.