From New to Nominated: Voice Actor Briana White’s Journey to Final Fantasy VII Rebirth
In 2020, I spoke to Briana White about the joys and pressures of being the new voice of Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake. Four years later, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth has arrived and she’s gone from being a brand-new voice actor to getting her first Golden Joystick Award nomination. How did she get here? Let’s find out.
The Return
Imagine this.
It’s the year 2020. You’re about to make your voice acting debut as Aerith Gainsborough in Final Fantasy VII Remake, the anticipated recreation of arguably one of the greatest video games ever made.
Given your glaring inexperience in voice acting, you’re recounting your frequent battles with imposter syndrome. You remember sitting in your car, overwhelmed by the pressure of voicing one of the most iconic characters in gaming history. You have to plead with yourself to muster enough self-belief and courage to step out of the car and into the Square Enix building to record the best performances of your life.
That was Briana White’s reality four years ago.
Fast forward to the present day. The second game, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, has been released, making for an exceptional Leap Day. Critically, Rebirth has surpassed even its predecessor, earning five Golden Joystick Award nominations — one of those being Best Supporting Performer for Briana White’s portrayal of Aerith Gainsborough.
That’s right. A prestigious industry nomination for the very same role that had her hiding in her car in the Square Enix parking lot, anxiously ruminating over whether or not she belonged.
Let’s start there.
“So, for Rebirth,” Briana recalls, “…there were no moments I was sitting in my car thinking, ‘What am I doing? This is insane. I don’t know why I’m here.’”
She goes over several reasons why her Remake and Rebirth experiences are so emotionally and mentally dissimilar, from refined processes learned during Remake to less uncertainty about fan reception to just having more voice acting experience following Remake and Crisis Core — Final Fantasy VII — Reunion. But more than all the rest, Briana consistently returns to one explanation for her mitigated apprehension while recording the sequel.
“Even if I feel less confident at any point while making it, we’re still going to end up with a good product,” she says. “We have the directors double-checking everything. The writers are a great team. The audio engineers are fine-tuning every little detail. It’s a very collaborative process and it’s not all on me and my feelings.”
Like a well-optimized and properly equipped party taking on Chadley’s next Combat Simulator challenge, teamwork alleviated her fears. Suddenly, the pressure isn’t just hers to bear. That petrifying feeling of isolation that kept her constantly seeking refuge in her car was just a figment of her imagination brought on by inexperience. She’s never been alone in this performance. An entire team is behind her to ensure she’s the best she can be during and after every recording session.
Even for a chronic perfectionist who’s unafraid of criticizing her role in the final product, this support system makes it easier to cut herself some much-needed slack.
Briana explains. “It’s so incredibly collaborative that if I don’t like the way something turned out, I know that that’s just a personal preference of mine. That’s not actually a reflection of good or bad.” She continues, “…If something made it in there, that’s because it’s going to be good. And, so, when people compliment that performance, of course, I’m grateful for the part that I played in it, but I also know that it wasn’t just me that deserves that compliment.”
She doubles down even further. From the game’s directors to the professionals helping her in the booth to the rest of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth cast, the teamwork and camaraderie they’ve sustained over so many years is a key ingredient to their success. These are all good people and, for her, this differentiates the Remake project from anything else she’s experienced in her career.
“The more I interact with the Final Fantasy VII Remake team,” she begins, “the more I like them. And I think that absolutely is special and different and not usual.” She raises her eyebrows as if taken aback by the simplicity of this realization. “…That’s incredibly rare, and I feel very grateful to be a part of that.”
Still, even with this uplifting support, Rebirth is a pivotal chapter for not just the series as a whole, but for Aerith specifically.
“I knew that this was going to be the game where all of the pressure of Aerith’s legacy falls right on my shoulders,” Briana admits with a laugh.
The humor doesn’t detract from her honesty when asked about the unique stakes posed by Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. After all, this was it–the game every diehard Final Fantasy VII and Aerith fan had been waiting for. The big question surrounding Aerith’s fate would finally be answered and, for better or worse, she would have a massive impact on this anticipated moment.
So, with more experience and a team she trusts to support her, she set out to leave her mark one recording session at a time. But she had a plan–an approach. Her goal wasn’t to change or reestablish Aerith’s legacy but to meaningfully add to it in ways she believed in.
The Performance
The superlatives that come with discussions about Aeirth Gainsborough are weighty and, quite frankly, often sad. For every descriptor linked to Aerith over the last two decades like ‘iconic,’ ‘noteworthy, and ‘best’ are ones with a more dismal gravity like ‘devastating,’ ‘loss,’ and ‘tragic.’ But Briana takes a step back.
“I think she [Aerith] is a character that represents resiliency, strength, and life and hope and light. I don’t think that’s very tragic.”
She describes the Midgar flower seller with natural intentionality. Like describing a close friend she admires, her words are thoughtful but unembellished–esteemed but modest. For her, Aerith’s legacy and the hyperbole surrounding her name, good or bad, is not what makes her significant. For her, Aerith’s legacy is her lovability and what makes her lovable is what makes her real–what makes her human.
“Aerith is such an in-the-moment kind of character,” Briana begins. “She doesn’t get bogged down by her incredibly difficult past. She focuses on the fun and playfulness and her friendships and all of the good things in the world. And so, I tried to embody that for that reason because giving the most authentic performance really required me to turn off what I knew about Aerith from the original Final Fantasy VII.”
Softening the extremes and capturing the nuances of a character whose legacy began voiceless in 1997 was a point of emphasis for Briana. For many, their connection with Aerith ended after Disc One in the original game. And, as a text-based story in a decade when video games were just discovering their narrative punch, the opportunity to read between the lines and discover the true Aerith Gainsborough was few and far between. So, it’s no surprise that Aerith on the wrong end of Sephiroth’s Masamune would, for so many, become the prevailing image of Aerith leading up to Rebirth.
Enter Briana White.
“If you think about it, her mom died for a terrible reason, and so Aerith knows, as a character, how short life is.” She pauses, thinking carefully. “Aerith has lost a lot of people that she loves. She’s a character that cares very deeply, and when you have a life that’s full of death, there is nothing you want more than to live a wonderful life while you’re still hanging in there. So, Aerith is a character that lives her life to the fullest extent because she knows how short it is, and that has nothing to do with her legacy from the original FFVII.”
In Rebirth, Aerith is not tragedy incarnate. Rather, she is every person who has been touched by death. She is every person who has lost deeply and seen the darkest parts of the world but still chooses to embrace the light in her life. Briana describes an Aerith that feels familiar–real. Not at all the symbol of death your average “Aerith” Google search often paints her as.
“I don’t see her as a tragic character but I’m okay with other people seeing her as a tragic character,” she says to reassure longtime fans that her intention wasn’t to change any minds with her character interpretation. “I understand that very much because something tragic happens to her.”
She elaborates more on the joy she experienced thanks to this creative approach to Aerith. “She knows that life is too short to take everything so seriously, and I think that’s a really beautiful aspect of her character that I just had so much fun acting.”
Suddenly inspired, Briana leans into the camera. She takes a moment to clear her throat.
“‘Gotta look forward, not back,’” she says in Aerith’s soft, hopeful voice before returning to her own. “Life is short and we’re here to enjoy it; so let’s live it up.”
The Future
Briana was in a hotel room in Huntsville, Alabama preparing for another convention when she found out about her Golden Joystick Award nomination.
“I have been so busy this year going to different conventions all around the country that I had kind of completely forgotten about awards,” she shares as a preamble for describing the big moment. “…I woke up in Alabama with my convention mindset ready to go.”
Remembering our first conversation four years ago, this setup sounded familiar. It’s an otherwise calm, unassuming morning. Briana’s alone and going about her day. She’s forgotten about an important opportunity amidst life happening and all that comes with it. And then an email.
“I look on my phone and I see that I have an email from Square Enix that I’ve been nominated for a Golden Joystick Award and it…like…my world stopped spinning again, just like when I first booked the role of Aerith…Immediately, I start tearing up.”
From routine to spectacular in an instant. From first-time voice actor to industry-recognized voice actor in what feels like a blink of an eye. Taking a page from the Aerith playbook, Briana allowed herself to live in that moment and fully take in the news in her Huntsville hotel room. Although, she’s not completely certain about what motivated the waterworks.
“You know, I never know with my emotions,” she says, trying to make sense of her reaction. “They roil around in [my head] like a big, ol’ emotional tornado…I completely had my nose down, focused on my work, and then it’s almost like you’re hiking up a mountain, and you’re focused on not tripping over the rocks at your feet. And then you get to the top of the mountain and you look up and you’re like, ‘Oh, this is so cool! This is why people hike!’”
But, ever the professional, the moment couldn’t last forever. There was a job that needed to be done and fans to meet.
“This whole new, wonderful, amazing thing has pulled my attention, and I felt very torn. I was so excited and so thrilled and so happy, but also, I had to do the rest of the convention…It’s very overwhelming–it’s a lot. In the best, most amazing sort of way.”
However, her future needs to be examined from two perspectives. There’s Briana White the voice actor and Briana White the content creator, aka The Strange Rebel. It’s a dichotomy with a unique symbiosis that, since her Remake journey began, Briana has fully embraced and is excited about.
“I’m a voice actress in video games and I play video games,” she explains. “Sometimes the lines are so blurred I don’t know where one begins and one ends.”
While she’s currently playing through Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on her Twitch and YouTube channels and is ecstatic about her natural positioning as a Final Fantasy content creator, she looks forward to opportunities to return to her variety gaming roots. Not for lack of appreciation but because, at the end of the day, she was a gamer long before she was Aerith. From the Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom to The Last of Us Part II to new installments of Life is Strange, she’s missed out on a lot of games that are near and dear to her heart.
“All of these things are very, you know, top-of-my-mind…,” she divulges, knowing very well that the list of Final Fantasy titles she needs to play is only growing. “I don’t know, one day, when that sort of settles down, I would like to get back to being able to stream all sorts of other games.”
Briana also admits to ulterior motives. For someone like her who skirts the line between passionate gamer and voice actor whenever she goes live, there are intrinsic differences between creating Final Fantasy content and content for other games. When the cameras are on and Aerith isn’t around, her inquisitive mind is free to mosey.
“…When I’m in a game, there’s so much that I’m not allowed to guess or even hint at being a possibility because people will think that I know, even if I don’t,” she confesses. “…But when I’m streaming a game I’m not in, theories go wild…I love that. It’s really cool when I get to stream non-Final Fantasy games because I get to guess. I get to play along with everybody else, you know?”
In the end, though, no matter how long her backlog of games gets, she’ll always choose Final Fantasy VII and Aerith. How could she not?
She recalls growing up and all those persistent voices cautioning against her commitment to acting. All the worry about her future. The insistence that she have a backup plan. While the advice always came from a place of love, this was her choice. With stubborn resolve, she stayed the course. And here we are.
These games. This character. They changed her life.
“I never could have imagined that my life would come together in this way.”
With her self-confidence booming, her 2025 convention schedule already taking shape, and her chats bustling every stream, you’d think this would be the happy ending. End article. However, similar to how Aerith’s light is most vivid and dynamic when contrasted with the darkness in her life, not all is perfect. Not in an industry where opportunities are few, rejection is rampant, and thick skin is required.
Briana takes a breath before laughing nervously. “I’ve done over 200 auditions for animation commercials, industrials, dubbing for video games, motion capture, just voice acting, localizations or full performance…I have not booked anything since booking Aerith.”
In the first interview, I referred to Briana as a ‘longshot.’ But as she’s proven with her booked trip to London for the Golden Joystick Awards on November 21, a longshot can still hit the target–all that matters is she keeps trying. That’s the takeaway from Briana’s journey. Whether she wins the Golden Joystick or loses. Whether she books another role or not. She won’t stop–no matter what.
“There have been moments where I thought I can’t keep going…But, for the most part, I am so much more concerned with what I want out of this very short life than I am concerned about being told no.”
Briana smiles as I look at the display of Final Fantasy VII figures and memorabilia behind her. There’s an entire shelf dedicated to Aerith. Aerith statuettes, plushies, and more. They come in various sizes but they all share Aerith’s signature pink and maroon. The same colors Briana wore when her casting was first announced.
“I want what I want, and I’m just going to try,” she says. “And if that doesn’t work out, okay…But I’m going to try to do what I want. And, so far, that’s landed me here.”
I believe her. We all should.
You can vote for Briana White to win a Golden Joystick Award for Best Supporting Performer by visiting the official online ballot. You can also follow her on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for updates and watch her playthrough of Final Fantasy VII Rebirth on her Twitch and YouTube channels.
Jeff de Leon is a freelance writer and journalist with expertise in feature profiles. You can follow him on X (formerly Twitter). Email for inquiries.
