When Lara Croft found her voice

If you think Lara Croft is fearless, meet the woman who gave her a voice. It’s 30 years since Tomb Raider launched and Shelley Blond still has the kind of nerve that defined gaming’s most famous adventurer.                      

She proved that at the 2024 BAFTA Games Awards, when guests were told not to wear political badges. She complied, but another guest wore a keffiyeh. “Production staff asked for it to be removed, but the person refused,” she says. “Embarrassed, they said I could wear the yellow ribbon – which I didn’t have. But I did have a bag.”

Emblazoned with the words ‘Bring Them Home Now’, she had intended to keep it out of sight but could now show it. For Shelley, whose husband Yaniv is Israeli, sharing the message was personal. “I was determined to make a statement and did so without being defiant.”

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That determination has been there from the start. Blond grew up in North London, performing in every school production she could find — from primary school shows to local stages — already certain of the path ahead. “My parents said: ‘Get your exams first, then we’ll help you follow whatever dream you’ve got.’”

The dream became Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, then an audition for Bill Kenwright and a role in in the West End — where a voiceover agent spotted her backstage and signed her on the spot.

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Voice work followed quickly — commercials, accents, presenting and recording for Disney — before a 1996 casting call changed everything. Shelley became the voice of Lara Croft — “and I loved it,” she says, slipping effortlessly back into Croft tones.

Today she is still in demand across television and voiceover — and the next generation is already on mic. Her son Aaron has narrated audiobooks and spent four years voicing characters in Thomas & Friends, while her daughter Luly records commercial voiceovers.

And at home, there’s a final twist. Yaniv had already spent hours playing Tomb Raider in Jerusalem long before they met. “He loved making Lara go ‘No, no!’” she laughs. “Now he just hears me say it at home!”