Katy Townsend has been an exciting voice in the ears of a generation of gamers. From Call of Duty‘s Charly to Fallout 4‘s Cait, her lively and emotive voice acting draws players into the online world. With several of the biggest video games on her CV, it seems natural that she join the cast of Netflix’s epic League of Legends animated adaptation, Arcane, as the sweet-but-spicy Enforcer, Maddie Nolen.
We were lucky enough to chat with the L.A.-based Katy via Zoom recently. Life’s been rolling along non-stop for the talented actor and yet neither illness nor fires have dampened her love of her chosen career.
Disclaimer: The following interview contains spoilers for Arcane Season 2. If you aren’t caught up, you might want to do that before reading further. (And seriously, what are you waiting for?)
Katy Townsend, “The Cheeky Scot”
January 2025 was a traumatic time for L.A. residents, and it isn’t completely over yet. Fortunately, although Katy had to evacuate for a while, she was back at home by the time we spoke.
RELATED: Read our Arcane Season 1 reviews
The following transcript has been edited for clarity.
Diana Keng: How have you been dealing with the L.A. fire situation? Are you keeping safe?
Katy Townsend: I’m more worried about the air quality and then, of course, everyone that’s been so deeply affected. Everyone who lost their homes… oh my god, it’s horrifying. It’s horrifying. What’s amazing about L.A. is that whenever there’s a sort of tragedy here or a crisis, everyone just comes together in all different pockets of the city. There’s a lot of fundraisers, a lot of volunteering. Everyone’s willing to roll up their sleeves and help each other. It’s such a vast, gigantic city, and suddenly, it feels very much like a community during times like this. It feels much smaller than it is.
DK: 2025 has been a bit of a rough start for you, hasn’t it?
KT: I feel like it’s been one thing after the next. I was sick, and then I was sick again. And I was traveling, and when I came back to L.A. – cause I had to be back for this convention – I felt rotten. I felt terrible.
Before Arcane
DK: Did you watch the first season of Arcane and do you have a connection through League of Legends?
KT: I did not have a connection with League of Legends but I did watch the first season. To explain how I got into Arcane, many, many years ago, I auditioned for a short film in Los Angeles. [I was a] struggling actor who was going out for everything. Auditioned for this short, kind of queer short film. Didn’t get it.
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But then the writer of the film reached out months later and said that she was doing a staged reading of a screenplay that she had written, which she pitched as a queer Thelma and Louise road trip movie, and I thought, “This sounds really cool!” So, I did a reading with other actors for that. Just kind of as a favor, and y’know, it was an opportunity to read great material – [it] was a brilliant screenplay – for an audience of producers and industry people and stuff. But nothing happened with that film.
Serendipity
That was 10 years ago. Cut to 2019, and the writer, Amanda Overton, [pauses for effect and a giggle] of Arcane fame, writer and producer of Arcane, who was the screenwriter for those projects, reached out on Facebook and said, “Hey, haven’t spoken in a long time. I’ve been a gamer for years. I’ve heard your voice in different games, and I’m now writing this animated thing with Riot Games.”
She said, “I’m writing this character and I keep hearing your voice in my mind while I’m writing this character.” And I was like, “What? No way!” [She asked,] “Would you like to meet up? Would you like to come down to the Riot Studios to hear a bit more about the project? Would you like to see a pilot?”
I didn’t know anything about League of Legends. Went down to the Riot Studios. The guys from Arcane were still in a tiny building. They weren’t in the main building because it was sort of a bit of a side project at that point, Arcane. Went in there, met a couple of the other writers and team members. No promise of the role, right? It was just an introduction. She had me in mind for this role. I sat in a little screening room and watched the pilot for Season 1. It was just the most astonishing thing I’d ever seen. I just knew that this was something unique that the world hadn’t seen before.
RELATED: TV Review: Arcane Season 2 Act 1
That was my introduction to Arcane as a whole. Of course, when Season 1 came out, I was all over it. I knew it was going to be excellent but when I watched it, I was like, “This is just in another league of its own.”
Maddie Nolen
DK: Does that mean that in 2019, Overton was already writing Maddie? Or was she thinking of you for a different character?
KT: I think there was the spark of Maddie. They knew that they wanted to bring another female character to sort of ruffle some feathers. Disrupt that very sacred union between Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) and Cait (Katie Leung). [Although I’d screened] the pilot episodes, I still wasn’t guaranteed the role because I wasn’t a famous actor or really a named actor.
[I had] a bit of an advantage, of course: Amanda had written it with me in mind. I still had to go through the audition process with the directors and producers and stuff. The scenes that they used for those auditions were sort of fictitious scenes that didn’t end up in the final show. It was just them playing about with the idea of a character who Maddie might potentially be for the purpose of workshopping the character.
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I know it was down to myself and another well-known actor. I’ve been in L.A. and Hollywood long enough to know that when it’s down to you and a famous actor, usually you don’t get it. So at that point, I thought, “Oh no! This role was written with me in mind, and I’m still going to lose this role.” But when I got the call to say I got it, I actually got to call Amanda to let her know. And she was thrilled. I was thrilled. We still didn’t know who Maddie was, but they built the character around my likeness and around my video capture from the session, my pictures, my personality, and stuff. Most of my personality, I should say! [laughs]
Maddie’s Motives
DK: Did Maddie’s connection to Cait originally begin in a good place?
KT: I know that Maddie was a Noxian spy, and she was a Noxian spy from the beginning. The way these characters have been handled is so nuanced that I refuse to believe that it was just one shade of one thing. Maddie, like all the other characters in this universe, does multiple shades of multiple things. My opinion is [that] to say that she never had any good intentions toward Cait and that she didn’t have feelings… I just think that’s not true because it’s not human, right?
Throughout the different episodes, I saw a flicker. The way the nuance of these characters is handled by the animators was just incredible. There were multiple times when I saw flickers of pensiveness and remorse and conflict within the character. If you go back and watch it again, there are reflective moments where you think there’s a conscience there. You know what I mean?
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Getting to Know Her
DK: Did you know when you recorded Maddie’s first scene that she was going to betray Piltover?
KT: I did not. And that was a shocker for me. I was told she was this sort of fresh-faced, wide-eyed, Enforcer with an almost puppy dog-like infectious enthusiasm. [She] looked up to these other characters. Really admired Vi. Really admired Cait. All that kind of thing. I just had no idea. It’s unclear to me to this day whether they already knew at that point, and they just didn’t tell me.
Perhaps they didn’t want that to color my performance because no matter how good or seasoned an actor you think you are, information informs decisions. I’m glad I didn’t know because I think, on some level, that probably would’ve affected how I played it in that moment.
And bearing in mind, I had that [first] conversation with Amanda in 2019, started recording 2020. This was a long process. Probably a couple of years in, someone was like, “Oh yeah, she might be evil.” It was like a throwaway comment, and I was like, “Wo-wo-wo-woah, like what? No, my baby! No!” That was totally news to me that she was a Noxian spy and on Ambessa’s side.
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When I found that out, initially – I’ll be honest – I was disappointed because I had a really strong idea of who this character was, and to me, she was sort of pure and good and lovable and all those things. Once I recovered from the initial shock and started to accept, “Okay, well, this is who this character is now,” I started to really have fun with it because I thought, “This is interesting. There’s multidimensional elements to this character that I couldn’t have even imagined.”
Too Good to Be True
KT: It was really interesting and fascinating to see how the audience received Maddie even from the get-go. I don’t want to say she was a polarizing character, but there were definitely skeptics who didn’t trust her from the beginning. I did an interview at the time where… it was very difficult navigating those early interviews because I didn’t want to give too much away and I couldn’t reveal that Maddie wasn’t who we think Maddie is.
One comment I made in an interview was that it kind of speaks to the cynicism of the audience. If someone’s too lovely and too sweet and too good to be true, then we question their motive. Why can’t we just accept someone as being pure and good and true without questioning who they are? But of course, in this instance, people were right! [laughs]
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DK: If Maddie were turned into a playable character in LoL, would you sign up?
KT: Yes! Riot Games truly has been the greatest company I have ever worked for. I’ve worked for some great companies, but they are honestly some of the kindest, most passionate, loving people I’ve ever met at Riot Games, and you can feel it in every frame of the show. They’ve embraced us, the cast of the show, into their lives like family. I mean, we were invited along to their work karaoke night. They’ve been so inclusive with us and so kind to us.
If I had to work for one company and one company only for the rest of my life, it would be Riot Games. I’m such a believer of theirs. They’re just incredible people there. Geniuses and lovely, all the things.
Where Do We Go From Here?
DK: Is there a dream role you’d still like to do?
KT: An infinite [number] y’know! I never want to stop exploring this space and stepping into other shoes and other skins, and exploring the human condition in all kinds of ways. As an actor and a creative and a lover of storytelling, I’ll never feel complete and full. It’s an insatiable desire to just explore as much as possible, and I’m very proud of every single project I’ve done.
RELATED: Check out our Arcane Season 2 recaps
I feel really lucky to be in the position I’m in. I feel really proud of all my characters. Arcane has definitely been – and look, Fallout 4 was an amazing game; I’m blessed I’ve worked on so many things – but Arcane is truly the greatest I’ve ever worked on. I’ve had this conversation with other actors in the cast [where we’re asking,] “Well, where do we go from here?” And the team, too, at Riot, right? It’s such a masterpiece. What an honor to be part of that project. It definitely has been the gold standard.
That being said, I want to explore all kinds of mediums. Every day, new projects are catching my attention, and I’m like, “Oooh, I wouldn’t mind a cheeky role in that!” or to be involved in that. As long as I’m still playing and exploring, getting to experiment in this world of storytelling, I’ll be a happy girl.
Arcane: League of Legends is streaming on Netflix.
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