The Incredible Gratitude of Inka Magnaye, Superhero
.jpg)
Inka Magnaye is a superhero. The voice actor, who gained popularity when she revealed herself on TikTok to be the voice behind the PAL instructional video, is the voice behind Khaji Da, Blue Beetle’s symbiotic AI. Raised by a family of voice talents—her aunt is the unmistakably iconic voice behind the MTRCB announcement we hear before every movie and her mom was the voice of PAL before her—Inka was practically destined to be in the recording booth.
Also read:
Blue Beetle Isn’t Filipino, But He Might As Well Be
Inka Magnaye's Younger Brother Is the Voice Behind Your Favorite Commercials
“When we were kids, my dad would make a game out of [voice acting],” Inka explains. “We would watch something on the television and he would mute it. He'd be like, ‘oh, let's make funny voices for these things.’ So for me and my siblings, it was just a fun Sunday afternoon activity. Who knew that years later, I'd be doing exactly that?”
Inka was surprised to get the email from Warner Bros Discovery, who handpicked her to voice Khaji Da in Blue Beetle’s Philippine release, but also not really. She had manifested this, after all. You see, one of her superpowers is turning her dreams into reality: “If you go through my Twitter from before, I made a tweet manifesting … number one, voicing over a character in a video game; two, voicing over a superhero, like in a DC movie. So I really wrote it down.”
.jpg)
Jaime Reyes (played by Xolo Maridueña), the Blue Beetle, is the first Latino superhero in the DCU and the first to get his own movie. It was a pleasant nod from Warner Bros Discovery to cast Inka as the voice of the scarab because Filipinos are basically the Latinos of Asia. Inka says proudly, “I’m the only one dubbing the scarab in the entire region. The other countries aren't even doing that. It's just me.”
Yes, it’s just Inka doing a localized dub of Khaji Da, but what’s amazing is that Inka doesn’t just think about herself, which might actually be her greatest superpower. “I hope that it trickles to everyone. You know, it's not just me. I'm not the only voiceover talent here. I'm probably the most exposed one, but I'm definitely not the only one. I am like this and I have these skills because I grew up around a network of really talented voice-over talents.”
“Everyone says, ‘Oh, you got it from your parents.’ Yes, but it's not just from them. Because I grew up in my parents’ studio and so many of these voiceover talents would always be there and I'd be hanging around them. I call them my titos and titas and I learned little bits from them.” Inka stresses this point, the important bits of her superhero origin story: “I'm not made of just my parents. I made all of these veteran voiceovers that I have met and worked with and I hope that the international outfits can see that there are so many wonderful talents that they can tap here in the Philippines too, not just me.”
There’s a strange irony in the fact that Inka voices an AI (she also voiced an AI in Start-Up PH) at a time when AI has been taking over creative work, a major sticking point in the strikes that have crippled Hollywood. But Inka remains hopeful, explaining, “I think that having the human element is something that AI cannot replace, like you can hear a voiceover and know that it's AI. But you can hear a voiceover and think that it's a robot, but it's actually a person. We can sound like people but also sound like robots that people think that is a robot. But robots or AI can never sound actually human.”
If optimism is a superpower, Inka has loads of it along with a generous dose of humility. She stops someone asking her a question prefaced with, “You are one of the most famous voices in the voiceover industry,” instead saying, “Could I correct that? I wasn't one of the most famous voiceovers before the pandemic. I just did voiceovers. And I became viral and then that's how people recognize me.”
Asked how the local voiceover industry can improve in the Philippines now that she’s in a Hollywood movie, Inka responds, “I wouldn't use the word improve. Because like I said, there are so many amazing voice talents already here in the Philippines. So I'm not in the position to tell them how to improve.”
Inka speaks of the voiceover industry with great humility and pride, “(The local voiceover industry) has been around for such a long time and it's already making big steps forward to help make all of us better at the same time, like VocAlliance. It's a group of really wonderful voiceover talents who started this to be able to share knowledge and we do workshops. If you're a beginner voiceover you and want to try it out, we share the knowledge and other experiences that all these voiceovers have been through.”
Finally, asked about her dreams for the Philippine voiceover scene, Inka brightens up. “You know how big voiceover talents are in Japan? They're celebrated like superstars! I want that for here. That would be so cool. Sinusubaybayan talaga nila yung mga roles like 'Oh, this guy voices this character in this anime and this anime, and this anime too!' … I’m getting goosebumps thinking about it.”
“They're invited to conventions and people cheer when they come out,” she says excitedly. “I want that for voice actors here because they absolutely deserve that recognition.”
Inka Magnaye is a superhero, the first Philippine-based voiceover talent to be part of a Hollywood superhero movie, and her real superpower is her gratitude.
