Soap opera fans were thrilled when former The Young and the Restless star Emily O'Brien (ex-Jana Hawkes) joined Days of our Lives earlier this year as the mysterious and troublemaking new character Gwen Davies. But Salem isn't the only place where she's making waves. O'Brien is also making a splash in the video game world.
The actress took to Instagram with the news that she is voicing the character of Samira in the multiplayer online battle arena video game League of Legends.
"Incredibly proud to announce League of Legends' very first Middle Eastern Champ: Samira," the actress shared along with a teaser trailer of the game. "I am honored to represent my Persian ethnicity and share my Middle Eastern culture through this epic role. If you listen closely, you'll even hear me speak some Farsi during gameplay."
O'Brien is half Persian from her mother's side and half British from her father's side. She speaks Persian fluently, studied French and Spanish, and is capable of multiple British dialects as well as various other European accents.
O'Brien starred on Y&R from 2006 to 2011 and garnered not just one but three Daytime Emmy nominations during her time on the CBS soap opera. She made her DAYS debut in June as Claire's (Olivia Rose Keegan) friend at Bayview and is currently stirring up trouble with the DiMera clan, as the show's head writer teased in DAYS' fall 2020 preview.
In addition to her soap opera roles, O'Brien has appeared on television series like One Day at a Time and Love, Death, & Robots, and in movies like The Cloud, Iris, Pernicious, and Get Married or Die. She's also known for voicing several video game characters in games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, Batman: The Enemy Within, and Death Stranding.
What do you think about Emily O'Brien taking on another video game role? What are your thoughts on League of Legends' Samira? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
