Sarah Natochenny isn’t surprised by the hype as fans are rediscovering their love for the character – and she’s among the 7.5 million people hooked on the game

Even after 10 years of voicing Pokémon protagonist Ash Ketchum for television, Sarah Natochenny fondly likens getting the gig to “being struck by Pikachu’s Thunderbolt”.

As 7.5 million people worldwide are rediscovering their love for Pokémon through the wildly popular Pokémon Go, Natochenny, a Queens native, isn’t surprised at all by the fanfare.

“Augmented reality is allowing people to escape reality as someone else. As an actor, I see the appeal,” she said. “Ketchum is a great character to emulate. Humanity could use more thoughtful heroes.”

Natochenny, 28, was always a big fan of the television show since she was a kid, but playing the original game with cards was much more difficult. As an only child and a self-proclaimed solitary person she wasn’t so keen on the setup. But as for the app? She’s all in, calling it “a brilliant use of technology”.

“I’m a competitive person so I’ve been collecting and evolving five of my Pokémon, transferring them to professor Willow, strengthening my exiting Pokémon,” she said – sounding like a pro. “It’s perfect when I’m in a rideshare, you can get a lot of Pokéwork done in traffic.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Ash Ketchum holds Pikachu. Photograph: Associated Press

She’s even shared some of her tricks. To catch Pikachu as your first Pokémon, she said, to ignore the three starters – Charmander, Bulbosaur and Squirtle – four times and they will re-spawn with Pikachu, in an homage to the 1998 video game Pokémon Yellow, where the main player oversleeps and is stuck with the mischievous Pikachu.

It’s a hit with her fellow actors, too. Her castmates and director are all vehemently Team Mystic – calling it an unwritten pact out of solidarity.

But in some sort of cruel joke, no one has yet to catch a Pokémon at the DuArt Film and Video studio in New York, where the show is recorded.

Nevertheless, her reverence for the show has not waned 400 episodes later. “Booking the job was the most exciting moment of my life,” she said.



It was the most high-profile role Natochenny auditioned for, who was 19 at the time and was “terrified”, knowing she had quite the shoes to fill. She was replacing Veronica Taylor, who voiced Ash for 10 years prior. She was subjected to a lot of anger from fans claiming she stole the job.

She learned to emulate Veronica’s voice and wanted to keep the transition as smooth as possible for diehard fans, but the nasty emails were tough.

“I’m a sensitive type of Pokémon and those people are a destructive type of Pokémon who can ruin a good day, but when the pressure is on good work can come out of that,” she said.

Natochenny felt completely unprepared and wanted to do it justice, so she did her research. She looked into the “ridiculous and fascinating” world of Pokémon and its technical aspects and how they all related to each other. But as complex as the Pokémon world is, she doesn’t think the app is a passing fad, because there’s an evolution-like quality that allows users to continue to create a more elaborate Pokémon world.

“You’re building a small army, you’re investing in characters and going out in the actual world and socializing with actual people and that’s got staying power, especially in a world where people are afraid of each other,” she said. “It’s allowing people to gather and find common ground.”