I want you to take a moment, think, and imagine what Meowth sounds like.

With its innumerable spinoff films and related franchises, it’s easy to forget that the original Pokémon anime series has been on-air for nearly 22 years now, and is still broadcasting in over 120 countries around the world. And over the course of its 1000-plus episode run, only one Pokémon has ever been granted the chance to speak, an iconic antihero with a goofy purr. Meowth’s is a nasal-yet-swarthy voice that suggests the runt of a litter, but one that’s seen some things you ought to respect. The character is captivating, and it’s the masterwork of the late Maddie Blaustein, a voice actress with a wicked imagination and an endless well of talent.

Blaustein was the rare actress who could voice old men, femme fatales, and eccentric wrestlers with ease. And if you’re one of millions of children who grew up watching Pokémon in the 90s, she may have been the first trans person whose voice you ever heard.

When I spoke with Blaustein’s former Pokémon co-stars, family, and those she inspired, many of them described her as “the most talented person I know.” Even as a child, her brother Jeremy recalls, Maddie was an incredible artist. He says she loved to draw and act, and had the kind of boundless imagination that made her jump at the chance to be dungeon master for their Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) campaigns.

“Maddie, being a big Tolkien fan and a genius to boot, was a great world builder,” Jeremy recalls. “She came up with her own language to a degree, wrote in runes of her own devising, [and] was able to illustrate everything and do all the voices in a theatrical way. Back then, D&D was all imagination. Maddie made it all magical.”

Before she took up voice acting, Blaustein worked for Marvel Comics in the 1980s as an editor and writer. In the 90s, she often wrote for DC Comics, and created a limited series called Deathwish, under the name Addie Blaustein, featuring a transgender police woman.

Kayzie Rogers, another voice actress with credits in over 750 episodes of the Pokémon series (including the roles of Wobbuffet and Axew), remembers meeting Blaustein at a “cartoon voice workshop” in New York. The two quickly became friends, and later, colleagues.

Rogers explains that she and Blaustein had known each other for a number of years before Maddie came out as a trans woman. “We got together for lunch,” Rogers says. “She confided in me... [and told me] she was a woman in a man’s body.” Blaustein also told Rogers that she was the first person she’d come out to aside from her ex-wife. “It was a very emotional meeting for both of us," she continues. "I was so honored.”

“There were times that I could see that this wasn’t the easiest thing for her to deal with — in her career choice and with her family. But she didn’t take it out on us, on her work, or on me. Instead, she came into work and tried to find ways to steal the show. And in many ways, she did just that.”

At the time, a small group of actors collectively voiced nearly all of the anime dubbed for Western audiences in the late 20th century, but most of their work was done independently. “We’d come into the booth and it’s the director, an engineer, and an actor, and the actors basically just pass each other in the hallway,” says Eric Stuart, the voice behind Pokémon characters Brock and James. Because Stuart also worked as a director on some series, including Pokémon, he was able to spend more time with actors, and it’s during this time that he got to know Blaustein. “She had an incredible range,” he adds.

In a eulogy written after Blaustein's death in 2008, Aaron McQuade, a friend of Maddie's, claimed that her decision to transition and come out to her co-workers was inspired by an episode of Pokémon. In “Go West, Young Meowth,” we learn the story of how Meowth learned to speak like a human: He fell in love with another Meowth, and decided to learn English and to stand upright to impress her. It failed horribly, and the female Meowth called him a freak. “Meowth,” explained McQuade, “was a human trapped in a Pokémon’s body.”

Stuart estimates that he directed Blaustein in over 300 episodes of TV, including eight seasons of Pokémon. “It wasn’t easy. I was one of the few people who followed what name and pronouns she wanted to use, and there were many, many times where people wouldn’t do it, or they’d forget, and it was hurtful,” he recalls. “There were times that I could see that this wasn’t the easiest thing for her to deal with — in her career choice and with her family. But she didn’t take it out on us, on her work, or on me. Instead, she came into work and tried to find ways to steal the show. And in many ways, she did just that.”