Erika Scheimer is an American voice actor born on 24 April 1960 in Los Angeles. She spent a significant portion of her career at Filmation, the animation and live-action production studio, lending her voice to some of the most widely broadcast children’s programming of that era. Her work spans a robot character whose voice was processed through studio electronics, moral-lesson tags heard at the close of an entire animated series, and a candid public account of her own life that arrived years after the shows themselves.
Key facts
- Born: 24 April 1960
- Birthplace: Los Angeles
- Country: United States
- Occupation: voice actor
Early work and the voice of Peepo
In 1977, Scheimer voiced Peepo, the small robot character in Filmation’s live-action science fiction series Space Academy. The performance was not a straightforward vocal one: her voice was processed through a pitch-shifter with regenerative delay, giving the character its distinctive mechanical sound. The physical robot prop on set was handled by a separate individual, John Berwick, who also supplied a live on-set voice used purely for timing and cueing during production. The voice audiences heard was Scheimer’s alone.
She-Ra and the moral lessons
Scheimer’s voice is the one heard at the end of nearly every episode of She-Ra: Princess of Power delivering the moral lesson, a brief closing segment that became a trademark of Filmation’s animated output. The role required a tone of calm authority suited to young viewers, and her delivery was consistent enough that it became inseparable from the series itself.
Coming out and public life
In 2007, Scheimer publicly declared her homosexuality in an interview with Terrance Griep published by Prism Comics. The disclosure placed her among a small number of people with deep roots in mainstream children’s entertainment who had spoken openly about being gay at that time.
A 2020 Men’s Health interview brought further detail about her years at Filmation, including her account of the character Prince Adam from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. She described Prince Adam as having been deliberately designed at Filmation as a ‘soft prince,’ and said it was a running joke among studio staff that the character was gay.
Documentary appearance
In 2017, Scheimer appeared as herself in the documentary Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. Her screen credit read ‘Voice Actor, Director, Filmation.’
Did you know
- When Scheimer voiced the robot Peepo for Space Academy (1977), her performance was processed through a pitch-shifter with regenerative delay. John Berwick operated the physical robot prop on set and supplied a live voice during filming, but only for timing and cueing — the voice that went to air was entirely Scheimer’s. (saturdaymorningsforever.com)
- In a 2020 Men’s Health interview, Scheimer said that the character Prince Adam had been deliberately designed at Filmation as a ‘soft prince,’ and that a running joke among studio staff held that the character was gay. (lgbtqnation.com)
Data sources
Data updated: 2026-10-30