Biography for
Daphne Blake (Character)
from "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!" (1969)

Daphne is the vapid but lovely member of a teenage gang that solves mysteries with a cowardly Great Dane in the TV cartoon series "Scooby Doo, Where Are You!" (1969) and its long series of follow-ups. These include other TV series, made-for-TV and -video movies and two big-budget live-action theatrical films in which Daphne is played by a flesh-and-blood actress (Sarah Michelle Gellar) alongside a computer-animated Scooby-Doo.

Daphne's personality is a blank slate on which viewers have drawn their own conclusions. She's a classic beauty (or at least as close to one as the Hanna-Barbera cartoonists were able to give us) with red hair, a purple dress and purple tights. Stefanianna Christopherson gave her a kittenish voice for the show's first season; Heather North followed with a pleasing but featureless characterization. Daphne's single attribute in the early episodes is that she is danger-prone. ("Danger-prone Daphne did it again!") Even this trait disappears by season two.

In more recent productions, the writers and cartoonists have given her more attributes, mainly those that can be inferred from her good looks; but a real personality continues to elude her. In fact, the more we learn about her, the less interesting she becomes. Once, the audience was given few clues to her life beyond crime-solving. She and her friends had a greater hold on children's imaginations when the gang was more mysterious than the mysteries.

Kellie Martin, Mary Kay Bergman and Grey DeLisle have each voiced Daphne in various productions; North has also continued to play the part into this century.