Deanna Oliver

Although the 1987 animated feature "The Brave Little Toaster" is not generally attached to Pixar, it might as well be. Many key members of the Pixar animation team, including founder and guiding light John Lasseter, worked alongside Deanna Oliver on the movie. Her voice work as the lead character, Toaster, remains her best-known role, bolstered by its faithful adaptation of the source '80 novel by Thomas M. Disch. In the '90s, Oliver found her best fit via the '93-'95 animated series "Animaniacs." Her contributions as a writer on that show, for which she also did several episodes' worth of voiceover work, earned her back-to-back Daytime Emmy nominations in '94 and '95. A few years later, she returned to her Toaster role with a pair of straight-to-DVD sequels, '97's "The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue" and '98's "The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars." Early in her career, Oliver also inhabited the live-action world, appearing on individual episodes of such iconic sitcoms as "The Jeffersons," "Cheers," and "Night Court."