Original“ Dora the Explorer ”Voice Actress Wanted to Keep Role a Secret, Then Guidance Counselor Let It Slip to Her Classmates

Meredith WilshereSun, May 17, 2026 at 10:58 AM UTC

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Dora; Kathleen Herles
Credit: Nick Jr.; Manoli Figetakis/Getty -

Kathleen Herles voiced Dora on Dora the Explorer from 2000 to 2007 while attending school

Herles kept her role as Dora a secret, but was outed by a guidance counselor on her first day of sixth grade

She shared that classmates often teased her about voicing the character, though she believed it wasn’t malicious

Being the voice of Dora made going to school an interesting experience for Kathleen Herles.

Talking with Joe Vulpis on The Joe Vulpis Podcast, Herles, 35, opened up about how she balanced voicing the cartoon character from 2000 to 2007 while in school. Toward the end of her stint on Dora the Explorer, Herles noted that she was ready to move on, as she was "graduating high school and going into college."

When Vulpis asked her how classmates treated her, she said “50/50.”

“School was like a whole other whirlwind. I started off going to private school when I was living in Queens, and then we moved when I was in sixth grade, so maybe a few years after Dora aired, two years or so. Then we moved to Long Island," she shared.

Kathleen Herles attends 2025 New York Comic Con
Credit: Manoli Figetakis/Getty

However, before the move, she started going to a public school "that was right across the street from my house, because to pay for a whole year of private school didn't make sense."

"And when people started finding out who I was... you know, kids, they just make fun of you. I don't think there was any mal intent. It was just kids being kids," she said. "Like I'm the voice of a kids' show, and they didn't really understand what was going [on], so they would just kind of make fun of me or not think it was 'cool' or whatever."

The voice actress shared that she “didn't want to tell anybody" about her gig because, to her, "it was a job."

"And I love doing it, but I didn't want people to think I was telling them, like, ‘Hey, I'm telling you this so you can think I'm cool,’ ” Herles shared. “I just wanted it to be something that I do outside [of school] and for me and for my family."

When they moved to Long Island in the middle of the school year, she specifically told her mom, "‘I don't want anyone to know. I don't want to tell anybody.' "

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However, she had to "leave school early sometimes" to record, since the "trek" from Long Island to Manhattan "could be a lot." So, her mom then talked to the school and Herles' guidance counselor to explain the situation, but made it clear that the tween didn't want anyone to know.

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“My first day, the guidance counselor walks me to homeroom, and I hear her telling the teacher, but while she's telling the teacher, there's a student there, so the student hears everything," Herles recalled.

Dora The Explorer
Credit: Nick Jr.

Herles, who was more "reserved and shy" at the time, stood there stunned.

“I'm like, ‘Oh, my God, it's happening. It's happening,'" she shared. "What I have tried to avoid — on the first day, mind you, in sixth grade, and sixth grade is horrible. Middle school... I didn't love at all."

"And I'm like, ‘Why is this happening?’ So immediately the student goes back to the classroom and starts telling one person, who tells another person and that was the end of me trying to keep it a secret,” Herles shared.

From there, Herles noted that she was teased, but emphasized that it wasn't like "getting bullied," but rather just constant "annoying" comments.

Dora the Explorer, focused on the adventures of a young girl named Dora Márquez with her monkey friend Boots, ran on Nickelodeon from August 2000 to 2019. Caitlin Sanchez voiced the character from 2008 to 2012, and Fátima Ptacek took over until the show ended.

There was also a 2024 reboot of the educational program, titled Dora, in which Herles returned to voice Mami, the mother of Diana Zermeño’s Dora.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”