“Red light, green light!” These four little words have become a hauntingly cute catchphrase known worldwide thanks to Squid Game, but the IRL voice behind the now famous line has much more to offer than laser eyes and Halloween costume inspiration. For 10-year-old Reagan To, voicing the Game Doll in the English dub of the Korean drama series was a whirlwind. “When I voiced Squid Game, they didn’t even tell me the name for the show,” she told POPSUGAR. “So I had no idea until my parents watched Squid Game and they realised that it was my voice.”
As a fourth grader, Reagan has steered clear of watching the violent show herself, but she’s grateful for the opportunity it’s given her to explore her acting range. “When I voiced [Young Seo-Hae on] Sijipeuseu: The Myth, I felt like the character really suited me,” she said. “It made me feel like I was a different person and it was really fun. I learned a lot about voiceover during that time. And after, when Netflix called me back for Squid Game, of course I said yes . . But the doll, that was a really hard character to portray.”
“I didn’t even know what was going on, but I thought it was a really fun experience.”
With instructions to re-create the original Korean voice of the Game Doll as closely as possible, Reagan nailed her audition and hasn’t heard the end of it since. “Red Light, Green Light” has become her catchphrase at school, and she and her family even dressed up like Squid Game characters for Halloween – yes, she was the Game Doll. But Reagan’s favourite takeaway from her time on the show was her behind-the-scenes experience with the crew. “It was really fun, and the people were really bright and they made me smile – they were really funny,” she said. “My favorite person to work with was [voice director Madeleine Heil] because she was really nice to me. During the violent parts, she would tell me to cover my eyes, or she would tell me to go on break. [My mom and I would] go outside and then [the director] would skip all the scenes to the next scene. Then she was like, ‘All right. You can come back in’ . . . So I didn’t even know what was going on, but I thought it was a really fun experience.”
But acting isn’t Reagan’s only talent. When she’s not at school or in auditions, she’s also a part-time model, baker, musician, and an award-winning ballroom dancer. Find out more about the talented 10-year-old ahead, and check out the rest of the Squid Game cast’s most famous roles here.
