While Rockstar Games is creating buzz for Grand Theft Auto VI, rumours regarding the identity of its lead character, Lucia Caminos, continue to grow in popularity. Some of the most prominent theories include that New York-based actress Manni L. Perez is the voice and motion capture artist of the fiery protagonist. Even before the game’s first trailer had been released, the fans had been picking apart every detail in the hope of finding some clues.

Perez has caught more than just the acting interest of the gaming community. Her resemblance to Lucia and her background with Rockstar Games have fed the theories still in progress. Although there has been no official confirmation, the buzz in the online community is getting stronger every week.

Who is Manni L. Perez?

Manni L. Perez is most famous for her appearances in TV dramas such as Law & Order: SVU, Jessica Jones and The Blacklist. She received an Imagen Award for her role as Esperanza Morales in SVU. Notably, Pérez had previously worked for Rockstar Games voicing a small NPC, ‘Clubber 2’, in GTA V. This previous collaboration has given more credibility to the allegations that she is to come back in a much bigger role.

Many fans have made comparisons of Perez and Lucia and have pointed to similarities in features, voice tone and expressions. Comparisons between Perez’s past jobs and Lucia’s sparse dialogue in the GTA VI trailer have been made in analyses of her voice. Voice comparisons have been one of the main areas of fan-led investigation for Glitched.

In recent interviews Perez has spoken about the move toward voiceover and motion capture as part of her career—skills that are necessary in modern video game depictions of characters. This move of career appears to be in line with what one would expect for a person cast in a role as big as Lucia.

Fan response and online speculation

The speculation has also triggered an upsurge of attention to Perez’s social media. After the fans started piling in with questions and theories, Perez shut down comments because of the number of messages. The gaming community reacted by demanding proper interaction and discouraging harassment, as reported by the Times of India.

As much as the growing buzz is increasing, Rockstar Games has remained quiet, which is in line with its secretive nature. Until an official announcement is made, the fans will have to guess. For the time being, the mystery of the voice-over of Lucia Caminos is unsolved, but Manni L. Perez remains the superior lead.