In 1984, Helen Slater became the first actress to play Supergirl in a live-action film. Then Laura Vandervoort played the character in Smallville. She was followed by Melissa Benoist in The CW’s Supergirl TV series and Sasha Calle in the DCEU’s The Flash. In 2026, we have DCU’s Supergirl movie, with the character now portrayed by Milly Alcock. But along the way, everyone seems to have forgotten that nearly three decades before, Nicholle Tom was the very first actress to voice Supergirl in Superman: The Animated Series.
The same actress who played Maggie Sheffield on The Nanny and Ryce Newton in Beethoven defined the character for a generation back in the ’90s. And while she wasn’t comic-accurate, many still consider Tom’s version of the character one of the best interpretations because she had a clear emotional arc that stretched from an isolated teenager to a confident superhero.
The first actress to ever voice Supergirl
Nicholle Tom actually voiced Kara Kent/Supergirl across three separate DC animated projects in the late 1990s: Superman: The Animated Series (1998–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1998), and Justice League. It’s a detail that tends to get buried under her other ’90s credits – which is a shame because she’s actually one of the most significant names in Supergirl’s screen history.
Her Supergirl in Bruce Timm’s animated series was, of course, very different from the others. Firstly, she wasn’t actually Superman’s cousin in Superman: The Animated Series. Because DC Comics had a strange rule about limiting the number of Kryptonian survivors, the writers decided to reinvent the character as Kara In-Ze instead of Kara Zor-El. And instead of arriving from a destroyed Krypton, she was from Argo, a sister planet in the same solar system. She was her planet’s only survivor after the Krypton explosion knocked Argo out of orbit, causing all the inhabitants of the planet to be placed in suspended animation. Superman brings her to Earth, where she’s adopted by the Kents, and he becomes a mentor to the teenager.
But as we mentioned, while most people remember this version of Supergirl, most audiences today only remember Nicholle Tom for her work as the awkward teen on The Nanny sitcom and the Beethoven movies.
From Beethoven to The Nanny
Born in Hinsdale, Illinois, in 1978, Tom broke through as Ryce Newton in Beethoven (1992) and its sequel, Beethoven’s 2nd (1993), before landing the role most ’90s kids remember opposite Fran Drescher, from 1993 to 1999. She’s the twin sister of actor David Tom and the younger sister of Emmy winner Heather Tom.
Her resume outside of those two franchises is actually a lot deeper than most people know. She’s appeared in Beverly Hills, 90210, Criminal Minds, The Princess Diaries, Masters of Sex, Gotham, and Survivor’s Remorse, along with a run of Hallmark and streaming films including Do I Say I Do? (2017), Rent-an-Elf (2018), and #Unknown (2021). Also, in 2022, she competed on Worst Cooks in America‘s celebrity edition.
So, yes, she’s done plenty of work in the industry.
What she’s doing now
Over the years, Tom has diversified beyond acting – even though she’s still very active (with 3 upcoming projects according to IMDb). She currently runs a YouTube channel built around personal projects and a planned video-diary series, posts regularly to an Instagram following of roughly 59,000.
With Supergirl back in theaters and now headed for a quick digital release, it’s a good moment to give Tom her due.
