Early web series Ray produced a
Batgirl fan series called
Batgirl: Spoiled (2012), in which she played
the title character. Ray's future husband
Matthew Mercer assisted on the project, which also featured
Taliesin Jaffe as
The Riddler. Ray later described the series as her
big break, as it drew a large audience due to the lack of Batgirl media at the time. She also hosted the web series
Super Power Beat Down which began that year with a race between two incarnations of the
Batmobile. She continued to host it until 2016. She joined
Mercer's home Dungeons & Dragons campaign in 2012 as Keyleth, a
half-elf druid. In 2015, the campaign began to air on
Geek & Sundry as the web series
Critical Role. Her character for the
second campaign was Beauregard, a human
monk. Geek & Sundry hosted the show until it went independent in 2019, part way through the second campaign. Ray was involved in many of Geek & Sundry's other productions during the period, including co-hosting
Key Questions, acting in
Sagas of Sundry, and producing
Signal Boost! She announced her appointment to the post of
creative director for Geek & Sundry on July 28, 2017; and her tenure saw the company reach its
Twitch subscription peak in January 2018. She stepped down from the position that June, when Critical Role began preparations to become independent.
Critical Role was both the Webby Winner and the People's Voice Winner in the "Games (Video Series & Channels)" category at the 2019
Webby Awards; the show was also both a Finalist and the Audience Honor Winner at the 2019
Shorty Awards.
Critical Role Productions After becoming hugely successful, the
Critical Role cast left the Geek & Sundry network in early 2019 and set up their own company called
Critical Role Productions. Ray became the creative director for the company. Soon after, Critical Role Productions aimed to raise $750,000 on
Kickstarter to create an animated series of their first campaign, but ended up raising over $11 million. In November 2019,
Amazon Prime Video announced that they had acquired the streaming rights to this animated series, now titled
The Legend of Vox Machina; Ray reprised her role as Keyleth. Ahead of the series premiere in January 2022, Amazon renewed the series for a second season which premiered in January 2023. On October 6, 2022, Amazon renewed the series for a third season. The
third campaign of the web series began airing in 2021, with Ray as the multiclassed
warlock/
sorcerer Laudna. Madison Durham, for
Polygon in February 2022, commented that "Ray has been instrumental in making Critical Role into the sprawling multimedia company that it is today, contributing as the creative lead for shows like
All Work No Play,
Exandria Unlimited, and more. In interviews and media appearances, the persona she presents behind the scenes is distinctly different from Keyleth's brand of awkward deference. Ray appears to command the room, regularly making difficult decisions that impact the entire organization".
A Familiar Problem, a one-page RPG co-written by Ray and Grant Howitt, was released in June 2022; it was published by the Critical Role Productions
imprint Darrington Press. Also in June 2022, Critical Role Productions launched a new
record label, Scanlan Shorthalt Music, to release original music inspired by
Critical Role and the
Exandria setting. Along with the label announcement, they released their first album titled ''Welcome to Tal'Dorei
. The new project is led by Ray and Senior Producer Maxwell James. In November 2022, the label released a second album titled Welcome to Wildemount''. == Personal life ==