Catherine Lafond is a prominent French voice actress, born on August 24, 1945, whose career has left a significant mark on the landscape of anime and animation dubbing in France. Her journey into the performing arts began in her youth, leading her to leave school at 15 to study theatre at the Centre de la Rue Blanche and later the Conservatoire. She started her career as a screen actress, with her first film, L'année du bac, in 1964, and continued taking on roles in television and commercials for about twenty years. It was during a television shoot that a chance meeting with fellow actress Hélène Tossy steered her decisively towards the art of dubbing.

Lafond became a defining voice in French-dubbed anime during the late 1970s and 1980s, a golden era for the genre on French television. She is perhaps most famously recognized as the iconic voice of the femme fatale Magali, known as Fujiko Mine in the original, across numerous adventures of Edgar de la Cambriole, the French name for Lupin the Third. Her credits in this role span decades, including classic films such as Le Secret de Mamo (1978), Le Château de Cagliostro (1979), L'Or de Babylone (1985), Le Complot du Clan Fuma (1987), and later TV specials like Le Dictionnaire de Napoléon (1991) and First Contact (2002). This long-standing association made her voice synonymous with the character for French audiences.

Beyond this signature role, her work during this period was prolific and diverse. She lent her voice to other landmark anime series, including Princesse Sarah, Albator (as Diana and Emeraldia), Goldorak (as Phénicia), Cobra, and Ulysse 31. She also voiced the title character in the live-action series Zora la rousse. Her range extended to Western animation as well, where she was the voice of Jem in Jem et les Hologrammes and Susan Reed in Les Quatre Fantastiques.

Among the specific roles listed, Lafond brought life to Nonomura in the series Forest of Piano (Le Piano de la Forêt), to Moustik in the prehistory-themed series Wanpaku Omukashi Kumu Kum, and to Lise Hacquin in the classic story Nobody's Boy Remi (Rémi sans famille). She also voiced Odile, the sorcerer's daughter, in the animated film Swan Lake (Le Lac des Cygnes), and took on the role of Lonlon in Panda's Great Adventure (Panda no Daibōken). More recently, she appeared as the voice of Tante Charlotte in the Studio Ponoc film Mary and The Witch's Flower (2017).

While her on-screen acting career began to wind down in the mid-1980s, her voice work continued. After a period of relative quiet in the late 80s and 90s, during which she worked as a reader for a publishing house and later became a dialogue director, she returned to dubbing in the early 2000s. A major achievement of this later period was becoming the regular French voice of actress Julie Walters, most notably as Molly Weasley in all the Harry Potter films. She also reprised her role as Magali for new DVD releases of Lupin III adventures and continued to work on new anime series such as Fairy Tail and The Great Pretender. Beyond acting, Lafond has also contributed her expertise as a dialogue director, for instance on the animated series Bob's Burgers.