Anyone who’s a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knows about April O’Neil. April was the turtle’s first contact with the human world, and the first human friend that they made. Depending on the version of TMNT and April’s skills, she ha💛s helped the turtles in various ways. No matter what, our favorite heroes in a half-shell can count on April to be there for them.
What I like the most about April is that she is proof that the turtles can be accepted by humans. There’s often this sense of prejudice that follow the turtles. No matter what our turtle brothers do, no matter how much they save the world🐭, it often goes 😼unappreciated. People will still see them as monsters. But that’s not the case with April.
April is the first human to look at these guys and not run away. (Granted she did initially freak out, but once she wrapped her mind around it, she was fine.) True, other humans do come along and befriend the turtles, but April was the first. She wa💛s the first to show them the human world isn’t a෴s bad as it may seem. She proved to be an incredibly valuable friend and became family to our turtle heroes.
Yes, we love April, but how much do we know about her? Since TMNT has been around for over three decades, we have a lot of material on April, and so many different versions of her to love. So here are 20 surprising facts about April that you l🌜ikely didn’t know. Think we missed some? Make sure to let us know in the comments below!
20 Are We Human? ඣ
Did you know that April actually isn’t human? Well, it depends on the version of her, but there are som🐻e versions where she’s not completely human. Well, April looks human, but the truth is that she’s actually something a little different.
In the original comics, it was revealed that April was a drawing brought to live through a 𒊎magic pen. When she found out about this, it took her a while to come to terms with it, but she accepted it. In the Nickelodeon series, April is mostly human, but also has some alien DNA in her as the result of Kraang experimentation. That’s why she’s got some crazy psychic power𓆏s. There’s also all the times where she was temporarily turned into something none-human, but I don’t count those since they weren’t permanent.
19 🎀 ไ She Wasn’t Always A Redhead
April’s race and ethnicity has changed a bit over the years with the different iterations of TMNT.꧅ Her most iconic look portrays her to likely be Irish-American, which explains her surname O’Neil. But early ve﷽rsions of April actually show her to be either African American or Latina.
The first images of her in the original comics show her with black, curly hair, and a darker skin tone. It was even said that the creators named her after one of the creator’s girlfriends, who was black. It wasn’t until the 1987 TV series that she was portrayed with lighter skin and reddish-brown hair, a look that became April’s iconic look. Interestingly enough, the most recent version of TMNT, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, has stated tha🔥t the character April O’Neil will be a black woman, and is voiced by a black woman.
18 ﷺ April The Vampire Slayer
At first glance, the franchises Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may not have a lot in common (though their heroes do fight off supernatural threats fairly often). But there actually is a connection✱ between the two, and it lies in one particular actress.
The actress who portrays Buffy, Sarah Michelle Gueller, also voiced April O’Neil in the 2007 animated TMNT movie. Actually, I can see some similarities between these two characters. Both April and Buffy are pretty tough women, they’re skilled fighters, and they aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty to protect those they care about. And both are friends with people that aren’t exactly human. And a crossover between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and TMNT would be abꦉsolutely amazing. Somebody make this happen!
17 💖 A Younger🅷 April
In most versions of TMNT, April O’Neil is usually portrayed as a young woman in her mid to late twenties. As a result, she’s a bit older than the turtles. Depending on the version, she often becomes a type of older sister figure to the turtles. But that all changed when Nickelodeon made the animated TMNT series in 2012.
In this version, April is actually 16, the same age as the turtles. That adds a rather different dynamic to her interactions with them and gives a new look at her personality. A younger Apri🍃l is a bit more temperamental and reckless. There’s also the fact that Donnie canonically has a crush in April in this version, which does make things rather interesting. Hey no matter what age she is, April’s pretty awesome!
16 𒉰 A Woman Of Many Talents
Depending on the version, whether it’s the TV shows, the movies or the comics, April has had quite a few different professions. She was a computer programmer in the original comics, a TV news reporter in the '87 series a♔nd the movies, and a she was a scientist in the 2003 animated series. A few ve♓rsions also have her owning an antique shop that she inherited from her father.
Her profession would often show what kind of a role she played in the story. In the versions where she was a scientist or computer programmer, she was usually helping Don out with his experiments and providing some tech support. In the versions whe💙re she was a r💦eporter, she often used her investigative talent to help the turtles track down enemies. No matter what, she was willing to help out her new friends.
15 🔥A Vigilante April Sounds Awesome! 🅰
Did you know that April was a vigilante at one point? Yep, she once donned a costume and fought crime as the vigilante called Nobody. Granted, this vigilante did exist already in the TMNT world, but it looks like April took up 🍃the𒐪 mantle for a while.
In the comics, Dr. Stockman tried to take his revenge on April by injecting her wi🉐th deadly nanobots. The turtles worked together to help purge them from April’s body and save her, but the whole experience left her sterile. April didn’t𝐆 take the news well and went off on her own for a while to process things. That’s when she became a vigilante. I guess I’ve seen worse reactions. Eventually Casey finds out and convinces her to stop. I have to admit, April as a vigilante sounds pretty cool. They should bring that back in the movies!
14 💜 I’m Hearing The Same Voice!
You may find the voice of April in the Nickelodeon TMNT series to sound pretty familiar. And for a good reason🌠. The voice actor for April in this particular animated series was Mae Whitman, who has voiced quite a few popular characters in cartoons.
You may know Mae best for her roles as Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Rose from American Dragon: Jake Long. She’s also voiced Cassie from Young Justice, and Heather from Dragons: Riders of Berk. But it doesn’t stop there: she’s been in many shows, such as Fillmore!, Johnny Bravo, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, DC Super Hero Girls, and so on. She’s also been in a few live-action movies like Independence Day and The Duff. Now that is one talented lady!
13 ꦕ This Costume Was Going To Be Very Different
Did you know that April’s outfit in the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie🎐 was ori🌠ginally going to have a lot more yellow? The director wanted April to be in a yellow jumpsuit, similar to the one April wore in the 1987 animated series.
So why did the costume change? The actress playing April O’Neil, Judith Hoag, refused to wear a yellow jumpsuit, and said she found💛 it horrifying. To be completely honest, I don’t blame her; I can’t see how a yellow jumpsuit would look flattering o🧸n anybody in real life. (also, yellow is really hard to pull off.) Besides, who wears a yellow jumpsuit all the time? So instead they had Judith wear a yellow raincoat at the beginning of the movie as an homage to animated series.
12 ꧂ ♐ She’s Got The Power
The Nickelodon TMNT series really broke a lot of new ground for April🎶 O’Neil. Not only did they de-age her a bit, but they even gave her superpowers. No, really, in this animated series, April discovers ꦗto have some psychic abilities.
It starts out as the ability for her to sense people and danger, but it soon develops into other abilities like telekinesis. April hones these powers further when she finds a powerful crystal that lets her focus her abilities. Unfortunately, she becomes൲ poss🌠essed by the crystal and nearly takes over the world, but the turtles managed to help her break free from the possession. I think it’s cool to give April some different powers, as it changes how she helps the turtles out on their missions.
11 ꦫ ꦿ This April Is A Big Fan
The news that Megan Fox would be playing April O’Neil in the 2014 live-action TMNT movie brought mixed reactions. Some thought it was great, while others thought she wouldn’t do a good job. Regardless of how you feel about Megan Fox, you may not know that she was actually a huge fan of TMNT growing up.
Yes, not only did she know about TMNT, unlike some other actors, Megan Fox is a huge fan. Growing up, her favorite turtle was Michelangelo. So, for her to play the part of April O’Neil was a huge deal to her. I’ll admit, while I didn’t love her performance (I think she’s a bit of a stiff actress), I do like that she has a healthy respect for the TMNT franchise and is a big fan.