Nala is a fictional character in Disney's The Lion King franchise. Introduced in The Lion King (1994), Nala subsequently appears as a less prominent character in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride (1998) and The Lion King 1½ (2004), and as a recurring character in The Lion Guard (2015–2019) television series. In the original animated film trilogy, the adult Nala is voiced by American actress Moira Kelly. Young Nala's speaking voice in the original film is provided by actress Niketa Calame, while singers Laura Williams and Sally Dworsky provide the singing voices of young and adult Nala respectively. Nala is introduced as the daughter of an unnamed lion and Sarafina, the best friend of Simba, and ultimately becomes his wife as well as the daughter-in-law of Mufasa and Sarabi and the niece-in-law of Scar by the end of The Lion King. Nala becomes Simba's wife as well as his Queen Consort. Nala is also the mother of Kiara and Kion, and in The Lion King: Six New Adventures, she is the mother of Kopa.
Several years after Simba's uncle Scar has killed Simba's father Mufasa and taken the throne, Nala desperately ventures into the jungle to find help. Upon unexpectedly reuniting with a young adult Simba, whom she had long since been tricked by Scar into presuming dead, Nala encourages him to return to Pride Rock, overthrow his uncle and ultimately become king. As Simba's queen, Nala has a son, Kopa, an adventurous cub in The Lion King: Six New Adventures, a daughter, Kiara, whose story is explored in The Lion King: Simba's Pride and another son named Kion, who serves as the protagonist of The Lion Guard.
Nala is the most significant female character in The Lion King. As the film was inspired by William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, Nala is considered to be The Lion King equivalent of Hamlet's love interest Ophelia, although differences remain between the two characters. Many early concepts first developed for Nala were eventually abandoned, including a brother and father for the character, as well as her being romantically pursued by Scar. While critical reception towards Nala has been generally mixed, Kelly's vocal performance has been praised.
Nala appears in the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, first played by singer Heather Headley. The character also appears in the television series, with Gabrielle Union replacing Kelly as the voice of Nala. Beyoncé and Shahadi Wright Joseph voice the character in the 2019 CGI live adaptation of the original film directed by Jon Favreau.
Development Conception and creation Screenwriter Linda Woolverton conceived Nala "as part of a gradual progression ... which have driven recent public conversation about what young girls should be able to expect from their cinematic role models". In early versions of Woolverton's script, Nala has a younger brother named Mheetu, who enjoys joining her and her best friend Simba on their adventures. Pronounced "me too", the character's name references this specific personality trait. Simba was intended to save the cub from a wildebeest stampede, and Nala would eventually become responsible for protecting Mheetu from Simba's tyrannical uncle Scar. Nala also had a fox friend named Bhati. According to Woolverton, Mheetu and Bhati were written out of the film because their stories were beginning to distract from Simba's, in addition to the Mheetu-Scar subplot making the film too dark when combined with the death of Simba's father Mufasa. At one point, Nala also had a named father; the character was similarly abandoned. In addition, in another script, Sarafina (then named Naanda) was Sarabi's younger sister, and Mufasa was implied to be her mate, and thus Nala's Father. This implication was censored in the final draft as it would lead to incest between Simba and Nala as half siblings as well as first cousins.
Because The Lion King was originally conceived as a much more mature and adult-oriented film, Nala was intended to have been banished from the Pride Lands as punishment for rejecting Scar's romantic advances. This idea was to have been further explored in Scar's song "Be Prepared (Reprise)", during which Scar demands that Nala become his queen, but the musical number was ultimately cut from the final film because the scene was considered too "creepy". Matthew Roulette of TheFW believes that the scene was abandoned because of the significant age difference between Nala and Scar.
The character has a mother, whose name is never mentioned in the film; however, she is credited as Sarafina during the film's end credits. Asked at an anniversary event who Nala's father was after fan speculation, producers Rob Minkoff and Roger Allers suggested that they had "hoped nobody would notice," but that it would probably have to be Mufasa or Scar based on the behavior of real-life lions. Candice Russel of the Sun-Sentinel believes that Nala contributes to the film's love story – "an indispensable factor in Disney cartoon features" – in addition to convincing Simba to return to Pride Rock. It has been observed that, unlike Disney's three previous animated efforts (The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991) and Aladdin (1992)), the romantic relationship between Nala and Simba is not main plot of the film. Ella Ceron of Thought Catalog observed that "At [Simba's] return, she's not exactly the friendliest little kitten, either ... but is willing to overlook her own hurt ego in the spirit of their friendship. She believes in Simba, and doesn't understand why he wouldn't want to fight for his right to rule."
Voice and music The speaking voice of adult Nala is provided by American actress Moira Kelly, who had learned that Disney was auditioning actors for the role from her agent. Despite not being the directors' first choice, Kelly was granted an audition because the filmmakers were interested in hearing different voices at the time. Kelly believes the directors had been searching for an authoritative, warm voice to complement Nala's sensible yet nurturing personality. After attending a series of callbacks, Kelly was selected as one of two finalists. She was officially offered the part several months after her audition; Disney's first choice remains undisclosed. Actor Matthew Broderick, the voice of Simba, had already begun recording opposite a different actress who had been cast as Nala before she was replaced with Kelly. Broderick was not informed that his original co-star had been recast, and only learned that Nala was voiced by Kelly at the film's premiere.
The film's entire recording process was completed over approximately three years, during which Kelly's sessions were held in both the United States and Canada, while her co-stars Broderick and Jeremy Irons, voice of Scar, recorded in the United States and England, respectively. Each main cast member recorded their dialogue separately, which took Kelly some time to adjust to because she had grown accustomed to working with several other actors at a time on the sets of her live-action films. For The Lion King, a director would often take the place of another actor for Kelly to act opposite of. Vocally, Kelly decided to approach the role as though she were reading to a child, which she admitted is different than how the actress would approach a live-action role. Because Nala is a "very straight character", determining what kind of voice she would use for her was not a particularly challenging task. Additionally, the filmmakers would also film Kelly's performances in order to incorporate her own facial expressions into her character's design, the process of which impressed the actress. In her film debut, actress Niketa Calame voices young Nala. According to Calame's official website, Nala remains the actress' "biggest role to date".
A classically trained pianist and chorister, Laura Williams provides the singing voice of young Nala, which can be heard in the song "I Just Can't Wait to Be King"; the singer was 15 years old at the time. Meanwhile, singer-songwriter Sally Dworsky provides the singing voice of adult Nala, which is heard during the song "Can You Feel the Love Tonight". The lyrics of the film's love theme, "Can You Feel the Love Tonight", were re-written approximately 15 times, according to lyricist Tim Rice, who wrote the song alongside composer Elton John. At one point, the producers wanted the song to be a comical duet performed by supporting characters Timon and Pumbaa, despite the fact that John had originally composed the song with Nala and Simba in mind. However, John lobbied in favor of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight" being a love song performed as a duet by Nala and Simba, with which the filmmakers ultimately agreed.
When asked by Disney if she was interested in reprising her role as Nala in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, Kelly immediately accepted, joking, "Sure, you wanna do a third, fourth, fifth? I'm right there". In the case of The Lion King 1½, it took the actress only a couple of days to record her character's dialogue due to Nala's comparatively smaller role in the film; much of Nala's footage from the first film was simply reused accordingly. Elton John's official website cites Kelly among the film's cast of actors who "would grace any red carpet." Kelly's performance as Nala is responsible for introducing the actress to a younger audience. Previously, she had been better known for appearing in more adult-oriented live-action films at that time. In 2011, Kelly revealed that fans of the film rarely recognize her speaking voice as the voice of Nala, although Robert DeSalvo of NextMovie.com claims that the actress "has a ... distinctive voice that The Lion King fans will instantly recognize as the voice of adult Nala." In 2023, Kelly reprised her voice role as Nala for the first time outside of the animated trilogy in Disney Dreamlight Valley.
Characterization and themes A straight woman character, Kelly described Nala as a sensible and nurturing yet authoritative character, while Amber Leab of Bitch Flicks described her as strong, independent and intelligent. Occupying the role of the film's female lead, Nala is The Lion King's most important female character, who contributes to the film's "small romance element". Often identified as the film's second most important character, Taylor Orci of The Atlantic felt that "Nala is really the agent of change in The Lion King", dismissing Simba as a "rich, lazy boyfriend." Leab observed that The Lion King's male characters tend to "take the center stage" while "female characters take a backseat to the action." Lenka Křivánková of Masaryk University wrote in her thesis "1990s Hollywood Break-Away Hits: A Feminist Perspective" that she was not particularly surprised by the film's lack of strong roles for women because of its Shakespearean source material, dubbing the film "an old traditional fairy tale with all its traditional features", including patriarchy and monarchism. Writing for the University of Waterloo's Kinema, Vicky Wong believes that Nala reinforces the film's "take your place" motif, reminding main character Simba of his responsibilities. In his book Retelling Stories, Framing Culture: Traditional Story and Metanarratives in Children's Literature, author John Stephens credits Nala with teaching Simba about responsibility – "the lesson the hero must learn before he can become an adult".