Top 10 Lists : The Top 10 Voiceover Artists In Gaming

The truth of the matter is that it's difficult to find gaming voiceover artists that aren't famous at all for some other task as well. Most also do voices for TV shows or movies, and some -- like Nolan North -- also do some live-action acting. This list will focus on artists whose main claim to fame, though, is their voiceover resumé, and in my opinion, that is Nolan North's most recognizable career aspect. Nolan North is also a popular soap opera actor, but his video game credit list is far longer: he has lent his voice to nearly 50 different games. North got his voiceover start in the 1999 release Interstate '82. He took a handful of voiceover jobs over the following five years before shifting to full-time voiceover work near the end of 2004. Since then, North has given his voice to several prominent video game characters, including several voices in Everquest II, Hades in God of War, Sergeant Randall in Call of Duty 2, and the narrator in both Lost Planet games. North's most prominent roles, though, have been as the lead character Nathan Drake's voice in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves; and as Desmond Miles in Assasin's Creed. Nolan North also voices the main character in the latest Prince of Persia games. Judging from the increasing prevalence of Nolan North's roles in recent years and his incredibly well-controlled voice inflections, we can expect to see Nolan North in more and more title roles in coming years.

A quick glance will reveal that Bell's listing is significantly larger than North's, with good reason: Bell has been performing since 1957, and started his voiceover work with one of the earliest successful animated TV series, The Jetsons. Bell can be seen in cameo roles on Dallas, Three's Company and Star Trek, but his primary role remains voiceover work. His first game voiceover credit came much earlier than most other artists on this list: Michael Bell was ahead of the curve, giving his voice to the character Dark Fact in the 1990 Turbografix-16 game Ys: Book 1 & 2, a game that has recently made a reappearance on the Nintendo Wii. Most of Bell's roles are not quite as recognizable as North's Nathan Drake and Desmond Miles, but the breadth of his roles is astounding: he's heard in Warcraft III (Necromancers, Medivh), Diablo II (Nihlathak, Druids), Age of Empires III (John Black), and Lost Odyssey (Sed). Michael Bell's most prominent roles are likely those of Raziel in the Legacy of Kain series and The Fear in Metal Gear Solid 3. You might also recognize him as the voice of Drew Pickles and Chaz Finster on the Rugrats, or as Bruce Banner in the old Incredible Hulk series. Most recently, Bell has appeared Condemned 2 as the President, and will voice Alan Parker in the upcoming release Alpha Protocol.

One of the most recognizable voice artists of all time is David Hayter. Hayter is best known as the voice of Solid Snake in the Metal Gear Solid series, and while I'll detail his performance in the series on a later list, here it's important to note what his performance did for the series' success. The original Metal Gear Solid was one of the few true revolutionary games to hit the industry, and while due credit must be given to the game's gameplay, environment and graphics for that, a large portion of its success comes from its believable, twisting plotline. When a game hinges on the plot, it also hinges on its characters: and characters' believability depends on -- you guessed it -- the voice, as part of a whole package that expresses the character to the player. The character's appearance, history and voice all must match together perfectly for the character to be believable. That's where David Hayter succeeds: his portrayal of Solid Snake leaves such a distinct, cohesive picture of the character in the player's mind that it carries the whole series to a new level of believability. David Hayter is truly spectacularly talented -- the only thing keeping him this low on this list is the relative brevity of his gaming voiceover resumé, which entails only one other role (that of the Angkor Thom Guard in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem). But when you're offered roles in writing some of the biggest movies of the last few years (a screenplayer writer for X-Men, The Scorpion King and Watchmen), which would you choose?

One great way to guarantee yourself an ongoing role in voice acting, especially in video games, is to channel James Earl Jones and master a deep, menacing voice. We'll get to the most prominent actor of this style later in this list, but Quinton Flynn does a darn good Vader impression as well. You've heard Quinton Flynn's pleasant baritone in several games: as Isaaru in Final Fantasy X, as Croix in La Pucelle, as Tatsumaru in Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, as Scorn in Romancing SaGa, and and arguably his most famous roles as Axel in Kingdom Hearts and Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4. But what sets Quinton Flynn apart from the other deep voices on this list is his flexibility -- he's also known to provide a much wider array of talents, and you might be surprised to hear he also voiced Mr. Fossey in Monkey Island 3, Bickson in Final Fantasy X, Abyss in X-Men Legends II, and Spiderman in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Most recently, Flynn voiced the character Henry in No More Heroes (and is reprising the role for the sequel) and Venom in the 2007 release Spider-Man: Friend or Foe. You might also recognize him as the voice of Reno for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Jonny Quest on the Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Marcus Damon on Digimon Data Squad, and Iruka Umino in both the Naruto anime and its video game spin-offs. Flynn got his voiceover start late in life, but landed a starring role early as the voice of Timon on Disney's Timon and Pumbaa, and has reliably been chosen for prominent roles ever since. He's sure to be around for a long time, but with his versatility, you might never realize it.

What did I just say how a deep baritone is nearly guaranteed a career in voice acting? Fred Tatasciore is another popular voice actor that has mastered the art of that deep, intimidating snarl. Unlike Quinton Flynn and another artist mentioned later, Tatasciore's voiceover voice is more of a growl, and the roles he's recognized for reflect this: you'll certainly recognize his characteristic snarl as Damon Baird in Gears of War and as Saren Arterius in Mass Effect. His style has also won him roles as the nameless monstrous characters in several games, such as the ghost in Ghostbusters, the zombies in Left 4 Dead, and multiple robotic characters in the most recent Transformers games. Unlike Flynn, Tatasciore rarely plays the typically-voiced main character, and usually receive roles of a more monstrous nature, such as Poseidon and Typhon in the God of War games. He's most recognized for playing The Incredible Hulk in the game by the same name, a role he'll reprise in the upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. Sound familiar? He also plays the Hulk in both TV series and direct-to-DVD movies. You might also recognize his voice from Robot Chicken (where he shows considerably more versatility than other roles allow him to show) and Naruto, and can be heard as the voice of 8 in the upcoming Tim Burton movie 9, as well as the voice of Zeratul in the highly-anticipated StarCraft sequel.

Among all the voiceover artists listed here, Dee Bradley Baker likely has the most balance between his gaming voiceover roles and his voiceover roles for television. With a characteristically low voice as well as the versatility to switch it up, you probably first heard Baker in Michael Jordan's Space Jam, voicing both Daffy Duck and the Tasmanian Devil, followed by several roles (including Appa) on Avatar: The Last Airbender. But his most recognizable role to us in the gaming world is that of the title character in the Viewtiful Joe games, taking the role in 2003 and reprising it for two subsequent sequels. He also provided the voice of Eric Sparrow in the 2005 release Tony Hawks' Underground, the Gravemind in the latest two Halo games, the blobs in de Blob, and Nightcrawler in several different X-Men and Marvel games. In recent years, Baker has slid more toward TV voiceover work, with only one 2009 gaming voiceover credit (the voice of Numbah 4 on FusionFall). Instead you can hear him as the voice of Mooch in the recent theatrical release G-Force, as Klaus in American Dad and as all the Clone Troopers in The Clone Wars. But if you're from my generation, here's the kicker: he played Olmec on Legends of the Hidden Temple. Yes, Viewtiful Joe voiced Olmec (or should I say Olmec voiced Viewtiful Joe). That's more awesome than a barrel full blue barracudas.

Like Dee Bradley Baker, John Di Maggio's resumé features plenty of balance as well. In fact, his most recognizable roles, even to video game fans, themselves aren't gaming roles: chances are, you most know him from his role as Bender on Futurama. And if you're man (or woman) enough to admit that, yes, you do secretly watch Disney Channel sometimes, you may recognize his name from American Dragon (as Fu Dog) and Kim Possible (Dr. Drakken). What might surprise you are some of his prominent gaming roles. You've heard Di Maggio's voice on far more than Comedy Central -- he was both Wakka and Kimahri on Final Fantasy X and X-2. He was both Gilgamesh and Migelo in Final Fantasy XII. He was Kreese Kreely in MadWorld, Rhino in multiple Spider-Man games, Juggernaut in multiple X-Men games, and Sideways in Transformers. But his most notable role is that of Marcus Fenix in the Xbox 360 hit Gears of War -- Di Maggio takes the role of the primary character and somehow takes the "grizzled old marine" archetype that has been done to absolute death and breathes a bit of new life into it, and would also reprise the role in Gears of War 2. As with any voice actor that dabbles in different mediums, there's never a guarantee that Di Maggio will make another notable splash in the gaming voiceover world: but you can hear his more recent work in the Penguins of Madagascar TV series, as Aquaman in Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and as Hammerhead on the Spectacular Spider-Man.

Nothing could stop this from being a male-dominated list -- after all, the vast majority of video game protagonists, antagonists and pretty much everyone else are male. But two female voiceover artists do deserve the same level of recognition, and both are featured in this list's top 3. The first of these two is Jen Taylor. Taylor actually has one of the shorter resumés on this list with 33 games to her name and 37 voiceover credits total. My recognition of Jen Taylor, though, is based largely on how pervasively she has portrayed a handful of characters, and the impact that it's had on those characters' recognition. You have no idea how often you've heard Jen Taylor: she voiced Princess Peach in every Mario game from Mario Golf 64 in 1999 to her title role in Super Princess Peach in 2006. What we've found since then is despite the talent of the other actresses who have begun playing Peach (mostly Samantha Kelly) is that the voice of Peach as played by Jen Taylor simply can't be duplicated. Taylor's voice makes the character, and any other voice is simply another actress voicing Taylor's character. The same can be said for another Mario character: Toad is also voiced by Taylor, and although the new actress (again, Samantha Kelly) is wonderfully talented, the Toad we know will always be Jen Taylor's. In all, Toad and Peach comprise almost half of Taylor's voiceover credits -- you'll also recognize her as the voice of Cortana in the Halo series and Zoey in Left 4 Dead.

The second female voice artist on this list is Jennifer Hale, who has one of the longest resumés of anyone I've talked about. Hale began her career as a live-action actress, holding several roles in the early 90s. She received her first voiceover role in the fourth Quest for Glory game in 1994, and transitioned to doing voice work exclusively shortly thereafter. In her career, Jennifer Hale has voiced some of the most famous female characters in gaming history -- the most prominent is, obviously, Samus, for whom she provided the voice for the three Metroid Prime games. Her other prominent roles include Naomi Hunter in the Metal Gear Solid series; Trinity in the Matrix spin-off video game; Bastila Shan in Knights of the Old Republic; Sheena Fujibayashi in Tales of Symphonia; and Alexandra Roivas in Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem. The crowning achievement (well, in my opinion anyway), though, was receiving the lead role as the female version of Commander Shepard in Mass Effect, undoubtedly one of the biggest gaming voiceover jobs ever awarded. You can also hear Hale as Aayla Secura in The Clone Wars, Jean Grey in the X-Men animated series, and Cinderella in several recent Disney spin-offs. In total, Hale has provided her voice to over 100 video games and numerous TV series and movies, giving her by far one of the longest resumés of anyone listed here.

I mentioned at the beginning of this list that the rankings here don't mean much -- they're mostly just my passing whims and brief moments of thought on the topic, so it probably won't be a surprise that it's my personal favorite voice actor who's listed at the top. Fortunately, it's not total bias that leads to this ranking: Steve Jay Blum has flat-out the longest resumé of anyone I've talked about, even though Michael Bell -- the second-longest -- started a full 25 years earlier. Like many on this list, Blum does both TV and gaming work, but for him, gaming solidly outweighs his other pursuits. While his most recognizable role may be for his work as the main character in Cowboy Bepop, his gaming resumé is enormous and features many prominent roles. While other voice actors on this list are so different in different roles that they can't be pinpointed, Blum brings an incredible smooth, low tone to every role he plays. It's not hard to pick out his voice as it's one of the deepest that you'll ever hear, but somehow despite its recognizability it never takes away from the character he plays. His list of famous characters is enormous -- I recognize him here for playing Vincent Valentine in Dirge of Cerberus, but perhaps you know him as Jack Cayman from MadWorld. Ba'Gamnan in Final Fantasy XII. Or Ares in God of War. Or Orochimaru from Naruto. Or Zegram from Rogue Galaxy. Or Canaan from Xenosaga. Or Wolverine from nearly any Marvel game since 2003. Or, heck, Wolverine from the TV series. Or Roger Smith from Big O. The point is, Steven Jay Blum has one of the most recognizable voiceover voices in gaming, but still perfectly matches whatever character he plays, lending a fitting dark, brooding attitude to characters like Vincent and Zegram. You know Blum's voice when you hear it, but it always works in the scene just the same.

I really hope this list has made you go "woah, [character] was played by the same voice as [character]?!?!" as often as I have. Certain voice actors voices' are fairly recognizable over their multiple roles, and I'm pretty sure we all spend the first hour of a new game going "holy crap, where the heck do I recognize that voice from?" when it's just on the tip of our tongues. But as we've seen with some of the voice actors on this list, some are so versatile that you have no hope in heck of realizing on your own that two certain roles were played by the same person. Who among us would've realized that Viewtiful Joe and Olmec from Legends of the Hidden Temple are the same voice (or that any mortal could voice something as awesome as Olmec)? But lost in the awesomeness of these realizations is just how much these voiceover actors bring to their games. For any game with a plot, its believability hinges on the believability of its characters. It's success at this is why we still recognize Solid Snake as something more than just a video game character -- he's a gaming's equivalent of a literary icon. Without a focus on voice acting, you can quickly take a well-constructed character like Tidus from Final Fantasy X and turn his death into Dissidia's main attraction. It's not just a matter of hiring the right person -- James Arnold Taylor, voice of Tidus, does a great job with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Clone Wars and nearly every Star Wars video game. Instead, it's a matter of careful, thoughtful, and thorough recognition of the role of voiceovers in a game's success. It's about carefully choosing an actor, walking them through the story, giving their motivation and taking the time to get it right -- not just throwing someone in a studio to read some lines. The games that do this -- the Mass Effects, the Gears of Wars, the Metal Gear Solids -- can thank their voice actors for taking their quality and popularity to a new level of recognition.

List by DetroitDJ (09/16/2009)

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