From small forward to Smallfoot.
Examples of Celebrity Voice Actor in English language animation.The following have their own pages:
- DreamWorks Animation was rather infamous for this during the mid-2000s. After Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy garnered critical acclaim for their voice acting in Shrek, Dreamworks tried to capitalize on this success with all their future movies. This resulted in the celebrity voice actors getting Billed Above the Title. Teasers of their future films would often consist of the celebrities talking about the movie, with little actual clips of the movie itself. They also tend to recycle actors for unrelated films. Eventually, Dreamworks would reverse this trend and become more selective in their casting choices, much like Pixar and Disney. As shown in the quote on the main page, Chris Rock actually ruffled a few feathers with professional voice actors when he joked during the Oscars that Celebrity Voice Acting is the easiest job in the world.
- Antz had Woody Allen, Gene Hackman, Sharon Stone, Sylvester Stallone, Jennifer Lopez, Christopher Walken, Danny Glover, Anne Bancroft, Dan Aykroyd, and Jane Curtin.
- The Prince of Egypt featured Val Kilmer, Ralph Fiennes, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sandra Bullock, Danny Glover, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren, Steve Martin, and Martin Short.
- The Road to El Dorado had Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Armand Assante, Edward James Olmos, and Rosie Perez.
- In addition to Myers and Murphy, Shrek featured Cameron Diaz, John Lithgow, and Vincent Cassel.
- Shrek 2 added Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Jennifer Saunders and Larry King. Joan Rivers also appeared in a cameo as, apparently, herself.
- Shrek the Third added Eric Idle, Justin Timberlake, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Amy Sedaris, Ian McShane, Seth Rogen, and John Krasinski.
- Shrek Forever After added Jane Lynch, Jon Hamm, Craig Robinson, Lake Bell, Kathy Griffin, Mary Kay Place, and Kristen Schaal.
- Puss in Boots (2011) added Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, and even Guillermo del Toro (in a non-directing role).
- Puss in Boots: The Last Wish added Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, John Mulaney, and Wagner Moura.
- Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron had Matt Damon and James Cromwell.
- Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas had Brad Pitt, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Michelle Pfeiffer, Joseph Fiennes, and Dennis Haysbert.
- Shark Tale had Will Smith, Robert De Niro, Renée Zellweger, Jack Black, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese, Michael Imperioli, Vincent Pastore, and Peter Falk.
- Madagascar had Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Sacha Baron Cohen, Cedric the Entertainer, and Andy Richter.
- Over the Hedge had Bruce Willis, Garry Shandling, Steve Carell, Wanda Sykes, Eugene Levy, Catherine O'Hara, William Shatner, Avril Lavigne, Nick Nolte, Allison Janney, and Thomas Haden Church.
- Bee Movie had Jerry Seinfeld, Renée Zellweger, Matthew Broderick, John Goodman, Chris Rock, Kathy Bates, Patrick Warburton, Oprah Winfrey and Larry Miller, with Ray Liotta and Sting playing themselves.
- Kung Fu Panda had Jack Black, Ian McShane, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie, Lucy Liu, Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, David Cross, Dan Fogler, James Hong, and Michael Clarke Duncan.
- Kung Fu Panda 2 added Gary Oldman, Michelle Yeoh, Danny McBride, and Jean-Claude Van Damme.
- Kung Fu Panda 3 added Bryan Cranston, J. K. Simmons, and Kate Hudson.
- Monsters vs. Aliens had Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Paul Rudd, Jeffrey Tambor, Julie White, Renée Zellweger, and John Krasinski.
- How to Train Your Dragon had Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Jonah Hill, T.J. Miller, Kristen Wiig, and David Tennant.
- Megamind had Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Justin Theroux, Jonah Hill, David Cross, Brad Pitt, Ben Stillernote , and J. K. Simmons.
- Rise of the Guardians had Chris Pine, Jude Law, Alec Baldwin, Hugh Jackman, and Isla Fisher.
- The Croods had Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone, Ryan Reynolds, Catherine Keener, Clark Duke, and Cloris Leachman.
- Turbo had Ryan Reynolds, Paul Giamatti, Michael Peña, Snoop Dogg, Maya Rudolph, Michelle Rodriguez, Samuel L. Jackson, Bill Hader, Luis Guzman, Ken Jeong, Ben Schwartz, and Richard Jenkins.
- Mr. Peabody & Sherman had Ty Burrell, Stephen Colbert, Leslie Mann, Allison Janney, Patrick Warburton, Lake Bell, Stephen Tobolowsky, Mel Brooks, and Stanley Tucci.
- Home had Jim Parsons, Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and Steve Martin.
- Trolls had Justin Timberlake, Anna Kendrick, Zooey Deschanel, Gwen Stefani, James Corden, Christine Baranski, Russell Brand, Jeffrey Tambor, and Icona Pop.
- The Boss Baby had Alec Baldwin, Tobey Maguire, Steve Buscemi, Lisa Kudrow, and Jimmy Kimmel.
- The Boss Baby: Family Business adds James Marsden, Amy Sedaris, Jeff Goldblum and Eva Longoria.
- Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie had Kevin Hart, Thomas Middleditch, Ed Helms, Nick Kroll, and Jordan Peele.
- Abominable had Chloe Bennet, Eddie Izzard, and Sarah Paulson.
- The Bad Guys had Sam Rockwell, Marc Maron, Craig Robinson, Anthony Ramos, Awkwafina, Zazie Beetz, Richard Ayoade, and Alex Borstein.
- Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken had Lana Condor, Toni Collette, Annie Murphy, Sam Richardson, Will Forte, Colman Domingo, Internet celebrity Jaboukie Young-White, Eduardo Franco, Ramona Young, Echo Kellum, Nicole Byer, and Jane Fonda.
- Pixar doesn't do this as blatantly as DreamWorks, but they are still very guilty of this trope. All of Pixar's films have a cast of familiar faces much better known for on-camera work, assuming they've done any animation at all (beyond Simpsons appearances). Their only adult lead actor to date with extensive voice acting experience is Ed Asner as Carl Fredricksen in Up, and even he is no stranger to live-action, as well as Richard Kind, who played Tom in Tom and Jerry: The Movie but mostly does live-action roles. They manage to avoid flack for this by emphasizing suitability over celebrity; it also helps that their films' advertising doesn't put much, if any, focus on their choice of voice actors. Likewise, the actors who get major roles in Pixar films are usually more well-known and highly respected character actors, rather than up-and-coming celebs or pop stars cast purely to get uninterested audiences into theater seats.
- Toy Story had Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, Erik von Detten and Laurie Metcalf.
- Toy Story 2 added Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Estelle Harris, Wayne Knight and Jodi Benson.
- Toy Story 3 added Ned Beatty, Michael Keaton, Whoopi Goldberg, Timothy Dalton, Kristen Schaal, Bonnie Hunt and Jeff Garlin.
- Toy Story 4 added Tony Hale, Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Christina Hendricks, Keanu Reeves, Ally Maki and Jay Hernandez.
- Lightyear added Chris Evans, Keke Palmer, Taika Waititi, Uzo Aduba, James Brolin and Efren Ramirez.
- A Bug's Life had Dave Foley, Kevin Spacey, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phyllis Diller, Denis Leary, David Hyde Pierce, Hunt, Madeline Kahn and Brad Garrett. Hayden Panettiere is a subversion as this was her first role in a major film.
- Monsters, Inc. had John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly, Frank Oz and Hunt.
- Finding Nemo had Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Willem Dafoe, Geoffrey Rush, Barry Humphries, Garrett, Elizabeth Perkins, Allison Janney, Vicki Lewis and Austin Pendleton.
- Finding Dory added Ed O'Neill, Kaitlin Olson, Ty Burrell, Diane Keaton, Eugene Levy, Dominic West and Idris Elba.
- The Incredibles had Craig T. Nelson, Holly Hunter, Sarah Vowell, Jason Lee, Samuel L. Jackson and Elizabeth Peña.
- Incredibles 2 added Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Sophia Bush and Jonathan Banks.
- Cars had Owen Wilson, Paul Newman, Hunt, Larry the Cable Guy, Keaton, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, Paul Dooley, Katherine Helmond and George Carlin.
- Cars 2 added Michael Caine, Emily Mortimer, John Turturro, Thomas Kretschmann, Eddie Izzard, Joe Mantegna, Bruce Campbell and Jason Isaacs.
- Cars 3 added Cristela Alonzo, Chris Cooper, Armie Hammer, Fillion and Kerry Washington.
- Ratatouille had Patton Oswalt, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Garrett, Peter O'Toole, Brian Dennehy and Will Arnett.
- WALL•E had Garlin, Fred Willardnote , Kathy Najimy and Sigourney Weaver.
- Up had Asner and Christopher Plummer.
- Brave had Kelly Macdonald, Emma Thompson, Billy Connolly, Julie Walters, Robbie Coltrane, Kevin McKidd and Craig Ferguson.
- Inside Out had Amy Poehler, Kind, Bill Hader, Mindy Kaling, Lewis Black, Diane Lane and Kyle MacLachlan.
- The Good Dinosaur had Sam Elliott, Anna Paquin, A.J. Buckley, Steve Zahn, Jeffrey Wright and Frances McDormand.
- Coco had Gael García Bernal, Benjamin Bratt, Alanna Ubach and Edward James Olmos.
- Onward had Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Louis-Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Lena Waithe and Ali Wong.
- Soul had Jamie Foxx, Tina Fey, Graham Norton, Rachel House, Alice Braga, Richard Ayoade and Phylicia Rashad.
- Luca had Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Maya Rudolph and Jim Gaffigan.
- Turning Red only had Sandra Oh, Wai Ching Ho and James Hong.
- Elemental had Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie, Catherine O'Hara and Joe Pera.
- Toy Story had Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Don Rickles, Jim Varney, Wallace Shawn, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, Erik von Detten and Laurie Metcalf.
- The Disney Animated Canon has a long history of casting well-known musicians, singers, radio personalities, and stage and vaudville actors in their films. With the odd exception here or there they didn't really start to branch out into filmed celebrities until Jeffrey Katzenberg took control of Disney animation in the mid 1980s (tellingy, Katzenberg would leave Disney to create the above-mentioned DreamWorks Animation in the mid 1990s). To this day they continue to use singers, musicians, and Broadway stars in their movies, in addition to film and television stars.
- An Unbuilt example: film and vaudeville star Billy Gilbert was cast as Sneezy in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Unlike later examples he was not cast for his star power but rather for his comedic sneezing routines, making this more of a Casting Gag than anything else.
- Quite possibly the Ur-Example of this trope as we know it was Pinocchio (1940), which cast popular musician Cliff "Ukelele Ike" Edwards as Jiminy Cricket for the singer's star power. The character proved so popular that Edwards returned to voice him in the film Fun and Fancy Free (1947), as well as in the 1950s version of The Mickey Mouse Club and several short educational films around that time (the I'm No Fool and You Are A Human Animal series).
- An interesting case with Saludos Amigos: José "Zé Carioca" Oliveira was a minor pop star before the release of the film in his native Brazil, but the film ended up being his Star-Making Role. By the time the sequel The Three Caballeros was released, he was a full-fledged celebrity in his home country. Caballeros also featured famous Mexican singer, actor, and radio performer Joaquin Garay.
- Fun and Fancy Free (1947): actress Dinah Shore narrated the Bongo segment, while Billy Gilbert voiced Willie the Giant in the Mickey and the Beanstalk segment (in a more straight example of this trope than his appearance in Snow White). As mentioned above, Edwards reprises his role as Jiminy Cricket here as well. Edgar Bergen aditionally narrated the Beanstalk segment, though he appeared in live action Framing Device segments for the short as well.
- Two examples from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949): Basil Rathbone provided the narration for The Wind in the Willows segment, and Bing Crosby voiced all of the main male characters in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow segment.
- Alice in Wonderland (1951) cast radio personalities Jerry Colonna and Ed Wynn as the March Hare and the Mad Hatter, respectively.
- Peter Pan (1953) had noted child star Bobby Driscoll as the title character, along with radio performers Hans Conried and Bill Thompson as Captain Hook and Smee, respectively, though the latter has done plenty of voice work beforehand.
- Lady and the Tramp (1955) cast singer and actress Peggy Lee as Darling, Si, Am, and Peg. Lee also co-wrote the film's songs.
- The 1967 feature The Jungle Book had voice work by Phil Harris, Sebastian Cabot, George Sanders, and jazz musician Louis Prima. Harris did such a memorable job as Baloo the bear that he went on to voice Thomas O'Malley in The Aristocats and Little John in Robin Hood (1973).
- In addition to Harris, Robin Hood (1973) also had Peter Ustinov as Prince John and Terry-Thomas as Sir Hiss.
- Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor in The Rescuers (1977) and its sequel The Rescuers Down Under (1990). Gabor had previously voiced the female lead in The Aristocats as well. Radio and vaudville personality Jim Jordan also appeared in Rescuers.
- The Rescuers Down Under also had John Candy as the Plucky Comic Relief and George C. Scott as the Big Bad.
- Mickey Rooney and Kurt Russell voiced the title characters in 1981's The Fox and the Hound. Sandy Duncan and Jack Albertson were also in the film.
- John Hurt, Nigel Hawthorne and John Byner in The Black Cauldron (1985).
- Vincent Price in The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
- 1988's Oliver & Company was the first Disney animated film to feature an All-Star Cast, with Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Joey Lawrence, Natalie Gregory, Cheech Marin, Robert Loggia, Richard Mulligan, Roscoe Lee Browne, Sheryl Lee Ralph, and Dom De Luise all providing vocals. It should be noted that De Luise had done some voice acting roles for Don Bluth at this point, so he wasn't entirely new to it.
- The Little Mermaid (1989) featured Kenneth Mars, Pat Carroll, Buddy Hackett, Samuel E. Wright, and René Auberjonois.
- 1991's Beauty and the Beast had Robby Benson, Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, and David Ogden Stiers. Tony Jay, a noted voice actor in his own right, was also brought in for a bit part because of his role as Paracelcus in the 1987 live-action TV series.
- Disney's first real mega-hit with this trope was Robin Williams' role as the Genie in 1992's Aladdin, and they haven't really stopped since. Somewhat inverted with Iago as he was Gilbert Gottfried's Star-Making Role and became a Celebrity Voice Actor subsequently. Though it should be noted that Scott Weinger (Aladdin), Linda Larkin (Jasmine), Jonathan Freeman (Jafar), and Douglas Seale (the Sultan) aren't exactly no-names.
- Later on, Aladdin: The Return of Jafar included Jason Alexander, and Aladdin and the King of Thieves included John Rhys-Davies and Jerry Orbach (as well as Robin Williams, who returned as the Genie after having ceded the role to Dan Castellaneta for Jafar and the animated series).
- 1994's The Lion King featured the voices of James Earl Jones, Jeremy Irons, Robert Guillaume, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Matthew Broderick, Whoopi Goldberg, Nathan Lane, Rowan Atkinson, Moira Kelly, Cheech Marin, Madge Sinclair... it would be shorter to list who wasn't a big-name actor in the cast.
- The 2019 remake, while not part of the Canon, featured the voices of Donald Glover, Seth Rogen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Alfre Woodard, Billy Eichner, John Kani, John Oliver, Beyoncé and James Earl Jones, the last of them reprising his role.
- Pocahontas had Mel Gibson, who was probably the biggest name that Disney had ever gotten to voice one of their characters (in 1995, mind you). Christian Bale is a borderline example. He was a notable child star at the time but he had not yet achieved his massive worldwide fame. Scottish comedian Billy Connolly likewise has a role, and this was in the midst of his career in the US taking off.
- 1996's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, with Demi Moore as the female lead and Kevin Kline as her love interest. Notable in that, at the time of her casting, Moore became the highest paid voice actress in history, having earned $10 million for her voice work in the film. The film also included Tom Hulce as the title character, as well as supporting roles from Jason Alexander, Charles Kimbrough, and Mary Wickes (in her last movie role).
- 1997's Hercules had Rip Torn, Danny DeVito, Bobcat Goldthwait and James Woods. Tate Donovan wouldn't become well-known for his live action work until long afterwards.
- Ming-Na Wen, Eddie Murphy, B.D. Wong, Harvey Fierstein, Miguel Ferrer, George Takei and Pat Morita in 1998's Mulan.
- Tony Goldwyn, Minnie Driver, Rosie O'Donnell, Wayne Knight, Lance Henriksen, Glenn Close, Nigel Hawthorne, and BRIAN BLESSED in Tarzan (1999).
- The Emperor's New Groove featured David Spade, John Goodman, Eartha Kitt, Patrick Warburton, and Wendie Malick. This was Goodman's first voice job since 1993's We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story, while by 2000 Warburton was already a voice actor in his own right.
- Michael J. Fox voiced the main character in 2001's Atlantis: The Lost Empire, along with James Garner, Jim Varney, John Mahoney, and Leonard Nimoy in supporting roles. However, this trope is subverted by Princess Kida, voiced by veteran voice actor Cree Summer.
- The All-Star Cast of Daveigh Chase, Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames, David Ogden Stiers, Kevin McDonald, Jason Scott Lee, and Zoe Caldwell in 2002's Lilo & Stitch.
- Treasure Planet (2002) had an All-Star Cast of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Brian Murray, Emma Thompson, David Hyde Pierce, Martin Short, Michael Wincott, Laurie Metcalf, and Roscoe Lee Browne.
- Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas (both of SCTV fame) in Brother Bear (2003).
- Roseanne Barr, Judi Dench, Jennifer Tilly, Cuba Gooding Jr., Randy Quaid and Steve Buscemi in 2004's Home on the Range.
- 2005's Chicken Little had Zach Braff, Steve Zahn, Joan Cusack, Garry Marshall, Amy Sedaris, Don Knotts, Catherine O'Hara and Wallace Shawn, with Patrick Stewart and Adam West in cameos.
- 2007's Meet the Robinsons had Angela Bassett, Metclaf, Adam West and Tom Selleck.
- 2008's Bolt had John Travolta voicing the titular character, though he blended in so well that you really couldn't tell it was him. Miley Cyrus was also in the film as Penny, re-recording all of the dialog previously recorded by Chloë Grace Moretz except for the very first scene where she's younger. Moretz herself is not an example, however, as she had yet to become famous as a live action actress.
- 2009's The Princess and the Frog featured Keith David, John Goodman, Oprah Winfrey and Terrence Howard. At the time of the film's release, Anika Noni Rose was a prolific Broadway actress and had received a decent amount of recognition for her supporting role in the film adaptation of Dreamgirls, but this was her first leading role in a feature film.
- 2010's Tangled had singer/songwriter Mandy Moore as Rapunzel and Zachary Levi as Flynn Rider. Brad Garrett, Jeffrey Tambor and Ron Perlman also provide voices. Donna Murphy was a prolific Broadway actress at the time, but was not particularly known for any screen roles.
- Mostly averted in the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film. Other than John Cleese as The Narrator and Craig Ferguson as Owl, nearly the entire cast consists of professional voice actors (including some big names like Jim Cummings and Tom Kenny), in keeping with the approach of the company's previous Pooh productions.
- 2012's Wreck-It Ralph featured the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Alan Tudyknote , Mindy Kaling, and Jane Lynch.
- 2013's Frozen has Kristen Bell, but also features a number of Broadway superstars, including Idina Menzel of Wicked, Jonathan Groff of Spring Awakening, Josh Gad of The Book of Mormon, and Santino Fontana of Cinderella (Rodgers and Hammerstein). So, non-traditional celebrity voice actors, but celebrity voice actors nonetheless.
- Scott Adsit, T.J. Miller, Jamie Chung, Damon Wayans Jr., Maya Rudolph, and James Cromwell in Big Hero 6 (2014).
- 2016's Zootopia has Jason Bateman, Ginnifer Goodwin, Idris Elba, J. K. Simmons, Jenny Slate, Bonnie Hunt, Tommy Chong, Octavia Spencer and Shakira.
- 2016's Moana has The Rock, Temuera Morrison, Nicole Scherzinger, Rachel House and Jemaine Clement of Flight of the Conchords fame.
- 2018's Ralph Breaks the Internet has Gal Gadot, Taraji P. Henson, and Alfred Molina voicing new characters, along with Reilly, Silverman, McBrayer and Lynch returning to voice their characters.
- Frozen II (2019) had Bell and most of the first film's Broadway cast returning, but also featured more traditional examples of this trope with film and television actors Alfred Molina, Evan Rachel Wood, and Sterling K. Brown.
- 2021's Raya and the Last Dragon has Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, and Lucille Soong.
- 2021's Encanto has Stephanie Beatriz, Diane Guerrero, Wilmer Valderrama, Rhenzy Feliz, and John Leguizamo.
- 2022's Strange World has Jake Gyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Gabrielle Union, Lucy Liu, and Dennis Quaid.
- Disney also does this outside of the Canon, as shown with their English dubs of Hayao Miyazaki's films - which often cast Disney Channel Kid Com regulars for young protagonists, and Hollywood actors for adult roles - and the Kingdom Hearts series (though the latter also employs many regular voice actors as well, since there is a very large cast of characters).
- In The Pirate Fairy, Captain Hook is voiced by Tom Hiddleston and the Pirate Fairy is voiced by Christina Hendricks.
- The Jungle Book 2 has Haley Joel Osment and John Goodman
- Sally Field voiced Marina Del Rey in The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning.
- Brenda Blethyn in Pooh's Heffalump Movie.
- Chazz Palminteri was Buster in Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure.
- Reba McEntire played Dixie in The Fox and the Hound 2.
- Many cartoons that broadcast on Disney Channel will also have voice casting from their Kid Com stars.
- Phineas and Ferb has Ashley Tisdale (The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and High School Musical) as Candace Flynn, Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana and Pair of Kings) as her love interest Jeremy, and Alyson Stoner (who crops up in too many kidcoms and TV movies to count) as Isabella Garcia-Shapiro, the last two having roles on sister series. The titular pair were played by Vincent Martella of Everybody Hates Chris fame and Thomas Sangster of Love Actually fame.
- Milo Murphy's Law, which also has a few of its own offerings as well: "Weird Al" Yankovic as the titular character, MeKai Curtis (Kirby Buckets) as Zack, and and Sabrina Carpenter (Girl Meets World) as Melissa.
- DuckTales (2017)
- The headliner is, of course, David Tennant as Scrooge McDuck, but the cast also includes Danny Pudi (Community) as Huey, Ben Schwartz (Parks and Recreation) as Dewey, Bobby Moynihan (Saturday Night Live) as Louie, Beck Bennett (also SNL) as Launchpad McQuack, and Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds) as Della. The only members of the main cast that are more well known for their voicework are Tony Anselmo, who's been the official voice of Donald Duck for thirty-three years (But even he gets in on the fun by temporarily being voiced by Don Cheadle in two episodes) and Kate Micucci as Webby (who has done some occasional on camera work though her voicework is generally being more recognized and well known).
- Outside the McDuck Manor crew, major supporting characters with celebrity voice actors include Lin-Manuel Miranda as Fenton Crackshell-Cabrera, Jim Rash as Gyro Gearloose, Lance Reddick as General Lunaris, Marc Evan Jackson as the Buzzards, Josh Brener as Mark Beaks, Margo Martindale as Ma Beagle, Allison Janney as "Glittering" Goldie O'Gilt, and Catherine Tate as Magica de Spell.
- Ditto for Nickelodeon's animated shows, mostly for guest voice roles. Some examples of their sitcom stars being part of the voice cast:
- Amanda Bynes as babysitter Taffy in Rugrats’ later seasons.
- Winx Club featured a ton of Nick's sitcom stars: Keke Palmer (True Jackson, VP) as Aisha, Ariana Grande (Victorious) as Diaspro, Elizabeth Gillies (also Victorious) as Daphne, Daniella Monet (Victorious again) as Mitzi, Matt Shively (True Jackson, VP) as Sky, Cymphnonique Miller (How to Rock) as Krystal...
- On T.U.F.F. Puppy, Jerry Trainor of Drake & Josh and iCarly fame voices lead protagonist Dudley Puppy.
- Butch Hartman's most recent Nicktoon, Bunsen Is a Beast, features the voice of Jeremy Rowler (Lewbert from iCarly) and Ben Giroux (Toddler from Henry Danger).
- Bobby Santiago from The Loud House is voiced by Big Time Rush cast member, Carlos Pena. Same thing applies to Ronnie Anne, who was formerly voiced by Breanna Yde (she had various live action roles for Nick).
- The miniseries Middle School Moguls is full of Celebrity Voice Actors, since it features the voice of Daniella Perkins, Haley Tju, Lauren Hernandez, Jade Pettyjohn, Jane Lynch, Tim Gunn, Alex Wassabi, and JoJo Siwa.
- Sheena Easton voiced the Groomer on Road Rovers, as well as Sasha from All Dogs Go to Heaven 2.
- The entire cast of All Dogs Go to Heaven: The Series was made of stars, though Charlie's original voice actor, Burt Reynolds, was not among them.
- She also had a role in Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster.
- In a rare TV example, Ringo Starr was the narrator of the original animated Thomas & Friends. The American version included George Carlin, Alec Baldwin and Michael Brandon, with the feature-length special The Great Discovery having Pierce Brosnan as the narrator. The 2015 movie, Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure features Eddie Redmayne as Ryan and John Hurt as Sailor John. The 2020 special, The Royal Engine features Rosamund Pike as Duchess. In addition, Olivia Colman voices the recurring character Marion.
- The Critic and Duckman both were star vehicle toons, for Jon Lovitz and Jason Alexander, respectively.
- Speaking about doing the voice of Optimus Prime in the Transformers Film Series, Peter Cullen remarked that it was great to be working with "the old crew" again (a couple of the voices for the live-action movie were done by the G1 voice actors), but pointedly made the comment that he "wished he could have worked with Frank Welker again." A subtle Take That! over the fact that Megatron was voiced by Hugo Weaving for the live-action movies, given that Welker voiced Soundwave, Ravage, and Devastator in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen (whom Optimus never meets, for different reasons). Nevertheless, Cullen got his wish granted.
- Dark of the Moon adds more examples: Leonard Nimoy as Sentinel Prime, James Remar as Sideswipe, and George Coe as Que/Wheeljack.
- Age of Extinction added two more: John Goodman as Hound and Ken Watanabe as Drift.
- In The Last Knight there was Jim Carter as Cogman and Steve Buscemi as Daytrader.
- Bumblebee gives us Angela Bassett and Justin Theroux as the main antagonists Shatter and Dropkick.
- In Transformers: Prime, Dwayne Johnson got to play Cliffjumper (for all of five minutes, max).
- Prime notably featured a number of celebrity voice actors in its recurring cast, including Jeffrey Combs as Ratchet, Michael Ironside as Ultra Magnus, Adam Baldwin as Breakdown, and Gina Torres as Airachnid.
- Long before that, The Transformers: The Movie. Hoo boy. The movie practically advertised itself by actors alone: Judd Nelson as Hot Rod, Eric Idle as Wreck-Gar, Leonard Nimoy as Galvatron, Robert Stack as Ultra Magnus, and Orson Welles as Unicron. All of them ended up replaced in the TV episodes following the movie.note The TV show and movie did, however, have the late Scatman Crothers as the voice of Jazz, plus John Moschitta as Blurr... though Moschitta was specifically cast for his vocal talents.
- Transformers: Animated has "Weird Al" Yankovic guest starring in two episodes as Wreck-Gar. Two actors from The Transformers: The Movie return: Judd Nelson reprises his role as Rodimus for the Season 3 three-part opener, and John Moschitta portrays Blurr once again. Fred Willard also appears as Swindle in two episodes, along with Lance Henriksen as Lockdown, John Mariano as Dirt Boss and George Takei as Yoketron.
- Coraline has Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, Keith David and Ian McShane in the cast. However, they're barely featured on anything other than the behind-the-scenes featurettes. Also, though most people assumed that the casting of Hatcher was for promotional purposes (because the movie's target audience obviously consisted of Desperate Housewives fans), her acting was well received.
- This marked the second time Fanning hit this trope, the first being her playing the lead in Disney's dub of My Neighbor Totoro.
- David Warner as Hugo Artemis Solon Saturnicus Reginald Arthur Rune. Could also count as Most Wonderful Sound.
- Kiefer Sutherland and Elizabeth Berkley were Billed Above the Title in order to promote and sell Armitage III. This was during the early '90s, when anime's popularity hadn't quite taken off yet. Minor characters in the movie were voiced by professional voice actors though. They also brought in Juliette Lewis to voice Naomi in the sequel movie.
- Castlevania (2017) has Richard Armitage, James Callis, and Graham McTavish all in major roles. Season 2 also adds Jaime Murray and Theo James.
- Dom De Luise was a celebrity before getting into voice acting, being a favorite of Mel Brooks. However, unlike a lot of celebrities, he actually ended up sticking with voice acting for the rest of his life after his first voice acting role as Jeremy in The Secret of NIMH, alternating such roles with other live-action fare.
- Gundam franchise enjoys using celebrities for voice actors, usually people who are already experienced voice actors. Most notably, Mark Hildreth as Heero Yuy in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, as well as Matt Hill, the world-saving athlete, as Kira Yamato in Mobile Suit Gundam SEED.
- Several characters in Gargoyles were voiced by the stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation, most notably Jonathan Frakes (Also an Ink-Suit Actor) as Xanatos and Marina Sirtis as Demona.
- He didn't appear often, but Brent Spiner turned in a very mischievous Puck (bizarre Puck is apparently more typical of Spiner's roles).
- In fact, quite a few Star Trek alumni turned up: Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, and Colm Meaney (not to mention some who were in the movies, like Paul Winfield and David Warner). The Other Wiki now has a full list of actors who worked both on ''Star Trek'' and ''Gargoyles''.
- In fact, quite a few Star Trek alumni turned up: Avery Brooks, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Kate Mulgrew, Nichelle Nichols, and Colm Meaney (not to mention some who were in the movies, like Paul Winfield and David Warner). The Other Wiki now has a full list of actors who worked both on ''Star Trek'' and ''Gargoyles''.
- He didn't appear often, but Brent Spiner turned in a very mischievous Puck (bizarre Puck is apparently more typical of Spiner's roles).
- Phil Hartman, of course, was this when he voiced Troy McClure, Lionel Hutz, and one-shot characters on The Simpsons. He's a bit of a subversion, though. Before his star rose with Saturday Night Live, Hartman already had some voice acting credits under his belt. He just kept it up after becoming famous.
- Yet he is considered by some to have run afoul of the downside of this trope with his role as Jiji in Disney's dub of Kiki's Delivery Service, which many fans of the original consider to be wildly miscast. (Unfamiliar viewers and certain critics, on the other hand, found his turn as Jiji to be an unbridled delight.)
- Tom Wilson and Mary Steenburgen reprised their roles of Biff Tannen and Clara Clayton-Brown for Back to the Future: The Animated Series. Doc, however, was voiced by Dan Castellaneta. The Telltale games, however, feature Christopher Lloyd himself as Doc Brown (he also played the role in the cartoon's live-action segments, but he was dubbed by Castellaneta).
- Hugh Laurie, Mr. Little in the Stuart Little movies, was the only cast member who returned for the animated TV series (though the DVD animated movie does feature the voices of the live-action main cast, including Michael J. Fox).
- Samuel L. Jackson has done voice acting in Afro Samurai, The Boondocks, Grand Theft Auto, The Incredibles, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (the movie). His larger-than-life persona helps. To his credit, these roles have helped him build a fair reputation as a voice actor.
- And then subverted with his role as Mace Windu on the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series being played by Terrence Carson.
- Recess:
- Former child star Andrew Lawrence was the voice of T.J. Detweiler (from season two onward). Eerily enough, at the time, T.J. looked ''just like him''!
- The Big Damn Movie also featured Melissa Joan Hart voicing his older sister Becky, and James Woods voicing the villain.
- Chester McBadbat from The Fairly OddParents! was originally voiced by Malcolm in the Middle star Frankie Muniz during the first few seasons. Jason Marsden replaced Muniz after he went through puberty.
- The Peanuts Movie has Noah Schnapp, Francesca Capaldi and Madisyn Shipman.
- Hotel Transylvania has Selena Gomez and Adam Sandler. Also, Cee Lo Green, Andy Samberg, Kevin James, Steve Buscemi, David Spade and Jon Lovitz.
- The sequels replace Green with Keegan-Michael Key and add Mel Brooks to the main cast.
- The Loud House has the late Fred Willard, Breanna Yde, Carlos PenaVega, Brian Stepanek and Alexa Vega.
- The Loud House Movie adds David Tennant, Michelle Gomez, and Billy Boyd.
- Mark Hamill has actually become more recognized for being a voice actor than he has for being Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. He moved onto voice acting in the first place because he was failing as an on-screen actor. He's earned particular recognition for his role as The Joker in various media.
- Early episodes of Captain Planet had such big names as Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Sting, and Jeff Goldblum in various villainous roles and Whoopi Goldberg as Gaia, although by the second and third seasons, these had been replaced by professional voice actors. Also of note is that Tom Cruise was attached to voice Captain Planet, but it didn't work out.
- While the English dub cast of Mass Effect: Paragon Lost is mostly made up of Funimation's in-house voice actors (including new VAs for main series characters like Liara and David Anderson), Freddie Prinze Jr. joined the cast reprising his role as James Vega from Mass Effect 3.
- Anastasia was headlined by Meg Ryan voicing the titular heroine. As this trope was in its infancy (this being the mid-90s), Ryan was reluctant to do the movie. However animators created a sequence of Anya with some of Ryan's dialogue from Sleepless in Seattle dubbed over - and she immediately signed on after seeing it. They also cast John Cusack as Dimitri, Christopher Lloyd as Rasputin, Angela Lansbury as the Empress, Kelsey Grammer as Vlad and Kirsten Dunst as the young Anastasia. In a different vein, Broadway star Bernadette Peters was cast as the Empress's cousin Sophie.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has quite a few notable examples:
- The two-part Season 2 premiere guest-stars none other than John de Lancie of Star Trek fame as the premiere's villain Discord, who is essentially Q as a dragon... thing. Although to his credit, he already had plenty of voice acting experience on cartoon shows before starring as Discord. Besides, if you're going to introduce a villain who's basically an expy of Q, who better to cast?
- Friendship Is Magic played this straighter in 2014 when "Weird Al" Yankovic guest-starred as party-pony Cheese Sandwich. Yes, he sang. Like John, he also did quite a bit of voice acting before hand.
- Season 5 featured a guest spot by Broadway star Lena Hall playing a famous pony pop star. After she mentioned "friendship is magic!" in her 2014 Tony acceptance speech, it was found out she was a huge fan of the show.
- The episode "Stranger Than Fanfiction" has Patton Oswalt voicing a character, though he has done plenty of voice acting.
- "The Perfect Pear" features both William Shatner and Felicia Day, though the latter also has some good voice acting credits.
- My Little Pony: The Movie (2017) utilized the voice talents of Liev Schreiber, Taye Diggs, Kristen Chenoweth, Emily Blunt, Michael Peña, Zoe Saldaña, Sia, and Uzo Aduba, for the movie exclusive characters, those being The Storm King, Capper, Princess Skystar, Tempest Shadow, Grubber, Captain Calaeno, Songbird Serenade, and Queen Novo.
- Season 8's "Sounds Of Silence" has Rachel Bloom voicing Autumn Blaze.
- A notoriously bad live-action example was the English-language dub of Roberto Benigni's Pinocchio (2002), which used an All-Star Cast: Breckin Meyer as Pinocchio (whom Benigni plays onscreen), Glenn Close as the Blue Fairy, and in the supporting roles David Suchet, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Topher Grace, Queen Latifah, Cheech Marin, Eddie Griffin, Kevin James, James Belushi, and Regis Philbin. The quality of the performances varies wildly — it's fairly easy to tell who's had prior voiceover experience and who hasn't — and no one's work escapes the Hong Kong Dub.
- Rooster Teeth tends to avert this when it comes to Red vs. Blue, as the cast consists of members of the Rooster Teeth staff, or lesser-known voice actors such as Shannon McCormick (whom anime fans might recognize as Koroudo Akabane). In fact, when this was played straight with the announcement that Elijah Wood was cast for the role of Sigma, the general reaction was quite a bit of surprise and praise.
- The Freakazoid! series finale, "Normadeus", is centered on celebrity carpenter Norm Abram, who voices himself. The voice acting in question is something to behold.
- By the time she made her voice acting debut in the 1980s Saturday-Morning Cartoon version of The Little Rascals, Patty Maloney had established a recurring presence in primetime television, on the Donny & Marie variety show, The Love Boat, etc.
- On Saturday Supercade, Soupy Sales, the voice of Donkey Kong, was credited separately from the rest of the voice cast.
- The 2009 animated Wonder Woman movie has Keri Russell, Nathan Fillion, Virginia Madsen, and Vicki Lewis, though all but the former have done frequent voice over.
- Fairly common in Young Justice. The most prominent examples are Jesse Mc Cartney and Alyson Stoner as Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon respectively - and even then it's downplayed as voice acting seems to be a secondary career for them. Other straighter examples are George Eads as Barry Allen (Flash), Maggie Q as Wonder Woman, and Bruce Greenwood as Batman. And there are even more examples of this trope in that show.
- Subverted with Mae Whitman. Though Whitman does plenty of live-action roles, she has made a second career as a voice actor appearing in shows like Johnny Bravo, Avatar: The Last Airbender and American Dragon: Jake Long, as well as the Tinkerbell movies.
- Especially Beyoncé, but the entire cast of Epic (2013) counts to varying degrees.
- Insofar as English dubs of anime go, you could consider the dub of IGPX: Immortal Grand Prix to have a few of these. Haley Joel Osment and Michelle Rodriguez are the two leads, and Lance Henriksen is The Mentor. Peter Cullen (a professional voice actor who never does anime) is The Narrator.
- Cyberpunk: Edgerunners has an English dub cast consisting primarily of established voice actors, with one notable actor included: Giancarlo Esposito as the voice of the nefarious fixer Faraday.
- Garfield and Friends had five of these, all but the first and last limited to the last couple seasons. Howard Morris was Wade Duck, Victoria Jackson was Penelope, stand-up comedian Kevin Meaney was Aloysius Pig, comedienne Imogene Coca was The Fairy Dogmother, and Lorenzo Music - up to that point better known as a TV producer and "on-screen" actor - was Garfield himself.
- Worth noting that Morris was a character actor who split his time between on-screen work and voice work, having acted in Hanna-Barbera cartoons for many years prior to Garfield.
- Jaleel "Urkel" White as the titular character in Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), and Sonic Underground.
- A lot of the promotion material surrounding the TV adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Truckers makes a big point of noting that Sir Michael Hordern is a member of the cast, even though his character only appears in 4 out of the 13 total episodes (and in the last of these, he wasn't even alive!). In addition, the lead role of Maskin was Joe McGann,
- Drake Bell from Drake & Josh voices the titular superhero in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012), as well as re-dubbing the lines Josh Keaton did for the web-head's appearances in season two of The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Just don't bring this up to fans of The Spectacular Spider-Man.....
- Steven Universe:
- Most fusions are voiced by famous singers. Garnet is voiced by Estelle, Opal is voiced by Aimee Mann, Stevonnie is voiced by Amanda Joy Michalka, and Sardonyx is voiced by musical theatre star Alexia Khadime. Most notably, Sugilite was voiced by Nicki Minaj... who was too much of a celebrity and thus too expensive to have return, leaving the character to only make two other appearances in the show, both of which are non-speaking.
Sardonyx (after playing a voice clip of Sugilite): She's not... actually in this episode, do we still have to pay her? Yes? Fair enough.- There's also Smoky Quartz, who isn't voiced by a singer, but still by a celebrity: Natasha Lyonne.
- Aside from fusions, there was Mr. Smiley who was voiced by stand-up comedian Sinbad, but in season 2 he was replaced by Colton Dunn.
- White Diamond and Yellow Diamond get this treatment as well, being voiced by Broadway veterans Christine Ebersole and Patti LuPone, respectively. Blue Diamond is voiced by Lisa Hannigan, which plays with this trope a bit; she has an established music career in Ireland, but is relatively unknown in the U.S., having made a spare few contributions to movie soundtracks and has only done one other voice-over role as Bronagh in Song of the Sea.
- Some other notable names who appeared on the show include Uzo Aduba as Bismuth, Amy Sedaris as the Zircons, and Sarah Stiles as Spinel.
- Carole King was both this and Pop-Star Composer in the 1970s TV special Really Rosie.
- Had Roseanne's animated series Little Roseynote been given a second season, she would have become this, voicing the title character.
- Julius Jr. had musician Sheryl Crow appear in one episode as Sheryl Butterflow.
- The Rankin/Bass animated versions of The Hobbit and The Return of the King featured John Huston as Gandalf.
- When it came time to dub Piccolo, Saxo Et Compagnie (the movie, not the audio record) into English, the producers somehow, despite extreme budget constraints, managed to get their hands on three- Joanna Levesque, the rapper Shad "Bow-Wow" Moss, and Cheech Marin.
- G.I. Joe: The Movie features Don Johnson (who was best known at the time for his role as Detective Sonny Crockett in Miami Vice) as Lt. Falcon and the late Burgess Meredith (who starred in the 1945 film The Story of G.I. Joe, which served as the franchise's namesake) as Cobra-La leader Golobulus. Golobulus never showed up again after the movie, while Lt. Falcon had a different voice actor when he returned for the later DiC series.
- In Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, most of the major characters are voiced by Hollywood starlets. Nyx is voiced by Aaron Paul, Luna is voiced by Lena Headey, and Regis is voiced by Sean Bean. The latter two are Darrined for Final Fantasy XV proper, while Nyx gets a terminal case of Only the Chosen May Wield and doesn't appear in the game.
- The title character of the Biker Mice from Mars episode "Hard Rock" was voiced by television and radio presenter Riki Rachtman.
- TMNT has Sarah Michelle Gellar as April O'Neil, Chris Evans as Casey Jones, and Patrick Stewart as Max Winters. Kevin Smith also cameos as a diner cook. It's otherwise averted with the rest of the cast having professional voice actors, including the title characters being voiced by James Arnold Taylor (Leonardo), Nolan North (Raphael), Mikey Kelley (Michelangelo), and Mitchell Whitfield (Donatello).
- In addition to many of the actors reprising their roles from the movie, Big Hero 6: The Series has used Brooks Whelan as Fred, Katy Mixon and Sophie Reynolds as the mother-daughter villain duo High Voltage, Andrew Scott as Obake, Mara Wilson as Liv Amara, Riki Lindhome as Wendy Wower, Susan Sullivan as Fred's mom, and Jeanne Sakata as Lenore Shimamoto, among others.
- While Marvel's Spider-Man largely uses professional voice actors for many of its characters, including Robbie Daymond as the title character, this trope does fall into play for some characters. For example, Sofia Carson voices Keemia Marko/Sandgirl, Nathaniel J. Povin voices Prowler, BooBoo Stewart voices Jack O'Lantern, Cameron Boyce as Herman Schultz, and Ryan Blaney as Overdrive.
- The obscure Canadian animated series Zeroman starred Leslie Nielsen as the voice of the eponymous superhero.
- For the Netflix English release of Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- Asuka Langley Soryu is voiced by the Irish singer/actress Stephanie McKeon. While she's also known for doing voice acting, albeit exclusively for non-Japanese media until Evangelion, for some Western viewers and listeners, she's known for playing Aisling O'Brien in the Irish TV Soap Opera Fair City, her work as a West End actress in London, as well as her relationship with her husband, fellow Canadian singer/actor/composer Kyle Riabko.
- Film and TV actor Daniel MK Cohen, known for his work in the LEGO City Adventures series, voices Makoto Hyuga.
- Kozo Fuyutsuki is voiced by John Paul "JP" Karliak, best known as the voice of Wolfgang in Skylanders.
- SCOOB! replaced the main voice actors with these, with Zac Efron (instead of Frank Welker) as Fred, Will Forte (instead of Matthew Lillard) as Shaggy, Gina Rodriguez (instead of Kate Micucci) as Velma, and Amanda Seyfried (instead of Grey DeLisle) as Daphne. This was expectedly met with mixed results. Scooby is still voiced by Welker, however.
- Grey in particular was not happy with being replaced due to being a friend and student of the late Mary Kay Bergman, her predecessor as Daphne before her suicide in 1999, and having a personal attachment to the character as a result.
- The rest of the cast is populated with celebs voicing unrelated Hanna-Barbera characters, such as Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly, Ken Jeong as Dynomutt, Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon and Tracy Morgan as Captain Caveman. Also, Simon Cowell appears As Himself.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- Tom Kenny, the voice of the titular character, counts as this, having been a comedian and actor before he did voice acting.
- Bill Fagerbakke voices Patrick Star.
- Clancy Brown voices Mr. Krabs.
- Ernest Borgnine and Tim Conway voiced the elder Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy, while Adam West and Burt Ward voiced the younger Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy.
- Brian Doyle-Murray voices the Flying Dutchman.
- Within the realm of guest stars on the show, David Bowie voiced Lord Royal Highness in "Atlantis SquarePantis" (in one of his last acting roles before his death) and Johnny Depp voiced Jack Kahuna Laguna in "SpongeBob SquarePants vs. The Big One".
- The Spongebob Squarepants Movie features Alec Baldwin as Dennis, Jeffrey Tambor as King Neptune, and Scarlett Johansson as Mindy in addition to Kenny, Fagerbake, and Brown reprising their roles from the show.
- The Simpsons has had 833 celebrity guest voices in its' 30-year run, the most for not just every animated show, but every TV show in history and even won a Guinness World Record for this feat. Because of how long it would take to list every single occurrence of this in the show, a general rule of thumb is that if there's a popular celebrity out there and they've done some voice acting, at least one of those roles (or in some cases, their only role) would be a spot on The Simpsons. This is probably because it's seen as a status signal in the world of celebrities, as it shows that the person in question has become a staple of pop culture. As a result of how common this is, The Other Wiki has a comprehensive list of celebrity voice roles on the show.
- Other adult animated shows like South Park (which tends to use this trope the least because of the show's low budget), King of the Hill, Bob's Burgers, Rick and Morty and the works of Seth MacFarlane have followed in the footsteps of The Simpsons and hired celebrity voice actors in some episodes.
- Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kids had one of its main characters be voiced by then-former member of The Monkees Micky Dolenz.
- Disney loved doing this for their Studio Ghibli dubs. In addition to casting well-known names like Cary Elwes and Phil Hartman, they would usually cast celebrities associated with their company like Ashley Tisdale, David Henrie, Noah Cyrus and Frankie Jonas.
- The DC Universe Animated Original Movies tend to cast some big name actors on their various movies.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe animated series What If…? (2021) has over 50 actors reprise their roles from the movies and TV shows, including legends such as Samuel L. Jackson, Michael Douglas and Kurt Russell.
- Gay Purr-ee is one of the oldest non-Disney examples of this trope, as the film's lead characters were voiced by Judy Garland (in her only voice acting performance) and Robert Goulet.
- Spider-Man: The New Animated Series featured a ton of well-known actors and musicians in main, recurring, or guest roles, even snagging Neil Patrick Harris as the wall-crawler.
- The first actors credited in both Mortal Kombat Legends films are Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade and Joel McHale as Johnny Cage.
- Illumination is no stranger to this trope, and uses it in all of their movies:
- Despicable Me had Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett and Julie Andrews.
- Despicable Me 2 added Benjamin Bratt, Steve Coogan, and Ken Jeong.
- Despicable Me 3 added Trey Parker.
- The Lorax (2012) had Danny DeVito, Ed Helms, Zac Efron, Taylor Swift, Rob Riggle, Jenny Slate and Betty White.
- Minions had Sandra Bullock, Jon Hamm, Michael Keaton, Allison Janney, Coogan, Jennifer Saunders and Geoffrey Rush
- The Secret Life of Pets had Louis C.K., Eric Stonestreet, Kevin Hart, Slate, Ellie Kemper, Lake Bell, Dana Carvey, Hannibal Buress, Bobby Moynihan, Coogan and Albert Brooks.
- The Secret Life of Pets 2 replaced C.K. with Patton Oswalt and added Tiffany Haddish, Nick Kroll and Harrison Ford.
- Sing had Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, Scarlett Johansson, John C. Reilly, Tori Kelly, Taron Egerton, Kroll, Garth Jennings (who directed the movie), Peter Serafinowicz, Saunders, Nick Offerman, Jennifer Hudson, Rhea Perlman, Leslie Jones and Jay Pharoah.
- Sing 2 added Bobby Cannavale, Spike Jonze, Pharrell, Halsey, Chelsea Peretti, Letitia Wright, Eric André, Adam Buxton and Bono.
- The Grinch (2018) had Benedict Cumberbatch, Rashida Jones, Kenan Thompson, Angela Lansbury and Pharrell.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie, co-produced by them and Nintendo, has Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardsonnote and Sebastian Maniscalco. You can tell it did not go unnoticed, especially with Pratt as Mario. note Charles Martinet, who is the usual voice of Mario and Luigi in the games, also appears as special cameos in the movie.
- Migration will have Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Key, Awkwafina and DeVito.
- Despicable Me had Steve Carell, Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig, Will Arnett and Julie Andrews.
- On the subject of Chris Pratt, only over a month later, another casting choice involving him also caused a lot of Memetic Mutation: he is set to voice Garfield in Alcon Entertainment's The Garfield Movie. Alongside Pratt, the movie will also star Samuel L. Jackson, Nicholas Hoult, Cecily Strong, Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Bowen Yang and Ving Rhames.
- Batwheels sees Batman voiced by Ethan Hawke (who was up for the role in Batman Forever before the casting of Val Kilmer) and Leah Lewis as the Cassandra Cain Batgirl.
- The 1997 Cosgrove Hall Discworld cartoons had Christopher Lee as Death. Wyrd Sisters also featured Anette Crosbie, June Witfield and Jane Horrocks as the three witches, Elenor Bron as the Duchess, and Les Dennis as the Fool, while Soul Music had Neil Morrissey as Mort and Graham Crowden as Ridcully.
- Adventures from the Book of Virtues, at least on its' initial airings, used celebrity voice actors during the story segments, including Ed Asner, Ed Begley Jr., Malcolm McDowell, Tim Curry, Elijah Wood, Mark Hamill and Shelley Duvall.
- Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child also utilized celebrity voice actors for its' stories, such as Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, James Hong, George Takei, Margaret Cho, Samuel L. Jackson and Regis Philbin.
- ZigZagged with Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (2022). Idris Elba was cast as the voice of Knuckles, but the producers couldn't think of any better actor to voice Tails than Colleen O'Shaughnessey, the voice actress who has been voicing him in every installment in the franchise since Sonic Boom. The voice of Sonic himself, Ben Schwartz, is kind of in-between.
- The English dub of Tribe Nine gained a bit of notoriety online for the number of popular Twitch and YouTube streamers involved in its cast — more specifically, it has Corpse Husband playing a major antagonist and Valkyrae, Sykkuno, Disguised Toast, and Technoblade in minor roles.
- City Island (2022): The voice cast includes celebrities such as James Adomian, Debi Mazar, and Amy Schumer.
- Collingwood & Co. seem to be fond of this:
- Oscar's Orchestra featured Dudley Moore as the title character.
- Gordon the Garden Gnome had its title character voiced by professional gardener Alan Titchmarsh, making it double as a Non-Actor Vehicle.
- The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! has Martin Short as the voice of this show's Cat in the Hat.
- The Secret Show had a tendency of casting celebrities to play one-shot characters, most notably the likes of Stephen Fry as Lucky Leo and Tom Baker as Robert Baron.
- Colin McFarlane voiced Jasper in The King's Beard.
- Daisy-Head Mayzie features Tim Curry as Finagle, Henry Gibson as the Cat in the Hat, B. J. Ward as Mrs. McGrew, Lewis Arquette as Principal Gregory Grumm and Jonathan Winters as Dr. Eisenbart.
- Barbie direct-to-video movies, especially in the early 2000s, often cast a well-known live-action actor as the villain:
- Tim Curry voiced the Mouse King in Barbie in the Nutcracker and Philippe in Barbie and the Three Musketeers.
- Anjelica Huston voiced Gothel in Barbie as Rapunzel.
- Kelsey Grammer voiced Rothbart in Barbie of Swan Lake.
- Martin Short voiced Preminger in Barbie as the Princess and the Pauper.
- Catherine O'Hara voiced Duchess Rowena in Barbie in the 12 Dancing Princesses.
- Andrea Martin voiced Queen Ariana in Barbie as the Island Princess.
- The end credits song of The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part features The Lonely Island rapping about reading the credits. Their verse about the voice actors manages to both praise and lampoon the celebrity cast — noting that voice acting in general is hard work and brings humanity to the film, but also that these particular actors are overpaid for comparatively little work.
