Christian Lanz (born May 1, 1977 in Mexico City, Mexico) is a Mexican-American voice actor from Mexico City, being half Mexican from his father and half Chilean (of German ancestry) from his mother. Some of his major roles include Fishface from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) and Chancellor Esteban from Elena of Avalor. He is the current announcer for the Daytime Emmy Awards since 2015.
Notable roles
Cartoons
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): Xever Montes/Fishface
- Generator Rex: Chiquito
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Fernando el Aguirre, Professor Andelusossa
- Elena of Avalor: Chancellor Esteban
- Epic Cat Battles with Puss in Boots: Puss in Boots
- Victor and Valentino: Achi/Chupacabra, HueHue, Tez
- Spy Kids: Mission Critical: Gregorio Cortez
- Curious George: Pepe The Clown
- Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!: Mayor Riker, Miguel
- Spirit: Riding Free: Mayor Gutierrez
- Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Captain Piel, Don Suave (with Eric Bauza)
- T.O.T.S. : Cow Dad
- LEGO City Adventures: Cortez, Narrator
- Madagascar: A Little Wild: Smitty
- Kid Cosmic: Carlos, UPX Driver, Crimson Vision
Films
- Batman: Assault on Arkham: Scarecrow (grunts only), Victor Zsasz (uncredited)
- Coco: Assorted voices (the interviewer in "Much Needed Advice")
- LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes:
- Batman: Family Matters: Harvey Dent/Two-Face
- LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood: Bryan Lakeshore, Mummy
Video Games
- Fallout: New Vegas: Follows-Chalk
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon: The Game: Breakaway (replacing Andrew Kishino from Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen: The Game)
- Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City: Leon S. Kennedy (replacing Paul Mercier after Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, replaced by Matthew Mercer starting from Resident Evil 6)
- Batman: The Enemy Within: Special Agent Vernon Blake
- Call of Duty: WWII: Staff Sergeant Augustine Pérez
- Detroit: Become Human: Stock photo
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 4: Zombies: Diego Necalli
- No More Heroes III: Sonic Juice
- Saints Row (2022): The Nahualli
Other
- Commercial spots
- Spanish voiceovers of commercial spots for Disney films and other commercials including:
- Daytime Emmy Awards announcer since the 42nd/2015note
Tropes associated with his roles:
- Ascended Fanboy: Growing up, he learned English by listening to Fred from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. His first voice acting role was for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, where he met the voice of Fred himself, Frank Welker.
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He's stated that he makes more money doing commercial spots, but he has plenty of fun doing voiceover roles.
- Creator's Favorite: According to an interview on The Magic Within podcast, his favorite role is Chancellor Esteban.
- Evil Sorcerer: Tez and Esteban.
-
He Really Can Act: Most of his roles don't have him sing, but his singing prowess is best shown in his role as Chancellor Esteban (he even raps!). Helps that he's a musician — he plays guitar — in real life. - Hilarious in Hindsight:
- In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), Fishface meets the short end of the stick by Dogpound (voiced by Clancy Brown). Later in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, el Aguirre has gone through much suffering due to the Entity, who is also voiced by Clancy Brown.
- Not only that, but his hometown is Zihuatanejo, the town that Red and Andy go to at the end of The Shawshank Redemption, in which Clancy Brown is the main antagonist.
- In Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, he voices Leon while Courtenay Taylor voices Ada, although the two never share any scenes in the game. They would later play as Diego and Scarlett together in Call of Duty: Black Ops 4's Zombies Mode.
- The Other Darrin: Usually for Antonio Banderas.
- Star-Making Role: Fishface and Chancellor Esteban.
- Throw It In!: Fishface's Spanish accent. During auditions, voice actors were given a sheet of their respective character's concept art to help them visualize, but Christian grabbed the art for Snakeweed (human form) and thought that he was Latino. As he recorded his lines, the crew found his choice bizarre, but loved it and gave him the part. The confusion wasn't cleared up until months later when Christian saw the finished animation for ADR recording, where it was discovered he got the wrong art upon seeing Fishface's real design.
- What Could Have Been:
- According to this interview, he auditioned for Star vs. the Forces of Evil, but was turned down.
- He would have reprised his role as Leon for Resident Evil 6 had it not been for scheduling conflicts with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) and his other projects.
- According to this interview
- Your Costume Needs Work: Once when he was auditioning for a voice part, the casting director gave Lanz a sample of Antonio Banderas's voice as a reference point. Except it wasn't Banderas - it was Lanz himself, doing a Antonio Banderas impersonation.
