(978): His voice is like sex for ears... Which sounds so wrong, but so right at the same time.
Liam O'Brien (born May 28, 1976 in Weehawken, New Jersey) is an American voice actor. Chances are that if you notice a character who seems aristocratic or have noble standing, they'll have this guy voicing them. Most likely characteristics of his voice are an almost-faux British accent, gruff, or a very laid-back demeanor. And he doesn't differentiate that much—
—"You want any voice differentiation? That's Gaara!"
His real forte seems to be voicing characters who have more than a few screws loose in their head, from the eccentric to the completely insane. In fact, this is what shot him to fame when he voiced Gaara in Naruto. He has a knack for Ambiguously Gay characters, and one heck of an Evil Laugh that's present in just about every villain he's ever played.
He's married to fellow voice actress Amy Kincaid (who played Shirley Fenette in Code Geass and Kotone Himekawa in To Heart) with two kids, and also does a butt-load of ADR directing (most notably for the Resident Evil series).
He has a Twitter account
and started a podcast, "Allworknoplay", with fellow voice actor Sam Riegel. He is one of the nerdy-ass voice actors starring weekly in the Dungeons & Dragons campaign Critical Role.
Notable roles from Liam O'Brien:
Anime
- Archer, aka Heroic Spirit Emiya, in Fate/stay night and the Unlimited Blade Works movie
- Kariya Matou in Fate/Zero
- Dan Moroboshi in Ultraman
- Dr. Clive in Haré+Guu
- Dizelmine in Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne
- Frisbee in Red Line
- Gaara in Naruto
- Hisoka Kurosaki in Descendants of Darkness
- Jushiro Ukitake, Soken Ishida, and Sora Inoue in Bleach
- Junta Momonari/Mega Playboy in DNA²
- Kazuharu Fukuyama in Girls Bravo
- Gihren Zabi in Mobile Suit Gundam: The Origin
- Dr. Kenzo Tenma in Monster
- Kine and Yodogiri Jinnai in Durarara!!x2
- Kotone Seiryuin in Sakura Wars: The Movie (one of his first LA roles; uncredited)
- Krumly in Baten Kaitos
- Lloyd Asplund in Code Geass
- Lunatic/Yuri Petrov in Tiger & Bunny
- Mamiya Chida in Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Detective Maniwa in Paranoia Agent (starting with Episode 5)
- Marquis Andrea Cavalcanti/Benedetto in Gankutsuou
- Nephrite in the Viz dub of Sailor Moon
- Kitty-Poo, OVER, and Not-Nice Cream in Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo
- Ray Lundgren in GUN×SWORD
- Rezo the Red Priest in Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R
- Shichigoro in Afro Samurai: Resurrection
- Shobu Kirifuda (second voice) in the short lived dub of Duel Masters (Originally voiced by Joshua Seth)
- Taishi Kuhonbutsu in Comic Party (darrin'd by Jessie James Grelle in Comic Party Revolution)
- Tokugawa Ieyasu in Sengoku Basara (both the anime, albeit uncredited, and Samurai Heroes)
- Tsubasa in Destiny of the Shrine Maiden
- Walter C. Dornez (Young Adult form) in Hellsing Ultimate
- Vincent Law from Ergo Proxy
Film
- Red XIII in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children
Video Games
- Additional radio voices in Grand Theft Auto V
- Air Raid in Transformers: War for Cybertron
- Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3, Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth, and Persona 4: Arena
- Asura from Asura's Wrath
- Ayatane Michitaka in Ar tonelico: Melody of Elemia
- Baldren Gassenarl from Valkyria Chronicles II
- Caius Ballad in Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII
- Cent in Drakengard 3
- Chaos in Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny
- Chuck Preston in Wild ARMs 5
- Dr. Stahngun/Dimitri Allen in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
- Clark Triton in Professor Layton and the Last Specter
- Cu Chaspel in Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates
- Darkdeath Evilman the suit, not the pilot in Zettai Hero Project
- David in Killer is Dead
- Dio in Virtue's Last Reward
- Durant in Yggdra Union
- Endrance in the .hack//G.U. trilogy
- Enkidu Uruk in Final Fantasy Type-0
- Fire Emblem:
- Inigo in Fire Emblem: Awakening
- Laslow, Izana, and Zola in Fire Emblem Fates
- Gaul in Star Trek Online
- The Ghost and Science Vessel units in Starcraft II
- Gill in Street Fighter V
- Gollum in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War note
- Goto in Mana Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy
- Grimoire Weiss in NieR Gestalt and NieR Replicant ver.1.22474487139...
- Guilty Gear:
- Ky Kiske in Guilty Gear 2 Overture
- Axl Low, Johnny, and Chronus in Guilty Gear Xrd
- He reprises Johnny in Guilty Gear -STRIVE-
- Illidan Stormrage in World of Warcraft, Heroes of the Storm, and Hearthstone
- Ingway in Odin Sphere
- Isaac in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
- ISA Multiplayer Announcer in Call of Duty: Black Ops II
- Joachim Armster in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
- Jonathan Morris in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
- Kain Highwind in Final Fantasy IV (DS), Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy, and Dissidia Final Fantasy NT
- Leviathan (Squigly's parasite) in Skullgirls
- Levin and Raksha in Soul Nomad & the World Eaters
- Lezard Valeth in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
- Master Big Star in Disgaea 3
- Miguel Caballero Rojo in Tekken 6
- Motormaster and generic Seekers in Transformers: Devastation
- Mugen in the Samurai Champloo video game (substituted for Steve Blum due to Steve's union status)
- Navarre, Herald Uriel, and Yamato-Takeru in Shin Megami Tensei IV
- Niall in Dragon Age: Origins
- Swordmaster Nobutsuna Kamiizumi in Bravely Default and Bravely Second
- Orlando Haddick in Catherine
- Pacer, Cachino, Major Knight, Jerry the Punk, and numerous other male NPCs in Fallout: New Vegas
- Phillip Cheney/DELTA in D4: Dark Dreams Don't Die
- P.M.C Multiplayer Announcer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Reverse-Flash and Brainiac 5 in Injustice 2
- Reynard Fisher (Chris and Sheva's contact in Chapter 1) in Resident Evil 5 (he also did the ADR directing)
- Rig in Dead or Alive 5
- Robert "Barker" Taube in Titanfall
- Roderick, Bogdan, Alexei in Dungeon Siege III
- Sanctus in Devil May Cry 4
- Serafen in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Zazz in Sonic Lost World
- Infinite in Sonic Forces
- Sterkenberg Cranach in Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland and its followup games
- Steven Bisson in the Eureka Seven video games
- Tales Series:
- Dist the Rose in Tales of the Abyss
- Stahn Aileron in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology
- Cumore in Tales of Vesperia
- Gilland in Tales of Xillia
- Tsugarubi in Sakura Wars: So Long, My Love
- Vayne Aurelius in Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis
- Count Waltz in Eternal Sonata
- War in Darksiders
- William Shakespeare and Vlad the Impaler in Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell
- The male Warden in For Honor
- The Waysider Player Character in Lost Planet 2
- Yasha's English voice in Onmyoji Arena
- Yasuo in League of Legends
Web Video
- Vax'ildan Vessar (Campaign 1), Caleb Widogast (Campaign 2), and Orym (Exandria Unlimited, Campaign 3) in Critical Role
Western Animation
- Boswell the magician in Sofia the First
- Imperial Supply Master Yogar Lyste, Morad Sumar, and additional voices in Star Wars Rebels
- Professor Maelstrom and The Cleaners in Carmen Sandiego
- Nightcrawler, Nitro, and Angel/Archangel in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009)
- Red Skull in Avengers Assemble, Phineas and Ferb: Mission Marvel, and Iron Man & Captain America: Heroes United
- Doctor Strange in Ultimate Spider-Man (2012) and Avengers Assemble (taking over from Jack Coleman)
- Underbite in Transformers: Robots in Disguise
- Vax'ildan Vessar and Vorugal in The Legend of Vox Machina
THESE TROPES!! ARE NOT!! PREPARED!!!
- Ax-Crazy: What a lot of his characters have in common. If the character is a good guy, the character is most likely a Sociopathic Hero, one with a Dark and Troubled Past, a Blood Knight, an Anti-Hero, or a former villain turned good guy/antihero. If the character is a bad guy, the character he voices is most likely going to be a Smug Snake, a Manipulative Bastard, a Mad Scientist, a Psychopathic Manchild, a Villain Protagonist, an evil noble, or one without any redeeming qualities.
- Deadpan Snarker: If his Twitter account is any indication, he's got a killer sense of humor. It should also be noted that some of his characters he voices sometimes make sarcastic remarks.
- Evil Sounds Deep: If the character he voices happens to have a deep voice, then they are most likely are going to be villains. If the villain has a higher pitched voice, then said villain is going to be psychopathic.
- Evil Laugh: He's very fond of this.
- Guttural Growler: Even when playing an unambiguously good man like Dr. Tenma, his voice has this quality.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Sam Riegel. Their joint podcast makes it abundantly clear that they're BFFs. At one point Liam O'Brien challenges them both to pick which male voice actor they would marry if given the option - and the challenging part is that they're not allowed to pick each other.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: We have Gaara, Lloyd, and Dr. Clive for starters, but he's really capable of others. Also, his official resume lists British, Cockney, Spanish, Russian, Irish, German, Brooklyn, and New Jersey as his dialect specialties (the first one happens to be the most common one).
- In a Critical Role one-shot, Liam demonstrates one of his greatest party tricks: his pitch-perfect Speak & Spell imitation.
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Most of his characters tend to be mentally unstable villains, but he still plays against type from time to time.
- Platonic Life-Partners: He has a very close, sibling-like friendship with Laura Bailey, to the point where it's easy to mistake the pair for actual brother and sister. Liam even describes himself as the "president of the Laura Bailey fan club" and he clearly adores her with all his heart. They share a birthday, which is why they decided to play as twins in the first Critical Role campagin.
- Playing Against Type:
- Dr. Tenma from Monster, a Nice Guy Technical Pacifist doctor. note
- Also both Ky Kiske and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Reasonable Authority Figure type characters (quite a stark contrast to most of his characters). While he didn't reprise Ky for Xrd, he got landed with... Axl Low, a laid back friendly British guy, and Johnny, a suave playboy who's good hearted (also worth noting that this is a role he shares with Norio Wakamoto, who's also pretty pigeonholed in playing evil villains, but plays against type marvelously for this occasion)
- Akihiko Sanada isn't exactly villain material either. Asura is a different story entirely.
- And for a short time, he voiced Stahn Aileron, who's Tales Series' poster boy for Wide-Eyed Idealist Idiot Hero, and even moreso if you believe in his tendency to get cast as despicable villains in the series. There's also Jonathan Morris, who while still good and powerful, isn't exactly the brightest bulb.
- Playing Inigo from Fire Emblem: Awakening, had him playing a suave, happy go lucky, overly emotional, ladies man who's just out to make everyone smile.
- He played Shobu Kirifuda in the second and third seasons of Duel Masters, AND the young version of the aforementioned Tokugawa Ieyasu in the Sengoku Basara Samurai Heroes anime. That's as far from his usual typecast as one can possibly get.
- Played around with Yasuo of League of Legends. The promotional trailer paints him as a cold-blooded murderer, which may look a little in-line with O'Brien's type. When he's eventually released, it turns out Yasuo is an innocent man, trying to seek justice from being framed, and was a formerly arrogant Samurai that learned the arts of humility for real. Still got the eagerness to fight, though.
- He's played two German Marvel characters. One of them, completely in type, is the Red Skull. The other, Nightcrawler, easily one of the nicest and kind hearted members of the X-Men.
- As Izana in Fire Emblem Fates, he's a Totally Radical Cloudcuckoolander, and his voice is a little higher than usual.
- Zazz, introduced in Sonic Lost World, has a very raspy voice unlike his other roles.
- Star-Making Role: As Gaara from Naruto.
- Villains: What he's best well-known for playing.
- What Could Have Been: The Call of Duty: Black Ops II E3 2012 demo had Liam voicing the player character, David Mason.
