This is where an entire role mirrors or parodies an entire previous role or Real Life situation of the actor. A conscious casting choice can be assumed; thus, it can also apply to cameos and guest stars. This forms a small joke or minor piece of merriment. Note that the gag is entirely dependent on the casting and the role rather than some later effected plot or dialogue.
Contrastingly, an Actor Allusion is when the role being played can be nothing like the actor's real life or previous roles, but contains a Famous Role Shout Out: an allusion to the actor's work, but nothing more.
An actor can use this self-consciously when parodying themselves for Adam Westing. Compare with Playing Against Type, when an actor's role is (often consciously) very different from their typical ones, though this is less likely to be a gag. If the gag is that the character being played is untalented in something the actor excels in, then it's Irony as She Is Cast. If the Casting Gag is that the actor appeared in an earlier version of the same story, it's a Remake Cameo. Compare also to Actor-Shared Background, when the gag doesn't reference a large part of the actor's real life but matches certain elements. See also I Want You to Meet an Old Friend of Mine. Stunt Casting is often done with the aim of shoehorning in this trope.
Examples:
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Anime
- The English dub of 91 Days was directed by Tyler Walker, the ADR director of the beloved English dub of Baccano!, another show about gangsters during Prohibition era and even stated to have cast anyone who appeared in the Baccano dub to have their characters get killed off in 91 Days. For example, J. Michael Tatum and Caitlin Glass, who voiced Isaac and Miria in Baccano, played Avilio's deceased parents in 91 Days.
- The English dub of Ace Attorney has Phoenix Wright impersonator Furio Tigre be voiced by Sam Riegel, the voice of Phoenix in the video game series this anime is based on.
- Assassination Classroom:
- In the anime adaptation, Kana Ueda voices Yuzuki Fuwa, the Class E student with a knack for mystery solving. She previously voiced Yako Katsuragi, the amateur detective and heroine of the author's previous series.
- Robot Girl Ritsu is played by Saki Fujita, who lent her voice to the most famous Vocaloid, Miku Hatsune.
- Terasaka is purposely similar in some aspects to Doraemon's Gian, and they ended up sharing the same voice actor, Subaru Kimura.
- Asano Gakushuu shares the same voice actor as well as the characteristics of being an Academic Alpha Bitch and an Antagonistic Offspring as another famous genius.
- Takehito Koyasu, who previously voiced Neuro in Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro, got cast in a minor villain role as hitman Gastro.
- Attack on Titan: Patrick Seitz being cast as Drill Sergeant Nasty Keith Shadis was most likely a reference to his role as Germany in Hetalia, who had a similar personality, though he frequently showed a softer side, especially to Italy. The world of AoT also has a strong German-flavoring.
- Season 2 of Beastars introduces the character of Rokume, a rattlesnake who is also the school’s night guard. She just so happens to be voiced by Kujira, who famously voiced Orochimaru in Naruto.
- Blood Blockade Battlefront is often compared to Baccano! mainly from its New York setting. Interestingly enough, many of the voices in the latter appear in the former both in sub (Daisuke Sakaguchi, Yuu Kobayashi, Mitsuru Miyamoto, Keiji Fujiwara, etc.) and in dub (Phil Parsons, Ian Sinclair, Trina Nishimura, J. Michael Tatum, etc.).
- In the English dub of The Case Study of Vanitas, Chloé and Jean-Jacques are voiced by Brina Palencia and J. Michael Tatum which isn't the first time they voiced a master and a servant in a 19th century setting. On the other hand this isn't also the first time they voiced a duo where one of them turns into a wolf-like creature.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: Funimation strikes again with an Aaron Dismuke/Maxey Whitehead casting gag. Maxey plays Sealand, a young male micronation, and, in a nod to both their roles as Al from FMA as well as fully utilizing Aaron hitting puberty, he was cast as adult!Sealand in the brief Imagine Spot he appears in. Since Sealand's British and accents are used in the dub, could also double as a reference to the Ouran High School Host Club bloopers where Aaron briefly gave his character a British accent.
- In Haganai, Yuka Iguchi voices Maria who is basically Index with lavender hair and a dark blue habit.
- Satomi Arai once voiced a lesbian Pettanko character who admires an older-looking lightning user, specifically Kuroko Shirai, and then voiced a different lesbian Pettanko character who admires an older-looking lightning user, namely Shiroyasha.
- Jun Fukuyama, who is known for playing Lelouch in Code Geass, was subsequently been cast as Ryner Lute in The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, another character who possesses a Magical Eye.
- Dian has the same power, the same motivation and even a human form that resembles Lelouch, however, he's more sinister and vengeful (in the first series).
- The Girl Who Leapt Through Space's Leopard is a Brain Colony, which consists basically of an AI that has full control over his body, which is basically a Gundam's space colony, and Leopard's personality is basically that of Lelouch, but in an action-comedy setting here.
- In the English version of Code Geass, Johnny Yong Bosch stars as an intelligent and occasionally Necessarily Evil pragmatist whose ideals clash with Yuri Lowenthal, his passionate and idealistic childhood friend. In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Yuri Lowenthal stars as a passionate idealist whose ideals clash with Johnny Yong Bosch, his intelligent and pragmatic childhood friend. Amusingly, while their roles are the same, the "right" and "wrong" sides are reversed.
- In the English dub of Cowboy Bebop, Daran Norris voices both as Andy, a comical character who is Spike's rival during one episode, as well as the antagonist Vincent in the movie, who is an Evil Counterpart to Spike. Amusingly, the film is chronologically set immediately after the episode Andy appears in, so Spike had to deal with them one after the other.
- Digimon:
- In the Latin American Spanish dub of Digimon Data Squad, Rolando de la Fuente provided the voice of both Thomas N. Norstein (Foil to series protagonist Marcus Daimon) and Agumon (Marcus's partner) . . . just like in Digimon Adventure, where Uraz Huerta voiced both Yamato "Matt" Ishida (Foil to series protagonist Tai Kamiya) and Agumon (Tai's partner).
- Digimon Adventure: (2020) has Yuuko Sanpei play Tai. Yuuko played Melodytchi in the anime adaptation of the Tamagotchi franchise, which Digimon was envisioned as a Spear Counterpart for.
- Doctor Slump has Midori Norimaki (née Yamabuki) who was not only modeled after Marilyn Monroe, she was also voiced by Mariko Mukai who's best known for being the Japanese dub voice for Marilyn Monroe (though Mukai only voiced her in the first anime, her extended cameo in Dragon Ball and the original five movies).
- In Dog Days, both Minako Kotobuki and Kana Hanazawa, well known for their roles as Mugi and Kuroneko respectively, voice Action Girl variants of those characters.
- Dragon Ball:
- One episode of Dragon Ball GT has Earth's fighters evacuating the planet after it's set to explode, one scene has Vegeta arguing with a teenage punk at an arcade who bears a resemblance to Kazuma Kuwabara from YuYu Hakusho, Christopher Sabat voices the character using the same voice he had used for Kuwabara.
- Dragon Ball Super: In the English dub, when a copy of Vegeta appears, they don't just have Christopher Sabat voice both of them. Instead, Brian Drummond, the voice of Vegeta from the original Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z, voices Copy-Vegeta. The two characters then proceed to have an argument over which one of them is the real Vegeta.
- Fullmetal Alchemist:
- Aaron Dismuke did the voice of Alphonse in the English dub of the 2003 anime, but puberty made it impossible for him to reprise the role for Brotherhood—so he did the voice for Al's father, Van Hohenheim, as a young man.
- Luci Christian, who played the 2003 anime's incarnation of Wrath, provides the voice of the Truth in Brotherhood. Both characters are strikingly similar in that both meet Edward at the Gate of Truth and end up taking his arm and leg for themselves, keeping them until the end of the storylines they appear in (except Wrath loses both limbs while the Truth keeps Ed's leg). Considering the Truth simply shares the same voice actor as the one it appears before it in the original Japanese language, the fact that they had a single person to portray a character that had something in common with one of her earlier roles in the franchise couldn't be called anything less than a tribute.
- Ga-Rei -Zero-: Funimation cast many of their most popular voice actors to play the five Agency squad members in Episode 01 only. Why Episode 01 only? . . . because they all get killed off!
- Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, who voiced Major Motoko Kusanagi in the English dub of Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex voices Kurtusu in Ghost in the Shell: Arise.
- In Guin Saga, Kenyu Horiuchi plays Guin, an amnesiac hero with an animal head in a world with magic on a quest to restore his appearance and memory. In Dorohedoro, he plays En, the leader of magic users who fight an amnesiac hero with an animal head in a world with magic on a quest to restore his appearance and memory.
- Gundam Build Fighters engages in a lot of this by having several characters played by Gundam veterans. However, the biggest example has to be Mr. Ral, who not only looks identical to and acts a lot like Anti-Villain Ramba Ral from the original series, but is played by the same actor, Masashi Hirose. Since the Gundam anime exists in the Build Fighters, this also creates an odd example of Celebrity Paradox.
- Hunter × Hunter: The English dub of the 2011 anime has a few.
- Cindy Robinson was cast as the Chimera Ant Queen. She had previously played Queen Beryl in Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon Crystal. They pretty much have the exact same voice, too.
- Max Mittelman is the Chimera Ant King, aka Meruem, who's basically the most powerful creature to have ever existed in the HxH world. This is important, you see, because this means the king could kill everybody else with one punch.
- Todd Haberkorn and Erica Mendez have both voiced characters named Haruka. In this series, since they're enemies (Todd as Arc Villain Genthru and Erica as The Hero Gon), this means they fight each other. It's pretty amusing to see Haru fighting Sailor Uranus. (May even count doubly since Todd is also in SM, but none of his characters interact with either of Erica's).
- In Jewelpet (2009), Mamoru Miyano voiced the Deadpan Snarker secretary agent Keigo Tatewaki. His Comically Serious demeanor brings back Setsuna F. Seiei's portrayal in the CD dramas.
- Miyuki Sawashiro as well. Her portrayal of Opal in Kira Deco oozes Catherine. Even better, she's the voice of Twilight Sparkle (who'll become an alicorn) in the Japanese dub of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Jotaro, Josuke, and Giorno's voice actors in the anime all share the same surname: Ono (Daisuke Ono for Jotaro, Yuki Ono for Josuke, and Kensho Ono for Giorno).
- In Lucky Star, Konata works in a Cosplay Café and dresses as Haruhi Suzumiya, both characters having been voiced by Aya Hirano, as well as Wendee Lee in the English dubs (though Lucky Star as a whole is full of shout-outs and other things like these).
- Lupin III: Daisuke Jigen, modeled by creator Monkey Punch after the great James Coburn of The Magnificent Seven fame, has been voiced in almost every anime production until 2021 by Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Coburn's designated seiyuu.
- Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid:
- Mutsumi Tamura previously played Dejima in Seitokai Yakuindomo, a maid who was in love with her mistress. She ends up playing Kobayashi, a woman whose maid is in love with her.
- Yūko Gotō is known for playing Mikuru, who was often forcibly dressed up as a maid. Her role as Georgie loves to dress up as and pretend to be a maid.
- In Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Graham Akre/Mr. Bushido is played by Yuichi Nakamura, the voice actor. In the 2020 run of the 00 stage play, Bushido is played by...Yuichi Nakamura, the live-action actor best known for his roles in the Kamen Rider franchise.
- The English dub of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! gives us Jeannie Tirado who voices Catarina Claes and also voiced Android 21 from Dragon Ball Fighterz. The two characters are very endearing and dorky girls with addictions to sweets in initial villainous roles. The main difference between the two is that Android 21's sweet addiction is played up as Horror Hunger.
- In some sort of weird twist on The Danza, both ending themes for Nagi-Asu: A Lull in the Sea are performed by Nagi Yanagi.
- In Naruto, the voice actors of the six dead Jinchuurikis also play their six Bijuus. But they mix up the roles, so none of those Jinchuurikis share his/her voice with his/her own Bijuu. For example, Yondaime Mizukage Yagura's voice actor Miyu Irino plays him and the Rokubi Saiken, Utakata's Bijuu.
- In Neon Genesis Evangelion:
- A relatively early example of this was the casting of Kotono Mitsuishi as Misato. Hideaki Anno stated that Misato was basically Usagi Tsukino (Mitsuishi's most famous role) if she'd grown up to be a very unhappy adult.
- Another came when they cast Kyoko Zeppelin (Asuka's mother). Asuka is often seen as a Spiritual Successor to Jung Freud from Gunbuster, so they got Maria Kawamura to play Asuka's mother.
- In One Piece:
- The Japanese voice actors for the Straw Hat pirates also provide the voices for a group of impostors trying to gain infamy by posing as the Straw Hats. They also mix up who is who, such as Sanji's voice actor playing the fake Luffy or Chopper's as the fake Nami.
- The Funimation dub maintains that gag with the English voice actors but goes a step further. The voices for Fake Sanji (Christopher Sabat) and Fake Robin (Luci Christian) mimic the voices for the characters from the earlier 4Kids dub (David Moo and Veronica Taylor).
- In the dub of One-Punch Man, Christopher Sabat voices Vaccine Man, a villain who bears a strong resemblance to Piccolo.
- Atsuko Ishizuka, the director of the anime adaptation of No Game No Life, has previous experience on The Pet Girl of Sakurasou. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Yoshitsugu Matsuoka and Ai Kayano, who voiced the lead pair of lovers in Sakurasou, would be once again cast to play, in No Game No Life, a pair of gamer-siblings. The gag went further due to the names of the characters involved: Sorata and Mashironote in Sakurasou, and Sora and Shironote in No Game No Life.
- In addition to that, when Sakurasou got an English dub, they also managed to have Shiro's English voice to play Mashiro.
- In The Rising of the Shield Hero, Ren Amaki, the Sword Hero, is supposed to be a parody of Kirito from Sword Art Online, being a teenager who enjoys playing VRMMO videogames, has a preference for swords and dressing up in black clothing. Both are voiced by Yoshitsugu Matsuoka.
- When Rurouni Kenshin was first adapted into a Radio Drama, Kaoru, the tomboyish, blue-haired female lead was played by Tomo Sakurai, but the anime recast her with Miki Fujitani. Flash forward to the Kyoto arc, when Kaoru is initially left behind in Tokyo and Kenshin meets up with a tomboyish, blue-haired teenage girl named Misao who the author explicitly pointed out was filling Kaoru's narrative purpose in the meantime... who happened to be voiced by Tomo Sakurai.
- Seitokai Yakuindomo has Furuya, who enjoys old-world snacks, uses '80s slang, and does her calculations on an abacus . . . even her fanservice is old-school. She's played by Fumi Hirano, best known as the voice of Lum in the '80s series Urusei Yatsura.
- Stephanie Griffin voiced Himeko Se in AnimEigo's dub of the Vampire Princess Miyu OVA and went on to voice Yukari in Tokyopop's dub of the TV series years later.
- The Vision of Escaflowne: the new Funimation dub has decided to cast Vic Mignogna as Folken, who is the older brother of Van. Van is voiced by Aaron Dismuke, who has some experience being the younger brother to Vic's character. In addition, Caitlin Glass plays the love interest to Aaron's character instead of Vic's.
- In Yatterman Night, Eri Kitamura voices a descendant of the original anime's villain, Doronjo. She seems to have switched sides, as just six years earlier, she voiced none other than Doronjo's enemy Yatterman-1 in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. It gets deeper than that: Leopard's mother Dorothy is played by Shizuka Itō, Ai-chan's voice actor from the 2008 series.
- Takehito Koyasu voiced Takuma Saiou from Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, who uses a Tarot Cards based deck filled with the Major Arcana. His particularly favorite card is The World and he enjoys saying and using it a lot. Koyasu would later be the voice of Dio Brando from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, whose minions have Stands related to the Major Arcana and has the power of The World who also enjoys shouting its name and using its power multiple times.
Film — Animation
- A minor one in Wreck-It Ralph Spanish dub. The Sonic cameo was voiced by Yamil Atala, who actually voiced Sonic in another series.
- In The Star the voice of the Blessed Virgin Mary is supplied by Gina Rodriguez, best known for playing another young woman who got pregnant without having sex beforehand.
- In Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, Superman is voiced by Nicolas Cage, who was famously slated to play the character in Tim Burton's unmade Superman Lives.
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse:
- Mahershala Ali voices the Prowler, who like Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes from Luke Cage (2016), is a Marvel supervillain operating out of New York.
- Kimiko Glenn voicing Peni Parker is reimagined by a Genki Girl, much like Tomiko from Elena of Avalor, both of whom are voiced by Kimiko Glenn.
- Albino gangster Tombstone is voiced by rapper Krondon, who is best known for playing the albino gangster Tobias Whale in Black Lightning, and who himself has albinism in real life.
- In Brother Bear the goofy Canadian moose brothers are played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas - the goofy Canadian brothers from Strange Brew and SCTV.
- John Ratzenberger has had a speaking part in every Pixar feature film, sometimes in throwaway bits (the construction worker in Up), sometimes with major supporting roles (Hamm the Piggy Bank in the Toy Story franchise).
- In Flushed Away, Ian McKellen played a character who's trying to get rid of a species he considers inferior, only to be defeated by Hugh Jackman. He also did that in the X-Men film series.
- In the Shrek films, John Cleese voiced a frog who wanted to become royalty. He also voiced one in The Swan Princess.
- The Lion King (1994): James Earl Jones (Mufasa) and Madge Sinclair (Sarabi) previously played a king and queen of a fictional African nation in the movie Coming to America.
- In James and the Giant Peach, James and the insects face off against a giant shark. One of the insects is voiced by Richard Dreyfuss, who had another close encounter with a shark in Jaws. And the shark blows up in both instances.
- Casey Kasem voiced a DJ in Rugrats in Paris. Kasem was a well-known DJ himself.
- In Planes, two minor characters are Bravo and Victor, two Navy F-18s, who feel "The Need for Speed". The characters were voiced by Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer, both of whom flew fighter jets in Top Gun. Well...both were in Top Gun, but Edwards character was a Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), not a pilot...er, "naval aviator"
- Cars:
- Richard Petty voiced one of the cars, named The King (a Shout-Out to his Fan Nickname). It's a Plymouth Superbird with a #43 on it (his most famous car), and in the climax, it even crashes in a frame by frame recreation of his famous 1988 Daytona 500 crash.
- Mrs. The King, voiced by Petty's Real Life wife, is depicted as the same car she used to drive to his early races before he became famous.
- At the end of The Jungle Book 2, Shere Khan (now voiced by Tony Jay) actually ends up being defeated by being plunged into a fiery pit, similar to Frollo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
- In Meet the Robinsons, Lewis goes through each member of the Robinson family and how they're related to each other, with his mental family tree shown to the viewer; however, he hasn't met Wilbur's dad Cornelius, so he asks Wilbur what he looks like. After a Beat, Wilbur says "Tom Selleck" in a deadpan tone, and a Real Life picture of Selleck is used for Lewis' thoughts. In reality, Cornelius is voiced by Selleck but looks like Lewis as an adult. The line was actually written first, and that gave them the idea of offering Tom Selleck the role. In most of the dubbed versions (except for the Brazilian and Dutch), they replace the "Tom Selleck" line with whoever is voicing Cornelius in that language.
- Don Bluth's Thumbelina features Jodi Benson voicing a redhead who wishes to find love with someone of a different species - who also has most characters comment on her beautiful singing voice. It wasn't the first time she lent her voice to such a film, that also happened to be based on a Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale.
- In the Brazilian Portuguese dub of The LEGO Movie, main character Emmet is played by Renan Freitas, who previously voiced another notorious builder.
- In The Boxtrolls, it wouldn't be Dee Bradley Baker's first time playing a fish. He previously did that in American Dad!, with Klaus.
- Wonder Woman (2009): Hippolyta's voice actress, Virginia Madsen, is no stranger to playing a demigoddess' mother since she also played Arella from Teen Titans.
- The LEGO Batman Movie:
- Zach Galifianakis plays The Joker, making this his second role as a clown after Baskets.
- Sauron is voiced by New Zealander Jemaine Clement (the Lord of the Rings movies were famously filmed in New Zealand). Clements' Flight of the Conchords bandmate Bret McKenzie also famously had a bit part as an unnamed Elf in The Return of the King, who later became an Ensemble Dark Horse thanks to McKenzie's subsequent fame.
- Inside Out has an example similar to the Meet The Robinsons one above. Anger is constantly seen reading a newspaper that updates him on things in Riley's life, wears a white button-down shirt and tie, and, as to be expected, has a Hair-Trigger Temper. He's voiced by Lewis Black, who is famous for his "angry yelling" comedy persona. Black also wears the same clothes for his stand-up act and often uses stories from newspapers as fodder for jokes. This is all very deliberate—during the first pitch meeting of the movie, the writers, perhaps jokingly, told the studio heads to imagine getting different people to voice the emotions, specifically remarking "We could get Lewis Black to play Anger!" Sure enough, that's exactly what happened.
- In Incredibles 2 the mayor of New Urbem is voiced by Barry Bostwick, who played the bumbling mayor of New York city in the sitcom Spin City.
- In Frozen (2013), Elsa sings an "I Am Becoming" Song about embracing her snow powers. Elsa's voice actress, Idina Menzel, originated "Defying Gravity" on Wicked, another "I Am Becoming" Song of a misfit witch finding herself.
- Tommy 'Tiny' Lister, a guy known for being typecast as the Scary Black Man, voices a cute, tiny animal in Zootopia...whose got an aggressive personality that is not that far off from the Scary Black Man character he usually plays. It's just that, this time, he's not intimidating at all due to his looks and stature, while in his live-action movies, he's very intimidating.
- Heidi's Song: Sammy Davis Jr., a member of the Rat Pack, voices the leader of a group of actual rats.
Music
- For his album Rock Swings Paul Anka covered Bon Jovi's "It's My Life" which references the song "My Way" by Frank Sinatra, which Anka wrote.
- Peter Gabriel's "The Barry Williams Show" is from the point of view of a trashy Reality Television show host, but the title wasn't meant to reference any specific celebrity, and the name "Barry Williams" was just meant to be as ordinary-sounding as possible. Peter Gabriel subsequently learned that there was in fact a TV star of that name, the American actor is best known for playing Greg from The Brady Bunch, so he got him to make a cameo in the music video... Ironically enough, he plays an audience member, not the host.
- P!nk's "Revenge", a Revenge Ballad about her and her friends getting back on an ex who treated her badly, has a guest verse from Eminem, infamous for channelling his real-life Destructive Romance with Kim Scott into songs about getting (bloody) revenge on her. Pink doesn't give any details about what her revenge is, and all Slim describes is intentionally cheating on his girl to make her feel bad... but his presence is enough to imply some violence to the plans. This is reinforced by the video, which is pretty gory for Top 40 pop.
Radio
- In The Quandary Phase of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, original H2G2 producer Geoffrey Perkins plays Arthur's boss at BBC local radio; a character with the same relationship to Douglas Adams' Author Avatar as Perkins had to Douglas himself.
- In the Big Finish Doctor Who audio drama Pier Pressure 1930s comedian Max Miller is played by Roy Hudd, president of the Max Miller Appreciation Society.
Theatre
- In 2009, Cate Blanchett played the title character in an Australian production of Richard II. Richard and Queen Elizabeth I (who Blanchett previously played in Elizabeth) have famously been compared—Elizabeth herself allegedly even said: "I am Richard II; know ye not that?"
- Anne Hathaway's role as the lead in the 2009 Shakespeare in the Park production of Twelfth Night, though it's more of a casting pun. Her name is the same as Shakespeare's wife.
- Jesse L. Martin, the original Collins in RENT, was in the Rock Opera Bright Lights Big City as the protagonist's best friend, who expressed disdain for "yuppies" and enjoyed using certain, um, recreational substances.
- Darren Criss, known for playing Harry in A Very Potter Musical, took over Daniel Radcliffe's role in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.
- Arsenic and Old Lace inverted this in the original stage version. The psychotic older brother berates his surgical henchman because someone said he looked like Boris Karloff. In the original Broadway cast, he was played by Boris Karloff. As the production was still making money at the time the film was set to be produced, the stage producers wouldn't allow Karloff out of his contract long enough to appear in the film version, and so the film producers had to make do with a heavily-made-up Raymond Massey. Karloff did get to reprise the role for a TV movie adaptation in 1962.
- For the 1951 West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams personally cast Vivien Leigh—who was still best known for playing Scarlett O'Hara at the time—as the mentally damaged Southern Belle Blanch Dubois, whose inability to cope with the loss of her family's ancestral plantation tragically costs her her sanity. The casting choice carried over to the well-known film adaptation released the same year (see "Film" above).
- The 2011 production of Company cast Neil Patrick Harris, an openly gay engaged man, as a bachelor who strings women along and disdains marriage.
- The original Broadway production of Shrek: The Musical cast John Tartaglia, a famous Broadway puppeteer and Muppet performer, as Pinocchio, a puppet.
Video Games
- In Akanesasu Sekai de Kimi to Utau, Shin-ichiro Miki voices Sakamoto Ryōma. He has also voiced Sakamoto Tatsuma from Gintama.
- Who's that playing übercapitalist Andrew Ryan in BioShock? Why it's Armin Shimerman, who you might remember as Quark the Ferengi from Deep Space 9!
- Shimerman also voiced one the of the villains from the Ratchet & Clank series - the main rival of a character named 'Qwark'.
- Amusingly, his Alternate Company Equivalent, the security-obsessed Robert House is played by the same guy as Odo.
- Catherine has Michelle Ruff and Laura Bailey, both who played the Lovers Arcana social link Persona 3 and Persona 4, respectively, play the two K/Catherine characters in this game, vying for the same man.
- Halo:
- Nathan Fillion voices one of the main characters in Halo 3: ODST. Who plays his character's ex-girlfriend (and boss)? His ex-girlfriend Tricia Helfer. Who plays two of his squadmates? His old Firefly and Serenity castmates Alan Tudyk and Adam Baldwin.
- Halo 5: Guardians has a hilarious bit where you can find an audio recording showing that a Sangheili warrior is in love with Commander Palmer. Palmer is voiced by Jennifer Hale, who as Commander Shepard also had aliens lusting after her.
- Gary Oldman as the Russian Commander Reznov in Call of Duty World at War. Oldman had previously played the Russian terrorist Ivan Korshunov in Air Force One. His American counterpart is voiced by Kiefer Sutherland, of 24 fame. Sutherlands's previous voice-acting job was as the American general W.R. Monger in Monsters vs. Aliens.
- In Call of Duty: Black Ops:
- Ed Harris plays a CIA agent in the 1960s involved in many missions in Southeast Asia, especially during The Vietnam War. In The Rock, he played a Marine general who was famous for his black ops exploits in The Vietnam War.
- Gary Oldman reprising his role as Reznov? Vorkuta isn't his first time escaping from prison. Nor is it the first time he dies only seconds away from escape.
- Male protagonist Joshua Radcliff of Super Robot Wars Destiny is voiced by Yūichi Nakamura in the Second Super Robot Wars Original Generation. This means players will see a robot-piloting Tomoya Okazaki (since both Tomoya and Joshua have blue hair and near-similar hairstyle), surrounded by Gundam lookalikes (Nakamura's role in Mobile Suit Gundam 00 is Graham Aker who memetically shouts "I LOVE YOU, GUNDAM!!"), fighting creatures empowered by despair (making him an anti-Hazama), alongside an orange-haired younger sister that can't be this cute. For bonus gag, said sister is to be voiced by Tomoyo Sakagami's seiyuu.
- Super Robot Wars X is not the first time Hideyuki Tanaka voices the Big Bad of a Banpresto-developed video game, who also turns out to be a giant monster with divine powers.
- Super Robot Wars X marks Keiichi Noda returning to voice another Familiar for an Original Generation protagonist (Ranshao for Hwang Yang Long), nor is this the first time he is cast as the game's True Final Boss before.
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep:
- Mark Hamill plays Master Eraqus, one of the few remaining masters of an ancient, inter-world knighthood with distinctive and iconic weapons. He is struck down halfway through the game by one of his pupils who embrace the darkness in his heart, but has appeared to transcend death, at least for the time being.
- Additionally, Master Xehanort is voiced by Leonard Nimoy. The English localization team confirmed that this was an intentional reference to the Star Wars vs Star Trek fandom rivalry.
- Clara Hananokoji from the Power Instinct series was created as an Affectionate Parody of the Magical Girl genre, so of course Atlus hired Sailor Moon herself to voice her.
- The God of War series did this several times: Perseus is voiced by Harry Hamlin and Hercules is voiced by Kevin Sorbo, roles the actors previously played in Clash of the Titans and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys respectively. Carole Ruggier, the voice of Athena, also previously voiced the same character in Age of Mythology.
- Mass Effect franchise:
- The first game had Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi in Star Trek: The Next Generation) playing Matriarch Benezia, an evil psychic from a highly spiritual culture of alien empaths. Not to mention Lance Henriksen (Bishop in Aliens) as Admiral Hackett, the Mission Control for the Space Marine protagonist.
- Mass Effect 2: Tricia Helfer of Battlestar Galactica (2003) voices the Normandy's AI, EDI. In Mass Effect 3 she gets a sexy female robot platform to travel around in. Several of her conversations have comments that are obvious references to her role as a Cylon, including at least once when she specifically says "By your command."
- In the Japanese version of Mugen Souls, the protagonist Chou Chou (voiced by Yukari Tamura), conquers and makes friends with everyone through the power of making them obey her. Does that remind you of someone?
- Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, a tongue-in-cheek Affectionate Parody of '80s action movies, features a badass "Cyber-Commando" as its protagonist. Naturally, said protagonist is played by Michael Biehn, who made his career battling cyborgs in The Terminator and leading a platoon of Space Marines in Aliens.
- In Dragon Quest Heroes, Rie Kugimiya voices Homiron, a slime. She already voiced a slime before, except it was an humanoid-looking, evil one.
- In Dragon Age: Inquisition, Morrigan's son Kieran is voiced by Odin Black, who is Claudia Black's real-life son.
- Infinite Crisis has a few voice actors voice alternate versions of the characters:
- Unlike Vanessa Marshall and Josh Keaton, who are reprising the respective roles of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, their Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths co-star Nolan North voices Green Lantern's Atomic counterpartnote .
- Steve Blum and James Arnold Taylor, who were in LEGO Batman, as the respective voices of Batman himself and Robin/Nightwing, voice the characters' Nightmare counterparts. Likewise, Travis Willingham and Laura Bailey voiced Superman and Wonder Woman respectively in its sequels, voices the characters' Mecha counterpart.
- Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions did this with the Spider-Men, with them being voiced by past Spidey voice actors: Neil Patrick Harris (Spider-Man: The New Animated Series) as Amazing Spider-Man (albeit only on the consoles), Christopher Daniel Barnes (Spider-Man: The Animated Series) as Spider-Man Noir, Dan Gilvezan (Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends) as Spider-Man 2099, and Josh Keaton (The Spectacular Spider-Man) as Ultimate Spider-Man (and Amazing Spider-Man on the DS). Its sequel Edge of Time also did this with two of the aforementioned and an interesting variation of The Other Darrin with Keaton and Barnes replacing Harris and Gilvezan in the respective roles of Amazing Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099.
- The US dub of Ape Escape 2 features Veronica Taylor and Rachael Lillis, best known as the voices of Ash and Misty respectively. They play the lead roles of Jimmy and Natalie, who are very similar to Ash and Misty. Jimmy is accompanied by a Pikachu-like Ridiculously Cute Critter monkey named Pipotchi, and Natalie looks very similar to Misty, both of them being redhead tomboys with pigtails. Plus they're in a game where you Gotta Catch 'Em All.
- Injustice 2 has the fear-obsessed villain the Scarecrow voiced by Freddy Krueger himself, Robert Englund.
- In Saints Row and Saints Row 2, Phil Morris voiced Legal Lee, who is a lawyer, much like his Seinfeld character Jackie Chiles.
- Hokuto ga Gotoku features the voice cast of the Yakuza series as characters from Fist of the North Star, with each actor's characters sharing qualities with each other. To name a few examples:
- Takaya Kuroda voices Kazuma Kiryu and Kenshiro, stoic badass protagonists.
- Kazuhiro Nayaka voices Akira Nishikiyama and Shin, former best friends to the protagonist whose jealousy drives them to betrayal.
- Hidenari Ugaki voices Goro Majima and Jagi, crazed Combat Pragmatists who are obsessed with defeating their rivals.
- In Hitman (2016) William Mapother voices the target Dino Bosco, a Prima Donna Director and B-list actor. This is significant as not only is Mapother an actor who is a cousin of Tom Cruise, he was originally cast as the replacement voice actor for Agent 47 in Hitman: Absolution, but the original VA, David Bateson came back at the last minute after recording some lines in secret with IOI to prove Square Enix wrong (to which they agreed, and Bateson was added proper). His level in 2016 "The Icon". also has a pair of NPC's that references this backlash, and one of them wants Dino replaced with a guy named "Dave Bateson", and will form a petition to do so.
- In Hitman 2, Sean Bean voices the Elusive Target codenamed: "The Undying", real name Mark Faba, a target known for coming back from the dead when the ICA tries to assassinate him, and has canonically two seperate contracts from the ICA as even 47 can't keep him dead for long . He's basically his GoldenEye character Alec Trevelyan in videogame form, crossed with the notoriety of Sean Bean being a Chronically Killed Actor.
- Power Rangers: Battle for the Grid features Dan Southworth returning to his role as Eric Myers, the Quantum Ranger, from Power Rangers Time Force. Eric's dialogue, however, is now peppered with references to Southworth's most famous video game role, Vergil from Devil May Cry, while his fighting style is reminiscent of The Musketeer fighting style used by Dante.
Eric Myers: I need more Quantum Power!Eric Myers: Foolishness, Lord Zedd. Foolishness.
- The 2020 game Genshin Impact, or 原神 yuánshén in Chinese casts Aoi Yūki as the female lead Lumine for its Japanese soundtrack. The gag is in Chinese: back in 2011, the shock from the series Puella Magi Madoka Magica tied, in many Chinese viewers' minds, the name Aoi Yuuki with her character Madoka Kaname, or the omniscient being Madokami, or directly translated in Chinese, 圆神 yuánshén. Fast forward to 2017, when Yuuki appeared as Yoshiko Hanabatake in Aho Girl, and the huge contrast between the two characters gave the latter the nickname 猿神 yuánshén meaning "the monkey goddess". The homonymic pun got a third member later that year with Akiho Kosaka from My Girlfriend is Shobitch as 援神 yuánshén, voiced by, you guessed it, Aoi Yuuki. As the voice actress of three successive yuánshén's, it makes sense for a game titled yuánshén to cast her as the leading characternote .
- Cyberpunk 2077: The creators of Cyberpunk have said that POV character Morgan Blackhand is pretty much grimyfuture John Wick, so when CD Projekt Red had the chance to cast Keanu Reeves, who played John Wick, in their adaptation... they cast him as the other prominent POV character Johnny Silverhand.
- In Disco Elysium, the final conflict is between two sides led by two of the Chapo Trap House hosts - Felix Biederman's deranged mercenary Kourtenaer, and Matt Christman's Union strongman Titus. This appears to be a reference to how, on Chapo, when they argue it's usually over the cultural value of video gaming, with opposing positions that somewhat resemble the characters (Matt thinks it's a boot on our necks keeping us from rising up and destroying capitalism; Felix just likes that they let him pretend to be a soldier with a big gun).
- Psychonauts 2: Razputin, voiced by Richard Steven Horvitz, gains the ability to summon a small, hyperactive oddball minion to help him with certain tasks. Said minion is voiced by Rosearik Rikki Simons. This is a reference to Simons' role on Invader Zim as GIR, a small, hyperactive oddball minion working for a character voiced by Horvitz.
Web Animation
- Red vs. Blue has the light being Huggins. When we meet their parents, they are voiced by two lighting artists.
- In gen:LOCK, Rooster Teeth CEO Matt Hullum voices the guy who financed the gen:LOCK project.
- Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged has Vincent being voiced by Curtis "[Takahata101]" Arnott, well-known for playing another gun-wielding vampire clad in red, while being credited as ??? It also lasts for all of 10 seconds before he's revealed to actually be voiced by Faulerro in what sounds like an impression of The Beatles.
- RWBY: Season 4 introduces Aaron Dismuke as Oscar Pine, who is at one point referred to by Qrow Branwen (voiced by Dismuke’s former co-Star Vic Mignogna) as “pipsqueak” (which is a Berserk Button for Mignogna’s previous character of Edward Elric).
Web Videos
- The Time... Guys made their three-person cast a joke. One actor plays every single historical character the gang meets.
- Canadian programmer Ian Kirby, one of the Power Trio of artists behind Broken Saints, makes a Creator Cameo on the DVD voice track as a Canadian soldier.
- In The Nostalgia Critic's review of Les Misérables (2012) makes fun of the Love at First Sight trope by having that happen between Paw Dugan and Maven of the Eventide; Paul Schuler and Elisa Hansen are engaged in real life.
- The antagonist of the Irish film Undefeated is a bully who gives a speech about how repulsed he is by the thought of people being gay. His actor James Stephen Walsh is bisexual.
- In Mr Peterson Robbie is a reckless driver who murdered the titular character with Car Fu. Bobby Calloway didn't know how to drive when his scenes were shot.
- The Nutters: Luke is portrayed as a clueless ditz. His actor Liam Gaynor was noted to be one of the most intelligent and insightful members of the cast - even winning arts scholarships.
