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This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

Following

Celebrity Voice Actor

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https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/epic_poster.png
Side character Queen Tara is voiced by...BEYONCÉ?!
"I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animation... No, UPS is hard work. I've done some animation... It's the easiest job in the world. I go in a booth and I go, 'What's the line?' And the guy goes, 'It's time to go to the store.' And I go, 'It's time to go to the store!'... And then they give me a million dollars."
— Chris Rock, 84th Academy Awards

Celebrities do a lot of voice acting in big-budget animated movies. Maybe the producers figure more people will see their movie if they can put "Taylor Swift" on all the posters in massive, gold lettering. Maybe John Q. Public just loves his celebrities. Maybe fans enjoy hearing a voice they recognize. The fact that celebrities can enjoy acting work without having to deal with costumes, script memorization, and travel to remote shooting locations and other elements of live-action filmmaking is another factor (although motion capture acting has many of those demands, and the actors behind these performances generally aren't considered only voice actors). Regardless, experienced voice actors often get cast aside in favor of someone more famous when a big, important animated movie is made.

Sometimes this results in viewers not only becoming aware of just who's voicing the characters, but mentally referring to the characters by the actors' names, especially if it's been a while since they've last seen the movie.

As it turns out, professional voice actors (especially Billy West and Tara Strong) are not pleased that their jobs are being poached by actors from other disciplines, which makes sense, as it implies that the performing skills are interchangeable. While professional voice actors are capable of utilizing a wide vocal or acting range to create a given character's personality, celebrities are usually cast for marketing purposes because audiences will recognize the popular actor's voice and therefore, they usually don't change their voice in any way.

It's important to note that this is not always a recipe for disaster. Some celebrities prove to be very talented or even experienced at voice acting, and would likely be among the most prolific at the profession if they did it exclusively. For instance, the master actor Dustin Hoffman won an Annie Award for performing the voice of Master Shifu in Kung Fu Panda. Indeed, there are a fair number of performers who have managed strong careers in both fields and do not qualify for the pitfalls of this, although becoming equally famous in both is unusual. Some on-stage/Hollywood actors — Mark Hamill and Eden Riegel, to name two — transitioned to primarily working as voice actors later in their careers.note 

That said, Billy West's scorn has been justified in some cases where celebrity voice actors haven't delivered the goods, such as Cameron Diaz's notoriously flat performance in the Shrek films; or in cases where an actor is wildly miscast, such as Billy Bob Thornton in the dub of Princess Mononoke. That's where the reason for this being a separate decision becomes apparent. West himself has indicated that he has fewer objections to performances like Robin Williams in Aladdin, Tom Hanks and Tim Allen in Toy Story or Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy in the aforementioned Shrek because they were all actually playing characters with their voices... y'know, the acting part of voice acting.

Subtrope of Stunt Casting. Often turn out to be examples of Ink Suit Actors. If most voice actors in a single work are this, they're an All-Star Cast. See also Pop-Star Composer for the musical equivalent, and "Sesame Street" Cred for when celebrities star on children's shows. Likely to happen in a Concert Episode if the famous person is a musician. When a celebrity being cast as the main character is the main draw of a series, that's Celebrity Toons. If a person takes a celebrity voice role because of their children, that's So My Kids Can Watch. If the voice role was done before the person got famous (a common trend among those who began acting in their childhood), that would be Retroactive Recognition.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    English (Pinball) 

    English (Video Games) 

    English (Other) 

    Japanese (Anime) 

    Japanese (Foreign dubs) 

    Japanese (Video Games) 
  • Square Enix seems to recently love this a lot for their games in Japanese:
  • Keio Flying Squadron and its sequel had the heroine voiced by actress and J-pop singer Miho Kanno.
  • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots replaced Ryōtarō Okiayu with film director/actor Shinya Tsukamoto (best known for the Tetsuo cyberpunk trilogy) as the voice of Vamp. Tsukamoto was actually Hideo Kojima's original choice for Vamp during the making of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, but schedule conflicts prevented Tsukamoto from participating in the voice recording.
  • Gundam Extreme Vs has the primary villain voiced by GACKT. Gackt happens to be a huge fan of the Gundam franchise, which explains why he took the role.
  • The Like a Dragon series has been featuring photoscanned Japanese celebrities as in-game characters since Yakuza 4 (and even earlier than that with the unlocalized spinoff game Ryū Ga Gotoku Kenzan!), with one notable example being Takeshi Kitano in Yakuza 6.
    • This became a bit problematic with Yakuza 4, as the character of Masayoshi Tanimura was originally voiced by and modeled after Hiroki Narimiya. Some time after the game was released, he was (falsely) accused of drug use, resulting in Tanimura's total makeover in the remastered port, with a new face and being voiced by Toshiki Masuda.
    • A similar situation occurred in the spinoff game Judgment with the character of Ryohei Hamura, originally played by Pierre Taki. After Pierre Taki was convicted of posession of cocaine, the game was pulled from the shelves in Japan and Sega later reissued a budget-priced version with Taki's voice and likeness replaced. This was the version that Sega ended up releasing in the West. Another celebrity-related problem of this game is that the agency of Takuya Kimura, who provides the voice and appearance of protagonist Takayuki Yagami, pressured Sega not to release the game on PC, citing image rights concerns. Fortunately, both Judgment and its sequel, Lost Judgment, were finally released for PC on September 14, 2022.
  • The Guided Fate Paradox explicitly features the entire cast of µ's in it. The voice actors are even properly associated with their respective Love Live! character in the credits of the game (I.E. Sora Tokui as Nico Yazawa as Liliel).
  • Kaede Akamatsu, the Player Character of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony for the first chapter, anyway is voiced by Sayaka Kanda, singer of the band TRUSTICK. This is her first video game role, but she previously played Junko Enoshima and Mukuro Ikusaba in the stage adaptation of the first game.
  • SD Gundam G Generation Genesis debuted a new Original Character named Yuko Ortensia. She's voiced by Yuko Suzuhana, who sung the theme songs for the game.

    Portuguese (Brazil) 
  • During the 60s and 70s, many TV actors would at times get extra work through dubbing. Lima Duarte in particular lent his voice to many Hanna-Barbera cartoons, most famously Top Cat and Wally Gator.
  • Singer-actress Zezé Motta played Ursula in The Little Mermaid (1989).
  • Selton Mello is a strange case of this, as he was a dubber in the 80s, broke off as an actor in the 90s, and then in the early 2000s was brought in for two Disney protagonists as a celebrity dubber, Kuzco in The Emperor's New Groove (which also had actors as Pacha and Yzma) and Kenai of Brother Bear (which had two actors as the moose).
  • Rodrigo Santoro was Stuart Little in the first two movies. Once his international career took off, it's somewhat common for him to dub himself in American movies, and he also had a prominent role in Klaus.
  • Dinosaur somehow got a cast of higher celebrities than the original dub, with two soap opera stars (Fábio Assunção and Malu Mader as Aladar and Neera), a veteran actress (Nair Bello as Baylene) and a talk show host (Hebe Camargo as Eema).
  • Comedian Bussunda was Shrek in the first two movies, with him having the advantage of a complete track done by professional dubber Mauro Ramos - who eventually took over the role, given Bussunda died a year prior to Shrek the Third. Shrek 2 also tried to follow Larry King as the Ugly Sister by also having a journalist in the role (though he didn't return in the third).
  • Ice Age had three actors as the main trio, and the first two sequels also had a comedian as Ellie. Additionally, Ingrid Guimarães was Brooke in the fifth.
  • Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas had Thiago Lacerda as the title character (amusingly, when he dubbed again it was another Brad Pitt role, Metro Man) and Giovanna Antonelli as Marina (who would also voice the mother from The Boss Baby).
  • Reynaldo Gianecchini was Rodney Copperbottom in Robots, actor André Matos was Fender, and MTV Brazil VJ Marina Person dubbed Cappy.
  • Cars had two actors, Priscila Fantin (Sally) and Daniel Filho (Doc), but the sequels mostly adequated to the original cast having sportspeople by having local announcers, plus trading one Formula One champion for another (Lewis Hamilton became Emerson Fittipaldi). Also, Brazilian racer Carla Veloso got the voice of a singer, and Cruz Ramirez from the third was an actress.
  • The Kung Fu Panda movies had Lúcio Mauro Filho as Po, and the first also had Juliana Paes as Tigress.
  • Dubbing fans cite Tangled as a standout case of this gone wrong, as putting a television host as Flynn Rider is still reviled to this day - Flynn's singing voice, who took over the role in later works, has confirmed he had also done the dialogue before it got discarded for a star talent.
  • Another badly received case was The Lion King (2019), where an actor\singer and a singer were Simba and Nala, and the consensus is that while they sung well, their speaking parts were the lowlight of an already contentious dub.
  • Two games had big cases of Stunt Casting singers on their dub gone wrong, Cassie Cage in Mortal Kombat X (once the DLC characters forced pre-match banter with a new voice, everyone started asking for a redub with that one!) and Det. Mendonza of Battlefield Hardline (not helped by said singer using his Twitter for takedowns on complainers).
  • Isabelle Drummond voiced the Tooth Fairy in Rise of the Guardians.
  • Wreck-It Ralph had actor\singer Tiago Abravanel as Ralph, comedian Rafael Cortez as Felix, and television host (best known for a stint on MTV) Marimoon as Vanellope. The sequel had actress Giovanna Lancelotti as Shank.
  • Comedy troupe BackDoor not only did the adaptation of Sausage Party, but had a few voice roles in the movie too. Three of the members also appeared in other cartoons, Fábio Porchat (Olaf in Frozen and Chuck in Angry Birds, plus sequels to both), Antonio Tabet (Hank from Finding Dory, Bunny in Toy Story 4), and Gregorio Duvivier (Asterix in The Secret of the Magic Potion, Bob in Luck).
  • The Jungle Book (2016) had mostly celebrities, with the biggest exceptions being Mowgli himself and his wolf father Akela. For instance, there was the aforementioned Thiago Lacerda (Shere Khan) and Tiago Abravanel (King Louie), and also Alinne Moraes as Kaa.
  • Tatá Werneck had roles in both Planes: Fire & Rescue and The Secret Life of Pets.
  • In a weird case of Incestuous Casting, Incredibles 2 had couple Flávia Alessandra and Otaviano Costa as siblings Evelyn and Winston Deavor.
  • Lázaro Ramos voiced the protagonists of both The Grinch (2018) and Spies in Disguise, with the latter also featuring his wife Taís Araújo as Marcy.
  • Mariana Ximenes was the voice of Sharon Spitz, Abby Mallard and Rosita. (and as the voice of Ginormica revealed, Ximenes would've played her too before scheduling conflicts made her back out)
  • Racing Stripes had a few, such as Matheus Nachtergaele and musician\TV host João Gordo as the flies.
  • While we're only listing Brazilian cases, Portugal has one with Spider Man Into The Spiderverse using Daniela Melchior as Gwen Stacy.

    Spanish (Mexico and Latin America) 
  • In the Mexican Spanish dub of the first Ojamajo Doremi series, the titular heroine Doremi is voiced by the Mexican soap opera actress Vanessa Acosta, something unusual for an anime dub in Mexico. Acosta was into dub acting years before Ojamajo Doremi was on TV, since she was the dub actress for Melissa Joan Hart in Clarissa Explains It All (she stayed until the final season of the series) and in the first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch before fully focusing her career into soap operas and theater.
  • Mexican singer Kalimba Marichal had a previous career as a voice actor when he was a kid: He was the singing voice of Simba as a cub in The Lion King's Latin Spanish dub, Arnold in Hey Arnold!, Kitaro in the 90s version of GeGeGe no Kitarō, young Keiichi Morisato in Ah! My Goddess' OVAs and Masaru in AKIRA.
  • Mexican comedian Eugenio Derbez has worked in many dubs in his career: He dubbed Jim Carrey in the Mexican Spanish dub of Yes-Man, Donkey in Shrek, Mushu in Mulan, Lucky in the two first Dr. Dolittle films, Johann Krauss in Hellboy II: The Golden Army (this one as Playing Against Type) and dubbing himself, for obvious reasons, in the dub of Rob.
  • The late actress Irma Lozano was the dub voice of Jeannie in I Dream of Jeannie and Carol Post in the Mister Ed Mexican Spanish dub.
  • Demian Bichir not only is a well-known actor both in Mexico and in the U.S. but also well-known for doing voice acting in his native Mexico: He dubbed Aladdin, Prince Ericnote , Tulio and others.
  • While María Antonieta de las Nieves had a very extensive dubbing career before becoming La Chilindrina, her dubbing Vanellope from Wreck-It Ralph comes as this as she had not done voice acting jobs since the 70s.
  • In fact, the Latin Spanish dubbing wiki has a list of celebrity voice actors that would make this folder far too big if all of it was included, the fact is that several celebrities, sometimes not involved in acting, had lended their voices to big or small characters.
  • One of the most infamous cases was "Selección Canina", where the most of the characters were dubbed by sports personalities as long as the film was based on a canine version of the Mexican National Football Squad.
  • However, the Latin American dub of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had the most infamous event, when an online video from Sony promoting the several personalities that joined the film, caused protests from the public when learning that small roles were given to YouTubers with the hope of pulling a bigger audience. This went to the point for Sony to not use that kind of advertising in another market.
  • The Spanish dub of The Jungle Book had Germán Valdés as Baloo and Alfonso Arau (El Guapo from ¡Three Amigos!) as Kaa.
  • The Latin Spanish dub of Braceface had Sharon Spitz voiced by telenovela actress & model Agustina Cherri.
  • In the 1984 Spanish dub of Sanrio and Osamu Tezuka's The Fantastic Adventures of Unico. Unico was voiced by late actress Matilde Vilariño, best-known for voicing child characters on numerous radio shows in Spain during the 1940s till the 1960s before becoming a voice actor. After retiring from acting, Rosa Romay would take over the role of Unico for the 2010 DVD dub of Unico in the Island of Magic and Unico: Black Cloud and White Feather.

    Tagalog/Filipino (Philippines) 
  • The Tagalog dub of BECK had prominent band vocalists such as Jett Pangan (of The Dawn and the Jett Pangan Group), Raimund Marasigan (of The Eraserheads and Sandwich), Yael Yuzon (of Spongecola), Ney Dimaculangan (of 6cyclemind), and Teddy Corpuz (of Rocksteddy) voice many of the characters.
  • In the 2013 Tagalog dub of Voltes V, Kenichi is voiced by primetime Soap actor Dennis Trillo, Megumi is voiced by Sandara "Dara" Park of the K-Pop group 2NE1, actor Nash Aguas as Hiroshi, actor Joseph Bitangcol as Heinell, the aforementioned Jett Pangan as Jangal Rui, among others.
  • The Tagalog dub of Bleach had the late actor Marky Cielo voice Ichigo Kurosaki, Daytime Soap actress Yasmien Kurdi as Rukia Kuchiki, actor Ranier Castillo as Uryu Ichida, actor Dion Ignacio as Yasutora "Chad Sado", and actress and model Nicole Anderson as Orihime Inoue. Following Cielo's death, Ignacio takes over as Ichigo while Chad is then voiced by comedian Jan Manual.
  • The Animax-sponsored Tagalog version (which was done as an explicit Taglish dub, mixing both English and Tagalog frequently) of Initial D Fourth Stage featured Angel Locsin as Kyoko Iwase and Matteo Guidicelli as Takumi Fujiwara; Actor-Shared Background kicked in at the time as Gudicelli was then known more as a professional go-kart racer before transitioning into a full-time actor.
  • The Tagalog dub of Crayon Shin-chan had rapper Andrew E., famous for very explicit lyrics in his songs, voice the titular character, leading to rather hilarious memes among Filipino fans of the series.
  • The Tagalog dub of the Yo-kai Watch anime had child actors Miggs Cuaderno and Jillian Ward (11 and 10 at the time of the premiere) voice Nate and Katie, respectively, along with former teen actor Mikoy Morales as Whisper.
  • In the Filipino dub of Heroman, young actor Nash Aguas (he was 13 or 14 at the time) voices the main character Joseph Carter "Joey" Jones.
  • Popular actress Kathryn Bernardo voices Giselle in the ABS-CBN dub of Enchanted.
  • Pokémon: The Series
    • Protagonist Ash Ketchum was originally voiced by Klariz Magboo, a well known radio broadcaster and sometimes TV personality in the country, from the very beginning until the penultimate season of Pokémon the Series: XY. She's succeeded by actor Will Ashley since. Magboo's case is also a Retroactive Recognition, as she is a voice actress first (and still is) before hitting it big as a presenter Case in point.
    • Serena and Lillie are both voiced by teen actress Sophia Pablo.
    • The Pokémon the Series: Sun & Moon dub includes actress teen Althea Ablan as Lana and actor Bruce Roeland as Kiawe.
  • Popular primetime soap actor Dennis Trillo and then child actress Mona Alawi voice the father and daughter lead protagonists in the GMA Network dub of Train to Busan.

    Swedish 
  • In Sweden, most cartoons are dubbed by professional voice actors but sometimes they get a celebrity or two.
  • Singer Tommy Körberg did the voice to adult Tod in The Fox and the Hound. He did such a good job that they took him back a few years later to do the voice for the Beast in Beauty and the Beast.

    French (France and Quebec) 

France

Quebec

  • In the 2004 Garfield film, the titular cat is voiced by comedian Patrick Huard, who agreed to voice him because his daughter was a big fan of the character. While doing promotion for the sequel, he said he agreed to reprise the role because his daughter begged him to do so.
  • Bolt: The titular character and Rhino are voiced by Claude Legault and Guy Jodoin respectively, two popular actors in Quebec who are also known for having worked together on Dans Une Galaxie Près De Chez Vous. As for Penny, she's voiced by Frédérique Dufort, who at the time played one of the main characters in a live-action series titled Tactik.
  • Merida in Brave is voiced by singer Marilou.
  • Baymax in Big Hero 6 is voiced by actor Paul Doucet.
  • In Zootopia, Bonnie and Stu Hopps are voiced by actress Julie Le Breton and comedian Martin Matte respectively. At the time, they were starring in a TV series created by Matte titled Les Beaux Malaises ("The Pretty Awkward Moments"), where he played his own role and Le Breton played his wife Julie.
  • In The Jungle Book (2016), Baloo, Kaa, and King Louie are respectively voiced by comedian Laurent Paquin, singer Ariane Moffat, and actor Normand D'Amour.

    German 
  • The German dub of All Dogs Go to Heaven has Charlie voiced by Harald Juhnke.
  • For the German dub of Hotel Transylvania 2, the voice of Vlad is provided by none other than prolific comedian Dieter Hallervorden.
  • In the German dub of Mulan, Fa Zhou is voiced by Horst Buchholz. Buchholz was also the voice of Lampwick in the 1951 dub of Pinocchio and Flower in the dub of Bambi, but they were before he was famous.
  • In Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, MTV Home host Palina Rojinski; replaces Luisa Wietzorek as the voice of Sam Sparks. Stand-up comedian Ilka Bessin voices Barb, but only for the theatrical release.
  • Rapper Smudo voices Mighty Eagle in The Angry Birds Movie.
  • The Alpha Wolf and Beta wolf from Storks are voiced by local chefs Frank Rosin and Nelson Müller.
  • Video game developer and journalist Erik "Gronkh" Range voices the Joker in The LEGO Batman Movie.
  • In the German dub of "Ice Age: Continental Drift", television presenter Wolfram Kons voices Gupta.
  • In the German dub of "Monsters University", Frank McCay is voiced by association footballer Manuel Neuer.

    Korean 
  • The theatrical Korean dub of the first Madagascar movie has Alex voiced by Song Kang-ho, one of South Korea's most successful actors who is often considered the country's Tom Hanks.
  • In the Korean dub of Tad, the Lost Explorer, the titular protagonist is voiced by the singer Ha Dong-hoon, aka HAHA, while Sarah is voiced by the also singer and actress Yoon Bo-ra aka Bora.

    Italian 
Before posting any example, let's notice that the usage of celebrities to voice animated movies in Italy is not only very common, but also not very appreciated by many in later years, since in modern times they tend to get people whose acting performances are not that great. That said, though...

Disney

  • One of the oldest examples in this category is the Italian dub of The Aristocats, where Renzo Montagnani (a popular actor of that period) voiced O' Malley.
  • After that, celebrities in Disney movies weren't seen anymore for a long time... until Aladdin came out, with popular comedian Gigi Proietti as the Genie. Many people think that he actually improved the character.
  • In The Lion King, comedians Vittorio Gassman and Tullio Solenghi voiced respectively Mufasa and Scar, once again with great success.
  • In 1997, Lady and the Tramp was redubbed in many languages to avoid issues similar to the one Peggy Lee had with the English soundtrack. The new Italian dub featured a ton of celebrities, including popular actors Margherita Buy and Claudio Amendola as the two titular characters, comedian Marco Columbro as Jock and soubrette Nancy Brilly as Peg and both the siamese cats. The bad performances of the four aforemented celebrities, along with many goofs in the script (the new one was done by rewriting down all the dialogue from the first dub, with many lines getting misheard, made so that in 2006 this new dub was retired and the old one came back.
  • In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, singers Massimo Ranieri and Mietta voice Quasimodo and Esmeralda.
  • The Italian dub of Hercules features popular actor Raoul Bova as Hercules, Veronica Pivetti (who actually is a retired voice actress, since she also voiced Queen Beryl, Tails in both Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and other characters) as Meg, comedian duo Zuzzurro and Gaspare as Pain and Panic and TV host Giancarlo Magalli as Fil.
  • Mulan features TV gameshow host Enrico Papi as Mushu.
  • The Emperor's New Groove features comedian duo Luca Bizzarri and Paolo Kessisoglu as Kuzco and Kronk, respectively, and another comedian, Anna Marchesini, as Yzma.
  • Home on the Range has actress Cinzia Leone as Maggie and comedian Marina Massironi, who had voiced Mrs. Tsukino [with her cousin Cinzia] and Princess Sally) as Grace.
  • Chicken Little features comedian Gabriele Cirilli as the titular character, DJ Albertino as Morkubine Porcupine and, in what probably is one of the craziest forms of this, the voice of Mayor Turkey Lurkey is done by Walter Veltroni, the at-the-time mayor of Rome.
  • Meet the Robinsons features TV gameshow host Carlo Conti as Uncle Art, soccer coach Serse Cosmi as the coach and Giovanni Muciaccia (the host of the Italian edition of Art Attack) as Cornelius (so the "my dad looks like Tom Selleck" joke is changed to show a picture of the right person)
  • Bolt features Raoul Bova (see Hercules above) as the titular character.
  • The Princess and the Frog features TV host and comedian Luca Laurenti as Ray.
  • Tangled features actors Laura Chiatti and Giampaolo Morelli as Rapunzel and Flynn and singer Mario Biondi as Hook-hand Thug.
  • Wreck-It Ralph features rugby player Sergio Parisse as Zangief and movie director Paolo Virzì as Sour Bill.
  • Frozen features actresses Serena Rossi and Serena Autieri as Anna and Elsa (amusingly, both of them actually began proper voice actress careers after this movie, even reprising their roles in Once Upon a Time) and comedian Enrico Brignano as Olaf.
  • Big Hero 6 features actor, comedian and TV gamehost Flavio Insinna as Baymax and comedian Virginia Raffaele as Aunt Cass.
  • Zootopia features comedian Paolo Ruffini as Yax, Youtube prank caller-turned-TV comedian Frank Matano as Duke Weaselton, comedian Diego Abatantuono as Finnick and comedian Teresa Mannino as Mr. Big's daughter.
  • Moana features comedian Angela Finocchiaro as Moana's grandma and singer Rafael Gualazzi as Tamatoa.

Pixar

  • Toy Story features TV host Fabrizio Frizzi as Woody and comedian Massimo Dapporto as Buzz.
  • Monsters, Inc. features Marina Massironi (see above) as Celia and TV soubrette/singer Loretta Goggi (who also has been Tweety Bird's first voice) as Roz.
  • Finding Nemo features actor Luca Zingaretti as Marlin, comedian Carla Signoris as Dory and comedian Stefano Masciarelli as Crush.
  • The Incredibles features actress Laura Morante as Helen and model, singer and TV host Amanda Lear as Edna Mode.
  • ''Cars:
    • The Italian dub of Cars is overloaded with celebrities. We have: TV host Sabrina Ferilli as Sally, comedian Marco Della Noce (mainly known for his character of a Ferrari pitty) as Luigi, and many racing-related people: TV Formula 1 announcers Gianfranco Mazzoni and Ivan Capelli voice the announcers, while Formula 1 racers Alex Zanardi, Jarno Tulli, Giancarlo Fisichella and Emanuele Pirro voice respectively Guido, DJ, Boost and Wingo.
    • Cars 2 gets reprises for all the returning characters, and adds comedians Paola Cortellesi and Alessandro Siani as Holley and Francesco, TV host Tiberio Timperi as Mel Dorado and Sophia Loren as Mama Topolino. Also, Franco Nero voices Uncle Topolino both in English and in Italian.
  • Ratatouille features chef Gualtiero Marchesi as the health inspector.
  • WALL•E features astronaut Roberto Vittori as the steward robot.
  • Up features theatre actor Arnoldo Foà as Charles Muntz.
  • Toy Story 3, along with Fabrizio Frizzi and Massimo Dapporto keeping their roles from the first two movies, features actress Claudia Gerini as Barbie, comedian Fabio De Luigi as Ken, TV host Gerry Scotti as the Chatter Phone and comedian Giorgio Faletti as Chuckles.
  • ''Brave features comedians Giobbe Covatta and Enzo Iacchetti along with singer Shel Shapiro as the three lords, and actress Anna Mazzamauro as the witch.
  • Monsters University features singer Ludovica Comello as one of the PNK girls and comedian duo Fabrizio Biggio and Francesco Mandelli as Terri and Terry.
  • Finding Dory, along with the voices from Finding Nemo reprising their roles, features swimmer Massimiliano Rosolino as Charlie the Sunfish, while TV host Licia Colò replaces Sigourney Weaver as the celebrity doing the voiceover in the oceanographic institute.

    Ukrainian 
  • In the local dub of Paddington and Paddington 2, the eponymous bear is voiced by comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the creator and star of Servant of the People, who was eventually elected president of Ukraine in 2019 and became world famous upon the mass scale invasion of the country by Russia.
  • Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, a very prolific movie, TV, and stage actor over several decades, received his own separate starring credit when he voiced Long John Silver in Treasure Island (1988), though he had done plenty of voice acting for years before.

    Multiple 
These are special cases where one or a group of characters are chosen to be voiced by a celebrity in multiple dubs:
  • The Madagascar sequel had many different singers and rappers voice Moto Moto, in order to give off that sexy vibe he had:
    • Musician will.i.am for the original version.
    • Rapper and DJ Claudio Yarto for the Latin American Spanish dub.
    • Singer Sérgio Loroza for the Brazilian Portuguese dub.
    • Pacman of the hip-hop group Da Weasel for the European Portuguese dub.
    • Rapper Doudou Masta for the French dub.
    • Ruben Fernhout from the Partysquad for the Flemish dub.
    • Rapper Al Agami for the Danish dub.
    • Rapper Ganxsta Zolee for the Hungarian dub.
    • Singer Eagle-Eye Cherry for the Swedish dub.
    • Singer and songwriter Ville Valo for the Finnish dub.
    • Singer and TV presenter Maciej Miecznikowski for the Polish dub.
    • Hip-hop artist Seryoga for the Russian dub.
    • Hip-hop artist 1-Q Sapro for the Romanian dub.
    • Electronic music artist Nils Jørgen «Jøgge» Kaalstad for the Norwegian dub.
    • Rapper Guy Buscilla for the Hebrew dub.
    • Singer Nicky Lee for the Taiwanese dub.
    • Singer Pak-ho for the Cantonese dub.
  • The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water has done this with the seagulls (most notably the one named Kyle) across various dubs:
    • YouTuber & vlogger Joe Sugg voices Kyle in the UK version. His partner Caspar Lee, comedian & TV personality Alan Carr and singer Stacey Solomon also appear as extras.
    • Bindi Irwin voices Kyle in the Australian version.
    • YouTubers Alex "El Escorpion Dorado" Montiel, Luis “luisitorey” Torres, Ricardo "Wero" Ortíz voice Kyle, Henry & Ben in the Latin American Spanish dub.
    • YouTuber Victor Meyniel voices Kyle in the Brazilian Portuguese dub.
    • YouTubers SQUEEZIE, Natoo & Cyprien Iov voiced them in the European French dub.
    • YouTubers Dylan Haegens, Noah Zeeuw, Thomas "Theaumes" Smagge, Bardo Ellens, and musician Jelle Amersfoort voice them in the Dutch dub.
    • Pop singer and songwriter Dawid Kwiatkowski voices Kyle in the Polish dub.
  • It seems when dubbing The Angry Birds Movie, most of the dubbing studios wanted to keep the theme of YouTubers voicing Hal & Bubbles, as most of the celebrities listed here are:
    • Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh fame voice them in the original English version.
    • Let's players Luca "Con Crafter" Scharpenberg and Viktor “iBlali” Roth voice these characters in the German dub.
    • YouTuber Szirmai Gergely of Hollywood News Agency fame voices Hal in the Hungarian dub.
    • YouTuber William Spetz of Williams lista fame voices Hal in the Swedish dub.
    • YouTubers Ricardo & Rodrigo Piologo (known as Irmãos Piologo) voice Hal and Bubbles in the Brazilian Portuguese dub.
    • Musician Stian Thorbjørnsen plays Hal in the Norwegian dub.
    • Rap duo JVG voice the two characters in the Finnish dub.
  • The Ratchet & Clank film had a minor character named Zed:
    • Andrew Cownden of LoadingReadyRun fame voices him in the original English version.
    • YouTuber Lorenzo "Favij" Ostuni voices the character in the Italian dub.
    • Kevin Tran of "Le Rire Jaune" voices him in the European French dub.
    • Let's player iBlali voices him in the German dub.
    • Singer and songwriter Grzegorz Hyży voices the character in the Polish dub.
  • In The Powerpuff Girls (2016), the eponymous trio's fourth, thought-to-be-dead elder sister Bliss is normally voiced by Olivia Olson (who is more known for voicing Vanessa Doofenshmirtz and Marceline the Vampire Queen), but for certain regional versions of the show in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and Australia, she is voiced by 15 different celebrities. These include:
    • R&B singer Alesha Dixon for the UK version.
    • South African hip-hop artist Toya Delazy for the South African version.
    • YouTube partner Wendy "Wengie" Ayche provides her Australian voice.
    • Singer and comedian Claudia Tagbo for the European French dub.
    • Musician Roshelle for the Italian dub.
    • Fashion model Ana Sofía Martins for the European Portuguese dub.
    • YouTuber Julia Sofia Aastrup for the Danish dub.
    • Skam actor Ina "Brus" Svenningdal for the Norwegian dub.
    • Actress Földes Eszter for the Hungarian dub.
    • Singer Alisa Kozhikina for the Russian dub.
    • Recording artist Nancy Ajram for the Lebanese dub.
  • Sigourney Weaver's role in Finding Dory was mainly a joke about how she narrates documentaries about aquatic life. In order to keep this theme, she was replaced with:
    • Astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela for the Mexican Spanish dub
    • Telenovela actress Andrea Pietra for the Argentinean Spanish dub.
    • Journalist, TV presenter and interviewer Marília Gabriela for the Brazilian Portuguese dub.
    • TV hostess and journalist Licia Colò for the Italian dub.
    • Journalist Claire Chazal in the European French dub.
    • Actress Anne Dorval for the Canadian French dub (who also reprised her role as Dory from the first film, making it an example of Acting for Two).
    • Swimmer Franziska van Almsick in the German dub.
    • Radio presenter An Lemmens for the Flemish dub.
    • TV host Marek Eben for the Czech dub.
    • Mari-Jászai winner Kautzky Armand for the Hungarian dub.
    • Singer and songwriter Paula Vesala for the Finnish dub.
    • Journalist, news presenter and nature documentary narrator Krystyna Czubówna for the Polish dub.
    • Professional adventurer Cecilie Skog for the Norwegian dub.
    • Scientist and doctor Nikolay Drozdov (mostly known in the country as the narrator for In The World of Animals) for the Russian dub.
    • Skin cosmetician Ole Henriksen for the Danish dub (while he's not exactly associated with aquaria or documentaries about aquatic life, he has the advantage of being a Danish-speaking person who actually lives in California).

 
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Celebrity Talent Montage

Lindsay provides several examples of movies that promote their famous voice actors in the trailer.

Eric Idle/Scott...

Reba McEntire A...

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Celebrity Talent Montage

Lindsay provides several examples of movies that promote their famous voice actors in the trailer.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (17 votes)

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Main / CelebrityVoiceActor

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Celebrity Talen...

Eric Idle/Scott...

Reba McEntire A...