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Descended Creator

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This is when a crewmember, executive or even the creator for a show makes an appearance in a part that would ordinarily be cast with a professional actor — or the crewmember is also an actor. This may start out as a Creator Cameo, with their original "extra" part becoming an Ascended Extra.

It is extremely common for productions to have the same people do multiple jobs to cut costs, particularly if the production has No Budget:

  • Foreign-language dubs to have voice actors who are also the dub's producer, ADR director or scriptwriters. This is both because their skill sets feed into each other (it's easier to write dialogue that matches lip flaps if you're used to reading it, and vice-versa) and as a cost-saving measure — most dubs are non-union and relatively low-budget, so it pays to keep staffing small.
  • In Western animation the production pipeline requires voice acting to be done before any actual animation can be created. This can result in the possibility of a crewmember becoming a Permanent Placeholder should everyone become attached to the "scratch track" or the intended voice actor is a no-show.
  • In the early era of voice acting in video games, the much smaller budgets of the time often made this trope the only option.

See also Directed by Cast Member. Not to be confused with Fallen Creator. Or God in Human Form. Or Author Guest Spot, though both involve authors interacting with the world they're working on in some way or another.


Examples:

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    Advertising 
  • Tom Carvel, the founder of the Carvel ice cream franchise, was the announcer of his company's local radio and TV advertisements from 1955 to his death in 1990.
  • Not long after taking the top job at Chrysler in 1979 after a 25-year career at Ford, Lee Iacocca began appearing in a series of "if you can find a better car, buy it" ads that reached pre-internet Memetic Mutation status in the early '80s.
  • From 1989 until his death in 2002, Dave Thomas appeared in over 800 commercials for Wendy's, the restaurant franchise he founded.
  • Dick Sittig created the "Jack Box" TV ad campaign for Jack in the Box and was the voice of the character from 1994 until 2015 when Jack in the Box hired a different ad agency.
  • When the scheduled voice talent for the 1964 western Gunfighters of Casa Grande failed to show up to record the announcement for the trailer, it fell to one of the sound engineers and recordists to fill in so they had at least something to show MGM, the film's producers. That sound engineer? Don LaFontaine, who would later make a career out of voicing trailers.
  • Sy Sperling, founder and president of the Hair Club for Men, was another '80s pre-internet Memetic Mutation thanks to his ubiquity, his monotone delivery, and his catchphrase closer.
    Sy Sperling: And remember, I'm not only the Hair Club president, (holds up picture of himself, bald) but I'm also a client.
  • Orville Redenbacher, the bow-tied popcorn entrepreneur, made his company and product famous in a long series of TV ads.

    Anime 
  • This was very common during the earlier days of anime before it became relevant in the global market. Due to a smaller staff size and most work being put toward translation, some higher ups would take it upon themselves to voice characters and some voice actors would also do some of the lower-level work in the dubbing process.
    • Perhaps the greatest example of the above is Christopher Sabat, one of the heads of Funimation during its early days in the late 90s. For the dub of Dragon Ball Z, despite being the casting director, line producer, ADR director and translator of the original Japanese script, he lent his voice for iconic characters like Yamcha, Vegeta, Piccolo, and multiple extras, and went on on to voice characters in future Funimation-led dubs as well as direct them.
  • Before his passing on October 13, 2013, children's book author Takashi Yanase (creator of the Anpanman franchise) provided the voice of "Yanase Rabbit" who was a recurring character in the Anpanman anime and other spin-off material. After his death, Ken Shiroyama became the current voice of Yanase Rabbit.
  • Digimon Adventure: Dave Guerrie, a post-production coordinator, voiced several characters throughout the show, most notably Machinedramon.
  • In FLCL, Hideaki Anno, one of the co-founders of Studio Gainax and creator of Neon Genesis Evangelion, provides the voice of Naota's pet cat in the Japanese version.
  • In His Coool Seha Girls, Center-sensei is voiced by Yuji Naka, a former developer for Sega who helped to create the Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Genesis.
  • Jalen K. Cassell is an African-American voice director, translator, and writer who's done more of his current work for the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure English dub, and has voiced two characters so far: Vanilla Ice and Okuyasu Nijimura.
  • Carl Macek did the voiceover for the opening narration of the first English dub of Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water. note  This was also infamous as a case of Voiceover Translation.
  • In the 2005 anime short Mr. Pinoko's Forest Adventures, Rumiko Tezuka (eldest daughter of Osamu Tezuka) provided the voice of Unico for the short film.

    Asian Animation 
  • Adit & Sopo Jarwo:
    • Creative director and writer Eki N.F. voiced Jarwo and Kang Ujang.
    • Creative director Freddy Ninda voices Baba Chang from season 2 onwards.
  • BoBoiBoy: Nizam Razak, the director of Season 1 and the founder of the series' production company Animonsta Studios, voices Papa Zola, Bago Go, Wak Baga Ga, and the Burgerman in both Malaysian and English.

    Comic Books 
  • An artistic example occurs in Strikeforce: Morituri. The second Commander of the Morituri, Yuri Pogorelich, is modeled after writer Peter Gillis. Even when the series changed writers, Pogorelich remained in that role.

    Film — Animation 

Multiple:

Specific films:

  • Storyboard artist Mark Walton was originally asked to voice Rhino the hamster in Bolt as a stand-in until an actor could be found and cast in the role. However, the directors enjoyed Walton's performance so much that they decided to give him the part, to Walton's extreme joy and ecstasy.
  • Dan Molina, editor of Chicken Little, performed the "voice" of Fish Out of Water by vocalizing through a tube into a water cooler tank full of water.
  • In Daffy Duck's Quackbusters animator Mark Kausler provided the voice of Egghead for his cameo.
  • The voice of Hognob the boar in Early Man is voiced by director Nick Park.
  • Editor, director, and solo animator Ladd Ehlinger Jr. also voices the lead character "A Square" in the 2007 animated adaption of Flatland.
  • Story artist and animator Stephen John Anderson played a bit role in Frozen as Kai, adviser to the Arendelle royal family. He later reprised his role in the 2019 sequel.
  • Director Cory Edwards voiced hyperactive squirrel photographer Twitchy in Hoodwinked!.
  • Blue Sky Studios founder and exec producer Chris Wedge voices Scrat in the Ice Age franchise. Likewise, story artist and producer Karen Disher voiced his female counterpart Scratte.
  • In The Incredibles, Brad Bird wound up voicing Edna Mode. He originally planned to cast Lily Tomlin, but she said he did it perfectly himself when demonstrating what she should sound like.
  • Chris Sanders as Stitch in Lilo & Stitch and the franchise that grew out of it (except in East Asia), even after leaving Disney. He's also the voice of Belt in The Croods.
  • Tom McGrath, director and writer on the Madagascar films, voices Skipper the penguin, a role he reprised on the TV spin-off The Penguins of Madagascar. Private and Kowalski were also voiced by crew members Christopher Knights and Chris Miller respectively (though only for the movies). Along with McGrath, they've done multiple roles in other DreamWorks movies.
  • Meet the Robinsons director Steve Anderson voiced Bowler Hat Guy, Grandpa Bud and Cousin Tallulah.
  • The Nightmare Before Christmas: Composer Danny Elfman voices Barrel and the Clown, and also is Jack Skellington's singing voice.
  • In Ralph Breaks the Internet, co-screenwriter Pamela Ribon voices Snow White. Her lines were initially recorded as placeholder dialogue but these were deemed good enough to make it to the final cut.
  • In The Rescuers, story artist Larry Clemmons voices Gramps the turtle.
  • Shrek: Generally, while the important characters like Shrek, Donkey and Fiona are voiced by big-name celebrities, supporting/minor characters are voiced by in-studio staff instead.
    • Director/Writer Conrad Vernon voices the Gingerbread Man.
    • Writer Cody Cameron voices Pinocchio and the Three Little Pigs.
    • Editor Christopher Knights voices the Three Blind Mice and Thelonious.
    • Director Chris Miller voices the Magic Mirror and Geppetto.
    • Producer Aron Warner voices the Big Bad Wolf.
    • Walt Dohrn, head of story on Shrek Forever After, was cast as Rumplestiltskin after everyone fell in love with the voice he came up for him when doing the readbacks on the recording sessions. Unlike the other Shrek examples, Rumplestiltskin has a pretty major role as the Big Bad.
  • Brian Nissen, who wrote the screenplay for The Swan Princess, also narrated the film's prologue. He became The Other Darrin playing Prince Derek in the third film too.
  • In Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, storyboard artists Joey Cappabianca and Dave Stone voice Plastic Man and Ace Morgan respectively.
  • Longtime animator and storyboard writer Ralph Wright was the very first voice for Eeyore in Disney's Winnie the Pooh series.
  • Toy Story 2:
    • Director John Lasseter and co-director Lee Unkrich provide the voices of the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots in Al's office.
    • Writer Andrew Stanton voices Emperor Zurg.
  • WALL•E:
    • Pixar assistant producer Elissa Knight became the voice of EVE.
    • Due to the overlap of sound effects/sound design and dialogue in the film, sound designer Ben Burtt voices WALL-E, M-O and a lot of the other robots.
  • In Wreck-It Ralph, Sour Bill and Zangief are both voiced by director Rich Moore.
  • Several characters from Zootopia are voiced by the crew; storyboard artist Raymond Persei voices Flash the sloth and Officer Higgins (a hippo), co-writer Phil Johnston voices Gideon Grey, co-director Rich Moore voices Doug the ram and Larry the wolf, co-director Byron Howard and co-writer Jared Bush voice Judy's annoying neighbors. (Byron Howard also voices Travis, a weasel in Judy's youth.) Film editor Fabienne Rawley voices the newscaster Fabienne Growley and the female elephant customer at Jumbeaux's, and artist David Thibodeau voices Gary the wolf.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • Uwe Boll read out the Opening Scroll of the Alone in the Dark movie.
  • Brit Marling stars as Rhoda Williams in Another Earth, which she also wrote and produced.
  • The Chinese film Assembly had an American special effects director. He plays an American tank commander the main characters meet during the Korean War.
  • Black Patch was written by Leo Gordon, who also plays the supporting role of Hank Danner.
  • Mel Gibson didn't originally intend to play William Wallace in Braveheart, but wound up doing it anyway.
  • Cinderella (1997) cast Executive Producer Whitney Houston as the fairy godmother. She originally landed the part of Cinderella, but outgrew the role by the time ABC greenlit the film.
  • In Citizen Kane, director Orson Welles plays the titular role of Charlie Kane. When Kane is shown as a kid, Buddy Swan played him.
  • Kevin Smith cast himself as Silent Bob in Clerks after realizing he couldn't memorize Randal's (who he had written for himself to play) lines, displacing the friend who was supposed to play the character, simply so that if the film's production bankrupted him at least he'd have solid evidence he'd made a movie. He's in it for all of maybe ten minutes of footage and doesn't even do anything until the end. That changed drastically in Smith's later work. Silent Bob's one and only line of dialogue in the film wasn't even meant for him, either. It was originally meant to be spoken by Jay, but Jason Mewes (a heavy drug-user at the time) was unable to properly deliver the line and Smith took it upon himself. Since this line was more or less the moral of the story, Silent Bob became the sort of sage-like figure he is in later films, remaining quiet only until he has something important to say.
  • Stephen King played Jordy Verrill in Creepshow, a meatier role than his usual Creator Cameo.
  • Director Mick Garris provided most of the voices of the Crites in Critters 2 because he couldn't afford Frank Welker.
  • In Cry Blood, Apache, director Jack Starrett also plays the sadistic Deacon; one of the gang of murderous gold hunters.
  • Deadtime Stories: Volume 1: Jeff Monahan, who directed the "Valley of the Shadow" segment, plays the protagonist Jack in the segment "Wet".
  • Fittingly, the director of The Disaster Artist, James Franco, plays Tommy Wiseau.
  • Sharlto Copley only intended to produce District 9 and had no plans of acting in the film (at the time, Copley had no interest in acting). Director Neill Blomkamp ended up casting him as Wikus since he fit the role the best.
  • Brit Marling stars as Sarah in The East, which she also wrote and produced.
  • Eloise illustrator Hilary Knight made a cameo appearance as a street artist in Eloise at the Plaza.
  • Brad Harris, who plays Brian Redford, was also associate producer of The Freakmaker.
  • In Gang of Roses, director Jean-Claude LaMarre was going to cast a different actor to play Babyface Malone, Chas's Love Interest, but couldn't find one in time so he decided to play the role himself.
  • Jonathan Lisecki, the director of Gayby, plays the secondary character Nelson in that same film.
  • Harold Ramis as Egon in Ghostbusters. He never wanted to play the part, but he was the only one who really made anyone go, "Okay, that's Egon." This carried over into The Real GhostbustersMaurice LaMarche was specifically asked not to impersonate Harold Ramis, but he realized that nothing else sounded right.
  • Dan Schneider played the manager Mr. Bailey in Good Burger.
  • In Hangman's Curse, Frank Peretti appears as Dr. Algernon Wheeling, a scientist who helps the Springfields.
  • Josh Radnor stars as Sam Wexler in Happythankyoumoreplease, which he also wrote and directed.
  • Hollow Triumph: Star Paul Henreid was also producer, and became the uncredited director after Steve Sekely was removed from the picture for creative differences.
  • Director Jon Favreau plays Tony Stark's long-suffering chauffeur Harold "Happy" Hogan in the first two Iron Man films. He reprised the role for the third film despite passing the torch as director. He would also appear as Hogan in other Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, including Avengers: Endgame and the first three Spider-Man films.
  • Although John Landis often makes cameo appearances in his films, his large role in Into the Night came about through necessity: the Persian actors playing the rest of the four bad guys were unfamiliar with the slapstick tradition, and Landis found it easier to direct them through it if he led by example.
  • Adila Bendimerad co-directed The Last Queen and played the main role in it.
  • Let There Be Light director Kevin Sorbo also serves as the film's lead actor with his role as Dr. Sol Harkens.
  • Josh Radnor stars as Jesse Fischer in Liberal Arts, which he wrote, produced, and directed.
  • In the film adaptations of Astrid Lindgren's books, Astrid would often step in and narrate the stories, reading selected quotes from her original books.
  • The director of Metal Gear Solid: Philanthropy never intended to play Solid Snake himself, but no other suitable actor could be found.
  • M.F.A.: Writer and producer Leah McKendrick plays Noelle's neighbour and friend Skye, and producer Mike Manning plays Jeremiah, the second rapist murdered by Noelle.
  • For the movie Old Fashioned, director Rik Swartzwelder played the lead role of Clay, and co-producer Nini Hadjis also stars in the movie as Lisa, the fiance of Clay's best friend David.
  • Pistolera: Star Romina Di Lella not only plays the protagonist, she also wrote the script, produced, and sung the theme song. Director Damian Chapa also co-stars as Pistolera's cousin Rico.
  • Kirk Douglas produced, directed and starred in Posse (1975).
  • M. Night Shyamalan's role as Dev Raman in his directorial debut, Praying With Anger, marks his first (and so far only) performance in a lead role.
  • In Raiders of the Lost Ark, the pilot of the Flying Wing is played by producer Frank Marshall. Marshall took on the role of the pilot when the stuntman who was to play the part became ill. Having been asked by director Steven Spielberg to take the part, Marshall thought that the Flying Wing sequence would be easy to film, but ultimately he had to spend about three days sat at the Wing's cockpit in a jumpsuit when it was over 140ºF in arid Tozeur, Tunisia.
  • In Rampage: Capital Punishment, Uwe Boll plays Andy the producer in an uncredited role.
  • When Michael Douglas began producing Romancing the Stone, he didn't plan to play the male lead. The part was offered to Sylvester Stallone and Christopher Reeve before Douglas finally decided to play the role himself.
  • In The Christmas That Almost Wasn't, the Italian director Rossano Brazzi plays the antagonist, Phineas T. Prune.
  • Rocky Horror creator Richard O'Brien played Riff Raff in The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Cosmo in its sequel, Shock Treatment.
  • The Room (2003)
    • In addition to writing, directing, and producing the movie, Tommy Wiseau stars as Johnny, the film's main character.
    • Greg Sestero wasn't originally planned to play Mark and simply worked behind the scenes as Tommy's Beleaguered Assistant. Tommy really wanted Greg to play Mark despite the latter's refusal and the fact they had already cast an actor named "Dan" to play the role. Ultimately, Greg was persuaded to take on the role and Dan was let go.
  • In Season of Miracles, Rafer's dad is played by Rusty Whitener, who wrote the screenplay and the original novel.
  • Star Vincent Cassel also co-produced the film Sheitan.
  • Robert McGinley, the producer, director, and writer of Shredder Orpheus, plays Orpheus. He'd considered "real actors" before being convinced to do the role himself, as he'd done in a short film that acted as a precursor to the finished movie.
  • Six Gun Savior: Martin Kove who plays The Mentor, was also associate producer. And Lorraine Ziff, who plays Zaretha, is also credited as script editor.
  • Brit Marling plays Ambiguously Evil tritagonist Maggie in Sound of My Voice, which she also wrote and produced.
  • Skywalker Sound editor Matthew Wood provides the voice of many characters in Star Wars starting with the prequels, most notably the battle droids and General Grievous.
  • Melvin Van Peebles played the main role in Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, mainly because any actors who had the skill set necessary and were willing to star for what little Van Peebles could offer requested Sweetback have more lines written (Sweetback only had six lines in the entire film). Production was so tight Van Peebles even ended up doing his own stuntwork and even contracted gonorrhea filming one of the film's unsimulated sex scenes.
  • Tales from the Hood: Director and writer Rusty Cundieff plays Richard Garvey, the caring teacher and supporting protagonist in the "Boys Do Get Bruised" segment of the film.
  • In Ten Dead Men, producer Phil Hobden also plays Stone: one of the ten men protagonist Ryan is out to kill. Additionally, Hobden did his own driving in the scene where Stone is competing in a motor race.
  • In Thomas and the Magic Railroad, the steam engine Lady was voiced by director Britt Allcroft.
  • Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi appears as not one, but two characters - Korg, the Rock Monster gladiator that Thor meets on Sakaar, and the motion capture for Surtur, the fire skeleton destined to bring about Ragnarok.
  • Director David Arquette also plays Muff in the The Tripper (his directorial debut).
  • Disney storyman Winston Hibler became the narrator of the studio's True Life Adventure series of nature films.
  • What We Do in the Shadows was directed and written by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, who also play the main roles of Viago and Vladislav.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Throughout Arrested Development, Executive Producer Ron Howard served as the narrator. He appeared as himself in the final episode of the original run (to whom one of the characters pitches the idea of the show itself). He has a recurring role (as a fictionalized version of himself) in the post-resurrection fourth season.
  • The Barney & Friends episode "The Treasure of Rainbow Beard" featured the at-the-time head writer Stephen White as the titular pirate.
  • Executive Producer William Dozier was the Lemony Narrator in Batman (1966).
  • BOB ❤️ ABISHOLA: Series co-creator and writer Gina Yashere portrays Abishola's friend Kemi.
  • Edward McGinty, the main historical consultant for Boardwalk Empire, plays the quiet and unassuming ward boss Al Boyd. Early in development, McGinty was chatting with series creator Terrence Winter when Winter looked him in the eye and said: "You know, with that face you should play one of the ward bosses."
  • Star-Burns of Community is played by Dino Stamatopoulos, a writer and consulting producer for the show. The role originated as a simple cameo role with Dino playing him to avoid the expense of hiring another actor, but the writers loved the character enough to make him into a recurring role.
  • Go Nagai, the creator of Cutey Honey, played the part of Honey's father/builder Dr. Kisaragi in a DVD-exclusive epilogue for Cutey Honey The Live.
  • Executive producer Henry Winkler plays the protagonist in two episodes of Dead Man's Gun, appearing as Leo Sunshine in "The Imposter" and as Phineas Newman in "Hangman".
  • Carl Reiner first played Alan Brady on The Dick Van Dyke Show as just a voice cameo, then with his face hidden, until finally he became the center of an episode ("Coast to Coast Big Mouth") and was fully seen. Reiner played several one-time-only and bit parts during the series as well.
  • In Doctor Who:
    • Actor and scriptwriter Glyn Jones wrote "The Space Museum" (1965) and acted in one of the main guest roles in "The Sontaran Experiment" (1975).
    • Mark Gatiss, well-known for doing this, has acted in a couple of 21st-century episodes as well as writing a larger number. His biggest roles were as the eponymous Professor Lazarus in "The Lazarus Experiment", and as a British army officer in the finale of Steven Moffat's term as producer and Peter Capaldi's as the Doctor, "Twice Upon A Time". He also made an uncredited cameo as the voice of a fighter pilot in "Victory of the Daleks" (which he wrote) and "A Good Man Goes to War", and played the role of Gantok in "The Wedding of River Song" under the pseudonym of "Rondo Haxton". Prior to the revival, he had played a version of the Doctor in a non-continuity BBC parody sketch, "The Web of Caves", and other characters in several Expanded Universe audio dramas, most notably an alternate-timeline version of the Master in the Big Finish Elseworld drama Sympathy for the Devil.
    • "Twice Upon a Time" features Mark Gatiss and fellow Who scriptwriter Toby Whithouse (in a much smaller role) - as soldiers on opposite sides of a war. Moffat himself jokingly wondered what that represents.
  • Double Dare
    • To wrap up the 1990 Family season, an "Old Timers" episode was taped with various people associated with Double Dare playing the game. Then-Nickelodeon president Geraldine Laybourne, executive producer Geoffrey Darby, art director Byron Taylor and co-creator Bob Mittenthal played against production manager Lauren Gray, original director Dana Calderwood, stage assistant Robin Russo (née Marella) and announcer Harvey. The episode wasn't meant for broadcast, but a segment where the crew members carried Marc into the Sundae Slide's landing pod was included in the Double Dare: Super Sloppiest Moments video. Darby uploaded the episode to his YouTube account in 2015.
    • For the 2018 revival, Marc Summers handled announcing duties.
  • Ezel: Casting director Rabia Sultan Düzenli plays a young Rabia Karaeski, Ramiz's wife, in the second season of the series. It appears to be her only on-screen role to date, as she has since become a prominent casting director in the Turkish television industry.
  • Byron Allen, creator of the syndicated game show Funny You Should Ask, is often one of the panelists. Jodi Miller, head content producer, also appears on the panel from time to time.
  • Chuck Barris served as host of his own show, The Gong Show. His original plan was to have John Barbour (later of Real People fame) host, but Barbour took the show too seriously to fit the wacky talent show premise.
  • In Hank Zipzer, music teacher Mr. Rock is played by Henry Winkler, who also wrote the book series upon which the series is based.
  • Jerry Paris, director of many an episode of Happy Days, can occasionally be seen in a bit part such as a photographer taking pictures in "Fonzie Loves Pinky Part 3."
  • Averted in Hercules: The Legendary Journeys's episodes about the production staff of the TV show: the staff are played by the regular cast (Bruce Campbell is Robert Tapert, Hudson Leick is producer Liz Friedman, Kevin Smith is head writer Jerry Patrick Brown, Michael Hirst is writer Paul Robert Coyle, Ted Raimi is the Kurtzman half of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Gina Torres is casting director Beth Hymson-Ayer...).
  • Brent Butt, although he is a professional actor, did not intend to star in Hiccups.
  • Sean Whitesell, a writer for Homicide: Life on the Street and Oz, played recurring characters in both.
  • Originally only a writer for Horrible Histories, Larry Rickard was given the role of hyperactive Motor Mouth newscaster Bob Hale because the male actors in the original troupe couldn't handle the three-minute monologues on top of the rest of their lines. Rickard eventually became part of the main troupe and they all went on to write and act in Yonderland.
  • Jam and Jerusalem: Co-writer Jennifer Saunders plays the supporting role of Caroline Martin.
  • The Kids in the Hall
    • Jeffrey Berman, a producer, appears in many skits as a background character, purely to save money on hiring extras. He was immortalized as the 'sixth' member in this skit. The punchline that he appeared in more skits than an actual member of the cast could conceivably be true.
    • And Paul Bellini, a writer, became a recurring character. (He never spoke until after the credits rolled on the series finale.)
  • Michael Landon in Little House on the Prairie did not originally intend to both direct and lead in the role of Pa.
  • Mark also filled in as a panelist one time during the 70s run of Match Game, as Charles Nelson Reilly was late (allegedly "getting his hair nailed on", according to Gene Rayburn).
  • In The Mandalorian, showrunner Jon Favreau voices fellow Mandalorian Paz Vizsla. Three of the first-season episode directors Dave Filoni, Deborah Chow, and Rick Famuyiwa play some X-Wing pilots. And Taika Waititi directs the Season 1 finale in addition to voicing IG-11.
  • Mimpi Metropolitan: Assistant director Kiki Adrian has a recurring role as Ada Azab Dalam Cerita assistant director (and later, main director) Akbar.
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000:
    • When Joel Hodgson left he was replaced by the show's head writer, Michael J. Nelson. MST3K was built on this trope. Major and minor characters alike were all played by members of the production staff (because many of them had performing experience and it saved money). You can practically count on one hand the number of times someone appeared that didn't already work for the series in some capacity.
    • There were also a few times when their families showed up as extras, like the pancake breakfast in Quest of the Delta Knights.
  • Brit Marling stars as Prairie Johnson, the eponymous The OA, which she also wrote and produced.
  • Odd Squad:
    • Mark De Angelis, a writer on the series and the showrunner for Season 3, had two roles in the franchise — one was a tourist in New York City that Omar and Orla help in the episode "Sample of New York", and the other was of a different tourist in New York City (or at least just his head) in the OddTube episode "Oddness in NYC".
    • Eric Toth, a writer for Season 3, plays Gerrard, an eccentric gift shop owner, in "Three Portals Down".
  • The Office (US):
    • Phyllis is played by Phyllis Smith, who originally worked on the show as a casting assistant. Ken Kwapis, director of the pilot, was impressed with how she interacted with actors during the casting read-throughs and decided to add her to the ensemble.
    • Writer and producer Michael Schur has a secondary role as Dwight's weird cousin and farm assistant Mose Schrute.
    • Writer Mindy Kaling only got the role of Kelly Kapoor because a scene required Michael to be slapped by a minority.
  • Person of Interest creator Jonathan Nolan provides a computerized voice for Samaritan a few times in the show's last few episodes.
  • Richard Osman, in his role as an executive for Endemol UK, made such a good impression when he pitched Pointless to The BBC that they suggested he take on the role of co-host himself. So he did.
  • Because it is filmed on a fast turnaround and a small budget, Power Rangers does this practice multiple times. Producer Doug Sloan voiced Prince Gasket in Power Rangers Zeo and was Kimberly's Uncle Steve in one episode; he also played Tyler Steele in the Cybertron pitch-reel (that would later evolve into VR Troopers). In a by-proxy example, one frequent example is stunt coordinator Koichi Sakamoto's wife, who was the A-Squad Pink Ranger in Power Rangers S.P.D. and a woman with a baby carriage in Power Rangers RPM. Sakamoto himself played an alien warrior that fights alongside Bulk and Skull in a Zeo episode.
  • Producer Bill Carruthers was the voice of the Whammy in Press Your Luck.
  • The "Zeke's Blues" episode of The Protectors originally had Tony Curtis in mind to play the guest role of Harry Rule's friend, nightclub pianist Zeke Daley — but Shane Rimmer, who wrote the episode (though better known as an actor, he also scripted episodes of Anderson shows), wound up playing Zeke instead.
  • In Quantum Leap, creator Donald P. Bellisario played the guy Sam leaped into in "A Portrait For Troian." Writer/producer/wife of Bellisario Deborah Pratt plays title character Troian (who is named for their daughternote  — Bellisario co-wrote this one as well) in the episode and voices both the Project Quantum Leap AI Ziggy and does the Opening Narration from mid-Season 2 on.
  • Stephen J. Cannell, as well as creating Renegade and writing several episodes, played the Big Bad, Dirty Cop Lt. Donald "Dutch" Dickerson.
  • Lorenzo Music was just a writer before he was asked to lend his unique voice to the unseen doorman Carlton in Rhoda. He then became a well-known voice actor, most notably as the voice of Garfield.
  • Esben Storm, writer/director/script-editor on Round the Twist, played the recurring character Mr Snapper.
  • Russian Doll: Natasha Lyonne co-created and stars in the series.
  • Bill Lawrence appeared as the incredibly cynical justice of the peace who marries Lady and the Janitor in the Scrubs episode "My Soul on Fire, Part I."
  • As the show went on, Larry David made more and more appearances in bit parts in Seinfeld, perhaps most notably as the voice of George Steinbrenner.
  • When Sesame Street began, writer Matt Robinson had major input in creating the character of Gordon. When the producers couldn't find any actor they liked for the role in auditions, they talked a reluctant Robinson into taking the job. He wound up playing Gordon for the first three seasons. A later retcon established Gordon's last name as Robinson. Matt Robinson also created and voiced the Muppet character Roosevelt Franklin.
  • Sherlock: Mark Gatiss's cameo as Mycroft Holmes in the first episode is half Mythology Gag and half Creator Cameo. As of the second season opener, "A Scandal in Belgravia", he ascended from cameo to major recurring character.
  • Kurt Sutter played a recurring character in Sons of Anarchy, an incarcerated member of the club called "Big" Otto Delaney.
  • Stargate SG-1's recurring Mauve Shirt and Butt-Monkey Sergeant Siler is played by Dan Shea, the show's stunt coordinator and Richard Dean Anderson's stunt double.
  • Gene Roddenberry had an uncredited voice cameo in an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, as the Enterprise Mess Officer (the ship's chef).
  • To Tell the Truth had creator Mark Goodson fill in as host twice: once for Bud Collyer in 1967, and once for Alex Trebek in 1990.
  • Show creator Rod Serling was always the narrator of The Twilight Zone, but in the final episode of Season 1, he appeared on-screen for the first time. It was intended as a one-time gag, but it was such a hit that he appeared at the beginning of all subsequent episodes (while continuing to do closing narrations). He could have appeared in season one before the season one finale; when "A Nice Place To Visit" was in pre-production, the episode's writer Charles Beaumont suggested that Serling play the role of the main character. (Serling decided against it.)
  • True Jackson, VP: Resident Butt-Monkey Kopelman is portrayed by Executive Producer and writer Dan Kopelman.
  • Twin Peaks:
    • When a set dresser accidentally got stuck in the set and appears in a reflection in a key scene, David Lynch decided to cast the man as the Big Bad of the show, BOB.
    • Lynch himself plays Bureau Chief Gordon Cole, first as a voice over the phone and then making several trips to Twin Peaks in person. He becomes one of the main characters in the third season, Twin Peaks: The Return.
  • Originally, Tina Fey did not plan to star in 30 Rock. As things turned out, Fey ended up playing Liz Lemon, who was basically a somewhat exaggerated version of her.
  • Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Co-creator Tina Fey appears as "Marcia" in the final two episodes of season one and has a recurring role as a crazy psychiatrist in the rest of the series.
  • In Season 2 of Underground, Executive Producer John Legend was cast as Fredrick Douglass.
  • World Events, the first and only live-action documentary series by World Events Productions, was narrated by company co-founder and future Voltron creator Peter Keefe.
  • Xena: Warrior Princess the Xena Scrolls: 1940, the umpteenth grand-children of the Heroes do an Indiana Jones and get the Scrolls with the story of Xena; 1990, young Joxer finds the Scrolls in Grandpa's attic and pitches the story to real Robert Tapert the producer.
  • Tom Braidwood was cast as Frohike while serving as an assistant director on The X-Files. Allegedly the casting director said, "We need someone slimy—like Braidwood." (He also portrayed him in the spin-off The Lone Gunmen.)
  • Young & Hungry executive producer Ashley Tisdale guested in the episode "Young and Lesbian."
  • The Comedy Network series Butch Patterson: Private Dick had creator Greg Lawrence not only write, produce and direct the entire series, but also play the debauched title character.

    Music 
  • The infamous "Friday" by Rebecca Black features a rap break by Patrice Wilson, co-founder of ARK Music Factory, the studio behind the single.
  • In the Nine Inch Nails video for "Starfuckers, Inc.", the prostitute that accompanies Trent Reznor at the rundown amusement park is revealed in the end to be the video's director Marilyn Manson.
  • Robert John "Mutt" Lange sang most of the backing vocals on the albums he produced for Shania Twain, his then-wife.
  • Kids Praise: Ernie Rettino plays Psalty the Singing Songbook, while his real-life wife Debby Kerner plays both Charity Churchmouse and Psaltina (Psalty's in-universe wife).

    Pinball 
  • Played with in Jersey Jack Pinball's The Wizard of Oz; many of the playfield toys were sculpted by Dennis Nordman, a renown pinball designer in his own right. In this case, he was leveraging his hobby of building miniature dollhouses.
  • For a more normal example, Steve Ritchie often voices whatever has the most lines in his own tables if that role isn't already established. Examples include:
  • In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Admiral Biagi (who informs the player about the Borg menace) is voiced by and modeled after Carl Biagi, who developed the mechanics for the game.
  • For Star Wars Episode I, backglass artist Kevin O'Connor plays Darth Maul via motion capture, while designer John Popadiuk plays Qui-Gon Jinn.

    Radio 
  • In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Hexagonal Phase, the Voice of the Book is John Lloyd, who co-wrote two episodes of the Primary Phase and was associate producer of the TV series.
  • YO1 Radio in York, England has its directors Chris Marsden, Dave Parker and Wayne Chadwick both presenting shows; Chris does drivetime 2pm-6pm weekdays and Dave Parker presents the late show weekdays and Sundays 1-4pm, and Wayne Chadwick presents a Saturday show. But this is justified as the station is a small, online-only venture that expanded onto FM.
  • Most of the episodes of The Men from the Ministry were co-by John Graham, who also played most of the side-characters such as Lord Stilton and Mr. Crawley.
  • The Train at Platform 4 was written by Steve Punt and Hugh Dennis, who frequently appeared as rail passengers.

    Theatre 
  • In the stage adaptation of Green Day's American Idiot, singer/songwriter Billie Joe played St. Jimmy in some Broadway shows.
  • Author Peter Fenton originated the role of Evan Daigle in his own play, Abandon All Hope.
  • Hamilton: Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the play (plus its award-winning songs) and, in the original Broadway production, played the lead role: Alexander Hamilton.
    • His earlier play, In the Heights, was similar: he both wrote the music/lyrics and played the lead role of Usnavi during the original Broadway run.
  • Sting stepped into the cast of his musical The Last Ship for a time.
  • When Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse wrote Life With Father, they intended the title role to be played by a famous actor. Howard Lindsay wound up playing Father, alongside his Real Life wife, Dorothy Stickney.
  • In 1939, Otto Preminger, then blacklisted in Hollywood, was directing the play Margin for Error. When, during rehearsals, the actor playing the German Consul, Rudolf Forster, was recalled to his home country, Preminger, who hadn't acted since he was nineteen, agreed to step into the part after his line readings impressed Clare Boothe Luce. This led to the Typecasting that restarted his Hollywood career.
  • Emanuel Schikaneder, the librettist of The Magic Flute, originally played the role of Papageno.
  • In-universe in The Producers (the Screen-to-Stage Adaptation and 2005 movie). The writer of Springtime for Hitler takes objection to an auditioner's version of a song and gets up on stage to do it right. He's cast as Hitler on the spot. When he's injured shortly before the play opens, the director steps in to play the role.
  • Some of the later stage adaptations of the Sakura Wars series feature its creator, Oji Hiroi, as one of the theater workers.
  • William Shakespeare is known to have played various minor roles in his own plays; he started his career as an actor and continued to be a member of the company after becoming a playwright and part-owner. In most cases the specific roles he played are unknown, but tradition holds that he played the Ghost in Hamlet and Adam in As You Like It; internal textual evidence suggests he probably played the Chorus in Henry V. Some scholars have made attempts to figure out possible others based on computer analysis of the plays' vocabulary.
  • Spring Awakening: For the 2015 American Sign Language revival, Andy Mientus (who pitched the concept to the director, Michael Arden) co-directed the show with Arden for the workshop version, but left to do Les Misérables. When Hanschen's actor (Joey Haro) landed a movie deal, Mientus stepped in for him as he had already played Hanschen in the original national tour. Mientus ended up playing the role for the rest of the revival's Los Angeles run and eventually reprised the role on Broadway as well.
  • Waitress: Composer and lyricist Sara Bareilles played the leading role of Jenna for a stint on Broadway.

    Video Games 
  • Since the voice-acting needed for the first four installments of the Ace Attorney series was limited to shouted one-or-two-word phrases, most of the recorded voice clips are provided by members of the development or localization teams. They started hiring professionals once the voice-acting became more extensive in Dual Destinies.
  • BioShock director Ken Levine lends his voice to the Circus of Values and Dollar Bill vending machines. Other staff members have small voice roles too - another vending machine, El Ammo Bandito, is done by artist Mauricio Tejerina.
  • In Blasto, the Big Bad, Bosc, is voiced by the game's assistant producer, Dan Mueller.
  • In BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle has Casey Lee Williams, the primary vocalist for the RWBY soundtrack, do the Voice Grunting for the otherwise mute Neopolitan.
  • Randy Pitchford, president of Gearbox Software, voices Crazy Earl in the Borderlands games.
  • Brian Bloom is the writer of Call Of Duty Infinite Warfare. He voiced and provided performance capture for the player character Nick Reyes, and the character's appearance is modeled on him. Prior to this, Bloom voiced numerous extra soldiers in the franchise. He currently wrote Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019) and Modern Warfare II while continuing his voice roles.
  • Command & Conquer:
    • Joseph D. Kucan, director of the live-action scenes in the series, also stars as iconic villain Kane. He descends a step further in one of the cutscenes for Red Alert, playing the role of an Allied Spy assassinating a Soviet sentry (played by Frank Klepacki). In fact, the Tiberian Dawn cast was made up of Westwood staffers who otherwise had no previous acting experience, with Klepacki being the only one with a theatrical background.
    • Tiberian Dawn featured Eric Gooch, one of Westwood's graphic designers, as Seth, Kane's second in command — he even animated his own death scene.
    • Red Alert had the Announcer voiced by Martin Alper — President of Virgin Interactive Entertainment, the game's publisher.
  • Deltarune: According to the June 2023 edition of his bimonthly newsletter, director Toby Fox also provided the voices of Queen and Tasque Manager in Chapter 2.
  • In addition to providing voice direction, Patrick Seitz voiced Jeritza (also known as the Death Knight) and King Lambert in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
  • The first three Five Nights at Freddy's games had their creator, Scott Cawthon, voice the "Phone Guy", who acts as an instructor for the player.
  • Former Granblue Fantasy producer Koichi Haruta now voices the wind Primarch Raphael.
  • Daisuke Ishiwatari, the creator of the Guilty Gear saga, voiced the main character (and his Author Avatar) Sol Badguy up through Accent Core (Plus), where in the game's Story Mode, he was Darrin'd by Joji Nakata. note  This is because Ishiwatari himself felt it would be better if a professional handled the role, though this didn't stop him from portraying Freed in another Arc System Works project, Battle Fantasia, as well as lending his voice to later Guilty Gear installments (albeit in minor roles with minimal dialogue). Ditto with Toshimichi Mori, the director of BlazBlue, though he voices Paracelsus, also from Guilty Gear.
  • Hades:
    • Darren Korb, Supergiant Games' music composer, also voices Zagreus and Skelly. He became a Permanent Placeholder for both characters after the development team realized they liked his scratch voices better than any of the actors who auditioned for them.
    • Greg Kasavin, the game's director and writer, also voices Hypnos.
  • Halo:
    • Joseph Staten, one of the lead writers for all the Bungie-made games, also helped voice the Grunts during his tenure, plus the Superintendent in Halo 3: ODST. After joining 343 Industries to help lead the development of Halo Infinite, he would once again contribute his vocal talents by voicing Glibnub the Propaganda Grunt. Even during his time away from the franchise, he briefly returned to voice the Grunt Dimkee Hotay for Halo 5: Guardians.
    • In Halo Wars 2, Yapyap THE DESTROYER is voiced by 343 Industries's Narrative Director Nick Ardizzone.
  • During the production of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, the team's video editor Melina Juergens was used as a stand-in for the protagonist Senua while they perfected their motion capture techniques. She did such a good job that she was eventually permanently cast as Senua.
  • I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream has Harlan Ellison, the author of the original short story the game is based on, voicing AM the genocidal supercomputer. It's clear that Ellison enjoyed the role.
  • Masahiro Sakurai provides the voice of King Dedede in both Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards and the Super Smash Bros. series. A former employee of HAL Laboratory, Sakurai was directly responsible for the creation of both series.
  • The Negativitron in LittleBigPlanet 2 is voiced by Jeremy Mayne, one of the game's musicians. Similarly, the character of Sean Brawn in the Play Station Vita version is voiced by writer and story director Dave Mervik.
  • In OFF, Enoch's "voice" is done by the creator, Mortis Ghost.
  • Hideo Kojima voiced God in Metal Gear Solid 4 and himself in Metal Gear Solid V.
  • Ed Boon, one of the masterminds behind Mortal Kombat, provided the voice work for Scorpion in all of the games up through Mortal Kombat: Armageddon — Boon later explained that the original had so little resources that hiring voice actors was out of question, and by the sequel he also voiced Jax, Kano and the Funny Bruce Lee Noises of Liu Kang. Even after being Darrin'd, he continues to provide Scorpion's iconic catchphrase: "GET OVER HERE!!!"
  • Keiji Inafune, original creator of Mega Man, head of Comcept, and developer for the Neptunia series, appears throughout said series as various superweapons, including a melee weapon, a Kill Sat, and a Cool Airship.
  • Every single voice in The Neverhood is provided by the staff. Character designer Doug TenNapel voices Bil, Hoborg and Klogg, co-writer Mark Lorenzen voices Willie and animator Ed Schofield is Klaymen.
  • Several members of Overkill Software, the developers behind PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2, have lent their voices for several characters. Sound and music composer Simon Viklund voices Bain, co-producer Ulf Andersson voices Wolf, and lead producer Almir Listo voices several minor characters like the Taxman and Vlad's drunken brother-in-law.
  • Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, president of Compile, voiced Satan in the early Puyo Puyo games (and cosplayed him too).
  • Very common in games by Rare, with a recent video from Rare Replay showing that most of the voices for Banjo-Kazooie, Perfect Dark, Killer Instinct and Viva Piñata were done by the game designers, composers, programmers and studio heads for the company. This is especially notable with Conker's Bad Fur Day, where not only did Chris Seavor direct, design and write for the game, but he also voiced every single male character in it except the Great Mighty Poo.
  • Oji Hiroi, creator of the Sakura Wars series (and the writer of its manga adaptation), provides the voice for Ōkubo Nagayasu in Sakura Wars 4: Fall in Love, Maidens.
  • In the original StarCraft game, a large number of units were played by Blizzard staff members. The most prominent of these was former company vice-president Bill Roper (who played Fenix, Zasz and the Goliath), but it included company co-founder Allen Adham (Dark Templar), composer Jason Hayes (arbiter, firebat, probe and overlord), vice president of creative development Chris Metzen (ghost, battlecruiser and marine) and composer Glenn Stafford (zergling,SCV, scout, Wraith, and carrier).
  • Cryptic Studios has used its own team members to voice characters at least twice in Star Trek Online. Captain James Kurland, CO of Deep Space 9 and the USS Defiant, is voiced by Jeremy Randall, one of the programmers, and Lieutenant Kyona, tactical officer of the USS Enterprise-F, is voiced by lead writer Christine Thompson.
  • In the first Streets of Rage, composer Yuzo Koshiro provided the voice of all the characters, heroes and foes. Even the females used a hi-pitched recording of his own voice.
  • Hideki Kamiya provided the voices of Six Machine in Viewtiful Joe, Onigiri in Ōkami, and extended Creator Cameo Wonder-Director in The Wonderful 101. And while he didn't otherwise work on the game in a creative role, he also voiced Godot in Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations.
  • In the Japanese dub of WarioWare Gold, Joe is voiced by the series' character designer Ko Takeuchi.
  • The creator of the indie platformer Will You Snail?, Jonas Tyroller, voices the game's AI antagonist, Squid.
  • From Yoshi's Story onward, composer Kazumi Totaka has supplied the voice of the titular dinosaur.

    Web Animation 
  • The Amazing Digital Circus creator Gooseworx voices Caine's assistant Bubble.
  • Bravest Warriors has writer Breehn Burns voice several characters, notably the Emotion Lord.
  • Bugbo creator bensilly voices the titular character.
  • DEATH BATTLE!: Writer and lead researcher Liam Swan voices Popeye in season 8 finale "Saitama vs. Popeye".
  • Homestar Runner creators Matt and Mike Chapman voice a majority of the show's cast, including Strong Bad and the title character.
  • Making Fiends:
    • Creator Amy Winfrey voices Charlotte in both the original web cartoon and the TV series.
    • The same goes for character designer Aglaia Mortcheva, who voices Charlotte's "best friend" Vendetta.
    • Producer Dave Wasson and writer Peter Merryman voice numerous side characters in the TV series.
  • Even when Red vs. Blue started getting actors in its voice cast, there is still a trend to mostly go with Rooster Teeth's staff, like The Chorus Trilogy having animator Shane Newville as Freckles, and producer Gray G. Haddock as both Locus and Doyle.
  • RWBY:
    • Series creator Monty Oum was the original voice for Lie Ren, prior to his passing (with his brother taking on the role afterwards). He had originally planned to voice Professor Ozpin until he realised his voice didn't suit the character, and was planning to voice Qrow in the character's Volume 3 debut before having the fatal allergic reaction that took his life.
    • Series writer Miles Luna provides the voice of Jaune Arc and the barking sounds for Ruby's pet corgi Zwei, though his role as the latter is done by a different actor in the spin-off RWBY Chibi.
    • Rooster Teeth Animation head Gray G. Haddock voices Roman Torchwick, a secondary antagonist throughout the first three volumes.
    • Series producer and co-director Kerry Shawcross also serves as the voice of Team SSSN member Neptune Vasilias.
    • Kathleen Zuelch, the supervising producer for the first volume, originally voiced Glynda Goodwitch. However, she left the show following a drunken Twitter rant against the show's other cast members.
    • As for Ruby's family, her father Taiyang Xiao Long is voiced by Rooster Teeth co-founder Burnie Burns, while her half-sister Yang Xiao Long is voiced by RT's expo and social media manager Barbara Dunkelman.
    • Penny Polendina is voiced by modeler Taylor McNee.
    • Even if from season 3 onward the cast is mostly professional voice actors, there is still the occasional Rooster Teeth employee in a minor role, like producer Jamie Smith as Jaune's sister-in-law Terra-Cotta Arc.
  • Creators Matt and Mike Chapman voice a majority of the show's cast in their second web series Two More Eggs.
  • In Tim Burton's web series The World of Stainboy, background artist and animator Will Amato voices the title character's father.

    Website 
  • Besides writing for and coding Nobody Here, Jogchem Niemandsverdriet also plays his silhouetted self in all of the stories.

    Web Video 

    Western Animation 
  • In adult animated sitcoms, it's very common to have writers do supporting/minor voice roles.
  • The practice of series creators voicing main characters is common for Cartoon Network original series. In the 2010s alone, there was Pendleton Ward as Lumpy Space Princess, J.G. Quintel as Mordecai and Hi-Five Ghost (replacing Jeff Bennett in the latter role) and later Josh, Peter Browngardt as Festro and Dingle and Uncle Grandpa, Skyler Page initially as Clarence until head writer Spencer Rothbell inherited the role due to misconduct, Kyle A. Carrozza as Prohyas Warrior and recurring characters such as Grup the Dragon and Old Man Oldman, Ian Jones-Quartey as Radicles and Darrell, George Gendi as Apple, Julia Pott as Susie McCallister, Diego Molano as Victor, Parker Simmons as Mao Mao, Alan Ituriel as Black Hat, and Myke Chilian as Tiggy.
    • Also in Adventure Time, storyboard artist Kent Osborne voices Joshua the Dog and a few minor characters.
    • Thurop Van Orman, creator of The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, had to fill in as the voice of Flapjack when the actor originally cast for the role, Paul Reubens, failed to show. Two of the show's writers, Kent Osborne and Jackie Buscarino, also voiced Thomas Hatch and Sally Syrup, respectively.
    • In The Amazing World of Gumball, series director Mic Graves voices Banana Joe and his parents. Likewise, series creator Benjamin Bocquelet performs the wails, screams, and laughter for the character Sussie while storyboard artist Aurelie Charbonnier performs Sussie with her chin and (as of season 5) provides her voice.
    • In Courage the Cowardly Dog, creator John R. Dilworth provides the noises of the Weremole and the voices of King Ramses and Velvet Vic. Also, animator Tim Chi Ly voices Di Lung.
    • Craig of the Creek creators Matt Burnett and Ben Levin voice two of the three Elders of the Creek (and the third is voiced by Zachary Steel, their friend and previous collaborator). The three are characters from a previous short film the duo made, IM IN UR MANGER KILLING UR SAVIOR, voice actors included. Burnett and Levin also voice two of three Junior Forest Scouts, Boris and Tony, respectively.
    • Regular Show additionally features storyboard artist Minty Lewis as Eileen, whilst fellow board artists Sean Szeles, Toby Jones and Andres Salaff provided voices for several one-shot characters.
    • On Steven Universe, storyboard artist Lamar Abrams provides the voice of various characters, notably Buck Dewey. In addition, producer Jackie Buscarino voices Sour Cream and Onion's mom, Vidalia.
  • In the Dutch and Germans version of Alfred J. Kwak, series creator Herman Van Veen provided the voice of Johan Sebastian (Alfred's deceased father), Professor Paljas, and the Pierrot who appeared in episode 46. In addition, Van Veen would be heard singing all the songs written for the show during it's run (notably the intro and outro music).
  • On Animaniacs, writer Sherri Stoner voices Slappy Squirrel, while Paul Rugg voices Mr. Director.
  • Aqua Teen Hunger Force co-creator Dave Willis portrays both Meatwad and Carl, as well as several other tertiary characters. He later admitted playing Meatwad had seeped into his everyday life: when he comes across something incredibly cute, he'll start with Baby Talk, but end up doing Meatwad's mangled Simpleton Voice.
  • Creator Adam Reed voices main character Ray Gillette in Archer. This was circumstance: he was originally intended to be a minor character and Adam Reed was hired for cost-cutting reasons, but as time went by his role grew. Ray isn't in the show's credits because of this.
  • Tex Avery voiced multiple characters in his cartoons some examples include Willoughby the dog from "Of Foxes and Hounds" and "The Crackpot Quail"; Junior of "George and Junior"; the bulldog in "Bad Luck Blackie"; Lenny from "Lonesome Lenny"; and he even filled in for Bill Thompson as Droopy in a couple of cartoons.
  • Bruce Timm did some placeholder work as the leader of the Jokerz gang in Batman Beyond while the production team looked for a professional voice actor to play the part. Then he learned they used his voice in the final product because he did such a good job.
  • Mike Judge, who voices the title characters of both his shows Beavis and Butt-Head and King of the Hill as well as several other characters in each.
    • Also on King of the Hill, Dale Gribble was voiced by one of the show’s writers, the late Johnny Hardwick.
  • On Big City Greens, series co-creator Chris Houghton voices Cricket, while his brother Shane, the other creator, voices various minor characters. Kiki is voiced by series director Monica Ray.
  • Aaron Springer is the creator and voice of the title character in Billy Dilley's Super Duper Subterranean Summer. It was almost a case of Cross-Dressing Voices, as Jessica McKenna was originally set to be the voice of Billy, but backed out due to other commitments. Recurring character Tony is voiced by storyboard artist Kenny Pittenger.
  • The eponymous dog from Blue's Clues was voiced by Traci Paige Johnson, one of the show's creators.
    • Series composers Nick Balaban and Michael Rubin voiced Mr. Salt and Mailbox, respectively.
    • Mrs. Pepper was voiced by series coordidating producer, Penelope Jewkes, in the first season.
    • Episode coordinator Koyalee Chanda voiced Magenta.
    • Scripting coordinator Adam Peltzman voiced Green Puppy.
  • BoJack Horseman creator Raphael Bob-Waksberg voices the minor recurring character Charley Witherspoon, an anthropomorphic frog.
  • The Boondocks creator Aaron McGruder voiced a younger version of Robert Freeman in a few flashbacks. Also, co-producer Carl Jones voiced the recurring character Thugnificent.
  • Camp Lazlo: Writer Steve Little voices Chip and Skip.
  • In Centaurworld, series creator, producer and director Megan Nicole Dong voices Glendale and Kale.
  • C.H. Greenblatt was also featured on Chowder as a puppet version of himself, as well as the voice of the adult Chowder in the finale.
  • A couple of Disney animators lent their voices to the Classic Disney Shorts: Milt Kahl voiced the title character of "Ferdinand the Bull" as a calf, and Fred Moore and Ward Kimball voiced their caricatures from "The Nifty Nineties."
  • In The Dreamstone, production manager Stuart Lock provided the voice of main character Rufus.
  • Chris Nee, the creator of Doc McStuffins, voices Emmy and Alma's mom.
  • The current voice of Donald Duck is Disney animator Tony Anselmo, who learned how to do the voice from the original VA himself, Clarence "Ducky" Nash.
  • On Doug Unplugs, Princess Woofingham is voiced by series co-creator Aliki Theofilopoulos Grafft.
  • On Duncan Ville, series co-creator Amy Poehler provides the voices for Duncan and Annie.
  • On Family Guy, Seth MacFarlane voices Peter, Brian, Stewie, and Quagmire. He also voices Stan Smith and Roger in American Dad!, as well as Tim the Bear in The Cleveland Show (though only for the first two seasons; in the show's final seasons the role went to voice actor Jess Harnell due to MacFarlane being occupied with his work on Ted).
    • It's very common to have writers do voice roles (whether supporting or minor) for Mac Farlane's shows. The most prominent examples are John Viener, Danny Smith, Alec Sulkin, Chris Sheridan, Steve Callaghan, Mark Hentemann (who also served as an example of this for the two short-lived shows he created, 3 South and Bordertown), Mike Barker (in which he stopped doing voice roles after leaving American Dad! during the Channel Hop to TBS), Matt Mc Kenna, Erik Durbin, Nicole Shabtai (who became the current voice of Snot's mother), and Aseem Batra.
  • On Fancy Nancy, Nancy's Uncle Pete is voiced by supervising director Jamie Mitchell.
  • Filmation founder Lou Scheimer would voice characters on several shows from said studio, mainly for budget reasons.
  • The crew of Freakazoid! were having trouble finding a voice actor who could capture the manic breaks-out-into-Jerry Lewis-impressions-goes-off-on-fourth-wall-tangents-in-the-middle-of-a-fight voice of the title character. Finally, they just gave it to series writer Paul Rugg. Fellow writer John P. McCann voiced Douglas Douglas, Dexter's father.
  • Future-Worm! creator Ryan Quincy voices Robo-Carp and Andy's dad.
  • The original voice of Jon Arbuckle in the Garfield Specials was provided by Thom Huge, an employee of Paws, Inc. with no other voice acting credits to his name. Huge was a fraternity brother of Jim Davis, and Davis had always seen him as the voice of Jon. He subsequently joined Paws to voice Jon and other characters, as well as provide support on other projects (in particular, U.S. Acres).
  • On Get Blake!, series story editor Derek Dressler voices Blake's dad.
  • Glitch Techs co-creator Dan Milano voices Ally and BITT.
  • Goofy's memorable voice came courtesy of Disney storyman Pinto Colvig. Colvig also did Pluto the Pup, and both Grumpy and Sleepy on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. He later did similar voices for other studios and was even the original Bozo the Clown.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • Creator Alex Hirsch voices regular characters Grunkle Stan, Soos, and Bill Cipher, as well as Old Man McGucket, Quentin Trembley, and several incidentals.
    • Mabel's rival (and later friend), Pacifica Northwest, was voiced by production assistant Jackie Buscarino.
    • Storyboard artist Niki Yang voiced Mabel's second friend Candy in the show.
    • Animator Sam Marin voiced Celestabellebethabelle in the episode "The Last Mabelcorn".
    • Writer Matt Chapman appears in the show as the voice of Mermando, Soos' grandmother Abuelita, and a few members of the boy band Sev'ral Timez.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy and Evil Con Carnenote  had creator Maxwell Atoms voice recurring characters Jeff the Spider and Cod Commando. Writer C.H. Greenblatt voiced recurring character Fred Fredburger (who debuted in "Keeper of the Reaper", which Greenblatt has writing credit for).
  • Harvey Beaks: Dade and Jeremy are both voiced by creator C.H. Greenblatt. Storyboard artist Andres Salaff voices Princess while production supervisor Nick Sumida voices several minor characters, notably Randl's mother, Kathy, and Mikey.
  • Steve Viksten, voice of Oskar Kokoshka on Hey Arnold!, also wrote a whopping one-third of the show's 187 episodes. Arnold's parents were also voiced by the show creator (Craig Bartlett, who voiced Brainy as well) and one of the writers (Antoinette Stella).
  • Professor Caraway in High Guardian Spice is voiced by series creator Raye Rodriguez.
  • Ian James Corlett voices recurring characters in both of his own animated series - King Louis in Yvon of the Yukon and Odbald in Being Ian.
  • Tim Burton voices the title character in his (currently lost) first film The Island of Doctor Agor.
  • KaBlam!: Stephen Holman, the creator of the Life With Loopy segments, also played Charlie Chicken, the Fang Fairy, Hank Hankerman, and various other minor characters in the series.
    • Life With Loopy animation director Josephine T. Huang voiced Stacey, Snow-Lady, and Raquel.
  • In the original French dub of Kaeloo, series creator Remi Chapotot voices Stumpy, Quack Quack, and Eugly.
  • Due to having No Budget, Kevin Spencer had creator Greg Lawrence voice Kevin's father Percy, every other male member of the Spencer family and the narrator. Rick Kaulbars and David Elver, the only two other writers the show ever had, also voiced various minor characters.
  • * The Legend of Vox Machina is based on the original Critical Role campaign. The players, who all helped shape the original storyline, return to voice their player characters. Dungeon Master Matt Mercer resumes voicing several of his original villains. Players Sam Riegel and Travis Willingham also scripted some of the episodes themselves, as documented by the Internet Movie Database.
  • In Looney Tunes Cartoons , Beaky Buzzard is voiced by Michael Ruocco, a director/storyboard artist for the series.
  • Crossing over with The Danza, but in The Loud House episode "Really Loud Music", Michelle and Doug, the judges for America's Next Hitmaker, are voiced by the show's composers Michelle Lewis and Doug Rockwell.
  • While Marvel's Spider-Man has the Hulk voiced by Fred Tatasciore, his human persona, Bruce Banner, is voiced by the initial showrunner for the series, Kevin Shinick. Likewise, Marvel staff member Joe Quesada voices Joe the coffee shop employee.
  • One of the oldest and most iconic examples is Walt Disney as the original voice of Mickey Mouse. In fact, until Chris Diamantopoulos for the Paul Rudish series, the mouse has always been voiced by non-professional voice actors:
    • When Walt retired from voicing Mickey, he gave the job to Jimmy MacDonald, head of the studio's sound effects department. Jimmy also voiced such characters as Chip 'n Dale, Humphrey the Bear, Jaq and Gus from Cinderella, and the Dormouse from Alice in Wonderland.
    • Upon his retirement, MacDonald passed the role to one of his trainees, Wayne Allwine, who voiced Mickey until his death in 2009, where the role went to Hallmark Cards illustrator Bret Iwan.
    • In the Latin American Spanish dub, Mickey and Goofy were first voiced by dubbing pioneer Edmundo Santos, who was basically Walt Disney's main representative in Mexico and later Latin America in general. Santos is remembered for sounding strikingly similar to their original voices when dubbing the characters, so he was chosen by Walt himself to dub them.
  • Middlemost Post: Series creator John Trabbic and developer/showrunner Dave H. Johnson provided various voices on the show.
  • The Mighty B! is co-created by Amy Poehler, who voices series protagonist Bessie Higgenbottom.
  • Screenwriter Mike Kiss voices major characters on two shows he worked for - those being Mister Smarty Smarts, the Big Bad Wannabe of Spliced, and Twinkle-Stick, the mentor of the eponymous character of Fangbone!.
  • Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur (2023) has co-developer and executive producer Laurence Fishburne as the voice of The Beyonder.
  • Moral Orel creator Dino Stamatopoulos does several voices throughout the show, such as Mr. Creepler, Clay's father as a middle-aged man, the kid whose name no one knows, Mr. Armature, etc.
  • Bill Melendez, director on the various Peanuts specials, also provided Snoopy's growls and laughing along with Woodstock's chirping.
  • On Mrs. Munger's Class, One Saturday Morning executive producer Peter Hastings voices Mrs. Munger.
  • On Muppet Babies (2018), Kermit, Beaker, Rowlf, Waldorf, and Chef are voiced by the show's supervising director, Matt Danner.
  • Onyx Equinox was created by Sofia Alexander and she voices K'i'ik, Meque, and Nelli.
  • Dana Terrace, creator of The Owl House, voices several characters in the show, such as recurring extra Tiny Nose, and Severine, one of the Emperor's Coven scouts from "Labyrinth Runners". She also voices the younger version of major character King, as well as his "squeak of rage".
  • Phineas and Ferb creators Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh both voice the major characters of the show's recurring B plot; Heinz Doofenshmirtz and Major Monogram, respectively. Additionally, writer/storyboard artist Aliki Theofopolous Grafft voices Mandy.
  • In their next show, Milo Murphy's Law, Dan Povenmire and Jeff "Swampy" Marsh respectively voice the recurring time-travelers Vinnie Dakota and Balthazar Cavendish. We also have story editor Scott Peterson as the voice of Scott the Undergrounder.
  • The Pogo special "The Pogo Special Birthday Special" contains two examples Chuck Jones who directed the special voiced Porky Pine, Bun Rab, and Basil Butterfly and Walt Kelly the creator of the strip voiced P.T. Bridgeport, Albert, and Howland Owl.
  • Jack Mercer was an animator at Fleischer Studios when he was asked to replace the original voice actor for Popeye the Sailor. He ended up doing the official voice of the character for the next fifty years, as well as voice other iconic characters, such as Felix the Cat.
  • The 2016 reboot of The Powerpuff Girls featured head writer Haley Mancini voicing Princess Morbucks, replacing Jennifer Hale. Co-writer Jake Goldman is the voice of Blossom's love interest, Jared.
  • Harland Williams created Puppy Dog Pals, and voices the main characters' owner Bob. Likewise, staff writer Jessica Carleton voiced a flight stewardess in "Bob Loves Mona".
  • Creator Kevin Gillis provided the voice of Ranger Dan in the fourth Raccoons special, The Raccoons: Let's Dance!. Lisa Raccoon was also voiced by Lisa Lougheed, who was the lead singer of the end theme and the various other vocal pieces in the show proper.
  • For the first season of Recess, series writer Jeff Wright voiced Hank the janitor. Paul Dooley took over in season two.
  • John Kricfalusi voiced Ren on the first season and most of the second in The Ren & Stimpy Show until Nickelodeon fired him for late (as well as controversial) work. He reprised the role in Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon".
  • Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland voices both of the title characters as well as additional voices until the sixth season. There's also the other co-creator and writer Dan Harmon, who voices Birdperson and numerous minor roles.
  • Happens on Robot Chicken all the time. Matt and Seth regularly appear as themselves, writers (especially Tom Root and Breckin Meyer) regularly voice characters and occasionally themselves. They even got [adult swim] execs Mike Lazzo and Keith Crofford to appear as themselves a couple of times.
  • Rocko's Modern Life:
    • Doug Lawrence also voiced Filburt, which he was a writer on before working on SpongeBob. He got the role by sneaking in an anonymous audition tape which was so impressive that Joe Murray failed to recognize one of his staff as the voice!
    • Joe Murray himself voices Ed Bighead's son Ralph (later Rachel), who refuses to join his father at "Conglom-O" in order to pursue a career as a cartoonist.
  • The Angry Scientist on Sheep in the Big City was voiced by creator Mo Willems. Writer Joey Mazzarino also voiced some minor characters such as General Specific's cousin General Outrageous.
  • On She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, Spinerella is voiced by series showrunner Noelle Stevenson.
  • On Shimmer and Shine , Zeta's sister Gigi is voiced by series creator Farnaz Esnaashari-Charmatz.
  • For the first couple of seasons of The Simpsons, Matt Groening provided the noise for Maggie's sucking sound on her pacifier; he made an appearance as himself in a later episode.
  • Harvey Fierstein, author of the picture book The Sissy Duckling, provided the voice of Elmer the Duckling in the 1999 HBO TV Special.
  • Eric Rogers, the showrunner for Skylanders Academy , voices Crash Bandicoot. Apparently, he just did scratch vocals for the character, and the higher-ups were so impressed that he was cast for the role proper. He did get replaced by Rhys Darby after leaving the show in season 3.
  • The main characters in Smiling Friends, Pim and Charlie, and voiced by the show's creators Michael Cusack and Zach Hadel (who voices Charlie in his everyday normal voice). According on an interview, the upside to this is that it makes recording new lines for the show or changing the script very quick and inexpensive.
  • Bill Freiberger, executive producer and showrunner of Sonic Boom, is the voice of Comedy Chimp, Lady Walrus and a few other minor characters.
  • Trey Parker and Matt Stone do more than half the voices in South Park, including a few incidental female characters.
  • On Splash and Bubbles, creator John Tartaglia voices Splash.
  • On SpongeBob SquarePants:
    • Series creator Stephen Hillenburg was the original voice of Potty the Parrot. Executive producer Paul Tibbitt eventually took over after Hillenburg left the series and was replaced by Lawrence as of season 10 after Tibbitt's departure.
    • Series writer Doug Lawrence (better known as Mr. Lawrence) provides the voice of the villainous Plankton. Stephen Hillenburg had created Plankton as a potential villain for the show in 1997 but later feared that Plankton's plans would get repetitive and decided he would be better off as a one-time character. Doug Lawrence loved the character and used both his writing skills and his voice to prove that Plankton could work as a major antagonist. If it weren't for Lawrence's dual role as both the voice and writer for Plankton, his character would likely never have become a major player in the show.
  • In Star vs. the Forces of Evil, the creator Daron Nefcy voices recurring minor characters Sabrina and StarFan13.
  • As the credits of the final episode of Star Wars Rebels, reveals, series co-creator Dave Filoni plays Chopper.
  • Summer Memories: Series creator Adam Yaniv voices protagonist Jason's best friend Ronnie.
  • In Tamagotchi Video Adventures, director Dan Kuenster co-hosts the "How to Draw Tamagotchi" segment.
  • The voice of Bong in Tiny Planets is provided by series composer Kim Goody.
  • William Hanna provided the vocal effects and the speaking voices for Tom and Jerry, as well as other animals, in a few shorts.
  • On Total Drama, series writer Laurie Elliott provides the voice of Jo. Additionally, in the spinoff Total Drama Presents: The Ridonculous Race, host Don is voiced by the spinoff's executive producer and series developer, Terry McGurrin (who also voices Chris McLean in the 2023 Total Drama reboot, which he works on as a writer and executive producer).
  • On Tuca & Bertie, executive producers Tiffany Haddish and Ali Wong both voice the titular characters, respectively.
  • Doc Hammer and Jackson Publick provide voices for a number of characters in The Venture Brothers. Almost all of the Those Two Guys pairs are them: 21 and 24, Pete and Billy, Doe and Cardholder, et al.
  • Welcome to the Wayne creator Billy Lopez voices Ollie Timbers, one of the main characters.
  • For several years, one of Woody Woodpecker's voice actors was co-creator Ben Hardaway. He was also voiced by Walter Lantz's wife Grace Stafford for a period. Lantz had actually refused to let Stafford voice Woody, but she snuck an anonymous voice recording for tryouts, which Lantz ended up accepting without realization of who it was.
  • Young Justice has two examples:
    • Series co-creator Greg Weisman voices Lucas Carr, and in Season 3, the Ultra Humanite.
    • Series writer Nicole Dubuc voices Iris Allen-West.

Alternative Title(s): Ascended Creator, Ascended Crewmember

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