For a variety of reasons (budget constraints, contractual obligations, Creator Backlash, plain ol' jackassery, etc.), sometimes a person will be involved in the creation of a work, but will go uncredited. It's generally only noteworthy if they played a significant role in the creative process (playing a major character, drafting a screenplay, writing a lyric); if the person is well-known enough to have a page on this wiki (many cameos meet this description); or if the role they played was insignificant, but the person went on to achieve greater fame thereafter.note
In Hollywood, experienced screenwriters are often employed as uncredited "script doctors" to provide edits to existing drafts of screenplays before they go into production: these edits can range from simple punching up of the dialogue, to adding new scenes, to changing the entire structure of the screenplay.
In literature, writers may be employed as "ghostwriters" note to write a book for another person: the latter person will be credited as the writer. The most common form this takes is when a celebrity hires a ghostwriter to pen their "auto"biography. The ghostwriter is usually bound to a non-disclosure agreement not to publicly reveal or discuss their involvement in the creation of the book, although they may be credited as an "editor" or "consultant" (in which case it's not an example of this trope). House Pseudonym (in which multiple ghostwriters are credited under a single pseudonym) is related to this trope.
In music, it's common for solo artists or groups to employ "session musicians" when recording a song or an album: contracted musicians who will perform on one or more tracks, but who are not considered an official member of the group or the solo artist's backing band. Sometimes these musicians will not be credited in the liner notes for the release, but will later go on to achieve fame in their own right. In Hip-Hop, it's an Open Secret that many rappers employ ghostwriters to write lyrics for them, who will unusually go uncredited to preserve the Kayfabe that the rapper exclusively writes their own material (this is quite different from pop music, in which songwriters usually receive credit independent of the performer). Music producers will also sometimes serve as "ghost producers" for various reasons. Also, it's not unheard of to decline credit to a featured artist on a duet or guest appearance, if the featured artist is on a different label and cannot secure promotion rights.
This was common industry practice in voiceover work for animation prior to the 1980s (see Now Which One Was That Voice? for more information).
See also Alan Smithee, for when a film director proves that they did not have creative control over a film and has the direction of the film credited to a pseudonym. An interesting case is when a creator is typecast in a particular role/genre, and goes uncredited in order to distance themselves from their usual type, which overlaps with He Also Did.
Note that it's not an example if the person is credited under a Pen Name or alias, or if they're Not Named in Opening Credits but still credited at the end. Sometimes creators will deliberately go uncredited so that their part in the work will be a surprise for the audience, so some examples on this page will be spoilers.
Examples:
- Unfortunately, many anime TV series that are released in North America don't contain the entire Japanese credits roll, and only feature an abridged credits list Note . As a result, crew members and supporting studios which are listed in the original Japanese credits are omitted in the North American release, this sometimes includes the original Japanese voices.
- This form of crediting is also used quite often in Japan, usually in regards to outsourcing studios lacking a proper staff roll. In some instances, certain shows will outright omit key staff members, animation studios or key animators, Maerchen Maedchen being a notorious example of this practice in action. Some titles like Rin Ne, To Your Eternity, Log Horizon, Guin Saga, Radiant, and NHK airings of certain anime such as Attack on Titan and Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! feature credits that lack any mention of their respective supporting contract studios and only credit the animators.
- Similarly, there are times in which a cast member of an anime does more than one character. While in English they tend to be credited most of the time for these extra roles, in Japan, if it's a major member of the cast, those secondary roles usually go uncredited in favor of the more important one.
- When The Fantastic Adventures of Unico and Unico in the Island of Magic gained an English dub in the 1980s. Barbara Goodson wasn't credited as the english voice of Unico due to only crediting the Japanese cast. This resulted with rumors of Karen Prell voicing the titular character, however Prell later debunked the rumor of her voicing the character but speculated it was Barbara Goodson. At numerous convention appearances and interviews, Goodson confirmed that she was the voice of Unico. When Discotek Media re-released the movies on DVD in the early 2010s, Barbara Goodson was credited alongside the other voice actors.
- Starting with the Punk Hazard arc, the English dub of One Piece changed how they credit the crew at Funimation, placing all those credits after the episode rather than in the OP like before. Unfortunately, the acting credits only list the main cast and a few important characters. Side characters and minor characters are left completely uncredited. Fans only learn who voices who from the actors themselves, from bugging the ADR directors, or from Funinmation putting out a press release.
- When Ringing Bell (Chirin no Suzu) was released to the western market in the early 1980s, Barbara Goodson wasn't credited as the voice of Young Chirin. She would later get credited when the movie was re-released on DVD in 2014.
- For the English dub of Space Battleship Yamato (called Star Blazers), the dub cast were not credited onscreen due to actor's union restrictions, this being a non-union job.
- The 4Kids dub of Tokyo Mew Mew, Mew Mew Power, had most of the Japanese staff uncredited, including the show's director, Noriyuki Abe. Only the Japanese production companies and the original manga creators (Reiko Yoshida and Mia Ikumi) were credited.
- Disney Animated Canon:
- Until 1984, there was a rule that animators had to draw at least 100 feet of film (roughly 68 seconds) in order to be credited.
- None of the actors in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were credited for their roles, largely to preserve the illusion of the characters being real. Adriana Caselotti did, however, appear in a few promotional gigs shortly after the film's release, but Disney didn't begin crediting their voice talent until 1945's The Three Caballeros. Until The Jungle Book, with the exception of Alice in Wonderland, only the voice actors were listed and not the roles they played.
- Sleeping Beauty: The voices for the Queen, the Herald, and for Maleficent's goons weren't credited.note
- The Jungle Book only listed the main characters and some of the supporting characters, other actors like Digby Wolfe (Ziggy), Hal Smith (Slob Elephant), Ralph Wright (Gloomy Elephant), Leo De Lyon (Flunkey), Bill Skiles and Pete Henderson (the Monkeys) went uncredited.
- Robin Hood (1973) only listed the actors playing the main character and key supporting characters; other actors like J. Pat O'Malley (Otto), Candy Candido (Captain of the Guard), John Fiedler (Sexton), Barbara Luddy (Mother Rabbit and Sexton's wife) and all the child actors went uncredited.
- Don Bluth quit Disney while working on The Fox and the Hound. He was not credited for any of the scenes he animated.
- Ron Clements conceived the story for the 1983 featurette Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, but he took his name off the film in protest of Disney outsourcing the animation. Said studio, Rick Reinhart Productions, also went uncredited from the final product.
- Pauly Shore was uncredited as the voice of Bobby in A Goofy Movie. He was credited in the sequel, however.
- Charlie Kaufman was an uncredited script doctor for Kung Fu Panda 2.
- Don Bluth was so dissatisfied with how The Pebble and the Penguin turned out and the Executive Meddling behind it that he renounced his director's credit for that movie. Unfortunately for him, the studio still found a way to associate the film with him anyway by marketing the film as "from the director of The Land Before Time, and it is still credited as "A Don Bluth Limited Production" in the main titles, so his name was still on it.
- Spike Jonze, who voiced Mr. Crystal's assistant in Sing 2, was not credited for his role.
- Ed Asner is not credited as 22's old man voice in Soul, despite him having a leading role in another Pixar film.
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie: Grant Kirkhope and George Andreas are not credited for composing the DK Rap, which is used in the film. Strange, as another piece of archival music used in the film, the Plumbers' Rap from The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, has composers Haim Saban and Shuky Levy credited.
- Animator Sam Singer requested to have his name removed from the credits of Tubby the Tuba (1975).
- Yuri Lowenthal is not credited as the voice of Ching Ling in What's Up? Balloon to the Rescue.
- Voice director Andrea Romano demanded that her name be removed from the credits of Jetsons: The Movie after Universal's decision to have pop star Tiffany record over Janet Waldo's lines as Judy.
Screenwriters:
- Judd Apatow was an uncredited script doctor for The Wedding Singer, Liar Liar and Bruce Almighty.
- Shane Black was an uncredited script doctor for Iron Man, Predator and Crimson Tide.
- The Coen Brothers were uncredited script doctors for Fun with Dick and Jane.
- The late Carrie Fisher was an uncredited script doctor for several films, including Hook, Sister Act, Last Action Hero, Lethal Weapon 3, The Wedding Singer, Scream 3 and the Star Wars prequels.
- William Goldman worked uncredited on Twins (1988), Indecent Proposal, Last Action Hero, and Fierce Creatures.
- Elaine May has worked uncredited on such movies as Reds!, Tootsie, Labyrinth, Wolf, and Dangerous Minds.
- Nicholas Meyer was an uncredited script doctor for Fatal Attraction and Tomorrow Never Dies.
- Alexander Payne was an uncredited script doctor for Meet the Parents and Jurassic Park 3.
- Jason Reitman was an uncredited script doctor for The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.
- John Sayles was an uncredited script doctor for Apollo 13 and Mimic, among others.
- Josh Schwartz and Jamie Moss were the first two writers involved with X-Men: First Class, yet the WGA arbitration chose not to list them for story while providing one such credit for Sheldon Turner, whose script for an unproduced X-Men Origins: Magneto was never even touched by Bryan Singer and his cohorts.
- M. Night Shyamalan was an uncredited script doctor for She's All That. Shyamalan's contributions are mentioned on the DVD Commentary for the film.
- Kevin Smith:
- He wrote most of the dialogue for his part in Live Free or Die Hard. According to him, he rewrote the scene when he auditioned for the part, and the studio hired him because it was cheaper than giving him a writer's credit. Smith was credited for his acting, but not for his script edits.
- Uncredited script doctor for Coyote Ugly and Overnight Delivery.
- Aaron Sorkin was an uncredited script doctor for several films, including Schindler's List, The Rock, Bulworth and Enemy of the State.
- Tom Stoppard was an uncredited script doctor for Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Sleepy Hollow (1999), Revenge of the Sith and The Bourne Ultimatum.
- Quentin Tarantino was an uncredited script doctor for Crimson Tide, The Rock and... It's Pat!.
- Robert Towne has been an uncredited script doctor on such films as Bonnie and Clyde, The Godfather, The Parallax View, Reds!, and Crimson Tide.
- Joss Whedon was an uncredited script doctor for several films, including The Getaway, Speed, The Quick and the Dead, Waterworld, Twister and X-Men. He was not credited as second director on Justice League despite having heavily altered the film with reshoots, only getting writer credits on it.
Producers:
- Mel Brooks was an uncredited producer on David Lynch's The Elephant Man. He feared audiences would assume it was a comedy because of his involvement, so he left his own name out of the credits and marketing. He attempted to do the same with The Fly, but word of his involvement leaked ahead of time.
- George Lucas was executive producer on Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat, mainly as a favor for Kasdan's help with the script for Return of the Jedi. Lucas went uncredited because he didn't want his work on an erotic thriller film to affect his family-friendly reputation from the first two Star Wars films.
Actors:
- The kids who played the six main characters in the educational film Apaches were not credited.
- The first Austin Powers had a few, such as Tom Arnold as the cowboy in the "who does Number Two works for?" scene, Carrie Fisher as the father/son therapist, and three in deleted scenes restored for the international cut (Christian Slater as a guard who Austin hypnotizes, Lois Chiles as the wife of a steamrolled mook, and Rob Lowe as the friend of a decapitated mook).
- While Anthony Bourdain's appearance As Himself in The Big Short is credited, the ones by Margot Robbie and Selena Gomez aren't.
- Michael Caine has a voice-only cameo in Dunkirk, which is uncredited.
- John Cena made a very brief uncredited appearance
note in the horrifically bad wrestling movie Ready to Rumble. Goldberg is in the same scene (credited, WCW was involved with the film's production); as of 2022 the two have never wrestled each other.
- Sean Connery plays Richard the Lionheart in the final scenes of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It wouldn't normally be a big enough part to be worth mentioning, but it's Sean Connery. He also donated his entire salary from the role — $250,000 — to charity.
- Macaulay Culkin appeared uncredited as Jacob's son Gabriel in Jacob's Ladder.
- In Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, both Brad Pitt and Matt Damon appear (uncredited) as two game show contestants.
- Peter Dobson had an uncredited cameo as Elvis Presley in Forrest Gump.
- From Russia with Love, Blofeld's debut as the Big Bad of the James Bond movies, starts the tradition of keeping his face off-camera, prompting the use of this trick to make sure nobody could be sure what he looked like. The ending credits acknowledge his existence by crediting one Ernst Blofeld with a question mark in place of the actor. (The body was Anthony Dawson and the voice was Eric Pohlmann.)
- Ghostbusters (1984) credited Slavitza Jozan as Gozer, but not Paddi Edwards for the voice. Ghostbusters: Afterlife ironically reversed this, crediting Gozer's voice (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and the one doing motion capture for its spirit form (Emma Portner), but not the actual portrayer, Olivia Wilde. Ghostbusters II also didn't credit the one voicing the voice of the villain, namely Max von Sydow as Vigo.
- Tiffany Grant was an uncredited graduate student in Arlington Road.
- Peter Greene is not credited as Redfoot in The Usual Suspects, which is appropriate as the ending suggests Redfoot never really existed outside Verbal's imagination.
- Hellboy (2004): The studio wanted more "big name" stars to promote the movie and ordered Guillermo Del Toro to have David Hyde Pierce overdub Doug Jones' performance as Abe Sapien. This backfired on the studio as Pierce refused to be credited out of respect for Jones' work on the physical performance.
- Hook: The kissing couple that was briefly lifted into the air by Tinkerbell's pixie dust were George Lucas and Carrie Fisher. Fisher also served as an uncredited script doctor.
- Peter Jackson, Steve Coogan and Cate Blanchett all have uncredited cameos in Hot Fuzz.
- The child actor who played Chucky from Jane Austen's Mafia!! was not credited despite playing a fairly important part.
- Ashton Kutcher is not credited for his role as Hank in Cheaper by the Dozen (2003), whereas Charlie's bully is played by a then-unknown Jared Padalecki, who was also uncredited along with Wayne Knight's cameo as an electrician and Amy Hill as Nigel and Kyle's kindergarten teacher.
- Rob Lowe in Tommy Boy. He turned down being billed as he didn't want to have to pay Screen Actors Guild fees for being in the film.
- Marvel Cinematic Universe:
- Josh Brolin was not credited for his brief appearances as Thanos in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) or Avengers: Age of Ultron.
- Trevor Noah plays the A.I. on a jet in Black Panther.
- Matt Damon has an uncredited part in Thor: Ragnarok as an Asgardian actor playing Loki in a play.
- The actress who played Kelsey the first foster mother's sister in Mikey was not credited.
- Julianne Moore is uncredited as the voice of the computer in Eagle Eye.
- Edward Norton was uncredited for his role as the masked King Baldwin in the original theatrical release of Kingdom of Heaven, as he felt that it would maintain the character's mystery if audiences didn't know who was behind the mask. This was downgraded to Not Named in Opening Credits in the film and DVD relases, which added Norton's name into the closing credits.
- Gary Oldman wanted star billing alongside the two leads of Hannibal, did not get it, and in protest asked for his name to be taken out. It was restored in home video, however.
- Lois Chiles (as Diane's mother) and Joan Cusack (as Lloyd's sister) appear uncredited in Say Anything.... note
- Liev Schreiber appears in Clear History as Tibor, a major character who helps Rolly get his revenge on Will Haney, but as Schreiber was under contract for Ray Donovan on a rival network at the time, he is uncredited in the film.
- Judson Scott went uncredited for his role as Khan's second-in-command Joachim in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It was not by the actor's choice, though — it was a negotiation ploy on the part of his agent that backfired.
- Tom Sizemore plays one of the villains in Enemy of the State, but his name doesn't appear in the credits. Also appearing uncredited in the movie were Seth Green (as an NSA technician), Philip Baker Hall (as Robert Dean's boss), and Jason Robards (as the Congressman whose murder kicks off the plot).
- In Sleepaway Camp, the man who stood in for Felissa Rose during the infamous twist ending has remained anonymous. Understandably, Rose's mother protested the filmmaker's original plan of making her daughter wear a strap-on penis, so instead they made a mask of Rose's face and paid the man a few hundred dollars to stand naked on the beach on a freezing night wearing it. The poor guy apparently had to be shitfaced to do the scene and also cried before filming.
- When Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) was released in theaters, Colleen O'Shaughnessey reprised her role as Tails from the video games, but she was originally uncredited. This was corrected on later releases.
- Spotlight doesn't credit Richard Jenkins as Richard Sipe, whose voice is only heard through the phone.
- Star Wars:
- It wasn't until the digital reissue of the Original Trilogy that James Earl Jones would be credited for his role as the voice of Darth Vader in A New Hope or The Empire Strikes Back note . He also wasn't credited in Revenge of the Sith.
- The Force Awakens: Daniel Craig plays the stormtrooper who is mind-controlled by Rey.
- The Rise of Skywalker: Harrison Ford (Han) makes a return appearance but goes uncredited.
- Jason Statham has a brief uncredited cameo in Collateral.
- Kathleen Turner was uncredited as the speaking voice of Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- The actor who did the voiceover for minor character Rihei in Vendetta for a Samurai is not credited.
- J. T. Walsh appears uncredited as a state trooper in Misery, and as a memorable One-Scene Wonder as the White House Chief of Staff in Outbreak.
- David Warner has a significant role in Straw Dogs, for which he receives no credit. Warner has said in interviews that his agent had tried to get him a star billing, prompting Warner to state that he wanted to work with Sam Peckinpah again enough that he would take the role even if he got no billing at all — and the idea amused Peckinpah, who decided to take him at his word.
- Bruce Willis in Four Rooms. Willis did the film for free as a favor to Quentin Tarantino and preferred that his appearance be a surprise (and that so he wouldn't have to pay the Screen Actors Guild money for doing a free gig).
- Owen Wilson is uncredited in the first Night at the Museum film, despite Jedediah being as big a role as Octavius.
Miscellaneous:
- A common practice is to leave out any of the actors doing ADR work, should they not list them in one large block of names.
- An accidental case happened with Dr. No, where art director Syd Cain discovered his name wasn't in the credits, but it remained that way because the producers didn't want to spend more of the meager budget fixing them.
- The Nan Movie, a film based on The Catherine Tate Show, is best known for its convoluted production issues that led to the final film not having a credited director. The original director was Josie Rourke (Mary, Queen of Scots), who filmed a Period Piece about Nan's young adulthood in the 1940's that was much more dramatic than the source material would suggest. The producers got cold feet at this version, and handed the film to Catherine Tate herself who directed a substantial Retool of the film into being about a present-day Road Trip Plot, only reusing a relatively small amount of footage from Rourke's cut. Neither woman is credited as the director; Josie Rourke is listed as a mere "Executive Producer", while Catherine Tate gets an "A Catherine Tate Film" caption in the opening credits.
- The Basil Brush Show: The puppeteer performing the titular character was uncredited in both versions of the show. It was later revealed that Ivan Owens was Basil's first performer but the identity of his second performer is still unknown.
- The Community episode "Investigative Journalism" has an uncredited performance by Owen Wilson as the leader of another study group who recruits Buddy at the end.
- Doctor Who:
- "Remembrance of the Daleks": Iconic K-9 voice actor John Leeson played an uncredited part as the voice of the Renegade Daleks' battle computer, before the character's true identity was revealed.
- "Vincent and the Doctor": Bill Nighy as art expert Dr. Black; Nighy agreed to take the role on condition that he was not credited and no publicity photos were taken of him.
- In a 1968 episode of Dragnet, the LAPD held a community outreach to encourage black men to join the police force. One of the attendees was O. J. Simpson. Not only was this years before he became an actor; he had not yet even won the Heisman Trophy. (It is likely that he and the other attendees had responded to an open casting call for black men.)
- The Invisible Man (1958) has the title character uncredited, despite being The Hero, so no one would know what Dr. Peter Brady actually looked like.
- Lost: Starting with the second season, François Chau made multiple guest appearances, even becoming a recurring character in the fifth season, but went uncredited until the Grand Finale.
- Obi-Wan Kenobi: Liam Neeson made an uncredited appearance at the end of Part VI as Qui-Gon Jinn's Force ghost.
- Person of Interest:
- In "Root Cause", Root is played by an uncredited Rachel Miner.
- Actors Not Named in Opening Credits generally go completely uncredited. Examples include Enrico Colantoni and David Valcin in "Risk", Amy Acker in "Booked Solid", and Sarah Shahi and John Nolan in "MIA".
- In Phenom William Devane wanted first or at worst second billing credit but the producers didn't want to distract audiences from Juidth Light (this being her first show after Who's the Boss?), so he said he'd rather not be credited at all rather than being credited only at the end.
- Power Rangers: For the first few seasons, the end credits were rarely changed mid-season. This led to actors being credited in episodes they didn't appear in (sometimes many episodes before their characters even debuted), but it also meant that the vast majority of guest actors went totally uncredited, and to this day, we don't know the identities of dozens of actors who played one-off parts in 90s episodes. This still applies with the stunt actors and especially the suit performers, who have never been credited outright, though their identities are usually known.
- The Non-Singing Voice roles in both works of Rick Siggelkow's that utilize them (The Noddy Shop and the American dub of Tweenies) aren't credited at all. note
- The West Wing: John Goodman appears in four episodes but was only credited for his final appearance in "The Stormy Present".
- American Top 40 and its successor Casey's Top 40 almost never credited the people behind the music and jingles made for the shows themselves (as was normal on radio countdown shows) until the last two years of the latter's run, when longtime contributors JAM Creative Productions
would get a shoutout in the credits. They went back to simply not mentioning the team behind them when AT40 was revived in 1998.
- Avicii songs never credit the featured vocalist.
- After John Barry's score for First Love was almost completely dropped from the movie, he took his name off the credits. La-La Land Records released it on CD in 2013.
- Garth Brooks:
- Trisha Yearwood's "Like We Never Had a Broken Heart" credited the backing vocals provided by Brooks (this was before they were married), but only on the Canadian charts.
- Brooks was also uncredited for singing the second verse of Chris LeDoux's "Whatcha Gonna Do with a Cowboy".
- Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman of The Byrds re-recorded "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" in 1989 with backing from the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, although the single release credited only McGuinn and Hillman.
- Tracy Byrd's 2003 hit "The Truth About Men" does not credit the guest vocals from Blake Shelton, Montgomery Gentry, and Andy Griggs.
- Subverted with "Shiftwork" by Kenny Chesney and George Strait. Strait was originally not credited for his solo singing on the second verse, but this changed halfway through the song's chart run when the two artists' labels were able to strike a deal.
- Eric Clapton played an uncredited guitar solo on The Beatles' "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". To return the favour, George Harrison made an uncredited guest appearance on Cream's song "Badge".
- Numerous artists have ghostwritten lyrics for Dr. Dre, including Snoop Dogg, Eminem and Kendrick Lamar.
- Janie Fricke sang the entire second verse of "Thinkin' of a Rendezvous" by Johnny Duncan, but was not credited for it.
- The Ghost Town DJs, the One-Book Author known for the hit "My Boo", officially consisted of session musicians Virgo, Greg Street, Rodney Terry, and DJ Demp. However, by all accounts the song's creative and production expertise came from non other than Lil Jon, who couldn't be credited as part of the group because he was also So So Def's A&R Director at the time, which relegated him to an Executive Producer credit.
- hinayukki has produced several songs that only credits one Vocaloid voicebank, even when there's another voicebank singing the harmony. For example, "Chiri Yuku Mono" and "Floriography" only credits Meiko as the singer, even though there's clearly another voice accompanying her in the chorus; likewise, Kaito's "Kamikaze Matsuri" and "Tabi no hate" both feature some obvious female accompaniment, but doesn't list any other voicebanks.
- Mick Jagger sang uncredited backing vocals on Carly Simon's Signature Song "You're So Vain". The song was rumoured to be about Jagger himself (although Simon herself denied this).
- Kesha's first appearance on a Billboard Top 40 pop hit was singing backing vocals on the chorus of "Right Round" by Flo Rida, which she was initially uncredited for. This was probably done for the same reasons she opted not to be in the video — she wanted to be known for her own music, not a guest appearance on a song by someone else.
- Most pre-2009 Kidz Bop albums didn't credit the vocalists.
- Many soundalike covers from labels like Madacy Entertainment, Drew's Famous Entertainment or Pickwick Records will often list the musicians by a collective name, but very rarely who the members actually are, if they bother to do it at all.
- Reba McEntire:
- "Every Other Weekend" was recorded as a duet with Kenny Chesney, but the official single edit replaced him with co-writer Skip Ewing due to a label disagreement. Despite this, nearly all stations played the Chesney version anyway, and the song was credited only to Reba on the charts.
- Her 1995 cover of "On My Own" was a Massive Multiplayer Crossover featuring Martina McBride, Trisha Yearwood, and Linda Davis, but only McEntire received credit.
- Nas was a ghostwriter for several artists, including Will Smith.
- As the Nine Inch Nails short film Broken lacks credits, most of the cast (aside from the band in "Wish", and frontman Trent Reznor and S&M performance artist Bob Flanagan in "Happiness in Slavery") are completely unknown; this includes the killer and the victim in the wraparound segments.
- Frank Ocean's "Pink + White" has Beyoncé singing backup vocals uncredited.
- K.T. Oslin sang the last verse of Alabama's "Face to Face", but received no credit for it whatsoever.
- Lee Roy Parnell's 1994 cover of "Take These Chains from My Heart" did not credit the duet vocals from Ronnie Dunn, who sang the second and third verses.
- Run–D.M.C. contributed ghostwritten lyrics to Beastie Boys debut album Licensed to Ill.
- Caitlyn Smith sang backing vocals on Kenny Chesney's "All the Pretty Girls", but not even the liner notes credit her for this.
- Sons of the Desert sang a call and response on Ty Herndon's 1998 hit "It Must Be Love", but were not credited for it; making this all the more egregious is that they were credited for their backing vocals on Lee Ann Womack's "I Hope You Dance" only two years later. This may be due to Sons of the Desert being in the middle of a dispute with Epic Records during the release of "It Must Be Love" (Herndon was also on Epic at the time), whereas by the release of "I Hope You Dance", both they and Lee Ann were on MCA Records.
- Bluegrass musician Ralph Stanley was not credited for singing the second verse of "Me and God" by Josh Turner. Also uncredited on this song are the background vocals from Marty Roe, Gene Johnson, and Dana Williams of Diamond Rio. Zig-zagged in that a Turner-only version of the song also exists.
- Cole Swindell's 2017 hit "Flatliner" does not credit Dierks Bentley, who sings the second verse and has banter with Cole before the last chorus.
- UNKLE's 1998 song "Chaos" was co-written by Mark Hollis, who also played piano on the track. Hollis was left uncredited at his own request. The piano part was one of the few commercial music performances he did following his retirement from the music industry, and one of the last ones prior to his death in 2019.
- Jack White performed uncredited backing vocals on Electric Six's song "Danger! High Voltage!" Just to mess with people, the band would maintain in interviews that it was a contest-winning fan who just happened to sound a lot like Jack White.
- Most gacha games with many artists involved will list whoever drew the playable characters' illustrations and who voiced them (usually in the character's profile menu), but it's very common for artists and voice actors behind side-characters and enemies being left uncredited. A lot of gacha games don't have a Closing Credits sequence, and even when they have one, these will list the artists/voice actors but not which characters they were involved with.
- Due an incident involving perceived censorship, Akiba's Beat doesn't credit one of the localizers, who requested his name be removed from it. The supposed censorship issue was merely miscommunication and ignorance of the subject at hand from the Japanese side of things.
- ANNO: Mutationem: With the exception of Suzie Yeung and Lizzie Freeman (who voice Ann Flores and Ayane Misuno respectively), none of the other voice actors are credited in the Credits Roll.
- Arcaea normally has some sort of chart designer credit for each combination of song and difficulty. Sometimes the chart credit is something specific to the song without giving any sort of hint to the charter's identity. However the charts for "Solitary Dream" do not have any sort of credit whatsoever.
- Atari initially did not provide their programmers and designers, for fear of their being lured away by competitors. The game Adventure contains a hidden room which features a secret message crediting the game's developer, Warren Robinett. This was one of the first Easter Eggs. This reason is also why Activision was formed- so they could credit the developers of their games.
- Neither the English nor the Japanese version of Beast Wars: Transformers credited the characters' voice actors, who weren't even the same voice actors in the Beast Wars cartoon.
- BEMANI:
- In late 2017, multiple original songs for the BEMANI series starting being credited to "BEMANI Sound Team" rather than the actual contributing artist. At least "GERBERA"
had its actual artist, TAG, initially credited before being replaced with the BST credit, but the arranger for "Dance to Blue"
and the composer for "Mychronicle"
weren't as lucky. A compromise would be later reached, with the affected songs now showing "BEMANI Sound Team "(artist)"" as the credit.
- In early 2018, visual artists for the series started to undergo the same treatment, with beatmania IIDX videos and overlays in particular simply crediting "BEMANI Designers". A similar compromise would eventually be reached in early 2019: "BEMANI Designers "(visual artist)""
- In late 2017, multiple original songs for the BEMANI series starting being credited to "BEMANI Sound Team" rather than the actual contributing artist. At least "GERBERA"
- ClayFighter: It is unknown until today who made the voices for characters of the first two games. Even though the voice actor lists appear in both
games
in IMDb, who-made-who is a mystery until now.
- Cooking Companions: Bread's voice actor is unknown, only listed as "Deer Dream Studios Staff".
- Dance Central: For some reason, the voice actor for Glitch has never been named in any of the game credits or on any website cast lists.
- None of the English voice actors of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness were credited for their voice work in the game itself.
- Fire Emblem Heroes:
- Voices who are uncredited for legal reasons (ex. Laura Bailey as the base version of Lucina and Antony Del Rio as Silas) are "credited" as "—".
- Tara Platt and Ai Kakuma as the Flame Emperor and Patrick Seitz and Atsushi Imaruoka as the Death Knight are uncredited for plot reasons (their secret identities constitute major plot twists in their game of origin), and are credited as "???".
- Many soundtracks for Konami games simply credit "Konami Kukeiha Club" instead of specfic composers or arrangers.
- The characters of League of Legends have no official listing of voice actors, with many English voice actors not publicly disclosing their involvement and fansites such as Wikia/Fandom and This Very Wiki being mostly informed guesswork. The most common explanations for this range from union voice actors not wanting to disclose their involvement in a non-union game (itself due in part to being a live-service game that can hire actors to re-record lines) to stigma surrounding video game voice acting. This has led to speculations such as Zac being voiced by Patrick Warburton, which was confirmed to not be the case by a Rioter
who was present at the recording.
- Mass Effect 3 replaced Wreav's original voice actor, Jim Cummings with an uncredited voice, revealed years later via Word of God as Roger L. Jackson.
- In NieR: Automata, the English voice of Commander White was uncredited on release. She turned out to be voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey.
- For reasons unknown, the voice actors for the Playa in Saints Row were uncredited. The Caucasian and Asian voice was done by Andrew Kishino (who also voices Donnie), while the African-American voice was by Kenn Michael (the man behind Male Voice 2 in Saints Row 2 and onward). The Hispanic voice, however, is harder to pinpoint.
- SEVEN's CODE does not credit the arrangers for the classical music remixes, only the original composers.
- Michael Jackson contributed to the soundtrack of Sonic the Hedgehog 3, but was dissatisfied with the sound capabilities of the Sega Genesis and dropped out of the project. Then Jackson's child molestation accusations came to light, so Sega dropped his name from the credits to distance themselves from the controversy. What remnants of his contributions in the final product are disputed, however, it is thought that he at the very least, composed the miniboss theme, the melody for Carnival Night Zone and the end credits theme.
- Certain union voice actors in the Super Smash Bros. cast are uncredited due to the game being a non-union dub. Examples include Laura Bailey as Lucina (who was also uncredited in Fire Emblem: Awakening), Antony Del Rio as Pit, and Hynden Walch as Viridi (both from Kid Icarus: Uprising). Other union actors were voice-matched, including Viridi in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, likely for similar reasons.
- Most anything developed by TOSE, who prefers to remain anonymous.
- Twisted Wonderland voice actors are not credited in-game, but are credited in official literature.
- Justin Villiers, Will Byles and Pete Samuels developed the story for Until Dawn, but were not credited.
- The G-OLM in Virtue's Last Reward's dub not only remained uncredited, but nobody knew who he was. Even the people who worked on the voice acting had no idea who the voice is from, with it only later being revealed that he was voiced by Dave B. Mitchell (Tenmyouji's VA).
- Not crediting the dev teams was also a standard practice at Williams Electronics for fear of them being poached by competitors. The staffs were instead (mostly) credited on the high score screens as an Easter Egg. Several staff members were not identified until the 1990s.
In General:
- Due to union rules at the time, this happened a lot when it came to overseas animators during the 1980s. Some shows, usually those by Sunbow Entertainment and Ruby-Spears, don't even credit any overseas studios.
Actors:
- Paul Lynde wasn't listed as a voice actor for his roles on The Perils of Penelope Pitstop (as The Hooded Claw) and The Cattanooga Cats (as Mildew Wolf in the It's The Wolf! segment).
Studios:
- DiC Entertainment: The Real Ghostbusters was particularly odd about this, with the first three seasons lacking specific episode credits utilizing only one generic staff listing throughout* . While the later seasons and the Slimer! spinoff actually list the studios used. Similar cases also happened in DiC's other shows from that era, most notably Kidd Video (Season 1 crediting Cuckoo's Nest Studio, while Season 2 only listed the studios used for animation shooting — Studio Wood, Takahashi Production and Wako Production), Inspector Gadget (Seasons 1 and 2 having their own dedicated staff rolls, but no episode specific credits, and no credit at all for Toei during Season 1) and M.A.S.K. (with Ashi Productions and Studio World listed for Season 2, but no animator credits for Season 1). Some of their 90s efforts such as Extreme Dinosaurs, Stunt Dawgs and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog list the studios involved, but not for any specific episodes. In a more general sense, most of DiC's late 80s output just outright failed to credit any overseas companies altogether.
- Dan Gordon was dismissed from Famous Studios shortly after its inception; his name was removed from the completed cartoons he directed such as "No Mutton Fer Nuttin'".
- Fred Wolf Films was notoriously bad about crediting overseas animation studios; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) only did it for the first two seasons (Toei and A-1 Productions, respectively) and Seasons 7-10 (Dai Won and Morning Sun), leaving who animated Seasons 3-6 (and specifically, which studios animated which specific episodes) a mystery outside of the episodes shipped to their Ireland branch. James Bond Jr., Barnyard Commandos and Toxic Crusaders never listed any studio in the end credits. The New Adventures of Speed Racer goes a step further and leaves out the voice cast as well.
- Depending on the country the shows air in, some Mondo TV series will not list that the animation was done in North Korea by SEK Studio. The voice cast is also left out in several Mondo TV original shows from the 1990s and 2000s.
- Upon the release of Green Eggs and Ham (2019) (itself an example, listing only the studios involved with the series), Andrew Dickman
spoke up about Warner Bros. not only pulling this trope, but also making animators become outright unpersons.
Shows:
- The Australian cartoon Bluey only credited the characters voiced by adult actors, with the characters voiced by children going uncredited due to privacy concerns. This means that Bandit and Chilli (AKA Dad and Mum)'s actors were credited, but not Bluey or Bingo's voice actresses.
- Ed Love, an animator at Hanna-Barbera at the time, animated some Wing Dings segments of Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines but his name appears nowhere in the credits.
- Kathy Griffin never received screen credit for voicing Alice in the animated adaptation of Dilbert. This was due to Griffin also starring in Suddenly Susan at the same time, as her contract with NBC prohibited her from receiving screen credit on shows airing on other networks ("Dilbert" aired on UPN).
- Family Guy: Lacey Chabert went uncredited when she voiced Meg during the first production season, before she was replaced by Mila Kunis. She finally received credit in "Back to the Pilot" and "Yug Ylimaf".
- G.I. Joe: Resolute does not credit Snake-Eyes' voice actor for the flashback depicting the assassination of the Hard Master and the gunshot wound that made Snake-Eyes unable to speak.
- Invincible: When the show premiered, it was not known who provided the voice of Todd, as the credits fall under Now Which One Was That Voice? before Chris Diamantopoulos was credited.
- King of the Hill: Stephen Root was not credited for the first few seasons, due to his role on NewsRadio.
- Looney Tunes:
- Until 1944, Mel Blanc received no onscreen credit for his voice work. He only was given a credit after asking for a raise. His bosses refused to give him one, but instead begrudgingly agreed to give him a voice work credit for all future Looney Tunes productions, making him one of the first voice actors to escape this trope. The first actor other than Blanc to receive screen credit was Stan Freberg in 1957's The Three Little Bops.
- Directors typically went uncredited on cartoons completed or released after leaving Warner Bros.
- Tex Avery didn't receive credit on his last four cartoons, All This and Rabbit Stew, The Cagey Canary, Aloha Hooey and Crazy Cruise; the latter three were completed by Bob Clampett.
- Clampett would later got this treatment on The Big Snooze and Bacall to Arms, the latter being completed by Art Davis (who was also uncredited).
- Friz Freleng went uncredited as director on Hollywood Daffy. Allegedly, Freleng was briefly suspended over a pay dispute, leaving his layout artist Hawley Pratt to pick up the slack.
- Frank Tashlin quit the studio in 1944, meaning that the remainder of the shorts he directed, such as Nasty Quacks or Hare Remover, had him uncredited. The latter was finished by Robert McKimson, who also went uncredited.
- Everyone involved with Dough for the Do-Do (a shot-for-shot colour remake of Porky in Wackyland, with a wholly different team working on it) went uncredited, with the only exceptions being Mel Blanc and Carl Stalling, both of whom were involved in the production of the original. This was because Friz Freleng himself felt that he didn't deviate from the original enough to warrant a credit, and since Clampett had long since left the studio, they couldn't credit him either.
- All shorts that were given Blue Ribbon reissues before 1956 (encompassing re-releases of all the pre-1948 shors, and well as five post-1948 shortsnote ) scrapped the original titles, including the credits, meaning none of the crew would be credited in re-releases of those cartoons.
- On Filmation's The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle, studio heads Norm Prescott and Lou Schiemer voiced Theodore Bear (in the Quacula episodes) and Mighty Mouse respectively but neither are credited.
- During the time when Face was the main mascot of Nick Jr., there were dubs of his bumpers made for the Australian market, but the voice actor dubbing his lines is unknown.note
- The 1963 animated short Noddy Goes To Toyland by Arthur Humberstone never credited the voice actors. It wasn't until late 2021, when it was revealed that Bernard Cribbins and Kathryn Beaumont (best known as the voice of Alice and Wendy) were the main voice actors for the short.
- The Simpsons: Matt Groening had his name removed from the episode "A Star Is Burns" due to viewing the episode as a half-hour commercial for The Critic, leading to a well-publicized spat with producer James L. Brooks (who had fought to bring The Critic to Fox).
- Star Wars Rebels:
- The VA of Mysterious Informant "Fulcrum" from the first season went uncredited for all of their voice-only appearances before The Reveal in season finale "Fire Across the Galaxy" that Fulcrum was Ahsoka Tano from The Clone Wars, voiced by Ashley Eckstein.
- In a combination of this trope, Character as Himself and Descended Creator, Robot Buddy Chopper, credited "As Himself" throughout the series, was revealed in the series finale to have been voiced by series creator Dave Filoni the entire time.
- The Transformers did this with its animation teams to the point where one episode, "Call of the Primitives", was the subject of a longtime rumor over who animated it. It wouldn't be until 2020 when the answer finally came out — it was series regulars Toei Animation (as was half of Season 3).
- Ron Clements did story work on Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore, but demanded that his name be removed from the credits due to his outrage at Disney for outsourcing the animation work to Rick Reinert Productions.