The page is divided into different categories based on the medium (Western Animation, Anime dubbing, etc.) they are best known for.
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Western Animation and Video Games
- Dom DeLuise often played a nice and innocent (or at least, one with a set of morals that means well), bumbling non-human supporting character. Said character was usually a Sickly Neurotic Geek.
- Cheech Marin is known for playing hyperactive, loudmouthed Hispanics. The best examples are Tito in Oliver & Company, Banzai in The Lion King (1994), and Ramone in Cars. Most of his roles are reminiscent of his character in Cheech & Chong.
- Jennifer Hale plays mostly Action Girls in video games, such as Junko Zane from Freelancer, Silver Sable in Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the female version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect and of Jaden Korr from Jedi Academy, Bastila in Knights of the Old Republic, Prier in La Pucelle, Sheena in Tales of Symphonia, the Scarlet Witch in X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse, and Alexandra Roivas from Eternal Darkness. An exception would be Xel'otath, the Ancient from this same game, or Fall-From-Grace from Planescape: Torment (though Fall-From-Grace is still a intelligent and capable woman). She's also Samus. Oh, and both June the bounty hunter and Avatar Kyoshi from Avatar.
- Hale also voiced the Julia Carpenter Spider-Woman in Iron Man: The Animated Series, Black Cat in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Zatanna in Justice League Unlimited, Ms. Marvel in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, etc.
- She was also Mallory from Mighty Ducks: The Animated Series cartoon.
- And Jessie Bannon in the second season of Jonny Quest: The Real Adventures. Yeah, Action Girl is pretty much her schtick.
- Some notable exceptions include Ms. Keane in The Powerpuff Girls (1998)note , and Disney's current voice of Cinderella.
- Played to type in P.N.03 with the main character Vanessa Z. Schneider and flipped with the client who is a clone of the main character.
- She is also apparently the only person allowed to voice Killer Frost.
- Naomi Hunter and Emma Emmerich are fairly different from the action girl pigeonhole. Ironically the former was one of her earlier famous roles.
- John DiMaggio pretty much just has the one voice, that comes with a pitch dial with three settings on it: Marcus, Drakken, and Bender. These three pitches usually get used for similar characters: the badass, the incompetent villain, and the laid-back hedonistic guy, respectively.
- Peter Cullen, who is most remembered as the voice of Optimus Prime in the first animated series, is so strongly associated with the role, fans actually successfully petitioned for him to reprise the role in the 2007 live-action movie. It also happens to be one of his two favorite roles, the other being Eeyore. He's also done work in other series, such as Voltron, and was the main announcer for Toonami.
- Likewise, Frank Welker (see below for additional roles), as a consolation to fans when a similar petition could not overcome the awesome that was Hugo Weaving's voice, reprised the role of Megatron for the movie's video-game incarnations. He's also the voice actor for Soundwave, another character he voiced in the original animated series, in the sequel.
- Patrick Warburton's another American example. His deep, burly voice means that he makes the perfect voice for a muscle-bound type, many of whom are quite moronic. In an unusual twist, Warburton is also able to play these types in live-action as well (see The Tick (2001), for example), since he is tall, fit, and quite muscular. See him as Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove, Brock Sampson on The Venture Bros., Mr. Steve Barkin on Kim Possible, or Joe on Family Guy.
- It was fans of the original TV series who decided he should play Hymie in the Get Smart movie.
- Mark Hamill, in contrast to his live-action typecasting as ingenue heroes like Luke Skywalker and "Maverick" Blair, has been typecast in animation as a player of deranged villains like the Joker, whom he portrayed masterfully in Batman: The Animated Series to the point that he is considered by many to be the definitive voice of the character. Getting him to reprise the role in the Batman: Arkham Series of games probably sold more than a few copies on its own. In one interview, he jokingly remarked that he wanted to be on more shows like Hello Kitty or Strawberry Shortcake, but always gets cast as "creepy villains or old degenerates".
- He also voiced Muska, the power-mad government agent, in the English dub of Castle in the Sky.
- Other roles includes such Big Bads as the Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go, Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle.
- Don't forget Solomon Grundy and the Trickster in Justice League (he was actually reprising the Trickster from the live-action series The Flash), and Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, and a ton of other stuff.
- Also Mr. Selatcia in Metalocalypse.
- He was also Majima in the original PS2 American release of Yakuza.
- Hamill also voiced the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and Maximus the Mad in Fantastic Four: The Animated Series.
- Played the deranged mad scientist Klaw in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, but he at least got to do a German accent.
- Averted somewhat with one of his roles in Metalocalypse, Jean-Pierre, a chef sewn back together wrong.
- Converted into a live-action pigeonholing in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, where he played the super-villain Cock-Knocker.
- This may now be somewhat self-afflicted; judging by his cameo as himself playing Luke Skywalker in the Robot Chicken Star Wars special, years of playing raspy-voiced villains (plus natural aging) have made his voice permanently rough and sandpapery.
- Skips in Regular Show.
- Master Eraqus from Kingdom Hearts, anyone?
- Pyro, the psychotic leader of the Elemental Masks in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex.
- His performance as The Watcher in Darksiders was just a rehash of his Joker voice.
- The late Kevin Conroy will always be known as the definitive voice of Batman, similarly to Mark Hamill's Joker (and coming from the same show). He never complained. Then again, who wouldn't want to be instantly recognized as The Goddamn Batman?note
- Hans Conried usually plays villains or cranky type roles, with the exception of Lord Duke in Sleeping Beauty, Horton the Elephant in Horton Hears a Who (1970), King Azaz in The Phantom Tollooth, etc.
- Tim Curry usually provides the voice for villains, with the exception of Nigel Thornberry and Gabriel Knight (twice). An example is Ben Ravencroft from Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost . This probably stems from the fact that his most famous role was as Dr. Frank-N-Furter. If said villain gets a Villain Song, expect them to commit another crime by stealing the show.
- Then again, he was Princess Sally's father, King Maximilian in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM).
- Don't forget Pennywise in It!
- Not to mention the Devil himself.
- He also played the villain in a different type of legend.
- Clancy Brown is known for being typecast as evil (or at least amoral) characters with a deep voice. His best-known roles are probably the lovably greedy Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants, Lex Luthor of the DC Animated Universe, and Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender. He, too, can pull this off in live-action, as his performance in The Shawshank Redemption will attest.
- However, he's also voiced good guys such as Captain Black and Captain George Stacy, who are anything but evil or amoral. Averted in a somewhat cool way in Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, in which he voiced Raiden - a role that had been played in The Movie by Christopher Lambert.
- One can argue that he's also been typecast as a "bald guy", including the aforementioned Lex Luthor and Captain Black. Ironically, Clancy Brown isn't even bald in real life.
- Many of Grey DeLisle's characters are notably similar, often being some form of cruel teenager or complete villainess, ranging from the bossy and overbearing (Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) to the sociopathic (Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender) to the flat-out criminally insane (Vicky from The Fairly OddParents!). Even her heroic roles tend to have shades of this, ranging from controlling and rude (Sam Manson from Danny Phantom) to condescending and insenitive (Nalia de'Arnise in Baldur's Gate 2) to simply being easily angered (Kimiko from Xiaolin Showdown). DeLisle herself has pointed this out on a few occasions, remarking in one interview that playing a character like the innocent Wubbzy of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! is far more indicative of her actual real-life personality as "a sweet pollyanna type."
- In Evil Con Carne, Major Doctor Ghastly is somewhat evil but very sweet.
- Of course, in Avatar: The Last Airbender she also plays Roku's wife and Katara and Sokka's mom.
- She does play the bitchy, nymphomaniac party-girl Jeanette and her straight-A counterpart Therese in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines...
- Another subversion, Frankie Foster is pretty nice and sweet, she just has her patience tested by living in the freakshow that is Foster's.
- She played Lor McQuarry in The Weekenders, who started off overbearing and insensitive but was later toned down to simply competitive and rather ditzy.
- A complete aversion comes when she does sweet, kind-hearted could-do-no-wrong Emily Elizabeth in Clifford the Big Red Dog.
- It's safe to say that she has 3 main voice types: the bitchy teenage girl, the sweet/annoying kid, and the strong villainess.
- Averted when she played Penny's Mom in Bolt, whose voice's wholesome, motherly qualities rival those of Laurie Metcalf in Toy Story.
- Frida from El Tigre is a subversion. She may be a delinquent, but she's one of the good guys.
- She voiced Kitty Katswell, who is nice and sweet. She's just angry over at stupid things Dudley would do.
- Voicing the female Bounty Hunter in Star Wars: The Old Republic, this is played completely straight with rude/Dark-side dialogue options. Downplayed if you play Light-side, where, while still killing people for money, becomes a Hitman with a Heart.
- Catwoman from Batman: Arkham City counts on this as well.
- Black Canary in Batman: The Brave and the Bold; she even gets to sing in the Musical Episode
- Keith David usually plays monstrous/alien/conniving characters with a deep voice, such as Goliath from Gargoyles, the title character of Todd McFarlane's Spawn, and The Arbiter from Halo. He also does excellent narration.
- The late Chris Latta had a monopoly on playing slimy subservient villains in 80s cartoons, using pretty much the same screechy voice each time out; G.I. Joe's Cobra Commander, Starscream from Transformers, D'Compose from Inhumanoids, Cravex from Visionaries, and Rasp on Dino-Riders, although the first two are his more famous roles.
- Although partially averted in Transformers; he also played Wheeljack and Sparkplug Witwicky and the heroic Gung Ho in G.I. Joe.
- Six words: Special Vocal Effects by Frank Welker. Pick a monster/alien/animal, and if it doesn't talk comprehensibly, there's a good chance he did it.
- Welker is so completely ubiquitous that in a commentary track for the Batman Beyond DVDs, the sound effects for a dog in one episode were initially attributed to him before the crew remembered that for that episode they used a recording of an actual dog.
- And of course he's the voice of Fred in Scooby-Doo.
- And currently, Scooby-Doo too!
- And Ray Stantz on The Real Ghostbusters.
- And Megatron in Transformers. (And Soundwave. And Frenzy. And Rumble...)
- And Nibbler in Futurama...
- And Boskov in Evil Con Carne...
- And both Buttons and Chicken Boo in Animaniacs...
- And Pegasus in Disney's Hercules... etc, etc, etc...
- And now Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, as seen in Epic Mickey.
- Dee Bradley Baker also frequently does monstrous, non-human voices. Teen Titans (2003) fans will know him as literally any grunting beastie, such as Plasmus, Cinderblock, or Overload (who was voiced by someone else in the one episode in which he actually speaks) as well as Larry. In Avatar: The Last Airbender he voices all of the animals in the show, from a flying lemur to a giant flying bison. Also a
hippie"nomad".- He is a monument to all your sins.
- He's also a semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal of ACTION!
- However, this also extends to non-human characters that can speak, which includes the Gravemind from Halo, Klaus (a goldfish with a human brain) from American Dad!, pretty much every male non-human in W.I.T.C.H. (except Blunk and Thynar; they were both Steve Blum), and Olmec the giant talking animatronic Olmec head on Legends of the Hidden Temple (where he's also the announcer, playing against type). He's also done human roles that vary wildly from the titular character of Viewtiful Joe to Numbuh 4 from Codename: Kids Next Door.
- Don't forget Squilliam Fancyson from Spongebob Squarepants.
- He's also done most of the Omnitrix aliens on Ben 10: Alien Force.
- He was Taz in Space Jam, who is MEANT to have a monstrous, non-human voice. In the same movie, he was also Daffy Duck.
- Currently, he voices the Clone Troopers in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. All of them. However, his attempts at imitating the New Zealand accent of the man that voice/played them and Jango Fett in the prequels make him sound like an adult Numbuh 4.
- Other works that he voices animals/monsters in are Spore and Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and in the latter various minor villains (in the first and third episode he was the villain in the Batman Cold Open and then a small alien and dolphin respectively).
- When you need a deep, resonant black man's voice to say something really important, there's one really obvious go-to guy: James Earl Jones.
- In a Star Wars special on E!, a comedian said that when watching Return of the Jedi, he got shocked that Darth Vader, that seemed to be a huge black man with that armor and voice, was actually white.
- And if James Earl Jones isn't available, there's always Keith David. He even replaced Jones as Mufasa in House of Mouse.
- Or Michael Clarke Duncan.
- Or Dennis Haysbert.
- Or Laurence Fishburne.
- Or Kevin Michael Richardson! Who actually replaced Keith David as the voice of Tombstone in The Spectacular Spider-Man after the first episode.
- Or Beau Billingslea.
- Are you sure Keith David isn't interested?
- As noted above, some voice actors get stuck in roles similar to their live-action personas. Three examples:
- The late Phil Harris played essentially the same role in Disney's The Jungle Book (1967), The Aristocats, and Robin Hood (1973). Walt Disney picked him for Baloo after watching him singing live — his live acts very much depended on his on-camera personality.
- The same can be said about the late Eva Gabor, who co-starred with Harris in The Aristocats and went on to play a similar role in The Rescuers.
- A more recent example: Gilbert Gottfried the parrot.
- Kevin Michael Richardson usually voices really really big guys, usually in a fantasy or sci-fi setting, and often with a hint of the Scary Black Man. Examples include Sarevok of Baldur's Gate, most of the villains of Viewtiful Joe, Captain Gantu from Lilo & Stitch, and many different characters in Samurai Jack. However, he played that great salvation of every voice actor, the Joker, in The Batman, and also did a fair showing as snarky Old Master Jolee Bindo in Knights of the Old Republic.
- Lobo from Lobo (Webseries).
- Trigon in Teen Titans (2003) and the lion-turtle in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
- Also Chairman Drek in Ratchet & Clank and Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
- Then again, he was also Antauri from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go which is definitely a change of pace from his usual characters.
- And now he's Panthro.
- Kath Soucie pretty much has 3 types of roles she plays: The typical Mother (and a hot one at that), the cute girl, and the bratty little boy. She can voice a whole family if she wants, in fact, she DID in Rugrats, playing twin brother and sister Phil and Lil as well as their mother, Betty. Nonetheless, it's still not hard to tell all three are done by her.
- This is averted on Gargoyles where Greg Weisman said that she voices over 100 characters. All of the main ones she did are completely different from one another.
- Don't forget Amanda Evert from Tomb Raider Legend or Marjolaine (using a fake French accent) from Dragon Age: Origins, both of which are slight aversions to her usual character types.
- Jim Cummings (1952) is easily recognized as the deep voice on virtually every Disney production since the 1980s. He voiced Pete from Goof Troop, Negaduck and the titular character from Darkwing Duck, Rasoul the guard from Aladdin, the centaur Nessus and the Fat Thebian from Hercules, and is the voice of both Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.
- His portrayal of Robotnik in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) sounded like he enacted his name on everything he said.
- Debatable, since - as some of the above examples show - Jim Cummings is used for high, wacky voices (Darkwing Duck, Professor Nimnul) just as often as he is used for deep, gravelly ones. He does seem to be Disney's go-to voice for Generic Foreigner, Generic Guard, and Generic Foreigner Guard, though.
- Outside of Disney, however, Cummings is renown for a wide range of voices, shown in such variable characters as enthusiastic Boisterous Bruiser Minsc from the Baldur's Gate series to snobbish Dimension Lord Thrakkorzog on The Tick. He is used very often in DreamWorks Animation's films, usually as extras or a minor scripted character.
- What Disney film is Cummings not in? Seriously... He does tons of background voices, and he's also Ray and Ed. Disney's got Cummings on Speed Dial.
- At at a panel at ConnectiCon 2013, Cummings actually made a comment/joke that yes, he is basically on Disney's speed dial. And they happen to have a habit of calling him at 3 in the morning.
- See also the Terror Mask in the new Splatterhouse, which combines his recognizable deep voice with a healthy dose of profane expletives.
- Wanna see how versatile his voice is? Look no further than his role as the Master in Fallout, for which he provided three of its four voices: it's "normal" voice, a computer-ish sounding voice, and his well-known villainous voice.
- Not the 1980s yet, and you need a deep voice? Thurl Ravenscroft. It's a toss-up whether he's best known for supplying the voice of Kellogs' Tony the Tiger for decades, or from one song: "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch". He and his group the Mellomen also did a lot of the choral singing in Disney cartoons (and rides ... if you've ever thought the bass in "Grim Grinning Ghosts", the song at the end of Disney's Haunted Mansion ride, sounds a lot like Tony the Tiger, you now know why).
- An example crossed with I Am Not Spock: Yeardley Smith, who plays Lisa on The Simpsons, has an instantly recognisable voice, which is why whenever she plays another character on The Simpsons (making her one of the few actors on the series who doesn't) it gets lampshaded (cf. "Missionary Impossible," when Homer befriends an Islander girl who looks and sounds like Lisa, and "The Last Tap Dance In Springfield," when Lisa watches that Spanish dancing movie and the girl Eduardo picks is a Hot Librarian named Lisabella). She also voiced one of the telekinetic kids in the remastered version of AKIRA. It's impossible to escape the fact that she sounds exactly like Lisa.
- This was referred to briefly in an episode of Herman's Head when her character, Louise, angrily hung up on someone and then demanded to know from her co-workers if she really sounded like "that girl from The Simpsons."
- Oddly, Julie Kavner almost never plays any Simpsons characters besides Marge and her immediate family members (i.e., her twin sisters Patty and Selma, her mom, and her deceased great-aunt Gladys from "Selma's Choice". Marge's father [who only appeared in "The Way We Was" and "Fear of Flying"] was voiced by Hank Azaria), who all have the same gravelly voice at different pitches. It's odd because Kavner's real voice sounds nothing like that and she could easily play different-sounding characters if she chose.
- Rino Romano tends to play suave, sexy Hispanics, such as the inexplicably Mexican Luis Sera, the future man Destructicus Con Carne, or the charming hacker Randy Hernandez on Godzilla: The Series. Of course, he's also The Batman, and did Spider-Man in Spider-Man Unlimited and many video games.
- And now he's Lone Starr in the Animated Adaptation of Spaceballs, who is none of those things.
- If a character is large and slimy, there's a good chance he's Ron Perlman.
- Except for Mr. Lancer
- And Slade isn't especially... large. Or slimy. Unless you mean metaphorically.
- The same could be said for Fire Lord Sozin. And Hellboy (who he voices and plays in live action) who's large, but not slimy. Really the only Perlman voice character that would count as slimy is Clayface.
- I think "slimy" is meant here in the personality sense, not the literal sense. Slade and Sozin are as slimy as you can get.
- Of course, the whole point is that war never changes, right?
- Carrying over from his typecasting in live-action roles, R. Lee Ermey still tends to play Drill Sergeant Nasty characters in animated roles.
- Got a Genki Girl with a sharp, upbeat voice? That's Lara Jill Miller for you.
- Cree Summer tends to end up in the "feisty" roles for black females (Codename: Kids Next Door, Danny Phantom, Rugrats/All Grown Up!). Or the Token Black Friend. Or sometimes females of different colors, such as She-Hulk.
- How is Princess Kida feisty?
- Also Hyena is much more Ax-Crazy than feisty.
- And she ended up lampshading her typecasting in phenomenal fashion on Drawn Together, probably her best voice work ever.
- Though ironically, two of her most famous voice roles, those of Penny on Inspector Gadget and Elmyra on Tiny Toon Adventures, were both white characters.
- She gets to reprise the feisty role as Blackarachnia in Transformers: Animated. And she's black (well, her armour plating is).
- She also did the feisty Cleo in Clifford the Big Red Dog using a voice similar to her Foxxy Love voice. If you watched Drawn Together before watching Clifford, be prepared for Narm. Same for My Life as a Teenage Robot wit Tiff Crust.
- Miss Kittie ends up in the role for "sassy" black females (American Dragon: Jake Long, The Boondocks, BET's Cita's World). She did get to play against type in W.I.T.C.H. as the shy genius girl Taranee.
- Arthur Q. Bryan's roles in Looney Tunes shorts typically sounded like Elmer Fudd, like the title character in "Dangerous Dan McFoo" and the narrator in "Nutty News". In fact, the only time he used his natural voice was as the annoyed, sleep-deprived customer in "A Pest in the House" (who was essentially a caricature of Bryan).
- Some of Mel Blanc's voices, despite his famous title, tend so sound similar.
- When it comes to game voices, look no further than Charles Martinet. Since he's been hired as Mario's voice, he's never really done much else than voicing Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, their baby counterparts, and occasionally someone else. Okay, that's not completely true, he also voiced some completely unrelated characters in other games (just as Star Wars), but the vast majority of his work is Mario and Crew. Not that he seems to mind.
- Mollie Sugden of Are You Being Served? fame plays two very similar characters in the animated film adaption of The BFG and The Princess and the Goblin: Mary the (real) Queen's maid, and Lootie the (totally fictional) Princess' nanny.
- If they're small, nasal, manic, and slightly hammy, there's a good chance Richard Steven Horvitz is involved somewhere. He's been, among others, Daggett Beaver on The Angry Beavers, Billy in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Invader Zim himself.
- He also voices Orthopox 13 from Destroy All Humans!, and Razputin from Psychonauts.
- He was also Alpha 5 on Power Rangers, although since he was credited as "Richard Wood", not many people would know that.
- The late Robin Williams' flavor of choice was over-the-top, wacky and fun-loving characters who frequently do impressions of famous people for comedic effect, such as the Genie in Disney's Aladdin and Fender in Blue Sky's Robots.
- Robin Williams also tended to be cast as Robin Williams in all his voiceover work.
- Given Williams' proclivities, it's probably regarded as a) a waste and b) futile anyway to cast him as the voiceover actor for any character whose description does not include the words "like Robin Williams".
- Try as you might, it's difficult to find characters in the late and great Tony Jay's filmography that weren't menacing, nefarious villains: From Judge Frollo of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Shere Khan in The Jungle Book (1967) sequel as well as House of Mouse and TaleSpin, to ReBoot's Megabyte, to the Lovecraftian reject Elder God from the Legacy of Kain series, and even the beholder Xantam in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.
- Anubis in Gargoyles.
- Also the narrator in the Teen Titans (2003) episode "Transformation".
- Spiderus the tarantula, in Miss Spider's Sunny Patch Friends, was transformed from "standard cranky kiddie-series baddie" to legitimately menacing simply by bringing Jay onboard to play him.
- And then transformed into a character who wasn't scary or menacing at all by making him into a doting, if slightly clueless, father.
- A comedic example is Chairface Chippendale on The Tick.
- An exception for Jay was Virgil on Mighty Max, a (literally) owlish, doddering professor type who was the hero's Mentor Mascot.
- As was Dr. Lipschitz on Rugrats
- Captain Saladin in King's Quest VI was sort of a half-exception, being a very intimidating but ultimately Reasonable Hero Antagonist. But Jay also played his stereotype straight by also voicing a murderous talking gate in the Underworld.
- Sul-Van, Superman's biological grandfather in Superman: The Animated Series.
- Played with as Death in Darkwing Duck, who is naturally intimidating, but isn't really evil - he's just doing his job of taking souls to the afterlife. Fortunately for the title character, his appearance was just in a nightmare.
- This was subverted for laughs when he voiced Peking Duck in The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat, a bumbling villainous duck who stood no chance in hell of ever beating Felix and who's goal was to steal Felix's Magic Bag. Tony Jay's voice was so ill-fitting and so mismatched, that hearing such a suave and intimidating voice come out of such a complete joke of a character
◊ was easily the most hilarious thing the show ever did.
- Kids In The Hall alumnus Kevin McDonald is now essentially typecast as playing spazzy characters not totally connected to reality — Pleakley from the various Lilo & Stitch things; the spazzier and more "out there" of The Tallest from Invader Zim, and Waffle in Catscratch.
- Splee!
- Also Ivan in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends.
- More recently, Dr. Frog in Fish Hooks.
- How many times has Brian Doyle-Murray voiced a pirate?
- Okay, Corey Burton does play a lot of evil robots, N. Gin, Shockwave, Megatron, and Brainiac being some of the most famous. But he does other stuff, too!
- Technically N. Gin is a cyborg, so that might not qualify as a robot.
- Do computer programs count as robots? Because he did a very convincing impression of David Warner (MCP, Sark) in both TRON 2.0 (the Killer App sequel, as a malicious hacker implied to be Dillinger) and the TRON-based Space Paranoids world in Kingdom Hearts II.
- He does like his David Warner impression. The fact that Shockwave (in both G1 and Animated) bear more than a slight vocal resemblance is no accident.
- He's also Dale from Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, which is definitely different from his robot voices.
- He also seems to be the Christopher Lee replacement as Count Dooku in the series and DiZ/Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
- Speaking of which, Christopher Lee himself has done some voice acting. When he does, he's almost always typecast in the same way he is in live-action — as a super-villainous Magnificent Bastard. Most notable is his role as King Haggard in the animated version of The Last Unicorn. In the German dub of The Last Unicorn, he did his own dubbing, since he speaks German.
- On the other hand, he also played Ansem/DiZ in Kingdom Hearts II, who may have been a magnificent bastard in the past, but is definitely not in the game itself.
- On the other hand, he's also done the voice of Death in the few animated Discworld productions there've been, and Death is anything but a Magnificent Bastard.
- He doesn't have to be, he's just gotta wait. Actually, that might not be a bad strategy for Christopher Lee, either...
- Sony Online Entertainment went straight to Lee and asked him to Lucan D'Lere, the immortal tyrant who rules over the evil city of Freeport when they created EverQuest II. His voice is well deserved and fitting for the character.
- Need someone to voice a calm, intellectual character, like Egon Spengler or The Brain? Maurice LaMarche is the man for the job. Any Orson Welles pastiche as well.
- Though LaMarche is fully capable of other types: For Futurama, he does the voices for hammy robot actor Calculon, Lrrr RULER OF OMICRON PERSEI 8, Ambiguously Evil newscaster Morbo the Annihilator, the aptly named Hedonismbot, and mentally unstable robot mobster Clamps (among others) in addition to the (intellectual, but not always calm; neurotic might be more apt) Kif Kroker.
- Not to mention his first role, Popeye.
- Temuera Morrison has (arguably) gotten the biggest single-character voice-acting deal in history. His roles of note? Jango Fett (Played him in the films and in every single video game featuring him), the Republic's Clone Army (same deal: every film and video game [except Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where the character(s) were voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, and the Star Wars: Clone Wars cartoon, and Republic Commando offered other voices for other squad members]; the clones were cloned from Jango), and Boba Fett('s voice) (yet another Jango clone) in the Star Wars Original Trilogy 2004 DVD re-release, and all subsequent games. The problem? Although he's been getting plenty of work recently, he (literally) plays the exact same character in all of his work. Talk about pigeonholing/typecasting...
- Way too loud little kid, usually male: Pamela Adlon (aka Pamela Segall). She's Bobby on King of the Hill, Andy of Squirrel Boy, Pajama Sam, Otto from Time Squad, Zach from Adventures from the Book of Virtues, and Milo from The Oblongs along with several other supporting roles with that same voice. Also tends to do tomboyish female characters like Moose of Pepper Ann and Spinelli of Recess. Oddly enough, along with Milo she also voiced the Debbies from The Oblongs.
- You can afford a movie star to narrate your movie? Get Morgan Freeman!
- But if you need your narrator to have an exquisite British accent, get Stephen Fry instead. If you can afford it, get both!
- The late Casey Kasem, renowned radio personality and voice actor, is Shaggy. This remains an inescapable fact, to the point of doing a double-take when one watches episodes from the first season of Transformers, in which he voiced at least two of the titular robots. In the 1970s, Hanna-Barbera cast him in various Shaggy expy roles when they produced Scooby-Doo clone shows, and he still used that same voice for them all!
- Not to mention Robin in the original Filmation series of Batman and Super Friends.
- He also voiced Mr. Magoo's nephew Waldo, whom DFE reworked into yet another Shaggy expy, on What's New, Mr. Magoo? in 1977.
- If you need someone to voice an annoying character, you call up Wallace Shawn.
- If you want full balls-to-the-wall over the top annoying, you get Gilbert Gottfried instead. Shawn is kind of Gottfried Lite.
- Eddie Deezen is Eddie Deezen. No exceptions. You need a know-it-all or a nerd? We got your Mandark right here.
- When you say the word "Moe", Hynden Walch will immediately pop into your head. Compare Starfire, Penny, Nia, Talim, and Yuu-chan. WALCH-CHAN, WHY SO MOE~!?
- This is averted when she plays Madame Rouge, and has a convincing accent which makes her even more attractive.
- Even better example of Playing Against Type: Breach. Ay up.
- Meanwhile, in Kid Icarus: Uprising, we have Viridi, who, while still cute in appearance, is a Jerkass goddess of nature Psychopathic Manchild who thinks Humans Are Bastards. Quite a stark contrast to the personality of the other moe characters.
- Did you know that Nolan North is quite capable of playing characters other than sarcastic, slightly-over-their-head action heroes in cartoons and (especially) video games? He actually has quite a bit of range, but seldom gets to show it. For example, he played Deadpool in various Marvel cartoons and games, and Merasmus the Magician from Team Fortress 2.
- If anything, his casting in Spec Ops: The Line was something of a deconstruction of his typical voice-over roles. In that game, he voices a character that starts out similar to the characters that made him famous, that quickly becomes anything but.
- If Disney needed a chicken sound back in the day, they called British-born actress Florence Gill. Her most famous role was as Clara Cluck in the classic shorts, but she used the same effect for pretty much all chickens. But damn if it wasn't a good chicken impression, and damn if she couldn't make chicken clucks seem as emoted as human speech.
- With her roles now including Cheshire, Karai, and Shiva, it's safe to say that Kelly Hu is now the go-to voice for female Asian assassins.
- Lauren Tom has this trope twice as bad, not only does she voice Asian characters (mostly women and girls), but she's always doing the voice of a character whose best-known trait is being someone's wife or girlfriend. She does this in Max Steel, Futurama, King of the Hill (mother and daughter), Batman Beyond, Codename: Kids Next Door (okay Numbah 3 gets a little bit more credit but still), American Dragon: Jake Long, Samurai Jack, etc. She can't even escape this in her live-action work; she was one of Ross' girlfriends in Friends.
- Carrying over from his typecasting in live-action roles, James Hong often tends to voice old Asian men, usually with a cranky demeanor; whether they be good guys (Mr. Ping) or bad guys (Daolon Wong).
- Sab Shimono also always voices old Asian men, who are often mentors or parental figures to the main protagonist. Notable examples are Jackie Chan's Uncle, Samurai Jack's Father, and Monk Gyatso.
- If a character is voiced by Reuben Langdon, you already know his personality. He'll most likely be a devil may care badass with a bite bigger than his already huge bark. Examples? Ken of Street Fighter fame (starting in IV), Date Masamune of Sengoku Basara, and, most famously, Dante of Devil May Cry 3 and 4.
- Possible justification: Langdon, like Johnny Yong Bosch, started off as a stunt performer and mocap artist — he was the Ink-Suit Actor for Chris Redfield in Resident Evil – Code: Veronica, f'ex. How he ended up voicing Dante from DMC3 onwards is not common knowledge.
- Christine Cavanaugh, while she was still voice acting, seemed to be pigeonholed into voicing little red-haired boys with glasses.
- She was also Bunnie Rabbot in Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM).
- Also Dumpling from the 101 Dalmatians cartoon series.
- Go look up any clips starring Brandon Keener on YouTube and almost invariably, you'll find any number of comments somehow relating Garrus Vakarian to Keener's on-screen role (be it his bit part in He's Just Not That Into You, an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or random commercials) via Memetic Mutation. To his credit, he doesn't seem to mind that he's only known for Garrus... yet.
- Raphael Sbarge has a very distinctive voice and is also best known for voicing Carth Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic. Unfortunately, this has led to Carth's detractors linking nearly every role he's done since then to Carth, even if there's no similarities between them character-wise (see Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect).
- And in live-action roles (Star Trek: Voyager, Cold Case, Burn Notice, Journeyman), he's usually playing someone deeply disturbed and violently psychotic...His role on Once Upon a Time is an exception, but he's in the BioWare-type position of being The Conscience.
- And one of the kings (or at least princes) of this Trope is Robbie Benson. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Prince Valiant, King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow... Guaranteed, he'll be playing some variety of The Wise Prince.
- Averting this trope may be one of the reasons Robert Clotworthy opted to do some work for StarCraft and films like The Emperor's New Groove. If not for that, he'd mostly be known for doing narration on Ancient Aliens and other dubious pseudo-science programs on The History Channel: not exactly a boost to one's credibility.
- Tom Kenny once stated himself, that he usually ends up voicing characters who are "really sweet, but not smart at all." Examples: The Mayor of Townsville, Eduardo, Heffer Wolfe, and, obviously, SpongeBob. He also does a good announcer voice for said shows, such as the Narrator in PPG.
- He's got some range, though. General Peepers holds a lot of the same comical aspects his characters usually exhibit wrapped up in a Hyper-Competent Sidekick. And then there's his Doctor Octopus, the polar opposite of them.
- Roz Ryan is usually typecast as Sassy Black Women, such as Thalia, Bubbie, the driving instructor from Sym-Bionic Titan, and Witch Lezah from The Looney Tunes Show.
- Danny Cooksey is known for voicing mean and violent bullies. Some examples are Montana Max from Tiny Toon Adventures, Stoop Kid from Hey Arnold!, and Hotstreak from Static Shock.
- Gregg Abbey is known for voicing tough, rebellious young heroes. Examples include Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Tristan Taylor in Yu-Gi-Oh!, Rick Wheeler in F-Zero: GP Legend, and Yusei Fudo in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds. He uses the exact same voice for the latter 3.
- Tara Strong tends to voice her characters that are good and sweet ranging from a cheerful child (Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls (1998)) to an understanding adult (Batgirl from The New Batman Adventures) to a hyperactive girl (Rikku from Final Fantasy X). One of her favorite roles is Melody from The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea as she happens to be joyed of siding with Jodi Benson.
- There's also Timmy Turner. He's nice, but sometimes mean.
- At first, Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic is a subversion as she has trouble making friends. It becomes double subverted when she learns on finding friends.
- Averted when she plays as Harley Quinn in Batman: Arkham City.
- Also averted as Doctor Octopus 2099 in Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
- Played with in Drawn Together, where her primary two characters of Toot and Clara generally act cute (or try to) but they are involved in a lot of very adult situations and tend to have Ax-Crazy moments.
- Olivia Olson has voiced characters that are gothic and tricky. Compare Vanessa Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb and Marceline the Vampire Queen in Adventure Time. She also gets to use her singing skills.
- Aaron Spann makes himself known for playing as good boys like Littlefoot, Mike Believe, and Lost Boy Twins.
- Then there's Joshua, who acts as a contrast to his characters.
- Anytime you need a character that is either badass or just plain dorky, call on Cam Clarke. He has done voices in different shows including Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987), He-Man in He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2002), Snoopy in You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown and Snoopy: The Musical, Liquid Snake in Metal Gear Solid, Mac in the 2000 Clifford the Big Red Dog series, Mr. Bogus, etc.
- He's also very adept at playing young boys and teenagers.
- Scott Menville can be found voicing quite a few brash, hot-headed, young boys. He's voiced Spanky from The Little Rascals, Robin from Teen Titans (2003), the Sokka actor from Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Lloyd Irving from Tales of Symphonia.
- Heather Hogan-Watson is known for her Nice Girl roles like Colette Brunel from Tales of Symphonia, Shiki Misaki from The World Ends with You, and Dark Is Not Evil superhero Phantom Girl in Legion of Super-Heroes.
- Julian Sands played as Valmont of Jackie Chan Adventures and DeFalco of Call of Duty: Black Ops II and what do they all have in common? They're villainous white-haired pretty boys who worked as The Dragon for the Big Bad.
- Greg Cipes is known for voicing boys that are either lazy or bad. They were Atlas, Beast Boy, Chiro, Caleb, Kevin Levin, and Michelangelo.
- Speaking of Greg Cipes, the woman he's often paired with, Ashley Johnson, mostly voices teenage girls that are cute and/or tough such as Gretchen Gundler in Recess, Terra from Teen Titans (2003), Jinmay in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Gwen Tennyson in Ben 10: Alien Force.
- Richard Moll usually voiced villains in cartoons and video games. Out of the roles he played, Two-Face from Batman: The Animated Series is a mostly notable one.
- Abomination from The Incredible Hulk (1996) is the second greatest.
- The Drifter from 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd.
- Averted with Norman on Mighty Max, a hulking warrior who's a good guy and guardian to The Hero.
- Kimberly Brooks. She's Ashley Williams, Oracle, Buena Girl, and Shinobu Jacobs. What do they all have in common? They are The Comically Serious characters.
- Lenore Zann is mostly known for her portrayals of spunky Action Girl roles. The most notable role she voiced on that description is Rogue, then there's Wendy Waters, Tigra, and Aisha Clanclan.
- Would Roll.EXE count on that description?
- Or even Sizzle?
- Master Cyclonis.
- As he entered into voice acting after he's known for portraying Fat Bastard Newman in Seinfeld, Wayne Knight makes his mark of voicing characters that are either villainous or just plain jerks. The most notable role is Evil Emperor Zurg, then there's Al McWhiggin, Jack O'Lantern, and Mr. Blik.
- Alanna Ubach mostly voices a Bratty Half-Pint or a Reasonable Authority Figure. Examples are Brenda/Rope Girl and Hector/Skate Lad, Mayor Spryman, Lola Boa, and El Tigre.
- Rob Paulsen tends to do a lot of comedy work, as evidenced by his long list of deadpan snarker type characters, or hilariously eccentric ones. Which seems to work just fine for him because he's excellent at ad-libbing and he's just too damn funny. Also reportedly does a very good Jim Carrey impression - so good that he's even dubbed over Carrey to remove some racier dialogue in TV edited versions of Carrey's films, which makes it even more fitting that he played Carrey's role in the animated version of The Mask.
- With Yami Bakura, Ultimate Ninja, King Dedede, and Giovanni, it's safe to assume that Ted Lewis is mostly known for voicing maniacal villains.
- Karen Neill is mostly known for her voicing as Lady of War and/or Reasonable Authority Figure. Examples includes Ishizu Ishtar, Karai, Nefertari Vivi, and Roxanne.
- Maurice Gosfield may have been the most pigeon-holed voice actor of all time. By the late 1950s, you could count his acting roles on one hand, until he lucked out and got to the role of Doberman on The Phil Silvers Show in an open audition. After that show came to an end, the only role he got for the rest of his life was on Top Cat, playing Benny the Ball - an Expy of Doberman. His whole career basically amounted to one major role and then a parody of said role.
- Jeffrey Combs has a creepy voice that is just perfect for villains, like the Rat King, the Leader, Kite Man and the Scarecrow. When he's not playing villains, he has a tendency to portray intelligent but quirky characters like the Question, Ratchet, and H.P. Hatecraft. Almost all of his characters, either good or evil, have a slightly annoyed or condescending note to their voices as well.
- Gary Owens' distinctive voice was a unique blend of charming, warm-voiced all-American radio announcer and Cloud Cuckoo Lander who could deliver absurd Word-Salad Humor in complete deadpan. Almost all his roles are radio/TV announcers, The Comically Serious, or most likely both.
- If you need a Genki Girl (or guy), then Stacey DePass has it covered. We have Iris, Rob, Benny, and Mags, among others. She also does a lot of snarky, dour, or serious-minded girls, like Nikki Wong, Jenny Jergens, Emma and Crimson, Turret, Aldous, Amy...
- Christian Potenza seems to be Canada's go-to voice actor for Surfer Dudes and other extremely relaxed or easygoing characters. Jude Lizowski and Trevor Troublemeyer are probably the most blatant examples of this, while Chris McLean falls into more of a Faux Affably Evil variation of the character type. Heck, a lot of his other characters are practically Shout Outs to the aforementioned iconic roles, like Zed and the Skaters on Detentionaire, Party Danimal on Grojband, King Neptune on Wishfart...
- Lyon Smith does a lot of characters, but nearly all of them are young males with a confident/prideful attitude and impulsive/reckless (if not outright stupid) behavior. Corey Riffin, Masquerade, Talon, Ed, Dash, Luc, Zane, Tony Jones, Ace Ripley, Zap Monogan, etc. Detentionaire's Irwin Dexter sorta counts too, as he fulfills the first two characteristics, but is much more booksmart than most of Lyon Smith's other roles.
- After becoming famous as Witchiepoo in H.R. Pufnstuf and Weenie the Genie in Lidsville, actress Billie Hayes has made a career out of voicing old ladies and/or witches in cartoons, including Mother Mae-Eye and Mrs. Neederlander.
- Whenever they appear in a David Macaulay work, BRIAN BLESSED is always the master builder, and Derek Jacobi is the one doing the chronicling of the construction process.
- Do you need an excitable young boy? Look no further than Ashleigh Ball, whose roles as Jet Propulsion, Gilbert Troodon, Oopsy Bear, and Jay fulfill this archetype. She also tends to play tomboyish characters like Princesses Hadley and Isla, Plum Pudding, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Skya. However, Blythe Baxter and Mary Test are exceptions, since they are a fashionista and a scientist, respectively.
- Sean Giambrone almost always plays dorky, neurotic nerds. Jeff Randall is by far the most notable example, followed by Ben Pincus.
- Hal Smith was Hanna-Barbera's go-to choice to voice Santa Claus up until his death in 1994. The one exception being Christmas Comes to Pac-Land, in which Santa was voiced by Peter Cullen.
Anime and Japanese Video Game Dubs
- Crispin Freeman, with his gruff and unmistakably badass voice, is mostly cast in roles as an intimidating and/or incredibly badass characters. While he has recently taken on many less intimidating roles in which his voice isn't gruff in the slightest (to the point of doing a convincing Orlando Bloom impression for playing Will Turner in most video games based on or featuring Pirates of the Caribbean), he is most known for such characters as Alucard from Hellsing, Albedo from Xenosaga, Albel from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Itachi from Naruto, Holland from Eureka Seven, Rude from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Regal in Tales of Symphonia, Baldur in Too Human, Overlord Zetta in Makai Kingdom, Heat in Digital Devil Saga, Siegfried in SoulCalibur 3, Red Arrow in Young Justice (2010), and Electro in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
- He's also placed as a normal/straight man in extraordinary circumstances: Kyon in Haruhi Suzumiya, Togusa in the Ghost in the Shell series, and a journalist in Hitman: Blood Money. Also, ironically enough, Zelgadis in Slayers, despite him looking the weirdest, is also often the Only Sane Man.
- Crispin Freeman has also been cast in the "Dark, Quiet, Brooding Goth Guy" role: Haji in Blood+, Amon in Witch Hunter Robin, Karasu from Noein, Alex Rowe from Last Exile, Fuuma from X/1999, Nigredo from Xenosaga, Tsume from Wolf's Rain, round out his dark, brooding, cool guy schtick.
- Bridget Hoffman is often typecast as Yamato Nadeshikos like Belldandy, Chitose Hibiya, Rune Venus, Mizuho Kazami and Kanae Kocho.
- She played a slight inversion of her pigeonhole as covert Psycho Knife Nut Ryoko Asakura.
- Voice actress Monica Rial has accumulated a resume filled with quiet, withdrawn or depressed girls with soft, high-pitched, whispery voices, such as Kirika, Saki, Lila, and Rokugou.
- Her roles as Ai from Crayon Shin-chan, Bulma from Dragon Ball Z Kai and Momoka from Sgt. Frog adds the Rich Bitch Spoiled Brat types to her resume as well.
- Monica also seems to have stalkers and creepy girls to her list as well. (Black Cat, Bamboo Blade, Origin: Spirits of the Past, Hetalia: Axis Powers, Sgt. Frog etc.) She actually alludes to this in DVD commentary for Soul Eater ("For once I'm not playing the insane person.")
- Christopher Sabat is usually cast as more gruff roles like Zoro in One Piece, Giroro in Sgt. Frog, Alex Louis Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, and most notable, Piccolo and Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z.
- Hilary Haag tends to voice a lot of young or young-sounding girls — Becky in Pani Poni Dash!, Milk in Super Milk Chan, Seth in Trinity Blood, Ume in Air Gear, Puchiko in Di Gi Charat, etc.
- Luci Christian tends to do a lot of action girls in dubs. Often as the lead female character of a battle Shōnen series such as Nami from One Piece, Lenalee Lee from D.Gray-Man and Ochako Uraraka from My Hero Academia. She also does young boys, such as Sasshi in Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi or Honey-senpai (well he's not quite young but still kinda in the same category) in Ouran High School Host Club.
- Do you need a voice for a small, cute, sidekick type character? Well look no further than Brina Palencia who's known for doing many Crossdressing Voices like Chaotzu, Chopper, and Tamama.
- She also tends to play emotionless girls like Eve, Yin or Rei Ayanami.
- Leah Clark usually voices either cute valley girls or nerdy young boys. Her valley girls include Blair from Soul Eater and Marron from Dragon Ball Z. Her nerdy young boys include Coby in One Piece and Fuyuki in Sgt. Frog.
- Need your English production to have a good Butt-Monkey? Look no further than Spike Spencer. Two of his more famous roles are Shinji Ikari and Hanataro Yamada. Not to mention Majik from Sorcerer Stabber Orphen, who's got it almost as bad as Hanataro.
- Similarly, Robert McCollum is typecast by Funimation as either a teenage badass (Goten, Baki), dark/brooding/mysterious (Donquixote Doflamingo, Hazuki and Artemis' father), or canonically gay/bi (Yukito, bit parts in Crayon Shin-chan).
- Stephanie Sheh has been typecast rather specifically as "busty, sensitive girl, particularly redheads". No, really. Orihime Inoue, Mikuru Asahina, and Aya Natsume are all her. Also seems to be cast as characters who lack self-confidence such as the Hinata Hyuga (Naruto) and Mercedes (Odin Sphere).
- She does also Genki Girl voices too. Just look at her portrayal as Mika from Killer is Dead: they don't get much Genki-er than her. She also played Yui Hirasawa from K-On!, and Usagi Tsukino in the Viz Media re-dub of Sailor Moon.
- Jessica Boone is known for playing cute girl roles like Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh and Azmaria from Chrono Crusade — enough that she mentions in the audio commentary for D.N.Angel that she was happy to play a character with a "deeper voice" when she played Genki Girl Mio Hio. She also has roles like the Dark Magical Girl Rue/Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu and Tsundere wannabe-Magical Girlfriend Ayumi Mamiya from Magikano.
- Who do you call when you want someone to voice a short or soft-spoken boy? Brianne Siddall's your man (err.. boy. Or girl rather..), who has voiced Tsukasa from .hack//SIGN, Kunikida from Haruhi Suzumiya, Taro from Serial Experiments Lain, Mithos from Tales of Symphonia and Jr. from Xenosaga.
- Chris Patton tends to play "pretty boys" who range from the completely evil to the Troubled, but Cute. They include Creed an effeminate Big Bad, Graham a talkative nut with a J-pop haircut, Greed an anti-villain, Fakir a Jerk with a Heart of Gold male ballet dancer and Sousuke Sagara a former child soldier with No Social Skills.
- He also tends to voice NEETs with No Social Skills such as the likes of Tatsuhiro Sato and Keima Katsuragi.
- If anime or video games need anyone to voice a Hot-Blooded hero, look no further to Johnny Yong Bosch. Compare Ichigo, Vash, Sanada Yukimura, and Firion. And if he's not voicing hot-blooded heroes, it's most likely smooth talking pretty guys like Itsuki, Lelouch, and Izaya. And yeah, this is all done by a black Power Ranger.
- Melissa Davis has quite a habit of voicing badass, Stoic, and Troubled, but Cute characters such as Mai, Kate, Shiina, Lady, and Chizuru.
- And if she isn't, she, oddly enough, voices Genki Girls, instead. They're usually with twists, though, such as Kurumi, Kena, and Skuld.
- Greg Ayres has a distinctive high-pitch voice that is unusual for a man his age and is cast into young boys. Many examples include Kazuto, Negi Springfield, Youhei, Kouta, Yukio, and Ganta Igarashi. In fact, he's one of the few voice actors to avert the Crossdressing Voices trope when it comes to casting voice actors into young boys as young as 8 years old.
- Michelle Ruff voices badass babes or just simply hot babes. Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach, Crimson Viper from Street Fighter IV, Saga in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Katherine McBride in Catherine, Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, Chii from Chobits, Yoko from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, Sinon from Sword Art Online and Miu from DearS.
- Need someone to voice a Hot-Blooded character like Natsu Dragneel or a comic-relief like Keroro then Todd Haberkorn will do so.
- Keith Silverstein would be happen to villains that are stoic or having a calm and calculating personality. Compare Johan Liebert from Monster, HUNK from Resident Evil, Bryan Fury from Street Fighter X Tekken, Full Frontal from Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Villagiulio De Metrio Lu from Lagrange: The Flower of Rin-ne, Hisoka from Hunter × Hunter and Hawk Moth from Miraculous Ladybug.
- Carrie Savage's characters tend to be teenage girls who overlap in the Moe. Compare Satori Azuma, Lisanna, Kiyomi, Shima, Chaos, and Rimi as a few examples.
- She can also play Cute and Psycho characters like Kaede Fuyou and Mika Harima.
- Looking for Action Girls who are also Broken Birds? Try Trina Nishimura. Mikasa Ackermann is a prime example of this.
- Julie Ann Taylor often plays characters that is a Cool Big Sis. Examples include Milly, Ratchet, Ayaka, and Ai.
- Veronica Taylor has found herself in playing Action Girl type of characters. Examples include April O'Neil from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003), Nico Robin from One Piece, Abby from Cubix: Robots for Everyone, and Sheep from WordWorld.
- Also she has a nack for voicing Isekai Goddesses like Venus from The World's Finest Assassin, Gracefeel from The Faraway Paladin, and Goody Godly Goddess from I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level
- If you ever need a grouchy or arrogant male character, it's Steve Staley. His roles include Neji Hyuga of Naruto, Toshiro Hitsugaya in Bleach, Shiki Tohno in Tsukihime, Koji Minamoto from Digimon Frontier, and Kadaj from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
- Karen Strassman voices as a badass or as a Cool Big Sis. Examples are Kallen Kozuki, Nina Fortner, Aigis, and Zhalia Moon.
- Dorothy Elias-Fahn is known for voicing cute girls or tough girls, or even both. Compare Cyborg 003 of Cyborg 009, Meryl Strife in Trigun, Lalamon in Digimon Data Squad, and Konan in Naruto.
- Bryce Papenbrook is pretty much the go to guy for Kid Hero, Nice Guy, or Keet roles. Compare, Masaomi Kida, Zidane, Henry, Kirito, Hanabusa Aidou, Rin Okumura, Makoto Naegi, Asbel and Adrien.
- How about a few Hot-Blooded roles such as the likes of Eren and Inosuke
- According to Kira Buckland, she's often cast into Genki Girls. Kanroji is a prime example of this.
- You can also have her play a snarky girl (who may be shorter than the rest of the cast) such as Alix or Beatrice
- Cristina Vee is often cast into the "sweet girl" characters like Nanoha, Mio and Marinette. Although she also been typecast into girls who are completely broken (i.e. Riven, Noel Vermillion, Homura, and Sakura Matou).
- Need someone to voice a seductive and deadly woman? Hire Laura Post (Rosalia, Arfoire, Valentine, Ahri, Ragyou)
- A good number of Christine Marie Cabanos roles are of the Token Mini-Moe variety. Compare Azunyan, Squid Girl, Nadja and Pisti, Madoka, Nepgear, Marie Rose, and Silica.
- Stephanie Young mostly voices an Emotionless Girl. In fact, she voices Nico Robin from One Piece. Other than that, she's Clare from Claymore, and Olivier Armstrong from Fullmetal Alchemist.
- Patrick Seitz is known for voicing Jerkass characters like Dracula from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Franky from One Piece, Isshin Kurosaki from Bleach, and most of all, Ragna the Bloodedge from BlazBlue.
- Brittney Karbowski's name is often associated with hotheaded/egotistical teenage girls or Tsunderes. Compare Yuri, Misaka, Yoshida, Cecilia, and Rin.
- Also Token Mini-Moe roles as her secondary forte as well. Compare Last Order, Alice, Anko, Noa, Wendy, and Yoshino Hide.
- In the case of Cal Devens, she plays both, starting out as the latter, and becoming the former post-Time Skip.
- Need someone to voice a Megane, The Stoic or both in an anime dub? Then J. Michael Tatum is the guy to do so. His resume includes Kyouya Ohtori, Rei Ryuugazaki and Tenya Iida.
- Shortly after the release of Fire Emblem Engage and her performance as Zephia within, Elizabeth Maxwell posted on Twitter that she came to the realization of just how often she finds herself as the strong, dominating, "punishing" types of female characters after looking back on rolls such as Midnight, Albedo, Sae Nijima, and Winter Schnee
- Michael Sinterniklaas has your typical, fresh, young male hero voice (like Leonardo) which can at times be confused with Yuri Lowenthal's or Vic Mignogna's when in the right tone, and it can be used for utterly snobbish, charismatic, handsome bad guys (Xellos in Slayers: Evolution, replacing the previous actor, or Luppi in Bleach). But he can also go really high-pitched and crazy to portray a pathetic wimp if he needs to (Mikey Simon, Dean Venture). Interestingly, a good portion of his roles are wimps who are on either side of an ironic romantic crush!
- He's also developed a knack for voicing unintelligible creatures too. There's been Punipuni, a dog, in Kurokami, Cozy Heart Penguin in Care Bears & Cousins, and now the majority of the Hemkas, most notably Purple and Orange, in Hanazuki: Full of Treasures.
Multiple Mediums
The voice actors listed here are known for both of the aformentioned categories.
- Yuri Lowenthal is often typecast into Kid Hero roles such as, Ben Tennyson, Simon, Yuri Shibuya and Superboy.
- Also angsty roles that require him to scream from the absolute bottom of his lungs. Sasuke Uchiha, Suzaku, Cecil...
- JB Blanc has made himself known for playing as a minion for the main villain. Compare Namatame and Roberto you get the results.
- Steven Jay Blum (aka David Lucas). From Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop to Roger Smith of The Big O to Mugen of Samurai Champloo, he's the go-to guy for the show's unquestioned badass, even for minor roles. That said, and despite many people's beliefs, he does have a wide vocal range, and this combined with the fact that he's so closely associated with his normal vocal range may result in many people being surprised just what other voicing roles he's done.
- Sandy Fox is typically type casted as a cute, naive, character such as Flonne (Disgaea), Marona (Phantom Brave), or Mieu (Tales of the Abyss).
- More often than not, you'll hear Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in "authoritative female"-type roles, often a Lady of War, such as Major Motoko Kusanagi, Helba, Cornelia li Britannia, Lady Jagura, and Dr. Misha.
- If they have red or brown hair and are either impulsive and violent, or occasionally, levelheaded and extremely powerful, Quinton Flynn has probably voiced them (comic relief is optional): Reno, Kon, Axel, Marcus Damon, Iruka AND Deidara, Timon (the first season of the TV series).
- Mona Marshall falls under this category despite being an excellent voice actress. If you need a young male voice for your show, then seek no further. She's most well known for being Izzy in the first season of Digimon, and has done young male voices in Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit anime, and many others. It's gotten to the point where no one realizes she can do great female characters as well, such as the pilot episode's voice of Penny in Inspector Gadget.
- Tara Platt usually plays stern, serious female roles (and rarely, even teenage or androgynous boys).
- In anime and video games, Dave Wittenberg tends to play a lot of characters that are perverts and/or a Butt-Monkey. Examples include Kakashi, Tink, and Teddie.
- Veteran actress Janice Kawaye has made a living playing sweet, innocent girly-girls, Whether it's Ami from Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi or Yuzu from Bleach. Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot was more rounded because she was the star of the show, but still pretty sweet. The closest "bad girl" she has portrayed was the butt-kicking cat girl in Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo. Or the gang violence episode of Captain Planet when a teacher was shot and Gi nearly drowned the shooter in retaliation! Or possibly Peko Pekoyama from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
- Troy Baker tends to play sarcastic action heroes in video games, most notably Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, Delsin Rowe in inFAMOUS: Second Son, and Samuel Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (also sharing a lot of screentime with Nolan North in that game).
- He is also a go-to voice for Magnificent Bastard Big Bad characters in video games and anime series. Examples include Pagan Min in Far Cry 4; Ganryu, the Big Bad of Bleach: Memories of Nobody; Jin Kariya (also from Bleach); and Schneizel el Britannia. He's also associated with badasses such as Yuri and Kanji.
- Laura Bailey frequently plays RPG major characters who do not participate in combat: Rise is a Persona user but stays behind in Mission Control; Isara is a Squad 7 corporal but is not a controllable unit (and also assumes some Mission Control duties); and Serah is a l'Cie but stays in crystal stasis while everyone else saves the world. The last one, of course, is averted in the sequel.
- She also seems to voice a lot of cute, generally innocent teenage girls (such as Keiko/Kayko Yukimura from YuYu Hakusho, Tohru Honda from Fruits Basket, Marta in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World).
- Liam O'Brien's characters tend to be flatout psychotic and mentally unstable villain, Mad Scientist, or Anti-Hero that sometimes overlap with Evil Sounds Deep territory. Compare Joachim Armster and Issac from Castlevania, Archer from Fate/stay night, Gaara from Naruto, Levin and Raksha from Soul Nomad, Father Balder from Bayonetta, Dr. Clive from Haré+Guu, Dist from Tales of the Abyss, Caius Ballad from Final Fantasy XIII-2, Cumore from Tales of Vesperia, Lloyd from Code Geass, and Count Waltz from Eternal Sonata.
- D.C. Douglas voices characters that overlap with Evil Is Hammy and Evil Sounds Deep. Compare Albert Wesker, Alexei, Voyager, Grimoire Noir, and the Master.
- Melissa Fahn makes herself known for voicing troubled teenage girls that have a good heart. Compare Rika Nonaka of Digimon Tamers, Gaz of Invader Zim, Haruka of Noein, and Luna Platz in Mega Man Star Force.
- Garry Chalk, whose most notable voice work has been as Optimus Prime/Primal in many of the Transformers series, tends to play authoritative, military, or police roles (Such as the Russian Colonel in Stargate SG-1). He has played other roles, however, and his live-action career is somewhat broader.
- Scott McNeil is a good voice actor, but he really has two major voices, exemplified by Duo Maxwell (high-pitched and cocky with a bit of a rasp, usually for younger characters) and Dinobot (Deep, with a lot of growls and/or snarls, perfect for more inhuman ones). His roles usually shift somewhere between the two. (Arguably, he has a third sub-voice, "Piccolo", but that's really Dinobot with more of a rasp than a snarl). To be fair, it's a cool voice.
- Richard Ian Cox is frequently cast as action-oriented, impetuous, somewhat jerky male characters, including the second Ranma Saotome in Ranma ½, the title character of Inuyasha, Quicksilver in X-Men: Evolution, and Bit Cloud in Zoids: New Century.
- Need a high-pitched squeaky voice for your show? Look no further than Stephanie Beard (or, as you may know her as "Sugar" from YTV). She voices Rini in Sailor Moon Ming-Ming in Bakuten Shoot Beyblade, Coco in Pecola, Kirsten in Captain Flamingo, and Creech in Cyberchase. She was also Wish Bear at some point. Basically, if you can't get Tara Strong or Grey DeLisle, she's your go-to girl.
- Brad Swaile is known for playing awkward and/or dorky characters, usually in a form of a teenager. The characters he voiced under this description are Mousse from Ranma ½, Setsuna F. Seiei from Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Nightcrawler from X-Men: Evolution, and Kyosuke Date from Nurse Witch Komugi.
- Kelly Sheridan frequently voices badass babes that are either sweet or angered easily. Compare Ukyo Kuonji from Ranma ½, Sango from Inuyasha, Scarlet Witch from X-Men: Evolution, and Theresa from Class of the Titans.
- The late Kirby Morrow was known for voicing dashing young heroes in anime and western animation. This includes Miroku from Inuyasha, Cyclops from X-Men: Evolution, Trowa Barton in Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Hot Shot in Transformers: Cybertron, and Cole in Ninjago.
- Need another Butt-Monkey example? It's Vincent Tong. Compare Matsuda from Death Note to Toro from Sushi Pack, or even compare Daniel from Voltron Force to Kai from Ninjago.
- Andrea Libman voices Shrinking Violet Fluttershy and Plucky Comic Relief Pinkie Pie from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Cool Big Sis Emmy from Dragon Tales, and Genki Girl Cathy Smith from Monster Buster Club. Only X-23 from X-Men: Evolution doesn't fit in any of her other characters.
- Before retiring from voice acting, Tony Sampson is mostly known for his portrayal of Jerkass pranksters. Compare Eddy from Ed, Edd n Eddy, Touya Kinamoto from Cardcaptor Sakura, and Dex from Megaman NT Warrior.
- Tabitha St. Germain. From Shana from Shakugan no Shana to Gotenks in the Ocean dub of Dragon Ball Z, she questionably voices Badass than Rie Kugimiya from the original. However, she does have a local voice range.
- Paul Dobson is mostly known for voicing either a villain or a strong guy. Examples are Naraku from Inuyasha, Graham Aker in Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Happosai from Ranma ½, and Doctor Doom from Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes.
- Trevor Devall is known for voicing Hair-Trigger Temper characters such as Pyro, Mr. Match, and Shuichi Aizawa.
- Marÿke Hendrikse is often either a cute Genki Girl or a gruff, snarling badass (she famously voiced the gun-toting, foul-mouthed mercenary Revy in Black Lagoon).
- Mark Oliver himself admitted that he is frequently cast as bad guys, such as Lord Garmadon, Grizzle, Rau Le Crueset, and Dr. Thadeus Blakk.
Other
- The late Don LaFontaine — 5,000 movie trailers and nearly 350,000 commercials; the most successful Voice Actor of all time. (The "In a World…... where (X) verbs (Y)... one man... will verb." guy.)
- LaFontaine's distinctive voice was lampshaded in an early trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:Narrator (The Guide (Stephen Fry)): As the trailer is being played, they will typically be narrated (Voice changes to Don Lafontaine's) in a deep voice that sounds like a seven-foot-tall man who's been smoking cigarettes since childhood.
- LaFontaine's distinctive voice was lampshaded in an early trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
- Another voice associated with movie trailers belonged to Canadian Bill Mitchell, whose trademarked gravel voice was the result of a childhood bout of mumps.
