Theater People in Video Games

[Dancingthrulife2]

Posted: 6/16/20 at 7:13pm

I was playing Kingdom Hearts 3 the other day and was surprised to find Donna Murphy, Zachary Levi, and Idina Menzel dubbing characters in Disney worlds. Any other examples you can think of?

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 6/16/20 at 9:39pm

So this started as a reply about Kerry Butler doing voice work for Red Dead Redemption 2, and then became a whole thing about Red Dead 2 as I looked through the IMDB page. Roger Clark, the lead voice actor for the same game, has also done theater, most recently Sam Shepard's "Buried Child" in New Jersey. Other theater people in the game apparently include Greg Hildreth, Ellen Harvey, Kevin Cahoon, Jeff McCarthy, Priscilla Lopez, Ken Jennings, Edward Baker-Duly, Max von Essen, and Michael Park, plus however many of the 400+ names on the list I didn't recognize at first glance.

[thedrybandit]

Posted: 7/12/20 at 3:56pm

Hey BroadwayWorld, you're welcome!

https://www.broadwayworld.com/article/From-Stage-to-Video-Game-Console-Broadway-Stars-in-Video-Games-20200712

[Lin-Manuel Miranda]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 12:13pm

Hey, dropping by to add that Priscilla Lopez voices a madam in the original Red Dead Redemption and a nun in the zombie expansion pack. Or vice versa, it was a long time ago. Anyway, the RANGE! Carry on.

[Hot Pants]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 1:23pm

Merle Dandridge played major characters in Half Life 2 and The Last of Us.

[Kad]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 2:07pm

T. Ryder Smith is an actor with a slew of Off-Broadway and Broadway credits, but would be most recognizable to gamers as Bioshock's Sander Cohen.

Bioshock also features the voicework of Miriam Shor, the original Yitzhak in Hedwig.

[ZacharyC2]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 2:19pm

Andrew Rannells was Bif Taylor in the Rockstar game Bully, and thank god somebody compiled all of his voice lines into one video. If you want some extra joy, pretend it's Whizzer screaming at Marvin. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JYHkZlo8CU

Updated On: 7/13/20 at 02:19 PM

[Sutton Ross]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 5:42pm

^ I want to give that person a hug. That was perfection!

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 6:03pm

Pretty cool to read this list. I never realized until reading this that Max Casella is the voice of Daxter in the "Jak and Jaxter" franchise - I used to love those games as a kid, and now that I know it's Casella, I can totally hear it. 

My only issue with the list is that I think it's a bit of a cheat to include actors who voiced the video game version of a movie they were in - including Kingdom Hearts. There's a lot more crossover between theatre and film than there is between theatre and career voice acting, so the film-to-video-game adaptations are a bit of a no-brainer.

At the risk of hijacking the thread: 

I would also be curious to read a list of voice actors who have also done some stage work (which is to say, actors who have mostly made their career doing voice work - I'm not talking about the celebrities who star in Disney movies, etc.) I guess Hank Azaria could count there, and Mark Hamill as well. Maybe Christy Carlson Romano too, though she's done plenty of live action as well. Seth MacFarlane has done some live concerts, but as far as I'm aware, he has yet to make his theatrical debut (everyone keeps predicting The Music Man, since his love for that show is well-documented - maybe after Hugh?) 

I'd LOVE to see the great Jim Cummings take to the stage, especially in a musical. I imagine it would be incredibly jarring for him to go from the least exposed form of acting, to the most exposed form of acting, but I have a hunch that Cummings would be good onstage anyway. 

Updated On: 7/13/20 at 06:03 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 7/13/20 at 6:56pm

ZacharyC2 said: "Andrew Rannells was Bif Taylor in the Rockstar game Bully, and thank god somebody compiled all of his voice lines into one video. If you want some extra joy, pretend it's Whizzer screaming at Marvin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JYHkZlo8CU"

Prior to Mormon, Rannells did a lot of voice work, including dubs of anime.