History Main / CelebrityVoiceActor

* The Tagalog dub of ''Manga/{{BECK}}'' had prominent band vocalists such as Jett Pangan (of The Dawn and the Jett Pangan Group), Raimund Marasigan (of Eraserheads), Yael Yuzon (of Spongecola), Ney Dimaculangan (of [=6cyclemind=]), and Teddy Corpuz (of Rocksteddy) voice many of the characters.
* In the 2013 Tagalog dub of ''Anime/VoltesV'', Megumi is voiced by Sandara "Dara" Park of the KPop group Music/TwoNEOne.
* The Tagalog dub of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' had the late actor Marky Cielo voice Ichigo Kurosaki and Daytime Soap actress Yasmien Kurdi as Rukia Kuchiki.

* The Tagalog dub of ''Manga/CrayonShinChan'' had rapper Andrew E., famous for very explicit lyrics in his songs, voice the titular character, leading to rather hilarious memes among Filipino fans of the series.

* In WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda's dub, Master Tigress is voiced by Yoshino Kimura, who played the Japanese wife in ''Film/{{Blindness}}''.

* The ''Westernanimation/KungFuPanda'' movies had Lúcio Mauro Filho as Po, and the first also had Creator/JulianaPaes as Tigress.

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

As it turns out, professional voice actors (''especially'' Creator/BillyWest and Creator/TaraStrong) are not pleased that their jobs are being poached by actors from other disciplines, which makes sense, as it implies that the performing skills are interchangeable. While professional voice actors are capable of [[ManOfAThousandVoices utilizing a wide vocal or acting range]] to create a given character's personality, celebrities are usually cast for marketing purposes because audiences will recognize the popular actor.

It's important to note that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this is not always a recipe for disaster]]. Some celebrities prove to be very talented at voice acting, and would likely be among the most prolific at the profession if they did it exclusively. For instance, the master actor Creator/DustinHoffman won an Annie Award for performing the voice of Master Shifu in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda1''. Indeed, there are a fair number of performers who have managed strong careers in both fields and do not qualify for the pitfalls of this, although becoming equally famous in both is unusual. Some on-stage/Hollywood actors -- Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/EdenRiegel, to name two -- transitioned to primarily working as voice actors later in their careers.[[note]] Also, if anyone ever visits a FanConvention, professional voice actors will often recommend newcomers be on-stage theatre actors before entering the voice acting business.[[/note]]

* The English dub of ''Anime/{{Steamboy}}'' features three actors from Marvel's films around the time of its release in key rolls: Creator/AnnaPaquin ([[Film/XMen Rogue]]) as James Steam, Creator/AlfredMolina ([[Film/SpiderMan2 Doctor Octopus]]) as Edward Steam, and Creator/PatrickStewart ([[Film/XMen Professor Xavier]]) as Lloyd Steam.

* In the French dub of ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'', two of the corpses interrogated in the graveyard scene (ItMakesSenseInContext) are voiced by Frédéric Molas and Sébastien Rassiat, the hosts of the ''WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier'' Youtube channel.

* In the local dub of ''Film/Paddington2014'' and ''Film/Paddington2'', the eponymous bear is voiced by comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was eventually elected president of Ukraine in 2019.

* For the English dub of ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'', Creator/GiancarloEsposito -- best known for his roles as Gustavo Fring in ''Series/BreakingBad'' and Stan Edgar in ''Series/TheBoys'' -- portrays the villainous fixer Faraday.

* As a reference to cyberpunk/mercenary roles he'd played in previous projects, such as Neo in ''Film/TheMatrix'' and the title character in ''Film/JohnWick'', Creator/KeanuReeves was cast as the rockerboy and anarchist Johnny Silverhand in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077''.

* The ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' expansion "War of the Chosen" features a number of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' alumni in the role of the factional [[HeroUnit Hero Units]]: Creator/JonathanFrakes (Cmd. Riker) as Volk, Creator/MarinaSirtis (Counselor Troi) as Outrider, Creator/MichaelDorn (Lt. Worf) as Mox [[note]]If the player also has "Shen's Last Gift", Dorn can also be heard as [=SPARKs=] with the "Warrior" voice setting[[/note]], Creator/DeniseCrosby (Lt. Yar) as Betos, and Creator/JohnDeLancie (Q) as Geist. John Soloman, the lead developer, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6wkiqj/were_the_developers_of_xcom_2_war_of_the_chosen/dm8scfa/ assures us that it's a complete coincidence that he got five actors from his favorite sci-fi TV series]].

* The Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Hercules}}'' features popular actor Raoul Bova as Hercules, Veronica Pivetti (who actually is a retired voice actress, since she also voiced [[Manga/SailorMoon Queen Beryl]], Tails in both ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresOfSonicTheHedgehog'' and ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'' and other characters) as Meg, comedian duo Zuzzurro and Gaspare as Pain and Panic and TV host Giancarlo Magalli as Fil.

* The ''WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier'' 11-year anniversary video had a character voiced by Creator/RichardDarbois, one of the most famous voice actors in French. WordOfGod said he was specifically aiming for the absurdity of having such a big-name dubber voicing a ridiculous character in a youtuber's vid.

** Creator/ShawnAshmore as protagonist Conrad in ''VideoGame/ManOfMedan''. Creator/PipTorrens appears as the mysterious character, ''The Currator''.
** Torrens reprises his role for the anthologies second installment, ''VideoGame/LittleHope'', which also features Creator/WillPoulter as characters Andrew, Anthony, and Abraham.

-> ''"I hate when people go on TV and tell you how hard it is to do animation... No, UPS is hard work. I've done some animation... It's the easiest job in the world. I go in a booth and I go, 'What's the line?' And the guy goes, 'It's time to go to the store.' And I go, 'It's time to go to the store!'... And then they give me a million dollars."''

For some reason, celebrities do a lot of voice acting in big-budget animated movies. Maybe the producers figure more people will see movies with big-name stars in them. Maybe John Q. Public just loves his celebrities. The fact that celebrities can enjoy acting work without having to deal with costumes, script memorization and other elements of live-action filmmaking is another factor (although {{motion capture}} acting has many of those demands, and the actors behind these performances generally aren't considered only voice actors). Regardless, regular voice actors often get cast aside in favor of someone more famous when a big, important animated movie is made for public consumption.

As it turns out, professional voice actors (''especially'' Creator/BillyWest and Creator/TaraStrong) are not exactly pleased that their jobs are being poached by actors from other disciplines, which makes sense, as it implies that the performing skills are interchangeable. While professional voice actors are capable of [[ManOfAThousandVoices utilizing a wide vocal or acting range]] to create a given character's personality, celebrities are usually cast for marketing purposes because audiences will recognize the popular actor.

It's important to note that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this is not always a recipe for disaster]]. Some celebrities prove to be very talented at voice acting, and would likely be among the most prolific at the profession if they did it exclusively. For instance, the master actor Creator/DustinHoffman won an Annie Award for performing the voice of Master Shifu in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda''. Indeed, there are a fair number of performers who have managed strong careers in both fields and do not qualify for the pitfalls of this, although becoming equally famous in both is unusual. Some on-stage/Hollywood actors -- Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/EdenRiegel, to name two -- transitioned to primarily working as voice actors later in their careers.[[note]] Also, if anyone ever visits a FanConvention, professional voice actors will often recommend newcomers be on-stage theatre actors before entering the voice acting business.[[/note]]

That said, Billy West's scorn has been justified in some cases where celebrity voice actors haven't delivered the goods, such as Creator/CameronDiaz's notoriously flat performance in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''; or in cases where an actor is wildly miscast, such as Billy Bob Thornton in the dub of ''Anime/PrincessMononoke''. That's where the reason for this being a separate decision becomes apparent. West himself has indicated that he has fewer objections to performances like Creator/RobinWilliams in ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', Creator/TomHanks and Creator/TimAllen in ''Franchise/ToyStory'' or Creator/MikeMyers and Creator/EddieMurphy in the aforementioned ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'' because they were all actually ''playing characters'' with their voices... y'know, the ''acting'' part of voice acting.

* Comedian Bussunda was Westernanimation/{{Shrek}} in the first two movies, with him having the advantage of a complete track done by professional dubber Mauro Ramos - who eventually took over the role, given Bussunda died a year prior to the third ''Shrek''. ''Shrek 2'' also tried to follow Larry King as the Ugly Sister by also having a journalist in the role (though he didn't return in the third).

* Mexican comedian Creator/EugenioDerbez has worked in many dubs in his career: He dubbed Creator/JimCarrey in the Mexican Spanish dub of ''Film/YesMan'', Donkey in ''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}'', Mushu in ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', Lucky in the two first ''Film/DrDolittle'' films, Johann Krauss in ''Film/HellboyIITheGoldenArmy'' (this one as PlayingAgainstType) and dubbing himself, for obvious reasons, in the dub of Rob.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' stick mostly with "regular" voice actors for most of their casts, but have a few celebrities in each. Creator/KeithDavid, Creator/SethGreen, Creator/LanceHenriksen and [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Marina Sirtis]] qualify for the [[VideoGame/MassEffect1 first game]], and David and Green are joined by Creator/ClaudiaBlack, [[Film/TheMatrix Carrie-Anne Moss]], [[Series/{{Chuck}} Yvonne Strahovski]], [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 Tricia Helfer, Michael Hogan]], [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Michael Dorn]], and Creator/MartinSheen in the second.

** ''Videogame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has Creator/NatalieDormer as ship physician Dr. Lexi T'Perro and Kumail Nanjiani as Director Jarun Tann.
* [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Kate Mulgrew and Tim Russ]] show up in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', with Mulgrew's character being a recurring character in the series.

* This was the whole point of ''[[VideoGame/NaziZombies Call of the Dead]]'' with Creator/SarahMichelleGellar, Creator/DannyTrejo. [[Series/TheWalkingDead Michael Rooker]] and Creator/RobertEnglund fighting George Romero.

** [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI The first game]] has Creator/HaleyJoelOsment as Sora, David Gallagher as Riku, Creator/HaydenPanettiere as Kairi, and Creator/BillyZane as Ansem. The cast for ''Final Fantasy'' characters, many being voiced for the first time ever, include David Boreanaz as Leon/Squall, Steve Burton as Cloud, Music/MandyMoore as Aerith, and [[Music/{{NSync}} Lance Bass]] as Sephiroth.
** ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' was probably responsible for putting Music/JesseMccartney (then known mainly as a singer) into the voice acting map when he did a surprisingly good debut voicing Roxas. Other than him, there are also Creator/BrittanySnow as Naminé, the late Creator/ChristopherLee (!) as Ansem the Wise, and Creator/RachaelLeighCook as Tifa. Moore was replaced as Aerith by Mena Suvari, whom many say [[DullSurprise isn't an improvement]]. From ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Re:Chain of Memories]]'' onward, Snow has been replaced by another celebrity VA, Creator/MeaghanMartin.

* The ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' expansion "War of the Chosen" features a number of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' alumni in the role of the factional [[HeroUnit Hero Units]]: Creator/JonathanFrakes (Cmd. Riker) as Volk, Creator/MarinaSirtis (Counselor Troi) as Outrider, Creator/MichaelDorn (Lt. Worf) as Mox [[note]]If the player also has "Shen's Last Gift", Dorn can also be heard as [=SPARKs=] with the "Warrior" voice setting[[/note]], Denise Crosby (Lt. Yar) as Betos, and Creator/JohnDeLancie (Q) as Geist. John Soloman, the lead developer, [[https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/6wkiqj/were_the_developers_of_xcom_2_war_of_the_chosen/dm8scfa/ assures us that it's a complete coincidence that he got five actors from his favorite sci-fi TV series]].

** ''ARG/HuntTheTruth'' has several; Creator/KeeganMichaelKey voices the lead character, with the cast also including Creator/JerryTrainor, Creator/CobieSmulders, Creator/StacyKeach, Peter Serafinowicz, Creator/TamaraTaylor, Creator/AlanTudyk, and of course Creator/MarkHamill.

** ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' features the voices of [[Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine René Auberjonois and Bill Sadler]] as Mr. House and Victor respectively, as well as Creator/MatthewPerry (best known as Chandler Bing from ''Series/{{Friends}}'') as Benny and Creator/KrisKristofferson as Chief Hanlon.

* The ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIII'' series featured a huge number of celebrity voice actors, including Creator/MichaelMadsen, Creator/KyleMacLachlan Robert Loggia, Creator/RayLiotta, Creator/WilliamFichtner, Creator/DennisHopper, Creator/BurtReynolds, Luis Guzmán, Creator/DannyTrejo, Creator/GaryBusey, Creator/SamuelLJackson, Chris Penn, Creator/JamesWoods, Creator/DavidCross, among others.

* ''VideoGame/Anthem2019'' curiously does this with minor characters: the bar owner Max is voiced by Creator/CatherineTate, Creator/JackMcBrayer plays Amal, the bartender, and Joe Lo Truglio plays the town gossip Neeson.
* ''VideoGame/LANoire'' has an impressive line-up of celebrity voice actors including Aaron Staton as Det. Cole Phelps, Andrew Connolly as Capt. James Donnelly and John Noble as crooked developer Leland Monroe.

** The first ''VideoGame/Yakuza1'' game featured big-name actors, including Creator/ElizaDuskku as Yumi, Creator/MichaelMadsen as Shimano, and Creator/MarkHamill as [[EnsembleDarkHorse fan favorite]] Majima.

* In Mexico and Spain, all animated works of Creator/OsamuTezuka's [[Manga/{{Unico}} Unico series]] would cast some notable Mexican and Spanish singers and models to voice the title character. The 1980 Spanish dub of the 1979 pilot ''Unico: Black Cloud And White Feather'' had Rocío Banquells as the dub voice of Unico. The Spanish dub for the Unico movies (''Anime/TheFantasticAdventuresOfUnico'' and ''Anime/UnicoInTheIslandOfMagic'') casted Verónica Castro as the second voice of Unico replacing Rocío Banquells. The 2000 animated short ''[[Anime/SavingOurFragileEarthUnicoSpecialChapter Saving Our Fragile Earth: Unico Special]]'' had actress and model Aracely Arámbula to provide the voice of Unico.

[[folder:Sweden]]
* In Sweden, most cartoons are dubbed by professional voice actors but sometimes they get a celebrity or two

[[folder:France]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'', Batgirl is voiced by vlogger Nathalie “Natoo” Odzierejko, while Robin is voiced by “Danse avec les stars ” winner Rayane Bensetti. Professional football players Antoine Griezmann and Blaise Matuidi voice Superman and the Flash, respectively. Journalist and radio[=/=]television host Stéphane Bern voices Alfred.
* Well-known Stand-up comedian and actor Baptiste Lecaplain has two credits so far, with Peter on ''WesternAnimation/LongLiveTheRoyals'' and Gary on ''WesternAnimation/FinalSpace''.

[[folder:Germany]]

* The German dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'', Fa Zhou is voiced by Creator/HorstBuchholz. Buchholz was also the voice of Lampwick in the 1951 dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' and Flower in the dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'', but they were before he was famous.

[[folder:South Korea]]

[[folder:Italy]]

** ''WesternAnimation/Cars2'' gets reprises for all the returning characters, and adds comedians Paola Cortellesi and Alessandro Siani as Holley and Francesco, TV host Tiberio Timperi as Mel Dorado and Creator/SophiaLoren as Mama Topolino. Also, Franco Nero voices Uncle Topolino both in the English and Italian dubs.

[[folder:Ukraine]]

** Website/{{YouTube}}rs Alex "El Escorpion Dorado" Montiel, Luis “luisitorey” Torres, Ricardo "Wero" Ortíz voice Kyle, Henry & Ben in the Latin American dub.
** Website/{{YouTube}}r Victor Meyniel voices Kyle in the Brazilian dub.

** Anthony Padilla and Ian Hecox of Smosh fame voice them in the original version.

** Website/{{YouTube}}rs Ricardo & Rodrigo Piologo (known as Irmãos Piologo) voice Hal and Bubbles in the Brazilian dub.

** Andrew Cownden of ''WebVideo/LoadingReadyRun'' fame voices him in the original version.

** In Africa, South African hip-hop artist Toya Delazy in Africa.

** Astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela for the Mexican dub
** Telenovela actress Andrea Pietra for the Argentinean dub.
** Journalist, TV presenter and interviewer Marília Gabriela for the Brazilian dub.

* In the local dub of ''Film/{{Paddington}}'' and ''Film/Paddington2'', the eponymous bear is voiced by comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was eventually elected president of Ukraine in 2019.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', the villain Syndrome is voiced by pro wrestling legend Wrestling/NobuhikoTakada.

* In a weird case of IncestuousCasting, ''WesternAnimation/{{Incredibles 2}}'' had couple Creator/FlaviaAlessandra and Otaviano Costa as siblings Evelyn and Winston Deavor.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' features actress Laura Morante as Helen and model, singer and TV host Amanda Lear as Edna Mode.

* The Tagalog dub of the ''VideoGame/YoKaiWatch'' anime had [[ChildrenVoicingChildren child actors]] Miggs Cuaderno and Jillian Ward (11 and 10 at the time of the premiere) voice Nate and Katie, respectively, along with former teen actor Mikoy Morales as Whisper.

* In ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves'', two of the corpses interrogated in the graveyard scene (ItMakesSenseInContext) are voiced by Frédéric Molas and Sébastien Rassiat, the hosts of the ''WebVideo/JoueurDuGrenier'' Youtube channel.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'', Batgirl is voiced by vlogger Nathalie “Natoo” Odzierejko, while Robin is voiced by “Danse avec les stars ” winner Rayane Bensetti. Professional football players Antoine Griezmann and Blaise Matuidi voice Superman and the Flash, respectively.

For some reason, celebrities do a lot of voice acting in big-budget animated movies. Maybe the producers figure more people will see movies with big-name stars in them. Maybe John Q. Public just loves his celebrities. The fact celebrities can enjoy acting work without having to deal with costumes, script memorization and other elements of live-action film is another factor (although {{motion capture}} animation has many of those demands). Regardless, regular voice actors often get cast aside in favor of someone more famous when a big, important animated movie is made for public consumption.

It's important to note that [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools this is not always a recipe for disaster]]. Some celebrities prove to be very talented at voice acting, and would likely be among the most prolific at the profession if they did it exclusively. For instance, the master actor Creator/DustinHoffman won an Annie Award for performing the voice of Master Shifu in ''WesternAnimation/KungFuPanda'' to go along with his older Oscars. Indeed, there are a fair number of performers who have managed strong careers in both fields and do not qualify for the pitfalls of this, although becoming equally famous in both is unusual. Some on-stage/Hollywood actors -- Creator/MarkHamill and Creator/EdenRiegel, to name two -- moved on to voice acting later in their video careers.[[note]] Also, if anyone ever visits a FanConvention, professional voice actors will often recommend newcomers be on-stage theatre actors before entering the voice acting business.[[/note]]