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Cast as a Mask

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"It was just a matter of disguising your voices and taking turns."
— Batman, Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

Sometimes, a character is too easily recognised when they're in disguise. The solution: bringing on a different actor to play the character whenever they're wearing their disguise, to wrong-foot the audience for a while.

This often happens when an actor is too famous to disguise their identity from the audience. The solution is to cast someone to be the mask; in other words, through the miracle of Latex Perfection, one character is played by two actors. Alternatively, The Rashomon shows hypothetical reveals of the subject, someone is known only as The Voice before an in-person actor is cast, or there are Alternate Universe counterparts who don't look exactly alike.

The hope is that this way the audience won't or can't guess the secret, at least not until you want them to.

Contrast Significant Double Casting

Warning: This page contains spoilers! Read at your own risk!

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime 
  • The Anime adaptation of Monster does this. To make the reveal that the pretty new girl in town is not Action Girl Nina, but Johan, her Half Identical Twin (who is also the series' Big Bad) in a disguise more shocking, the studio used Nina's voice actress to play Johan whenever they don this look. This is done both in the Japanese version and in the English dub.
  • In the English dub of Noein, Richard Epcar plays the title character, while Crispin Freeman plays Karasu, an alternate future version of Yuu, the show's main protagonist. When Noein removes his disguise and reveals himself to also be an alternate future version of Yuu (being almost exactly like Karasu, albeit with more evil intentions), he's suddenly voiced by Karasu's voice-actor Crispin Freeman. The original Japanese used Significant Double Casting for this case.
  • The unnamed Shinigami in the first Death Note Relight special. The ending hints that he might be the reincarnation of Light Yagami, but neither Brad Swaile nor Mamoru Miyano (Light's English and Japanese VA's, respectively) voice him.
  • All over the place in Bakugan Battle Brawlers:
    • In the first season, Masquerade is voiced by Soichiro Hoshi in Japanese, and Lyon Smith in English, but turns out to be Alice, who is voiced by Mamiko Noto in Japanese and Emilie Clare Barlow in English. Though considering That Masquerade is a male Split Personality for Alice, this trope was necessary to avoid the twist being obvious.
    • In In Mechtanium Surge, Wiseman is initially voiced by Robert Tinkler in a Creepy Monotone, but then he gets unmasked as Gunz Lazar, who is voiced by Graeme Cornies, and sounds nothing like Wiseman. It’s initially inverted when it’s revealed that Wiseman is merely copying the real Gunz’s appearance and mimicking his voice for a disguise, but then played straight as Wiseman turns out to be Coredegon, who is voiced by the also-totally different sounding Tyrone Savage (who portrays him as an Evil Brit for starters).
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the narrator is revealed at the end to be an older Simon, but in both English and Japanese they have different VAs...except in the epilogue, which is how it's revealed in the first place.
  • In Eden of the East, Akira is informed about the Selacao by Hajime Hiura, Selacao number 5, who recreates for Akira the circumstances of his recruitment by Mr. Outside. On the recording, Mr. Outside's voice is the same as that of Hiura. This makes some sense as the series raises the possibility that any of the Selacao could be Mr. Outside/"The Supporer" and not know it due to Laser-Guided Amnesia. and the movies clarify that Hiura and Mr. Outside are different people. Hiura was recreating his experience, we're even shown him with the phone.
  • Naruto:
    • One basic ninjutsu is the Shapeshifter Technique, which is mostly used to impersonate others. Although these diguises often have physical errors, they always get the voices right enough to be played by the impersonated's regular voice actor.
    • Pain has six bodies, and all but the female one speak with the voice one of them had when he was alive. Then it turns out, despite what we were initially lead to believe, he is not really in control either, he's just another corpse controlled by another person entirely.
    • When Obito Uchiha pretends to be Madara Uchiha, he is played by the same actor who would voice the later-shown real person. This is as much a deliberate use of this trope as a result of the creators of the anime not knowing that said character was a fake when the part was cast, but make sense given how easily ninja in this series can impersonate voices.
    • In the Land of Birds filler arc, the main baddie Hōki is voiced by a different actor in his real form separate from the guise he'd been using. Amusingly, this makes a barely subverted instance of The Danza as the guise is voiced by Katsuhisa Hōki and has more screentime. Averted in the English dub that has the same actor voice both forms.
      The main guest star the same arc, Toki, is voiced by Tomokazu Seki and Johnny Yong Bosch in their respective languages while in disguise as her late brother Sagi. Her true self is voiced by Miki Nagasawa and Laura Bailey, respectively.
  • The Japanese version of YuYu Hakusho plays with this trope with the Masked Fighter. Judging by height and appearance, she is very obviously Genkai...but then she speaks with the voice of Megumi Hayashibara, causing confusion even before she's revealed to be a young woman. She is in fact Genkai, but using her technique reverts the body to its prime condition.
  • Katsuhito Masaki, from Tenchi Muyo!, in all the various incarnations of the series, has his own voice actor, apart from his alter ego of Yosho.
  • In Steins;Gate, when supposed time traveler John Titor's text is read aloud he's voiced by Hiroshi Tsuchida in Japanese and Patrick Seitz in English, which hides the fact that he's actually Amane Suzuha, who just to add even more of a mask is in reality female.
  • Similarly used in Durarara!! during scenes where characters' screen names in chatrooms are given voice overs, which doubles as a case of G.I.R.L. for one character in particular, especially since the actors are shuffled at several points just to keep things ambiguous. It turns out "Setton" is Celty, usually played by a male actor when the character herself is female, "Taro Tanaka" is Mikado, "Bacula" is Masaomi; "Saika" is at first Saika-infected individuals then changes to Anri; and the main perpetrator of being a G.I.R.L., "Kanra," is Izaya.
  • Case Closed does this whenever Kaito Kid appears. Being the Master of Disguise, he usually spends most of the arcs that feature him impersonating someone before he reveals his identity, and often times it's even as one of the main characters. This means that, among others, Wakana Yamazaki, Akira Kamiya, and Kaneto Shiozawa have voiced him up until The Reveal. The exception is whenever he impersonates Shinichi, since both of them are already voiced by Kappei Yamaguchi.
  • Lupin III: Lupin (and other characters) are usually voiced by the character they're disguised as. Occasionally lapsing into lines with their regular voice actor, reminding the audience who it really is.
    • Special note for Lupin Family All-Stars, where the disguise of the "man in the iron mask" is voiced by Chikao Ohtsuka, who voiced Zenigata in the 4:3 version of the pilot film and Goemon in the 1971 "Green Jacket" series. Makio Inoue and Gorō Naya were voicing the Goemon and Zenigata characters, respectively.
  • In the Italian dub of Tokyo Mew Mew, the Blue Knight is voiced by Davide Garbolino, Ryo's voice actor, hinting that they're the same person. Later subverted when, 8 episodes before The Reveal, he was suddenly recast to Patrizio Prata, Masaya's voice actor.
  • Fate/stay night: Shirou and Archer have different voice actors, despite one being a future version of the other. While it's conceivable that Shirou's voice could have deepened with age (Archer is also about a foot taller than him), at one point on the phone Rin mistakes one for the other, implying they sound very similar.
  • Justified in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's regarding the Masked Man, since the transformation magic that the Liese twins used altered their voices as well as their appearances.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist (2003), Barry the Chopper turns out to have been masquerading as a woman in order to get away with his crimes. In the Japanese version he's voiced by an actual woman while in disguise, but switches to his regular voice after The Reveal. The English dub averted this by having the same actor voice him in and out of disguise.
  • In the English dubbed anime of Sword Art Online, Ben Diskin provides the voice of the Arc Villain of the Phantom Bullet storyline, Death Gun. The modulation of the voice conceals the fact that "Death Gun" is a shared identity used by the brothers Shinkawa: younger brother Kyoji (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) and elder brother Shouichi.
  • Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online uses a light twist on the trope, using a Non-Singing Voice not to make up for lack of singing ability, but to avoid revealing too early that popular singer Elsa Kanzaki and LLENN's nutty online friend Pitohui are both voiced by Yōko Hikasa, who is otherwise a perfectly fine singer. Elsa does not show up as her real life self until quite a while into the story, but her music appears early on and would have tipped things off.
  • In the anime of The Quintessential Quintuplets, each of the Nakano sisters has a distinct seiyuu, making them even easier to them apart to the viewers (in the manga they're supposed to have similar voices) and readers/viewers already know that Fuutarou's bride is from among the quintuplets. Come second season, to increase the mystery about who the girl in Fuutarou's photo in the flashbacks (who look like the quintuplets when they were both young) really is, and Rena's true identity in the present time, both of them are voiced by Kyouka Yuuki, a new seiyuu apart from all the others. As the manga readers know, this trope is fully in effect, with the same aformentioned seiyuu covering two characters' identities: the girl in Fuutarou's photo and Rena are actually different quintuplets, with the former being the true identity of Fuutarou's bride and the latter being under orders of the former to disguise as herself due to her shame of facing him, so this helps keep their identities more concealed from anime viewers while still presenting that pivotal scene with Rena fully voiced.
  • Black Lagoon: Hansel and Gretel are nearly identical, but have different voice actors in the anime. Except the siblings Twin Switch habitually, which includes each one's voice( actor). One wonders if we ever hear either twin's natural voice or just a boy and girl voice both could perform.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animated 

    Film — Live-Action 
  • The Adventures of Captain Marvel: To keep audiences from figuring out which of the scientists is secretly the Big Bad, the studio brought in Gerald Mohr to do the Big Bad's voice all the way up to The Reveal. Really comes in handy when the scientists start getting killed off and the # of possible suspects is eventually narrowed down to just two.
  • Spoofed in Casino Royale (1967), where Woody Allen's character Jimmy is revealed to be Dr. Noah, the Head of Smersh despite his voice not even remotely sounding like Valentine Dyall, who voiced the doctor all the way up until that point.
  • In Psycho, Anthony Perkins doesn't play Norma Bates until the very end of the film. Up until that point, the role was assumed by several different actors.
  • In Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Colin Farrell is cast as Percival Graves, who turns out to be the evil wizard Gellert Grindelwald, played by Johnny Depp in disguise.
  • In the 2007 David Fincher movie, Zodiac, no less than three different actors (Richmond Arquette, Bob Stephenson, and John Lacy) are used to play the title killer (always seen either wearing a mask or as a silhouette). The film presents two possible suspects of being the Zodiac killer, neither of which is played by an actor who played the Zodiac, but never fully dismisses the possibility that either is the one.
  • In The Usual Suspects, Keyser Söze is played by multiple people before being revealed as Verbal Kint, Kevin Spacey's character. This is more a case of The Rashomon overlapping with Unreliable Narrator, though.
  • A deleted scene in Secret Window (that was not from Johnny Depp's perspective) shows Shooter (played by a very recognizable John Turturro) starting a fire. Due to The Reveal, this means that, instead of playing Shooter, Turturro is actually playing Depp's character. The director thought having Turturro appear in a scene with an objective POV wouldn't make sense in this context, thus the scene was removed from the film. The only scenes where Turturro appears in the final cut are from Depp's perspective.
  • A twist near the end of Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God is that the old mage has been killed and impersonated by Klaxx. Until he is unmasked (both to the cast and the audience), he is played by the old mage's actor.
  • Star Wars is no stranger to this trope, considering its fondness for masked villains and all:
    • In Return of the Jedi, Pat Welsh voices the Bounty Hunter, Boushh, who later turns out to be Leia (Carrie Fisher) in disguise.
    • In the original trilogy, Darth Vader is normally voiced by James Earl Jones overdubbing body acting by David Prowse, but at the end of Return of the Jedi, he's played by Sebastian Shaw when he has Luke remove his mask in his dying moments, with Shaw additionally playing his Force Ghost at the end of the film. The Special Edition edits Hayden Christensen into Shaw's place as the Force Ghost to maintain consistency with the prequels, which quickly became one of the most hotly contested changes made in that version of the Original Trilogy.
    • At least two foreign language dubs of The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones did this with Darth Sidious, probably because they didn't know better, even if Palpatine being Sidious was revealed in the novelization for Return of the Jedi.
  • In Velvet Goldmine, Jonathan Rhys Meyers' character, Brian Slade, reinvents himself as a music star by the name of Tommy Stone; a different actor is used to play Tommy Stone in order to hide the surprise.
  • A vocal variation of this was done in The Lord of the Rings movies. In the scene where Gandalf reveals himself to Legolas, Aragorn, and Gimli in Fangorn Forest, they took both Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee's voices saying the exact same lines and masked them over each other to hide just which of them it was. According to DVD bonus material, the two of them were asked to imitate one another for at least some of those lines.
  • Every Dario Argento film features shots where we only see the villain's hands, which are actually those of Argento himself.
  • In High Plains Drifter, there is a deliberate ambiguity as to the identity of the Stranger played by Clint Eastwood. He might be the brother of the murdered marshal, or there might be a supernatural explanation including but not limited to him being the ghost of the marshal, Satan, or an angel. When the marshal's murder is shown in flashbacks, he's played by Buddy van Horn, a stuntman who doubles for Eastwood and looks a lot like him (but different enough to aid the ambiguity).
  • In Sherlock Holmes (2009), the actor providing the voice for Moriarty is uncredited, and it is unknown who it is (The Other Wiki indicates rumors of it being Brad Pitt, although an Ed Tolputt is credited as "Anonymous Man", so it might be him). In the sequel film, the character is played by Jared Harris. Harris later dubbed the character's lines in subsequent home and TV rereleases of the film.
  • In Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen, Kamen Rider Decade and Gokai Red disguise themselves as Kamen Rider 1 and Akaranger respectively, which is somewhat consistent with their usual powers (though Decade had never transformed into a Showa-era rider prior to that; he's known for transforming into any of his nine predecessors; the name Decade refers to the tenth anniversary of the series' Revival. However, he does end the series with transformation cards for all Riders!). What isn't consistent however, is that they also take on the voices of Kamen Rider 1 and Akaranger (as well as Decade copying Rider 1's belt, with the Decadriver only appearing when he reveals himself).
  • Keeping with the theme of misdirection, The Prestige managed to avert this and still completely surprise everyone. Turns out that Christian Bale plays identical twins, Albert and Frederick Borden, but both of them alternate being constantly hidden under a disguise, and never really say much or even stay in shot. When Bale without the disguise is in a shot with his disguised twin, a double is used. Thanks to a lack of dialogue for the disguised "Fallon" and his completely unremarkable nature and behaviour, no one suspected he had a secret at all, but then this is Christian Bale we're talking about.
  • In the made for TV movie Fear Island, Haylie Duff plays Jenna and Lucy Hale plays Megan. The twist is that Haylie Duff is really playing Megan telling the story, pretending to be Jenna. So anything Lucy Hale does in the flashbacks is really Haylie Duff's character, and vice versa.
  • Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed had Alicia Silverstone playing reporter Heather Jasper Howe, with the main villain the Evil Masked Figure being voiced by Scott McNeil. Both of them are disguises worn by Dr. Jonathan Jacobo, who is portrayed by Tim Blake Nelson.
  • The main villain of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins is The Specter, who is voiced by Daniel Riordan. His true identity is Principal Deedle, portrayed by Shawn MacDonald.
  • Sky High (2005): Patrick Warburton voices the armored villain Royal Pain, to hide the fact that the character is a teenage girl when out of disguise. The actor who plays Pain's true identity is also the suit actor though.
  • In the Brazilian comedy Loucas pra Casar ("Mad About Getting Married"), this trope is used to hide a case of Split Personality. The protagonist Malu, played by Ingid Guimarães, finds out that her two rivals (nymphomaniac Lúcia, played by Suzana Pires, and overtly-religious Maria, played by Tatá Werneck) for the love of her fiancé are other personalities of herself. The Once More, with Clarity flashbacks show Ingrid playing some scenes previously played by Suzana and Tatá, and that Malu's name is actually short for Maria Lúcia.
  • TRON: Legacy: Rinzler is portrayed by Anis Cheurfa, and is a disguise for a Brainwashed and Crazy Tron, who was portrayed by Bruce Boxleitner. To drive the point home, only once does Rinzler speak before The Reveal, and only once after it, voiced by Boxleitner.
  • In Dick Tracy the mobster The Blank is portrayed by an unknown actor but the voice is dubbed by Frank Welker. The Blank is eventually revealed to be the alter ego of nightclub singer Breathless Mahoney, played by Madonna.
  • The Thing (1982) is very subtle about this. In an early scene, the shapeshifting alien is passing as a sled dog and wandering around the base, before going into a room where we see the shadow of a man. It licks the man's hand, presumably infecting him with the alien as well. So whose shadow was it? Director John Carpenter didn't want there to be a single correct answer, so it's actually the shadow of a crew member, chosen because - in silhouette, anyway - he looked kind of like the actors playing Palmer and Norris, two characters who both turn out to be the Thing.
  • The Batman (2022) has a sneaky meta version of this with casting Barry Keoghan, where initial press releases announced him as playing the GCPD officer Stanley Merkel. However, despite him being featured in publicity stills (as well as confirmed to have been filmed in a few scenes), the character doesn't appear in the final product. Keoghan does end up appearing in the final scene, instead playing The Joker — director Matt Reeves confirmed that the aforementioned filmed scenes were meant to be decoys to preserve the twist.
  • Another meta version happened with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) - when William Fichtner was signed on, he was rather explictly said to be the film's incarnation of the Shredder. However, in the final film, he appears to be playing a wholly different character, Eric Sacks. Sacks is the Shredder's lackey, and good ol' Oroku Saki himself is played by Tohoru Masamune. Interestingly enough, early drafts show that at one point Sacks was intended to indeed be the Shredder.
  • In a 1912 adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, two different actors played Jekyll and Hyde.
  • Throughout the Scream series, no matter who the Ghostface killer turns out to be, they always use a Voice Changeling effect to give themselves the voice of Roger L. Jackson before their Dramatic Unmask. Jackson's creepy, almost robotic affect creates the impression that Ghostface is a singular identity donned by multiple people over the course of the series, and not just a collection of different killers.

    Live-Action TV 
  • Used for a plot twist near the end of an adaptation of Montague Rhodes James's "A Warning to the Curious", aired as part of Ghost Stories for Christmas: the ghost (John Kearney) tricks both the protagonist and the audience by disguising as Dr. Black, and, for that scene, is appropriately played by Black's actor, Clive Swift.
  • The first appearance of Commander Sela in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Mind's Eye" had her standing in the shadows, and played by a different actress (although Denise Crosby did provide the voice). Notably, Sela has black hair in this first appearance — at the time of filming they hadn't settled on making Sela blonde to emphasise her half-human heritage.
    • Zig zagged on Star Trek: Discovery when Voq, a Klingon disguised himself as Ash Tyler, a human. Both roles were in fact played by Shazad Latif, who was only officially credited for the latter role (a series regular); the actor used his late father's name as a pseudonym for the other performance. Ironically, casting someone else as The Mask would have been justified, as the disguise was described as an extremely traumatic physical transformation. As it is, the formula is played with in three ways: the appearance familiar to the audience is itself the disguise, both were played by the same performer, and the actor is actually completely unrecognizable in his other role.
  • Kamen Rider does this fairly often. The Monster of the Week is usually voiced by the actor who plays their original human form, but if the Powers That Be want to hide their identities this trope comes into play, sometimes with an in-story explanation. Specific examples include:
    • In Kamen Rider Fourze, to hide the fact that the Virgo Zodiarts and Kamen Rider Meteor's mysterious mentor Tachibana are the same person (former astronaut Kuniteru Emoto), they're played by anime voice actors Rie Tanaka and Nobuyuki Hiyama (who's also the show's narrator) respectively. Tanaka's casting is also justified since the Virgo Zodiarts has a feminine appearance. The show pulled the same trick from the start, casting male voice actor Eiji Takemoto to play the Scorpio Zodiarts, disguising the fact that it's actually the protagonists' Sensei-chan homeroom teacher Sarina Sonoda.
    • A prime example comes in Kamen Rider Wizard, where both the White Wizard and Wiseman were played by voice actors (the latter by Toshio Furukawa) for most of the series in order to hide their true identities. It's eventually revealed that they're both Sou Fueki Playing Both Sides; unlike Fourze above, Fueki's actor takes over all three roles after the reveal. Plus, given the series, A Wizard Did It could be seen as a perfectly valid explanation for the change.
    • Kamen Rider Build uses this one several times over:
      • The antagonist Blood Stalk's identity is a major point of speculation for the first quarter of the series. It's even expressly mentioned that the Blood Stalk suit has a built-in voice changer to protect the user's identity; since he's actually Soichi Isurugi, the (seemingly) kindly coffee shop owner who's been Build's ally since the very beginning, it's perfectly understandable. However, this ends up subverted later on when it's revealed that Isurugi is possessed by an Ancient Evil from Mars named "Evolt", and the "altered" voice is actually his natural voice, as seen when he possesses people other than Isurugi. (Also, Blood Stalk sounds notably different from the way Night Rogue's voice is very heavily artificially deepened. Stalk's got just a little electronic reverb on a voice that otherwise sounds quite natural... and nothing like Isurugi's. Stalk also keeps using the altered voice after his identity comes out, unlike Rogue, foreshadowing it being the natural voice of Evolt.)
      • The show does it again with Sento Kiryu, the Amnesiac Hero protagonist. In Episode 3 the show introduced Takumi Katsuragi, a brilliant physicist who was connected with the Build Project, making him the obvious answer to Sento's true identity. In order to keep from spoiling the mystery too quickly, Katsuragi was played by an entirely different actor (Yukiaki Kiyama) and is assumed dead when the show begins. A few episodes later they introduced a Red Herring in the form of Taro Sato, a brainless rock musician who's played by Atsuhiro Inukai, Sento's actor. Once Blood Stalk demonstrated that he has the power to alter peoples' faces, the pieces quickly fell into place and fans rightly guessed that he swapped Katsuragi and Sato's faces, with the amnesiac Katsuragi becoming "Sento Kiryu" while Sato was killed and used to frame Second Rider Ryuga Banjo. Even after the reveal, Kiyama stayed with the show until the very end, appearing both in flashbacks and in mental sequences where Sento conversed with his old self to get help on solving the current crisis.
      • In a smaller version, the Monster of the Week Smashes are mindless beasts created as a by-product of the villains' human experimentation. The growls and grunts are provided by common recurring voice actors and sound nothing like the people who play their normal forms, which occasionally serves to hide their identites.
  • Doctor Who:
    • In "Logopolis", the Watcher, a character who turns out to be a metaphysical echo of the Fifth Doctor, is not played by Peter Davison, as that would have spoiled the twist. Instead, he's played by Adrien Gibbs.
    • In the serial Remembrance of the Daleks the Renegade Daleks use a young girl as the "imagination" component in their battle computer. When seated in the computer's chair, she is voiced by a Davros-impersonating John Leeson—the chair is very Dalek-like in its appearance, and the voice fooled viewers into thinking that Davros was leading the Renegades.
    • In "Terror of the Autons", a man named Norman Stanley, who is noticeably shorter than Roger Delgado, plays a telephone engineer who is actually the Master in a Latex Perfection mask.
  • The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air: The episode "Fresh Prince: The Movie" had Will tell about John "Fingers" O'Neill (played by Brad Garrett) coming after Will and the Banks family after Will witnesses a mob killing. It was all a Batman Gambit by Will and Carlton to hustle Jazz out of his poker money. While it works, Fingers returns to where Will is, and Will runs and screams in terror. "Fingers" reveals he was really Jazz in disguise this time, out for a little payback for Will hustling him.
  • In early episodes of American Horror Story: Murder House, actor Riley Schmidt was cast to play the mysterious Rubber Man to decrease the odds of the audience prematurely guessing that the character was actually Tate Langdon in disguise.
  • In Once Upon a Time Cora is the Queen of Hearts. However the character appears in the series before Cora is introduced. In the Queen's first appearance (though her face isn't seen) she is played by Jennifer Koening. Although Cora's actress Barbara Hershey still supplied the voice.
  • Done regularly in Mission: Impossible. If the team needs Rollin or Paris to impersonate a Mr X who has already appeared in the episode before the impersonation begins, the actor playing Mr X will also play Rollin or Paris impersonating Mr X. Done especially well in the climax of "Illusion" (where it's revealed that the master of ceremonies, who we've been led to believe is Rollin in disguise, is actually Barney - while Rollin is is another disguise!). "The Contender" has Special Guest Sugar Ray Robinson play both his own character, Wesley, and Barney wearing a latex mask disguised as him.
  • Ugly Betty had cast Rebecca Romijn as Alexis Meade from the beginning, but the character did not debut as such until halfway through the first season, and was played by Elizabeth Penn Payne until then. This was mostly done as a Red Herring, as the audience was initially meant to believe she was actually the recently deceased Fey Sommers.
  • Arrowverse:
    • The Flash (2014) pulls this off as early as Season One, casting Tom Cavanagh as Harrison Wells only to later reveal that the character is Eobard Thawne in disguise, with his true form played by Matt Letscher. Cavanagh would remain on the show, playing various alternate-universe counterparts of Dr. Wells. In Season Two, Tony Todd and Ryan Handley provide the voice and body respectively for the new masked Big Bad, Zoom, to disguise his true identity as Hunter Zolomon (Teddy Sears), who is posing as Jay Garrick, with the real Jay being the Earth-3 self of Henry Allen (John Wesley Shipp). In Season Three, the same trick is used, with Tobin Bell providing the voice of Doctor Alchemy, who is actually Julian Albert Desmond (Tom Felton). In a rare twist, the voice of the disguise has plot significance: The voice actually belongs to Savitar, who is using Julian (who wasn't even aware that he was Alchemy) as an avatar to serve his purposes. Then it turns out in 3x20 that the voice is still a disguise, and "Savitar" is really an evil future version of Barry Allen (Grant Gustin).
    • Legends of Tomorrow does this in its first season. The heavily armored and masked time-traveling bounty hunter Chronos is played in-costume by Jordan Davis and voiced by Steve Blum to hide the Mid-Season Twist that he's actually Mick Rory (Dominic Purcell) captured and brainwashed by the Time Masters.
    • Arrow uses the same dubbing trick in Season Five, casting Michael Dorn to provide the voice of Prometheus, who is actually apparent ally Adrian Chase, birth name Simon Morrison, played by Josh Segarra. Vigilante is voiced by Mick Wingert, who voices no other characters on the show. For bonus points, the most famous comics version of Vigilante is named Adrian Chase. They wanted comic fans to realize Chase was a villain, but pointed them at the wrong villain. Vigilante's true identity is that of Vincent Sobel, Dinah's ex-partner and ex-lover, played by Clayton Chitty in Season Five and Johann Urb in Season Six.
  • Leverage:
    • In "The Rashomon Job", each member of the crew tells the story of the night a certain artifact was stolen. The first version of the story, told by Sophie, includes a Southern doctor, an African dignitary, and a blonde waitress, all played by unfamiliar actors; in subsequent retellings, these are revealed to be Eliot, Hardison, and Parker pulling their own heists, and the regular actors swap in to play them.
    • In the series finale, "The Long Goodbye Job", much of the episode is told in flashback: first by Nate, reporting what happened on the job, then by an Interpol agent telling him what she thinks really happened, then the true version. Nate is an Unreliable Narrator, and lied about key details. The police officer in his version, played by another actor, was really Nate himself in disguise. He also claimed Sophie was onstage playing a really awful Lady Macbeth during the break-in; the true version shows Sophie taking part in the con backstage while a different actress plays Lady Macbeth badly, and Sophie plays the part brilliantly at a later performance.
  • MacGyver (1985): When MacGyver is disguised as Lucky Charlie in "Jenny's Chance", unrevealed to the viewer, he is played by Ed Trotta.
  • Heroes has Sylar played by stuntman Ian Quinn for the first few episodes, where he's a shadowy figure whose face is never clearly seen. In the eighth episode, the character is fully introduced and seen clearly, now played by Zachary Quinto.
  • Power Rangers Time Force: Contemptra is played by Valerie Vernon but her human disguise is played by Rachelle Pettinato.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Applied by WCW, when it was felt the Sting/Ric Flair feud had run its course. Enter "The Black Scorpion", a new opponent for Sting whose face was concealed. The Reveal was to be Ultimate Warrior, but WCW couldn't contract him in the end. Still, it had a promising way to play the trope straight with Ole Anderson, but he suffered an injury. So they went with the anticlimactic but still straight option of revealing The Black Scorpion was actually, Ric Flair!
  • Subverted in TNA, where it became incredibly obvious Suicide was Christopher Daniels, to the point commentators and other wrestlers started pointing out after Daniels had handed the suit back over to Frankie Kazarian. In the end, none of the wrestlers of various fame who ever wore the Suicide suit ended up being Suicide for real, as he ended up being the player's main create a wrestler for TNA's video game. It Makes Sense in Context.
  • When the Undertaker's wife Sarah was being pursued by a mysterious man using a disguised voice, deduction work by Internet fans revealed that the voice belonged to WWE Chairman (and In-Universe Big Bad) Vince McMahon. However when The Reveal actually came about, the stalker turned out to be Diamond Dallas Page.

    Puppet Shows 

    Radio 
  • AREM (voiced by Bob Lutrell) is an alias Robert Mitchell (voiced by Steve Burns) uses in Adventures in Odyssey. Justified in that AREM is a computer voice Robert uses to hide his identity.
  • The main gimmick of the Big Finish Doctor Who audio "The Maltese Penguin" is that the Shapeshifter main character, Frobisher, takes on the form of the Sixth Doctor throughout the majority of the story, meaning most of his dialogue is performed by Sixth Doctor actor Colin Baker imitating Frobisher's exaggerated Boston accent. It's especially obvious that it was done for the fun of it by the fact that no confusion between Frobisher and the Doctor ever comes up - everyone immediately knows who he is and the actual Doctor is comfortable with it, and even shows up as a Drop-In Character talking to himself at times.

    Theatre 
  • Ingeniously played with in the stage version of Witness for the Prosecution. The cast list includes "The Other Woman," and the audience is led to believe that this is the old woman who gives evidence to the lawyers. Nope; the old woman is Romaine in disguise, and is played by that actress, while "The Other Woman" appears several seconds after that reveal.
  • In Drood, Detective Datchery is always played by the same actress as Drood, despite the fact that another character of the audience's choosing will reveal later on that they were the detective in disguise the entire time.
  • In Wicked, the opening scene shows Elphaba's mother dancing with a strange man with a green bottle whose face is not clearly seen. He is actually the Wizard of Oz, who learns at the end of the show that he is Elphaba's biological father. In both of these flashback scenes, the strange man is played by an uncredited ensemble member lip-syncing to a recording of the actor playing the Wizard.
  • In Spies Are Forever, Joe Walker plays The Deadliest Man Alive. At the climax of the show, he leaves the stage to remove his "mask" and comes back onstage to reveal his true identity of Owen Carvour, played by Joey Richter, who was presumed dead after the opening scene.

    Video Games 
  • Generally true in Danganronpa for Toko Fukawa and her Superpowered Evil Side Genocide Jack. In the English dub of the first game, the actor who plays Toko and the actor who plays Jack are two different people. This also extends to Toko and Jack's appearance in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, where the two actors reprise their roles as the two different personalities of the same person.
  • The RED Spy when he's disguised as BLU Scout in Team Fortress 2's "Meet The Spy" video is voiced by the latter's VA until The Reveal. In-game, when a Spy is disguised, he also uses the same voice clips as the class he's disguised as.
  • In Batman: The Telltale Series, the leader of the Children of Arkham is voiced by Steve Blum, until the reveal that she is really Vicki Vale.
  • A very odd inversion occurs in Myst IV: Revelation. Pretty early on, it's established that Sirrus (Brian Wrench) is still evil and that you'll ultimately have to fight him. While this is technically true, by the time you face off with him he's now disguised as Yeesha and is thus now being played by Yeesha's actress, Juliette Gosselin. It's also notable in that The Reveal is done without the non-mask actor being shown.
  • In the first Icewind Dale game, John Kassir plays Sinister Minister Poquelin, later revealed to be the archdevil Belhifet, while David Ogden Stiers plays the narrator, who is also later revealed to be Belhifet. Then, for good measure, once The Reveal is made, the character breaks into a fit of demonic laughter and (for his remaining 20 seconds of screentime) is played by Jim Cummings.
  • Another BioWare title, the first Baldur's Gate game, does this too. When Sarevok, first approaches you as his alias, Koveras, he just uses one of the stock voices you've already heard several times earlier in the game ("You need something, stranger?"). However, if you're fast enough to click on him as he is leaving, you'll hear Kevin Michael Richardson's very distinct voice instead.
  • Done in-universe in Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People: Dangeresque 3: The Criminal Projective. Strong Sad plays five informants, one of which is actually Perducci (The King of Town) in disguise, but Strong Sad continues playing the role until The Reveal.
  • In Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando, the thief is voiced by Rodger Bumpass. That is, until his voice modulator falls off and he is revealed to be Angela Cross, voiced by Kath Soucie.
  • Played for Laughs in Psychonauts, where the thin, agile Phantom turns out to be the morbidly obese inner critic Jasper rather than the more obvious suspect, Becky. Of course, since this all takes place in a crazy woman's brain this is somewhat justified.
  • In BioShock Karl Hanover voices Atlas, the Voice with an Internet Connection who guides you through most of the game. Two thirds of the way into the game, it is revealed that Atlas is really the alter-ego of Big Bad Frank Fontaine, who is voiced by Greg Baldwin. This is averted in later games, however, where Karl Hanover plays both Fontaine and Atlas.
  • In BioShock Infinite, Booker DeWitt and Zachary Hale Comstock have different actors, despite the fact they're alternate reality versions of the same person. Justified since Comstock is a prematurely aged version of Booker. This is reversed in the Burial at Sea DLC. The player character has Booker's voice, but is actually a version of Comstock. This makes sense as he's prematurely aged somewhat through use of the Lutece device, but not as much as the Comstock from the main game.
  • In Remothered: Tormented Fathers, Richard Felton is voiced by Adam Harrington, while Olivia Steele voices the mysterious Madwoman in the Attic. The woman is later revealed to be Jennifer, Richard's Split Personality.
  • Toonstruck: David Ogden Stiers is credited as the voice of King Hugh, however, we never actually see or hear the real King Hugh. The Hugh seen in-game is actually Fluffy Fluffy Bun Bun, voiced by Tress MacNeille, in disguise, having locked the real King Hugh away somewhere in order to impersonate him.
  • Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin: As the hero party enters the Chaos Shrine to rescue Princess Sarah, they encounter a warrior in a heavy suit of armor, who they assume is the knight Garland. Surely enough, this person is voiced by Christopher Sabat, Garland's voice actor from Dissidia Final Fantasy, but in actuality, this person is a woman named Neon who assumed this form out of despair, while the real Garland is the main protagonist Jack, voiced by Mocean Melvin.

    Visual Novel 

    Web Animation 
  • Very much played for laughs in this Homestar Runner cartoon, where Missy Palmer voices a character who...turns out to definitely not be Marzipan.

    Web Original 
  • Critical Role:
    • Episode 99 of the first campaign has the party meet up with the crimelord "Aes Adan", a.k.a "The Meat Man", who claims to have inherited the title from the one who previously possessed it: a former party member who was Put on a Bus. The party doesn't buy it, but Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer keeps up the facade by playing him as he would any other NPC... until the party proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's really Scanlan under a Disguise Self spell, upon which Scanlan's player Sam Riegel takes over.
    • In the "Echoes of the Solstice" oneshot, Sam appears to be reprising the role of Veth, while Matt plays her now-teenaged son Luc like he would any other NPC. It's not until the rest of the Nein teleport away that Sam switches to playing Luc, who barrels into the teleportation circle after them and joins them for the oneshot while Veth stays behind.

    Western Animation 
  • In The Spectacular Spider-Man, Steve Blum voices the Green Goblin, but not his civilian identity, Norman Osborn, voiced by Alan Rachins. In the final episode Norman Osborn has the Chameleon, who is also voiced by Steve Blum, impersonate Norman while he fights Spider-Man as the Goblin.
  • An episode of U.S. Acres had a character who looked and sounded like Orson Pig (voiced by Gregg Berger), but is later revealed to be Lanolin (voiced by Julie Payne) wearing a rubber mask.
  • Batman: The Animated Series
    • The episode "Almost Got 'Im" focused on a meeting among various members of the rogue's gallery as they swap stories. Near the end, it turns out that Killer Croc is actually Batman in disguise, despite Croc clearly being played by his regular voice actor up until that point.
    • At the end of "The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne" Hugo Strange gloats to Batman about discovering his secret identity as Bruce Wayne, and rubs it in his face that even if he kept his Rogues Gallery from finding the truth out he'll still know and find a way to expose him. Strange immediately shuts up when Bruce Wayne suddenly appears next to Batman and reveals that the two have been working together in a sting operation to catch Strange. After the scientist is carted off to prison, "Bruce's" voice suddenly changes and he pulls his mask off, revealing it was Dick Grayson impersonating Bruce, doubling as a Chekhov's Gunman since Robin hadn't been seen since the first scene.
    • In "Judgment Day", the Judge is voiced by Malachi Throne, concealing the fact that he is a new personality manifested by Two-Face. It doubles as a sly Actor Allusion: Malachi Throne is no stranger to the Batman franchise, having played the Master of Disguise villain False Face in the Adam West series. Well, he's still a false face here!
  • And for a DCAU trifecta, when Superman impersonated Batman in the Superman: The Animated Series episode "Knight Time", his disguise voice was provided by Kevin Conroy. The tongue-in-cheek reason? "Precise muscle control." And when he says those words to Robin (Tim Drake) in explaining just how he'll get away with impersonating Batman while Batman himself is missing, he does so using Robin's voice. Which creeps Robin right the hell out.
  • Gargoyles: Jeff Bennett voiced several characters, including Owen Burnett, however, Owen's true form, Puck, was voiced by Brent Spiner, which helped obscure the fact that they were one and the same. It also helped that other members of the third race (Titania, Banshee) had human identities with the same voice as their true form. Additionally, Preston Vogel, the human that inspired Puck's Owen persona, is voiced by a third actor.
  • In the Batman Beyond episode "Payback," Terry suspects that the Youth Counseling employee Howard Lewis is the vigilante Payback, both are voiced by Bill Fagerbakke, but it turns out he’s innocent. The actual perpetrator is Kenny, Dr. Stanton’s son, voiced by Adam Wylie, who feels neglected because his father is too busy helping troubled teenagers to spend time with him.
  • Scooby-Doo
    • Usually villains will have their same voice actor, even when in disguise. There were a few exceptions; in the episode "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts", when the female fortune teller (voiced by June Foray) was revealed to be a man named Big Bob Oakley (voiced by John Stephenson).
    • In the "Scooby's Gold Medal Gambit" episode from The New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show, the Master of Disguise The Chameleon disguises himself as Scooby-Doo at one point in the episode, and his disguised voice was provided by Don Messick instead of his regular (currently unknown) voice actor.
    • The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo had a case of this in the episode "Ship of Ghouls", where the ship captain Ferguson was voiced by Robert Ridgely, but his true identity as a ghost was voiced by Richard Erdman.
    • As an effort to be as realistic as possible, What's New, Scooby-Doo? played this straight though, with the voice of nearly every monster (that was credited, anyway) played by someone other than the voice of the person in the costume.
    • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The Monster of the Week (a vampire) is believed to be Daphne's mom. She even has the same VA, Kath Soucie. From the same series, the Crybaby Clown, voiced by Mark Hamill, is really Baylor Hotner voiced by Matt Lanter. More than any previous series, Mystery Incorporated usually casts different actors as the disguised villains, as the series is more arc-based than previous ones and some identities need to be hidden to keep up the suspense. One exception is when the villains, both in and out of disguise, have the incredibly distinct voices of James Hong and George Takei.
  • Hanna-Barbera did this with their Funny Octopus character Squiddly Diddly. In the episode "Squiddly Double Diddly," an enemy spy disguises himself full-body as Squiddly to infiltrate Bubbleland. Paul Frees, who voiced Squiddly, also voiced the spy (using his Boris Badenov voice), thus enabling the spy to perfectly imitate Squiddly's voice.
  • In the Rocko's Modern Life episode "Pranksters", Filburt (voiced by Doug Lawrence) impersonates Rocko's grandmother by means of a Full-Body Disguise as an April Fools' Day prank on Rocko and Heffer. When in the disguise, "Granny Rocko" is voiced by Carlos Alazraqui (essentially doing a cranky, higher-pitched version of his Rocko voice).
  • The Simpsons:
  • In the Tiny Toon Adventures Christmas special, Buster's guardian angel rabbit "Harvey" is voiced by Dan Castellaneta, but at the end we see he is actually Bugs Bunny in a rubber mask and suit, voiced by Greg Burson in this special.
  • The Transformers:
    • In "War Dawn", Orion Pax is voiced by Laurie Faso to make The Reveal that he becomes Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) more surprising.
    • Zig-zagged in the appropriately named episode "Masquerade". Five Autobots impersonate the captured Stunticons due to "camouflage paint." Windcharger becomes "Wildrider," Jazz becomes "Dead End," Mirage portrays "Drag Strip," "Breakdown" is played by Sideswipe and Optimus Prime mimics "Motormaster." Before they go meet Megatron in disguise, "Drag Strip" is voiced by Frank Welker and "Motormaster" by Peter Cullen (the respective voice actors of Mirage and Optimus). When in disguise around the Decepticons, "Wildrider" is voiced by his usual voice actor, Terry McGovern, while "Motormaster" is played by Roger C. Carmel, Motormaster's voice actor.
  • The Mask had a group session where Dr. Neuman had the villains who fought the Mask recount their experiences. However, it's revealed the real Dr. Neuman was caught in traffic and unable to come, while the Dr. Neuman with them was actually the Mask. Ben Stein voiced Dr. Neuman before the reveal and with a smarm briefly returns as the Mask-as-Dr. Neuman says "Although I play one on TV" (earlier, the Mask admitted he may not be a doctor).
  • The 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles used a "Freaky Friday" Flip to swap the minds of Shredder and Master Splinter in one episode. While they thought in their "real voices" with their appropriate voice actors, they still publicly "spoke in character" - Splinter in Shredder's body was voiced by James Avery and Peter Renaday voiced Shredder in Master Splinter's body.
  • In the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Scorn of the Star Sapphire!", Sapphire is voiced by Vicki Lewis (with an English accent), Carol Ferris is voiced by Rachel Quaintance, and there's also an English-accented reporter who wears purple voiced by Eliza Schneider. As per the comics, Carol is Sapphire, although she uses the reporter as a decoy.
  • Big City Greens: In "Bill-iever", Vasquez, who is voiced by Danny Trejo, is voiced by Roger Craig Smith when in disguise as a government agent to throw Bill off.
  • In the Biker Mice from Mars episode "Hit the Road, Jack", "Asphalt" Jack McCyber falls for a woman named Angel Revson, who turns out to be a female Plutarkian named Romana Parmesana disguising herself as a human woman to manipulate Jack. Romana Parmesana is voiced by Tori Spelling, while Jeannie Garth provides the voice of Parmesana's disguise as Angel Revson.
  • South Park: Kenny's muffled/gritty speaking voice is always performed by Matt Stone. However, in instances where he speaks and doesn't have his hood on, a separate voice actor will play him, to make it less obvious who the character is supposed to be. Case in point: in "The Jeffersons", Stan and Kyle get an unnamed, blonde boy to take part in a scheme. Only after the boy dies does it become apparent who he was supposed to be.
  • Danny Phantom:
    • When Danny discovered his power to overshadow people, his host had his eyes and his voice. It's later demonstrated by other ghosts that those with more experience can hide their eye color and speak in the host's voice.
    • In "The Ultimate Enemy," when Dark Danny transforms himself to resemble his old human form, his voice goes from being Eric Roberts to Danny's usual actor, David Kaufman.
  • Gravity Falls:
    • We twice see Bill Cipher possess someone. The first time (Dipper in "Sock Opera"), the audience knows right away, and so hear Bill's voice when the possessed body spoke. The second time Blendin in "Dipper and Mabel vs the Future", the audience hear the possessed body's voice until Bill reveals himself, maintaining the surprise.
    • In the series finale, Stan and Ford pull a Twin Switch to fool Bill Cipher and, up until Bill sees that he accidentally dealt his way into Stan's mind instead of Ford's, Stan (Alex Hirsch) and Ford (J.K. Simmons) swap voice actors — Stan lampshading to Bill his ability to mimic his brother's voice.
  • In the Darkwing Duck episode "Planet of the Capes," Darkwing travels to superhero Comet Guy's home planet, to take the place of the planet's one powerless citizen Ordinary Guy, so the superheroes have someone to save. Throughout the episode, Darkwing and Comet Guy are unknowingly spied on by a shadowy figure with a deep voice provided by Jim Cummings. The figure eventually shows himself at the end of the second act and ditches his disguise and voice changer, revealing himself to be Ordinary Guy, now voiced by Rob Palillo, who grew sick of Comet Guy putting him in danger to save him all the time and has decided to become a villain.
  • In G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, this is usually done when the Master of Disguise of the episode (or one of the several regular ones with both GI Joe and Cobra) moves about under cover.
    • In at least one case it is also played with. When the Baroness impersonates Lady Jaye in "Lasers in the Night", her lines are spoken by the latter's voice actress, but she does the voice a little hoarser than usual, hinting at an imperfect imitation.
  • In the Mickey MouseWorks short "Donald's Halloween Scare", which was subsequently repackaged as part of the House of Mouse episode "Halloween with Hades" and the Compilation Movie Mickey's House of Villains, Donald's nephews Huey, Dewey and Louie at one point get back at their uncle by disguising themselves as Chief O'Hara. When the disguise is revealed, Louie says "Come back, you maniac" while still wearing the Chief O'Hara mask, with the line being spoken by Corey Burton rather than Russi Taylor.
  • Sofia the First: The Mad God Mamanu is voiced by Angelique Perrin; when pretending to be Leilani in "The Emerald Key", she was voiced by Rachael Pace.
  • In The Superhero Squad Show episode "Deadly is the Black Widow's Bite", Mystique is voiced by Lena Heady both in her real form and when disguised as Black Widow, but when she impersonates Iron Man, Captain America, the Hulk, the Falcon, the Silver Surfer, and Thor, she is voiced by the respective heroes' regular voice actors.
  • In Steven Universe, Pink Diamond's debut episode was a sort of dream/vision in "Jungle Moon". However, the flashback depicting her started off depicting Stevonnie, voice and all. This casting choice does not drop throughout the entire scene. Later in "A Single Pale Rose", Rose Quartz and Pink Diamond are revealed to be the same person, and the prior choice was to prevent using Susan Egan (Rose's voice actress) before The Reveal.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door villain Chester is voiced by Tom Kenny, but when disguised as Dr. Julius B. Sharp in "Operation: S.A.F.A.R.I.", he is voiced by Jess Harnell.
  • An early aversion occurred in the classic Fleischer Popeye short "Hello, How Am I?" when Wimpy disguised as Popeye so he could get to Olive Oyl's house for a hamburger dinner ahead of the real Popeye. Jack Mercer, Popeye's voice actor, also voiced Wimpy. To make it less obvious, Mercer made Wimpy's Popeye imitation sound noticeably different from the real Popeye (sounding somewhat similar to the Professor from the Felix the Cat (Joe Oriolo) cartoons, whom Mercer also voiced).
  • The first episode of Gargoyles features a subversion: the audience is misdirected into believing that the Magus (voiced by Jeff Bennett) is a traitor, when in fact it's the Captain (voiced by Ed Gilbert). When the hooded traitor speaks, it's Gilbert doing a spot-on imitation of Bennett's Magus voice.
  • Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters has Stretch Monster voiced by David Kaye and the late Miguel Ferrer while Wil Wheaton voices Jonathan Rook.
  • Wander over Yonder: Lord Dominator is voiced by Fred Tatasciore while masked and Noël Wells when unmasked.
  • Throughout season 9 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, The Grogar we've been following is voiced by Doc Harris. It turns out to be a disguise for Discord, who's voiced by John de Lancie.
  • In Sidekick, Trevor's dad Mr. Troublemeyer has a different actor depending on whether he's his normal self or his evil Master XOX form: Scott McCord voices Mr. Troublemeyer while Ron Rubin voices Master XOX.
  • In Cleopatra in Space Gohzi, Cleo's friend from Egypt, is voiced by Karan Barr. His true identity is the main villain of the series, Octavian, voiced by Jonathan Kite.
  • In DuckTales (2017) , the Funzo Employee was voiced by Jason Marsden in his first appearance and then by Eric Bauza later on. It's really a disguise for The Phantom Blot, who's voiced by Giancarlo Esposito.
  • The Fairly OddParents! episode "No Substitute for Crazy" has Timmy's teacher Mr. Crocker injured and replaced by a seemingly nicer teacher named Ms. Sunshine, who is voiced by Carolyn Lawrence. After Timmy wishes that Ms. Sunshine was his teacher permanently, she reveals her true colors as a fairy hunter far more competent than Crocker known as Ms. Doombringer, who is voiced by Susanne Blakeslee.
  • The Owl House: Emperor Belos (Matthew Rhys) and Philip Wittebane (Alex Lawther) turn out to be the same person in different periods of his life. It's implied Belos becoming a Life Drinking Humanoid Abomination changed his voice, as part of The Reveal has both actors' performances layered together.
  • The Johnny Bravo episode "Bravo Dooby Doo", a Scooby-Doo crossover, has Johnny and the gang menaced by a Ghostly Gardener voiced by Greg Burson. The ghost is eventually unmasked as Johnny's Aunt Jebidisa, voiced by B. J. Ward.
  • The Wacky Adventures of Ronald McDonald: The first video Scared Silly has Ronald McDonald and friends confront a Phantom Head voiced by Patrick Pinney, who is eventually revealed to be a hologram controlled by a boy named Franklin, who is voiced by Alex D. Linz.
  • Adventure Time:
    • In "The Lich", the titular character kills Billy and wears his skin as a disguise to manipulate Finn and Jake. He is voiced by Lou Ferrigno while wearing Billy's skin and Ron Perlman when his true identity is revealed.
    • AMO is played by Chuck McCann while disguising as his creator Moe. When he drops his disguise, he's played by Thu Tran.
  • The Series Finale of The Amazing World of Gumball used this along with Medium Blending. The villain is a real life human named Superintendent Evil, played by actor Garrick Hagon, note  but is revealed to be a disguise of regular series villain Rob, voiced by Charles Phillip.

 
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