Playing Against Type / Web Original

• Most fans know YouTube star Toby Turner for playing comedic roles, but they got an unexpected surprise when Toby appeared on BlackBoxTV episode "This Is For You Baby!" as a vengeful boyfriend and psychopathic murderer. The writers state in the commentary that they picked Toby for the role precisely because people were used to him being funny.
• Nathan Fillion, known for playing roguish heroes, as the self-absorbed Captain Hammer in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.
• Felicia Day, known for playing nerdy, wholesome, awkward girls, plays the rogue elf assassin Tallis in Dragon Age: Redemption. She wrote the part for herself.
• Kyle Hebert is a voice actor who usually plays badass heroic roles, such as Ryu, Gohan, Kiba Inuzuka and Kamina, or badass villainous roles like Kazuya Mishima and Sosuke Aizen. In the live-action web-series There Will Be Brawl, though, he plays the backstabbing, cowardly Jerkass Wario.
• Orlando Belisle Jr. is a martial artist/actor that often guest stars on Channel Awesome videos, most notably as the Light Is Not Good angel Roger in The Nostalgia Critic and as Malachite in Suburban Knights. In To Boldly Flee, however, he plays a stereotypically nerdy IT guy.
• Elijah Wood's role in Red vs. Blue as Sigma, an incredibly creepy AI who's single-handedly responsible for corrupting Agent Maine and turning him into the psychopathic Meta.
• Samantha Ireland, who played the bitter and depressed Agent Connecticut in Red vs. Blue, plays Motor Mouth Fun Personified Nora Valkyrie in RWBY.
  • Also Jen Brown, known for playing as the competitive and tragic Anti-Hero Agent Carolina, voices the relaxed and friendly Humble Hero Pyrrha Nikos.
• The Backwater Gospel: Lucien Dodge's roles are more often than not youthful do-gooders. Here, he plays the Minister, an antagonistic old man.
• Large Ham Chris Jericho combines this with Adam Westing as the Only Sane Man on But I'm Chris Jericho!.
  • A weird example: Christian Potenza's character Ryan is just as ditzy as you'd expect. The surprise is him playing a non animated character for once
• Michael Swaim of Cracked is a sociopath in Agents of Cracked and a sociopath in After Hours. Then comes Rom.com, where he's the voice of reason.
• In RWBY, Miles Luna plays well-meaning and heroic Butt-Monkey Jaune Arc. In Red vs. Blue, he plays The Ace Felix who's Only in It for the Money, and Evil All Along. In a chilling scene, Felix reveals he was never the heroes' friend and can't wait to terminate them, and has no problem with dropping a nuke on innocent civilians.
  • And continuing onward, Lindsay Jones plays the childish and loveable Little Red Fighting Hood Ruby Rose. Red Vs Blue, she plays the serious rebel leader and Reasonable Authority Figure Vanessa Kimball. In X-Ray & Vav, she plays isolated Jerk with a Heart of Gold Mad Scientist Hilda.
  • Adding to that, Josh Grelle, who regularly plays Nice Guy harem protagonists, is completely unrecognizable as the Axe-Crazy Giggling Villain Tyrian. Josh even went on record saying that he enjoyed the role.
  • And Christopher Sabat, who normally voices ultra loud, ultra manly characters played Dr. Watts, who is elegant and composed.
• Brad Jones tends to play outright psychos at worst and jerkasses at best. However one of his earlier films, a romantic comedy called Game Boys, he's actually an honest to God romantic lead who's most negative quality is his immaturity.
  • Speaking of Jones, the pilot to Lloyd features Allison Pregler (who is mostly known for her wacky and occasionally childish persona) as Lloyd's annoyed and not at all wacky date.
• Mike Ginn's most well known role is playing Gem, a hyperactive Heroic Comedic Sociopath who's also the Gold Ranger in PowerRangersRPM. In Ten Candles, Mike has gone to show different shades of his whole acting repertoire, from tough guys to meek men.
• As mentioned on the Western Animation page for this trope, Richard Steven Horvitz is usually known for playing comedic Large Ham-type characters (i.e. Invader Zim). Helluva Boss, however, sees him play the long-suffering, more subdued Only Sane Man Moxxie. He also voices Moxxie's abusive father Crimson, a sinister and menacing crime boss played almost entirely seriously.
  • Parry Gripp is primarily known for composing seriously catchy children's music and novelty songs. The songs he composed for the pilot, the "I.M.P. Jingle" and "Oh Millie" are, while just as cheerful and upbeat as his usual work in melody, a commercial jingle for an assassin business and a love song about an assassin's killing skills respectively.
  • Erica Lindbeck, who is usually known for voicing energetic, snarky, and/or nice girls, voices the foul-mouthed and aloof Loona. Even more notable since Millie, who fits perfectly under her normal typecast, was re-casted with Vivian Nixon.
  • Cristina Valenzuela voices Verosika Mayday, who's a foul-mouthed succubus Alpha Bitch, a far cry from the Nice Girls or Broken Birds she normally plays.

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