Everyone remembers Mel Blanc. Without his expert voice-overs for nearly every Warner Brothers cartoon ever, there might not have been the influx of exceptionally talented actors we have today. Voice-over acting is as much an exercise in insanity as it is an art form. It takes some folks years to perfect their craft, and others are just so natural that the voices are mere shadows of their own. But any way it comes, voicing cartoons is a special talent, and these ten performers have provided the voices for some of the most well-known animated characters in the last twenty years.
Kristen Schaal
Toons She's Voiced: Louise on Bob's Burgers, Trixie in Toy Story 3, Mable Pines on Gravity Falls.
Most Beloved Character: Probably HBO's Flight of the Conchords as the stalker/fan Mel, but Louise is a close second.
Dee Bradley Baker
Toons He's Voiced: Daffy Duck and the Tazmanian Devil in Space Jam, Maurice from Happy Feet, a Nazi Zombie from The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, Squilliam Fancyson on Spongebob Squarepants, Klaus on American Dad.
Most Beloved Character:Phineas and Ferb's Perry the Platypus.
Nancy Cartwright
Toons She's Voiced: Gilda Gossip from Galaxy High School, Pistol Pete from Goof Troop, Mindy from Animaniacs, B.J. from Barney and Friends, Lu from Mike, Lu and Og, various Simpsons Characters including Ralph Wiggum and Nelson.
Most Beloved Character: Bart Simpson.
Kevin Conroy
Toons He's Voiced: Drake from the Crusaders of Might and Magic video game, John Grayson from The Batman TV series, Alien X from Ben 10 Alien Force, Captain Sunshine from The Venture Bros.
Most Beloved Character: Batman
And just for fun and contrast, here's Mark Hamill as The Joker:
Tress MacNeille
Toons She's Voiced: Dolph and Lunchlady Doris on The Simpsons, Daisy Duck on Mickey Mouse Club, Chip and Gadget from Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, and her famous non-toon role as Lucy from Weird Al's Ricky video.
Most Beloved Character: A tie between her role as Mom on Futurama and Agnes Skinner on The Simpsons.
Tara Strong
Toons She's Voiced: Dil Pickles from Rugrats, Bubbles from The Powerpuff Girls, Timmy Turner from The Fairly Odd Parents, Raven on Teen Titans, Ben Tennyson on Ben 10, Twilight Sparkle on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.
Most Beloved Character: Batgirl
John DiMaggio
Toons He's Voiced: Barbados Slim and Elzar from Futurama, The Joker from Batman: Under the Red Hood, General Grievous on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Gorilla Grodd from Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Most Beloved Character: A tie between Jake from Adventure Time and Futurama's Bender.
H. John Benjamin
Toons He's Voiced: Bob on Bob's Burgers, Carl on Family Guy, The Master from The Venture Bros., Coach McGuirk from Home Movies.
Most Beloved Character: Sterling Archer
Ralph Garman
Toons He's Voiced: Nearly every background voice not provided by Seth himself on Family Guy, as well as any celebrity voice they couldn't actually get.
Most Beloved Character: Probably Adam West on various projects, including to West himself. Otherwise, his myriad of voices on "Hollywood Babylon" on Kevin Smith's SModcast Internet Radio podcast.
Billy West
Toons He's Voiced: Doug Funnie and Roger Klotz from Doug, Stimpy (and eventually Ren) and Mr. Horse from Ren and Stimpy, Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd from Space Jam, Shaggy from Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, Zim from Invader Zim, the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee.
Most Beloved Character: A group tie between his many roles on Futurama: Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, and Zapp Brannigan.
Check out our two part interview with Billy West on The Gunaxin Show! Part 1 – Part 2
