Pigeonholed Voice Actor

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"Nolan North isn't just doing the same voice in every game, he's doing the same character." —Unskippable

A form of Typecasting where a Voice Actors is irrevocably linked to a certain personality type they play, especially the character who made them famous. Extremely common in Japan, where merely seeing a picture of the character and knowing the name of their actor can sometimes give you a fairly accurate idea of what they'll be like. Actors wary of this sometimes do 'breakout roles' to subvert this.

This a controversial situation, because some animation buffs consider versatility more impressive than anything (a major legacy of Mel Blanc). Keep in mind that Tropes Are Not Bad. It explains why some western voice actors are considered sub par; actors with a long resume usually take a few episodes to really get the hang of their character. In fact, there are some voice actors that fans feel that the roles they are typecast into are appropriate for their range.

Aside from name recognition, this may also be another factor in choosing a Hollywood actor to do voice work in a movie where they are essentially playing themselves and will fall into the role naturally.

Compare Hey, It's That Guy! and Hey, It's That Voice!. If it's two voice actors in a pigeonholed relationship, it becomes Relationship Voice Actor. Contrast Man of a Thousand Voices, although do note that it is possible for some of the typecast voice actors to have a wide range, just unable to do so for obvious reasons. If the actor's later roles are specifically designed to imitate an earlier, successful role, the first one is a Fountain of Expies.

Note that this does not refer to there being at least one more character than there are actors, thereby forcing at least one actor to play the role of two or more characters.

Examples of Pigeonholed Voice Actor include:

English Voice Actors

• Crispin Freeman, with his gruff and unmistakably badass voice, is mostly cast in roles as an intimidating and/or incredibly badass characters. While he has recently taken on many less intimidating roles in which his voice isn't gruff in the slightest (to the point of doing a convincing Orlando Bloom impression for playing Will Turner in most video games based on or featuring Pirates of the Caribbean), he is most known for such characters as Alucard from Hellsing, Albedo from Xenosaga, Albel from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Itachi from Naruto, Holland Novak from Eureka Seven, Rude from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Regal in Tales of Symphonia, Baldur in Too Human, Overlord Zetta in Makai Kingdom, Heat in Digital Devil Saga, Siegfried in SoulCalibur 3 and Electro in The Spectacular Spider-Man.
  • He's also placed as a normal/straight man in extraordinary circumstances: Kyon in Haruhi Suzumiya, Togusa in the Ghost in the Shell series, and a journalist in Hitman: Blood Money. Also, ironically enough, Zelgadis in Slayers, despite him looking the weirdest, is also often the Only Sane Man.
  • Crispin Freeman has also been cast in the "Dark, Quiet, Brooding Goth Guy" role: Haji in Blood Plus and Amon in Witch Hunter Robin.
    • And Karasu from Noein, Alex Rowe from Last Exile, Fuuma from X 1999, Nigredo from Xenosaga, Tsume from Wolfs Rain, round out his dark, brooding, cool guy schtick. He should have played Genosuke in Basilisk Folken from The Vision of Escaflowne and Zagato from Magic Knight Rayearth. They would have been perfect for him.
    • Crispin Freeman tends to gravitate to either a raging sociopath voice, like Albel in Star Ocean 3, or the calm, voice of reason (like with Kyon). Also, note that in Xenosaga, he plays both Albedo AND Negredo: so in Xenosaga Episode II, he talks to himself. To top it off, in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, he actually pulls off both over the course of the game as Captain Hamilton.
    • Thanks to Straight Cougar in S-Cry-ed and Code Geass, he's now a Large Ham as well.
    • He's also Fire Leo from the Viewtiful Joe cartoon. That's a pretty big difference from Alucard, Itachi, or most of his characters.
• Jennifer Hale plays mostly Action Girls in videogames, such as Junko Zane from Freelancer, Silver Sable in Ultimate Spider-Man and Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the female version of Commander Shepard from Mass Effect and of Jaden Kor from Jedi Outcast, Bastila in Knights of the Old Republic, Prier in La Pucelle, Sheena in Tales of Symphonia, the Scarlet Witch in X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse, and Alexandra Roivas from Eternal Darkness. An exception would be Xel'otath, the Ancient from this same game, or Fall-From-Grace from Planescape: Torment (though Fall-From-Grace is still a intelligent and capable woman). She's also Samus. Oh, and both June the bounty hunter and Avatar Kyoshi from Avatar: The Last Airbender.
  • Hale also voiced the Scarlet Witch in Iron Man: The Animated Series, Black Cat in the '90s Spider-Man, Zatanna in Justice League Unlimited, Ms. Marvel in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, etc.
  • She was also Mallory from The Mighty Ducks cartoon.
  • And Jessie Bannon in the second season of Jonny Quest the Real Adventures. Yeah, Action Girl is pretty much her schtick.
  • Some notable exceptions include Ms. Keane in The Powerpuff Girls, and Disney's current voice of Cinderella.
  • Played to type in P.N.03 with the main character Vanessa Z. Schneider and flipped with the client who is a clone of the main character.
  • She is also apparently the only person allowed to voice Killer Frost.
• Gary Chalk, whose most notable voice work has been as Optimus Prime/Primal in many of the Transformers series, tends to play authoritative, military, or police roles (Such as the Russian general in Stargate SG-1). He has played other roles, however, and his live action career is somewhat broader.
  • Well, he was Grounder...
    • And Man-At-Arms in the 2002 Masters of the Universe series.
    • And also Slash from ReBoot.
  • Opposite him was David Kaye though, who was nearly EVERY Megatrona and Galvatron in English Transformers series until Transformers Animated in which he was Optimus Prime.
• Speaking of Transformers, Peter Cullen, who is most remembered as the voice of Optimus Prime in the first animated series, is so strongly associated with the role, fans actually successfully petitioned for him to reprise the role in the 2007 live-action movie. It also happens to be one of his two favorite roles, the other being Eeyore. He's also done work in other series, such as Voltron, and was the main announcer for Toonami.
  • Likewise, Frank Welker (see below for additional roles), as a consolation to fans when a similar petition could not overcome the awesome that was Hugo Weaving's voice, reprised the role of Megatron for the movie's video-game incarnations. He's also the voice actor for Soundwave, another character he voiced in the original animated series, in the sequel.
• Patrick Warburton's another American example. His deep, burly voice means that he makes the perfect voice for a muscle-bound type, many of whom are quite moronic. In an unusual twist, Warburton is also able to play these types in live action as well (see Fox's live version of The Tick, for example), since he is tall, fit, and quite muscular. See him as Kronk in The Emperor's New Groove, Brock Sampson on The Venture Brothers, Mr. Steve Barkin on Kim Possible, or Joe on Family Guy.
  • It was fans of the original TV series who decided he should play Hymie in the Get Smart movie.
• Mark Hamill, in contrast to his live action typecasting as ingenue heroes like Luke Skywalker and "Maverick" Blair, has been typecast in animation as a player of deranged villains like the Joker, whom he portrayed masterfully in Batman the Animated Series.
  • He also voiced Musuka, the power-mad government agent, in the English dub of Castle in The Sky.
  • Other roles includes such Big Bads as the Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, and Adrian Ripburger in Full Throttle.
  • Don't forget Solomon Grundy and the Trickster in Justice League (he was actually reprising the Trickster from the live-action series The Flash), and Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, and a ton of other stuff.
  • Also Mr. Selatcia in Metalocalypse
  • He was also Majima in the American release of Yakuza (Ryu ga Gotoku).
  • Hamill also voiced the Hobgoblin in Spider-Man the Animated Series, and Maximus the Mad in Fantastic Four.
  • Played the deranged mad scientist Klaw in Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes, but he at least got to do a German accent.
  • Averted somewhat with one of his roles in Metalocalypse, Jean-Pierre, a chef sewn back together wrong.
  • Converted into a live action pigeonholing in Kevin Smith's Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, where he played the super-villain Cock-Knocker.
  • This may now be somewhat self-afflicted; judging by his cameo as himself playing Luke Skywalker in the Robot Chicken Star Wars special, years of playing raspy-voiced villains (plus natural aging) have made his voice permanently rough and sandpapery.
  • Skipps in Regular Show.
  • Master Eraqus from Kingdom Hearts, anyone?
• Kevin Conroy, who will "always" be known as the voice of Batman.
  • This is actually Justified Trope, due to the fact that he loves that role and has no problems being instantly recognized as Batman.
  • During 9/11, he was helping with supplying water and stuff to firefighters and rescued people. Someone figured out who he was and told others, who didn't believe him. Kevin proceeded to do the Batman voice to prove it.
• Tim Curry usually provides the voice for villains, with the exception of Nigel Thornberry and Gabriel Knight (twice). An example is Ben Ravencroft from Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost . This probably stems from the fact that his most famous role was as Dr. Frank-N-Furter.
  • Then again, he was Princess Sally's father, King Maximilian in Sonic Sat AM.
  • Don't forget Pennywise in IT!
  • Not to mention the Devil himself.
  • He also played the villain in a different type of legend.
• Similarily, Clancy Brown is known for being typecast as iniquitous characters. His best-known portrayal is probably Lex Luthor of the DCAU and Long Feng in Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as the more lovably greedy Mr. Krabs of SpongeBob SquarePants. He, too, can pull this off in live action, as his performance in The Shawshank Redemption will attest.
  • You're forgetting The Kurgan.
  • And Mr. Freeze.
  • And Doctor Neo Cortex.
  • And Montross.
  • It's beginning to seem that he's actually been typecast as "bald guy".
  • There's also Wolf.
    • He also played the villain of the first episode (And a few others, later), the Viking leader Hakon. This was most notable when Hakon and Wolf shared an episode, in which it was revealed that Wolf was Haakon's descendant.
  • In Transformers Prime, he plays Silas, the cruel and cold leader of MECH, who seems obsessed with cutting up Transformers.
  • However, he's also voiced Captain Black and, more recently^[when?], Captain George Stacy, who are anything but iniquitous. Averted in a somewhat cool way in Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm, in which he voiced Raiden - a role that had been played in The Movie by Christopher Lambert.
  • Parallax
• Many of Grey De Lisle's characters are notably similar, often cast as some form of bitchy teenager, ranging from the bossy and overbearing (Mandy from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy) to the sociopathic (Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender) to the flat-out criminally insane (Vicky from The Fairly OddParents). DeLisle herself has said this is contrary to how she thinks of herself as "a sweet pollyanna type", a role she finally got to play in Baldurs Gate 2 with Nalia de'Arnise, although she also played Dark Magical Girl Viconia deVir. She also plays Kimiko.
  • While Nalia could be considered "sweet", she's undoubtedly also a bitchy teenager. A rich bitchy teenager. Still, she means well, which is more than can be said for most other characters Grey DeLisle plays...
  • Of course, in Avatar: The Last Airbender she also plays Roku's wife and Katara and Sokka's mom.
    • She does play the bitchy, nymphomaniac party-girl Jeanette and her straight-A counterpart Therese in Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines...
  • Subversion, Sam Manson is a goth. Despite outside appearances, goth girls are nice, Perky Goth, and fun.
  • Another subversion, Frankie Foster is pretty nice and sweet, she just has her patience tested by living in the freakshow that is Foster's.
  • She played Lor McQuarry in The Weekenders, who started off overbearing and insensitive but later toned down to simply competitive and rather ditzy.
  • An aversion - DeLisle also voices Wubbzy of Wow Wow Wubbzy.
  • And a complete aversion when she does sweet, kind-hearted could-do-no-wrong Emily Elizabeth in Clifford the Big Red Dog.
  • It's safe to say that she has 3 main voice types: the bitchy teenage girl, the sweet/annoying kid, and the strong villainess.
  • Averted when she played Penny's Mom in Bolt, whose voice's wholesome, motherly qualities rival those of Laurie Metcalf in Toy Story.
• Keith David usually plays monstrous/alien/conniving characters when voice acting, like Goliath from Gargoyles, Spawn, and The Arbiter. He also does excellent narration.
  • Dr. Facilier
  • The Cat
  • Captain Anderson
  • Chaos
• The late Chris Latta had a monopoly on playing slimy subservient villains in 80s cartoons, using pretty much the same screechy voice each time out; G.I. Joe's Cobra Commander, Starscream from Transformers, D'Compose from Inhumanoids, Cravex from Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light, and Rasp on Dino Riders, although the first two are his more famous roles.
  • Although partially averted in Transformers; he also played Wheeljack and Sparkplug Witwicky and the heroic Gung Ho in G.I. Joe.
• Six words: Special Vocal Effects by Frank Welker. Pick a monster/alien/animal, and if it doesn't talk comprehensibly, there's a good chance he did it.
  • Welker is so completely ubiquitous that in a commentary track for the Batman Beyond DVDs, the sound effects for a dog in one episode were initially attributed to him before the crew remembered that for that episode they used a recording of an actual dog.
  • And of course he's the voice of Fred in Scooby Doo.
    • And currently^[when?], Scooby-Doo too!
  • And Ray Stantz on The Real Ghostbusters.
  • And Megatron in Transformers. (And Soundwave. And Frenzy. And Rumble...)
  • And Nibbler in Futurama...
  • And Pegasus in Disney's Hercules... etc, etc, etc...
• Dee Bradley Baker also frequently does monstrous, non-human voices. Teen Titans fans will know him as literally any grunting beastie, such as Plasmus, Cinderblock, or Overload (who was voiced by someone else in the one episode in which he actually speaks) as well as Larry. In Avatar: The Last Airbender he voices all of the animals in the show, from a flying lemur to a giant flying bison. Also a hippie "nomad".
  • He is a monument to all your sins.
  • He's also a semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal of ACTION!
  • However, this also extends to non-human characters that can speak, which includes the Gravemind from Halo, Klaus (a goldfish with a human brain) from American Dad, pretty much every male non-human in WITCH (except Blunk and Thynar; they were both Steve Blum), and Olmec the giant talking animatronic Olmec head on Legends of the Hidden Temple (where he's also the announcer). He's also done human roles that vary wildly from the titular character of Viewtiful Joe to Numbuh 4 from Codename: Kids Next Door.
    • Don't forget Squilliam Fancyson from SpongeBob SquarePants.
  • He's also done most of the Omnitrix aliens on Ben 10 Alien Force.
  • He was Taz in Space Jam, who is MEANT to have a monstrous, non-human voice.
  • Currently^[when?], he voices the Clone Troopers in Star Wars the Clone Wars. All of them. However, his attempts at imitating the New Zealand accent of the man that voice/played them and Jango Fett in the prequels make him sound like an adult Numbuh 4.
  • Other works that he voices animals/monsters in are Spore and Batman the Brave And The Bold, and in the latter various minor villains (in the first and third episode he was the villain in the Batman Cold Open and then a small alien and dolphin respectively).
• When you need a deep, resonant black man's voice to say something really important, there's one really obvious go-to guy: James Earl Jones.
  • In a Star Wars special on E!, a comedian said that when watching Return of the Jedi, he got shocked that Darth Vader, that seemed to be a huge black man with that armor and voice, was actually white.
  • And if James Earl Jones isn't available, there's always Keith David. He even replaced Jones as Mufasa in House of Mouse.
    • Or Michael Clarke Duncan.
    • Or Dennis Haysbert.
    • Or Kevin Michael Richardson! Who actually replaced Keith David as the voice of Tombstone in The Spectacular Spider-Man after the first episode.
    • Or Beau Billingslea.
    • Are you sure Keith David isn't interested?
• Voice actress Monica Rial is well-known for her work for ADV Films, where she has accumulated a resume filled with quiet, withdrawn or depressed girls with soft, high-pitched, whispery voices, such as Kirika, Saki, Lila, and Rokugou.
  • Lampshaded in an audio commentary for Angelic Layer, where she was cast against type as a Genki Girl. Her recent^[when?] work with FUNimation on Mahou Sensei Negima also cast her against type in three roles, with Konoka's high-pitched exuberance, Kazumi's brassy near-Valley Girl, and stolid Yotsuba's lower, slower tones. She can also pull out more tomboyish roles, like the tough kunoichi Okoi in Basilisk.
    • Complete subversion in her role as Jo in Burst Angel.
  • She does use the same voice alot when playing young girls (which I don't feel she does convincingly). However, I had trouble recognizing her in more mature roles such as in Innocent Venus, Kurau Phantom Memory, and Claymore. I had trouble believing she was actually the Vice Commander in Innocent Venus and could swear the credits were wrong! It was just so different from the voice I was used to hearing from her.
  • Her roles as Ai from Shin Chan and Momoka from Sgt. Frog adds the Rich Bitch Spoiled Brat types to her resume as well. Not to mention her role as Bulma from Dragon Ball Kai.
  • As of lately^[when?], Monica seems to be adding stalkers and creepy girls to her list as well. (Black Cat, Bamboo Blade, Origin: Spirits of the Past, Axis Powers Hetalia, Keroro Gunsou etc.) She actually alludes to this in DVD commentary for Soul Eater ("For once I'm not playing the insane person.")
• As noted above, some voice actors get stuck in roles similar to their live action personas. Three examples:
  • The late Phil Harris played essentially the same role in Disney Animated Canon's The Jungle Book, The Aristocats, and Robin Hood. Walt Disney picked him for Baloo after watching him singing live- his live acts very much depended on his on-camera personality.
  • The same can be said about the late Eva Gabor, who co-starred with Harris in The Aristocats and went on to play a similar role in The Rescuers.
  • A more recent^[when?] example: Gilbert Gottfried the parrot.
• Terrence Stone is seemingly on this track. His two most recent^[when?] VA roles are Mayuri Kurotsuchi in Bleach and a similarly voiced alien (down to the same mannerisms) in a recent^[when?] Gamestop commercial.
• Kevin Michael Richardson usually voices really really big guys, usually in a fantasy or sci-fi setting, and often with a hint of the Scary Black Man. Examples include Sarevok of Baldurs Gate, most of the villains of Viewtiful Joe, and Captain Gantu from Liloand Stitch. However, he currently^[when?] plays that great salvation of every Pigeonholed Voice Actor, The Joker, on The Batman, and also did a fair showing as snarky Old Master Jolee Bindo in Knights of the Old Republic.
  • Trigon in Teen Titans and the lion-turtle in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
    • Also Chairman Drek in Ratchet and Clank and Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars the Clone Wars.
    • Then again, he was also Antauri from Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! which is definitely a change of pace from his usual characters.
    • And now he's Panthro.
• Kath Soucie pretty much has 3 types of roles she plays: The typical Mother, the cute girl, and the bratty little boy. She can voice a whole family if she wants, in fact, she DID in Rugrats, playing twin brother and sister Phil and Lil as well as their mother, Betty. Nonetheless, it's still not hard to tell all three are done by her.
  • This is averted hard on Gargoyles where Greg Weisman said that she voices over 100 characters. All of the main ones she did are completely different from on another.
  • Don't forget Amanda Evert from Tomb Raider Legend or Marjolaine (using a fake French accent) from Dragon Age Origins, both of which are slight aversions to her usual character types..
• Jim Cummings is easily recognized as the deep voice on virtually every Disney production since the 1980s. He voiced Pete from Goof Troop, Negaduck and the titular character from Darkwing Duck, Rasoul the guard from Aladdin, the centaur Nessus and the Fat Thebian from Hercules, and is the voice of both Tigger and Winnie the Pooh.
  • His portrayal of Robotnik in Sonic Sat AM sounded like he enacted his name on everything he said.
  • Debatable, since - as some of the above examples show - Jim Cummings is used for high, wacky voices (Darkwing Duck, Professor Nimnul) just as often as he is used for deep, gravelly ones. He does seem to be Disney's go-to voice for Generic Foreigner, Generic Guard, and Generic Foreigner Guard, though.
  • Outside of Disney, however, Cummings is renown for a wide range of voices, shown in such variable characters as enthusiastic Boisterous Bruiser Minsc from the Baldurs Gate series to snobbish Dimension Lord Thrakkorzog on The Tick (animation). He is used very often in DreamWorks' animated films, usually as extras or a minor scripted character.
    • The current voice of Taz, which he reprises from Taz-Mania.
  • What Disney film is Cummings not in? Seriously... He does tons of background voices, and he's also Ray and Ed. Disney's got Cummings on Speed Dial.
  • See also the Terror Mask in the new^[when?] Splatterhouse, which combines his recognizable deep voice with a healthy dose of profane expletives.
• An example of an I Am Not Spock Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Yeardley Smith, who plays Lisa on The Simpsons, has an instantly recognisable voice, which is why whenever she plays another character on The Simpsons (making her one of the only actors one the series who doesn't) it gets lampshaded (cf. "Missionary Impossible," when Homer befriends an Islander girl who looks and sounds like Lisa, and "The Last Tap Dance In Springfield," when Lisa watches that Spanish dancing movie and the girl Eduardo picks is a Hot Librarian named Lisabella). She also voiced one of the telekinetic kids in the remastered version of Akira. It's impossible to escape the fact that she sounds exactly like Lisa.
  • This was referred to briefly in an episode of Herman's Head, when her character Louise angrily hung up on someone and then demanded to know from her coworkers if she really sounded like "that girl from The Simpsons."
  • Oddly, Julie Kavner almost never plays any Simpsons characters besides Marge and her immediate family members (i.e., her twin sisters Patty and Selma, her mom, and her deceased great-aunt Gladys from "Selma's Choice". Marge's father [who only appeared in "The Way We Was" and "Fear of Flying"] was voiced by Hank Azaria), who all have the same gravelly voice at different pitches. It's odd because Kavner's real voice sounds nothing like that and she could easily play different-sounding characters if she chose.
• Yuri Lowenthal is often typecast into Kid Hero roles such as, Ben Tennyson, Simon, Yuri Shibuya and Superboy. However, like many English voice actors, he does have a bit of flexibility. Sasuke Uchiha and Suzaku are well known characters that are not kid hero roles.
  • Also angsty roles that require him to scream from the absolute bottom of his lungs. Sasuke Uchiha, Ben Tennyson, Suzaku Kururugi, Cecil... Probably the absolute biggest example is Haseo from .Hack//G.U
    • "Come on.. Come on... I'm right here.... SKEEEEIIIIIIIIIIITTTHHHH!!"
    • Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, where not only did he pull off a foreign accent he pulled off the accent of an Iranian taught English by the English!
    • Also sort of broke the mold by voicing Persona 4's Yosuke Hanamura, a generally normal (if not slightly awkward and goofy) high school student who ends up becoming the hero's right hand man as the game progresses.
    • And in Persona 3, where he Calls Out Attacks for the otherwise Heroic Mime Protagonist, and also voiced Ryoji and Creepy Child Pharos and it's not a coincidence.
• Scott McNeil is a good voice actor, but he really has two major voices, exemplified by Duo Maxwell (high-pitched and cocky with a bit of a rasp, usually for younger characters) and Dinobot (Deep, with a lot of growls and/or snarls, perfect for more inhuman ones). His roles usually shift somewhere between the two. (Arguably, he has a third sub-voice, "Piccolo", but that's really Dinobot with more of a rasp than a snarl). To be fair, it's a cool voice.
  • Two notable exceptions are Waspinator and Silverbolt, also from Beast Wars. And Waspy does not use flanging. I've heard the man do it cold.
    • Then you have Lord Bale (SSSSINDRIIII!!) and Lord Firraveus Carron of the Warhammer 40,000 Dawn of War games, which have been described as "Evil Dinobots"
  • Since his most used character on Beast Wars was Rattrap (A Duo-style voice), Mr. McNeil spent more then one episode essentially talking to himself, as Rattrap was often paired with Silverbolt or Dinobot. The recording sessions must have been entertaining to watch.
    • There's a sound clip floating around the net where he gleefully rattles through his Duo, all his voices from Beast Wars, a couple of other characters from various shows, and the X-Men Evolution version of Wolverine (Which is kinda like Piccolo, but not as raspy) in about two minutes flat. It's a thing of beauty indeed.
  • Then there's Hack and Specky of ReBoot; Jeice (Duo with a Brit accent), Tao, South Kai and Buu of Dragon Ball Z; Suezo, Grey Wolf, Naga, and Gali of Monster Rancher; Principal Kuno of Ranma ½; Pelvis and Blokk (Dinobot with an German accent) of Shadow Raiders; Stratos (Silverbolt) and Ram-man of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe; Vulture of Spider-Man Unlimited - none of which sound mildly alike (really, the list goes on).
  • That and in the animated version of Ben-hur he was JESUS.
  • In the Mega Man cartoon, his Proto Man voice was essentially Duo, but his Dr. Wily voice was a bit different. It was vaguely like Dinobot, but it was lower in pitch and he put on a German accent.
  • He also voiced Cain and Mr. White (Who is African American)
• Rino Romano tends to play suave, sexy Hispanics, such as the inexplicably Mexican Luis Sera, or the charming hacker Randy Hernandez on a surprisingly good show called Godzilla the Series. Of course, he's also The Batman, and did Spider-Man in Spider-Man Unlimited and many video games.
  • And now he's Lone Starr in the Animated Adaptation of Spaceballs, who is none of those things.
• If a character is large and slimy, there's a good chance he's Ron Perlman.
  • Except for Mr. Lancer
  • And Slade isn't especially... large. Or slimy. Unless you mean metaphorically.
  • The same could be said for Fire Lord Sozin. And Hellboy (who he voices and plays in live action) who's large, but not slimy. Really the only Perlman voice character that would count as slimy is Clayface.
    • I think "slimy" is meant here in the personality sense, not the literal sense. Slade and Sozin are as slimy as you can get.
  • Of course, the whole point is that war never changes, right?
• Christopher Sabat is usually cast as more gruff roles like Zoro in One Piece, Giroro in Sgt. Frog, Alex Louis Armstrong in Fullmetal Alchemist, and most notable, Piccolo and Vegeta in Dragon Ball Z.
  • His exceptions to this are Yamcha, Jeice, and Burter in DBZ, the latter of which sounds similar to his Vegeta voice.
    • In a behind-the-scenes video for Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, Chris Sabat explains that as the ADR Director, he's done all the voices for the actors to mimic.
• Richard Ian Cox is frequently cast as action-oriented, impetuous, somewhat jerky male characters, including the second Ranma Saotome in Ranma ½, the title character of Inuyasha, Quicksilver in X-Men Evolution, and Bit Cloud in Zoids Zero.
• Got a Genki Girl with a sharp, upbeat voice? That's Lara Jill Miller for you.
• Cree Summer tends to end up in the "feisty" roles for black females (Codename: Kids Next Door, Danny Phantom, Rugrats/WesternAnimation/AllGrownUp). Or the Black Best Friend. Or sometimes females of different colors, such as She Hulk.
  • How is Princess Kida feisty?
  • Also Hyena is much more Ax Crazy than feisty.
  • And she ended up lampshading her typecasting in phenomenal fashion on Drawn Together, probably her best voice work ever.
  • Though ironically, two of her most famous voice roles, those of Penny on Inspector Gadget and Elmyra on Tiny Toon Adventures, were both white characters.
  • She gets to reprise the feisty role as Blackarachnia in Transformers Animated. And she's black (well, her armour plating is).
  • She also did the fiesty Cleo in Clifford the Big Red Dog using a voice similar to her Foxxy Love voice. If you watched Drawn Together before watching Clifford, be prepared for Narm.
• Miss Kittie ends up in the role for "sassy" black females (American Dragon: Jake Long, The Boondocks, BET's Cita's World). She did get to play against type in W.I.T.C.H. as the shy genius girl Taranee.
• Hilary Haag tends to voice a lot of young or young-sounding girls -- Becky in Pani Poni Dash!, Milk in Super Milk Chan, Seth in Trinity Blood, Ume in Air Gear, Puchiko in Di Gi Charat, etc. But she's also been known to voice trolls (Sorcerer Stabber Orphen), dogs (Excel Saga), and normal adult women (Nene in Bubblegum Crisis 2040).
• Arthur Q. Bryan's roles in Looney Tunes shorts typically sounded like Elmer Fudd. (like the title character in "Dangerous Dan McFoo" and the narrator in "Nutty News". In fact, the only time he used his natural voice was as the annoyed, sleep-deprived customer in "A Pest In The House" (who was essentially a caricature of Bryan).
  • Some of Mel Blanc's voices, despite his famous title, tend so sound similar.
• Luci Christian tends to do a lot of action girls in dubs... to the point where it's probably best to say that one of the only exceptions is her turn as Dejiko in Di Gi Charat. She also does young boys, such as Sasshi in Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi. Mind you that she does have a wide vocal range- she can basically be convincing as an-y type of fe-male cha-rac-ter and eve-ry kind of lit-tle boy- Birdy the Mighty: Decode really gave her a workout! One of the reasons she is used so often in anime is because she can nail a character's voice after hearing only a few seconds of footage of the Japanese, with no effort.
  • She was also the voice of Duck/Princess Tutu in Princess Tutu, so she definitely has her moments of evading the Action Girl character role every so often.
• Do you need a voice for a small, cute, sidekick type character? Well look no further than Brina Palencia who's known for doing many Cross-Dressing Voices like Chaotzu, Chopper, and Tamama. At this rate, she might end up being the next Mona Marshall, although that's not necessarily a bad thing.
• When it comes to game voices, look no further than Charles Martinet. Since he's been hired as Mario's voice, he's never really done much else than voicing Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, their baby counterparts and occasionally someone else. Okay, that's not completely true, he also voiced some completely unrelated characters in other games (just as Star Wars), but the vast majority of his work is Mario and Crew. Not that he seems to mind.
• Leah Clark usually voices either cute valley girls or nerdy young boys. Her valley girls include Blair from Soul Eater and Marron from Dragon Ball Z. Her nerdy young boys include Coby in One Piece and Fuyuki in Sgt. Frog.
• Also The Voice of God, the late Don LaFontaine—5,000 movie trailers and nearly 350,000 commercials; the most successful Voice Actor of all time. (The "In a World... where (X) verbs (Y)... one man... will verb." guy.)
  • LaFontaine's distinctive voice was lampshaded in an early trailer for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:

Narrator (The Guide (Stephen Fry)): As the trailer is being played, they will typically be narrated (Voice changes to Don Lafontaine's) in a deep voice that sounds like a seven-foot-tall man who's been smoking cigarettes since childhood.

• Another voice associated with movie trailers belonged to Canadian Bill Mitchell, whose trademarked gravel voice was the result of a childhood bout of mumps.
• Need your English production to have a good Butt Monkey? Look no further than Spike Spencer. Two of his more famous roles are Shinji Ikari and Hanataro Yamada. Not to mention Majik from Sorcerer Stabber Orphen, who's got it almost as bad as Hanataro.
  • Shinji got a Shout-Out in Martian Successor Nadesico:

Akito: What's wrong with running away, anyway?

• • This example is particularly ironic when you consider the fact that Spike Spencer really didn't like playing Shinji, and says that his favorite type of roles are "psychos". Yes, the anime dub actor most known for Shinji Ikari wants to be the Mark Hamill of anime.
    • He got his wish in one of his more major roles in the dub of Full Metal Panic!, where he plays a completely Ax Crazy terrorist... who happens to be a Shinji Expy. It borders I Am Not Spock really.
      • Apparently, he's getting another chance as Rolo Lamperouge on Code Geass. For once, the Shinji-Expy aspect seems to absent... perhaps there's hope for him, yet?
    • Rolo's not quite a Shinji Expy, but he's still insecure and effeminate. He's not even really that aggressive personality-wise, he just has a sociopathic lack of inhibition for killing people.
    • He also got to be badass, German assassin Yeager in Tales of Vesperia.
    • Even more hilariously lampshaded in the VA commentary track for Bubblegum Crisis 2040, where he played Mackie Stingray. The director points out that Spike himself is 6'2" and a black belt in tae kwon do, but always, always, always gets cast as effeminate young boys who've yet to hit puberty.
    • Spike himself frequently points out that he is, in his own words, "a whore" and that earning a living as an anime dubber means taking every role he can get, even the annoying ones.
    • He does get a chance to play a full-on psychotic role with Arakune of BlazBlue.
    • ...and then there's Busou Renkin, where Spike Spencer is the gloriously camp and fabulous Papillion.
    • And then he's completely Playing Against Type with the midly Hot-Blooded, Keet hero Ginta Toramizu.
  • And just to throw everyone completely off, he also voiced an erudite, professorial Scots Terrier (complete with Scots accent) in Excel Saga. (Then again, Excel Saga was like that...)
• Steven Jay Blum (aka David Lucas). From Spike Spiegel of Cowboy Bebop to Roger Smith of The Big O to Mugen of Samurai Champloo, he's the go-to guy for the show's unquestioned badass, even for minor roles. That said, and despite many people's beliefs, he does have a wide vocal range, and this combined with the fact that he's so closely associated with his normal vocal range may result in many people being surprised just what other voicing roles he's done.
  • Digimon Tamers. It's a series in which he used both his standard voice (as Yamaki, the suit-and-shades guy who originally wanted to keep Digimon out of the real world) and the definitely non-standard voice of Guilmon (to compare: this clip from Adventures In Voice Acting).
    • Also Heatblast and Blunk.
  • And Ghostfreak and Vilgax too.
    • And Kyoshiro Todo.
    • Psychonauts. Voiced Tiger and Boyd Cooper's mental G-Men. "I am a voice actor. Though you do not see me on the screen, you may be able to identify my voice. My work allows cartoons and games to come to life. Many people find cartoons pleasing. Though cartoons are often perceived as childish, the characters must still have voices."
    • Grunt as well.
  • He was also Benjamin Keane in a brief but awesome scene in Killer7.
  • He's been Wolverine for a while now; he's played him since X-Men Legends.
  • Who can forget badasses in bandages: Shishio from Rurouni Kenshin and Zabuza from Naruto.
  • STEVEN BLUM, HE IS A CHAR.
  • And of course, TOM.
  • Not quite so badass, but unmistakably his voice: Jamie from Megas XLR. Of course, he had his moments.
  • Gay mechanic Leeron Littner in Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. I repeat: gay. And hugely convincing.
    • Which wasn't his first effeminate voice either, as he previously played Orochimaru in Naruto.
  • Now we can add Duke in G.I. Joe Resolute.
  • Super Joe.
  • Perhaps less well known is that he voiced the Tzimisce Andrei in Vampire: the Masquerade: Bloodlines.
  • He did the voice of Yakky Doodle. Let that sink in for a moment.
  • He also voiced Ares, the Big Bad of God of War.
  • And then there's the Green Goblin, complete with the most epically psychotic Evil Laugh since Mark Hamill's Joker.
• Similarly, Robert McCollum is typecast by FUNimation as either a teenage Badass (Goten, Baki the Grappler), dark/brooding/mysterious (Donquixote Doflamingo, Hazuki and Artemis' father), or canonically gay/bi (Yukito, bit parts in Crayon Shin Chan).
• Mollie Sugden of Are You Being Served fame plays two very similar characters in the animated film adaption of The BFG and The Princess and the Goblin. Mary the (real) Queen's maid, and Lootie the (totally fictional) Princess' nanny.
• If they're small, nasal, manic, and slightly hammy, there's a good chance Richard Horvitz is involved somewhere. He's been, among others, Daggett Beaver on The Angry Beavers, Billy in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, and Invader Zim himself.
  • He also voices Orthopox 13 from Destroy All Humans!, and Razputin from Psychonauts.
  • He was also Alpha 5 on Power Rangers, although since he was credited as "Richard Wood", not many people would know that.
• Stephanie Sheh has been typecast rather specifically as "busty, sensitive girl, particularly redheads". No, really. Orihime Inoue, Mikuru Asahina, and Aya Natsume are all her. Also seems to be cast as characters who lack self confidence such as the Hinata Hyuga (Manga) and Mercedes (Odin Sphere).
  • Then again she's also energetic Yandere Akira Kogami from Lucky Star (even during her frequent character breaks). Eureka Seven is kind of a borderline case, to the point of nearly being Playing Against Type.
  • Then again, again, she also played three different roles in The Prince of Tennis. Namely, Cool Big Sis Nanako Meino, Tsundere Tomoka Osakada, and Plucky Girl An Tachibana.
    • Similarly, in Naruto she's also Playing Against Type voicing Kin, who isn't busty is and is fairly cruel.
  • She also plays the role of Ax Crazy Princess Sapphire and Hanako from the Disgaea series.
    • She's also the Knife Nut Bount Yoshi in Bleach.
    • And again, Sheh plays quite effectively an Ax Crazy villain in the Warriors Orochi series: Da Ji.
    • And the pyromaniac arsonist, Mamimi, in FLCL.
  • Fitting the 'busty, sensitive girl, redhead' thing, she also played Kyrie in the fourth Devil May Cry.
  • She's played Natalia, resident prissy and demanding but well meaning princess of Tales of the Abyss, and impulsive and flirty catgirl Nikki/Nike of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.
  • She's also Rebbecca Chambers of Resident Evil fame in both The Umbrella Chronicles and her cameo for the Mercenaries Reunion mode of Resident Evil 5: Gold Edition. While Rebbecca is kinda flat, she is something of a Shrinking Violet and Yes-Man. The subversion lies in the fact that these appearances (and Resident Evil Zero) show Ms. Chambers to be very cunning, as well as far more competent than her original portrayal.
• Michael Sinterniklaas has your typical, fresh, young male hero voice (like Leonardo) which can at times be confused with Yuri Lowental's or Vic Mignogna's when in the right tone, and it can be used for utterly snobbish, charismatic, handsome bad guys (Xellos in Slayers: Evolution, replacing the previous actor, or Luppi in Bleach). But he can also go really high-pitched and crazy to portray a pathetic wimp if he needs to (Mikey Simon, Dean Venture). Interestingly, a good portion of his roles are wimps who are on either side of an ironic romantic crush!
  • Averted in The Pink Panther: Passport to Peril, where he voices a whiny British youth.
• Jessica Boone is known for playing cute girl roles like Chiyo-chan from Azumanga Daioh and Azmaria from Chrono Crusade—enough that she mentions in the audio commentary for D.N.Angel that she was happy to play a character with a "deeper voice" when she played Genki Girl Mio Hio. This might be changing, however, since she's also recently^[when?] gotten roles like the Dark Magical Girl Rue/Princess Kraehe from Princess Tutu and Tsundere wannabe-Magical Girlfriend Ayumi Mamiya from Magikano.
  • She was also the strict by-the-book Princess Inarba from UFO Princess Valkyrie.
• Robin Williams' flavor of choice are over-the-top, wacky and fun-loving characters who frequently do impressions of famous people for comedic effect, such as the Genie in Disney's Aladdin and Fender in Blue Sky's Robots.
  • Robin Williams tends to be cast as Robin Williams in all his voiceover work.
• Try as you might, it's difficult to find characters in the late and great Tony Jay's filmography that weren't menacing, nefarious villains: From Judge Frollo of Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame to Shere Khan in the The Jungle Book sequel as well as House of Mouse and Tale Spin, to ReBoot's Megabyte, to the Lovecraftian reject Elder God from the Legacy of Kain series, and even the beholder Xantam in Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance.
  • Anubis in Gargoyles.
  • Also the narrator in the Teen Titans episode "Transformation".
  • Spiderus the tarantula, in Miss Spiders Sunny Patch Friends, was transformed from "standard cranky kiddie-series baddie" to legitimately menacing simply by bringing Jay onboard to play him.
    • And then transformed into a character who wasn't scary or menacing at all by making him into a doting, if slightly clueless, father.
  • An exception for Jay was Virgil on Mighty Max, a (literally) owlish, doddering professor type who was the hero's Mentor Mascot.
    • As was Dr. Lipschitz on Rugrats
  • Sul-Van, Superman's biological grandfather in Superman: The Animated Series.
• Sandy Fox is typically type casted as a cute, naive, character such as Flonne (Disgaea), Marona (Phantom Brave), or Mieu (Tales of the Abyss).
  • Even older than those is Lynn from Fist of the North Star.
• Kids In The Hall alumnus Kevin McDonald is now essentially typecast as playing spazzy characters not totally connected to reality—Pleakley from the various Liloand Stitch things; the spazzier and more "out there" of The Tallest from Invader Zim, and Waffle in Catscratch.
  • Splee!
  • Also Ivan in Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends.
  • More recently^[when?], Dr. Frog in Fish Hooks.
• How many times has Brian Doyle-Murray voiced a pirate?
• Okay, Corey Burton does play a lot of evil robots, N. Gin, Shockwave, Megatron, and Brainiac being some of the most famous. But he does other stuff, too!
  • Technically N. Gin is a cyborg, so that might not qualify as a robot.
  • Do computer programs count as robots? Because he did a very convincing impression of David Warner (MCP, Sark) in the Tron-based Space Paranoids world in Kingdom Hearts II.
    • He does like his David Warner impression. The fact that Shockwave (in both G1 and Animated) bear more than a slight vocal resemblance is no accident.
  • He's also Dale from Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, which is definitely different from his robot voices.
  • He also seems to be the Christopher Lee replacement as Count Dooku in the series and DiZ/Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep.
• More often than not, you'll hear Mary Elizabeth McGlynn in "authoritative female"-type roles, often a Lady of War, such as Major Motoko Kusanagi, Helba, Cornelia li Britannia, Lady Jagura, and Dr. Misha.
  • Nuriko isn't as much of a woman as he is authorative. But the Super Strength helps with the authority bit.
• Christopher Lee has done some voice acting. When he does, he's almost always typecast in the same way he is in live action—as a super-villainous Magnificent Bastard. Most notable is his role as King Haggard in the animated version of The Last Unicorn. In the German dub of The Last Unicorn, he did his own dubbing, since he speaks German.
  • On the other hand, he also played Ansem/DiZ in Kingdom Hearts II, who may have been a magnificent bastard in the past, but is definitely not in the game itself.
  • On the other hand, he's also done the voice of Death in the few animated Discworld productions there've been, and Death is anything but a Magnificent Bastard.
    • He doesn't have to be, he's just gotta wait. Actually, that might not be a bad strategy for Christopher Lee, either...
  • Sony Online Entertainment went straight to Lee and asked him to Lucan D'Lere, the immortal tyrant who rules over the evil city of Freeport when they created EverQuest II. His voice is well deserved and fitting for the character.
• If they have red or brown hair and are either impulsive and violent, or occasionally, levelheaded and extremely powerful, Quinton Flynn has probably voiced them (comic relief is optional): Reno, Kon, Axel, Marcus Damon, Iruka AND Deidara, Timon (the first season of the TV series).
  • And Raiden, who was blond. Only mildly impulsive and violent in the second game, but went totally overboard with both in the fourth game.
  • He voiced the Human Torch (who is a blond) in Fantastic Four: The Animated Series, Spider-Man the Animated Series and the 2000 Spider-Man.
  • He also plays both sides of the coin in one role: Henry in No More Heroes, who switches from calm and methodical to impulsive and violent at the drop of a hat. Must be the Irish in him.
• Need someone to voice a calm, intellectual character, like Egon Spengler or The Brain? Maurice LaMarche is the man for the job. Any Orson Welles pastiche as well.
• Temuera Morrison has (arguably) gotten the biggest single-character voice-acting deal in history. His roles of note? Jango Fett (Played him in the films, and in every single video game featuring him), the Republic's Clone Army (same deal: every film and video game [except Star Wars the Clone Wars, where the character(s) were voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, and the Star Wars Clone Wars cartoon, and Republic Commando offered other voices for other squad members]; the clones were cloned from Jango), and Boba Fett('s voice) (yet another Jango clone) in the Star Wars Original Trilogy 2004 DVD re-release, and all subsequent games. The problem? Although he's been getting plenty of work recently^[when?], he (literally) plays the exact same character in all of his work. Talk about pigeonholing/typecasting...
• Need a high-pitched squeaky voice for your anime dub look no further than Stephanie Beard (or, as you may know her from her Canadian radio show, Suga BayBee). She's been Rini of Sailor Moon, Ming-Ming of Beyblade, Momo of Mirmo!, and Creech of Cyberchase. She was also Wish Bear at some point. Basically, if you can't get Tara Strong she's your go-to girl.
• Way too loud little kid, usually male: Pamela Adlon (aka Pamela Segall). She's Bobby on King of the Hill, Andy of Squirrel Boy, Pajama Sam, Otto from Time Squad, Zach from Adventures from the Book of Virtues, and Milo from The Oblongs along with several other supporting roles with that same voice. Also tends to do tomboyish female characters like Moose of Pepper Ann and Spinelli of Recess. Oddly enough, along with Milo she also voiced the Debbies from The Oblongs.
• Michael McConnohie's deep, commanding voice usually leads him to being cast as a narrator, an authority figure, or an imposing villain.
  • Averted somewhat by Lexor in Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light and Cosmos (Peter Lorre impression) and Tracks (camp yuppie) in Transformers.
• You can afford a movie star to narrate your movie? Get Morgan Freeman!
  • But if you need your narrator to have an exquisite British accent, get Stephen Fry instead. If you can afford it, get both!
• Who do you call when you want someone to voice a short or soft-spoken boy? Brianne Siddall's your man (err.. boy. Or girl rather..), who has voiced Tsukasa from .hack//SIGN, Kunikida from Haruhi Suzumiya, Taro from Serial Experiments Lain, Mithos from Tales of Symphonia and Jr. from Xenosaga.
  • However, she has voiced female characters, like Pamela of Mana Khemia: Alchemists of Al-Revis.
  • I once saw her (try to) play an adult female character in Geneshaft and could not get Jr. out of my mind. She is so good at playing young boys that she isn't able to play females. I could hear traces of her boy voice and the character just sounded more boyish than female and it was hard to get it out of my head.
• Mona Marshall falls under this category despite being an excellent voice actress. If you need a young male voice for your show, then seek no further. She's most well known for being Izzy in the first season of Digimon, and has done young male voices in Cowboy Bebop, Code Geass, Seirei No Morbito, and many others. It's gotten to the point where no one realizes she can do great female characters as well, such as the pilot episode's voice of Penny in Inspector Gadget.
• Troy Baker seems to fast becoming the go-to voice for Magnificent Bastard Big Bad characters. Examples include Ganryu, the Big Bad of Bleach: Memories of Nobody, Jin Kariya (also from Bleach), and Schneizel el Britannia. He's also associated with bad asses such as Yuri and Kanji.
  • He was also Snow from Final Fantasy XIII, who definitely isn't a Magnificent Bastard or the Big Bad of the game.
  • Also, he played Excalibur from Soul Eater, which is an interesting aversion from his usual list of characters.
• Relative newcomer^[when?] Tara Platt is starting to find her way into this, usually playing stern, serious female roles (and rarely, even teenage or androgynous boys). She's pretty much starting to take over the niche that Mary Elizabeth McGlynn held unchallenged for so long.
• Casey Kasem, renown radio personality and voice actor, is Shaggy. This remains an inescapable fact, to the point of doing a double-take when watching episodes from the first season of Transformers, in which he voiced at least two of the titular robots. In the 1970's, Hanna-Barbera cast him in various Shaggy Expies when they produced Scooby-Doo clone shows, and he still used that same voice for them all!
  • Not to mention Robin in the original Filmation series of Batman and Superfriends.
• In anime and video games, Dave Wittenberg tends to play a lot of characters that are perverts and/or a Butt Monkey. Examples include Kakashi, Tink, and Teddie.
  • He also voices Kefka in Dissidia Final Fantasy, who is, aside from Cloud and Sephiroth, one of the largest sources of Foe Yay and Ho Yay in the game. "Sorry babe, I only hurt you because you make me!"
• Veteran actress Janice Kawaye has made a living playing sweet, innocent girly-girls, Whether its Ami from Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi or Yuzu from Bleach. Jenny from My Life as a Teenage Robot was more rounded because she was the star of the show, but still pretty sweet. The closest "bad girl" she has portrayed was the butt-kicking cat girl in Teen Titans Trouble in Tokyo. Or the gang violence episode of Captain Planet and the Planeteers when a teacher was shot and Gi nearly drowned the shooter in retaliation!
• If you need someone to voice an annoying character, you call up Wallace Shawn.
• Eddie Deezen is Eddie Deezen. No exceptions. You need a know-it-all or a nerd? We got your Mandark right here.
• When you say the word "Moe", Hynden Walch will immediately pop into your head. Compare Starfire, Nia, Talim, and Yuu-chan. WALCH-CHAN, WHY SO MOE~!?
  • This is averted hard when she plays Madame Rouge, and has a convincing accent which proves that Evil Is Sexy.
  • Even better example of Playing Against Type: Breach. Ayup.
  • Meanwhile, in Kid Icarus Uprising, we have Viridi, who, while still Cute and Psycho in appearance, is a Jerkass goddess of nature Psychopathic Manchild who thinks Humans Are the Real Monsters. Quite a stark contrast to the personality of the other moe characters.
• Chris Patton tends to play "pretty boys" who range from the completely evil to the Troubled but Cute. They include an effeminate Big Bad, a talkative nut with a J-pop haircut, an an anti-villain, a Jerk with a Heart of Gold male ballet dancer, and a former child soldier with No Social Skills.
• Did you know that Nolan North is quite capable of playing characters other than slightly-over-their-head sarcastic action heroes? He actually has quite a bit of range, but seldom gets to show it. For example: He played Deadpool in Hulk Vs Wolverine.
  • And again in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
• If Disney needed a chicken sound back in the day, they called British-born actress Florence Gill. Her most famous role was as Clara Cluck in the classic shorts, but she used the same effect for pretty much all chickens. But damn if it wasn't a good chicken impression, and damn if she couldn't make chicken clucks seem as emoted as human speech.
• Lauren Tom has this trope twice as bad, not only does she voice Asian characters (mostly women and girls), but she's always doing the voice of character who's best known trait is being someone's wife or girlfriend. She does this in Max Steel, Futurama, King of the Hill (mother and daughter), Batman Beyond, Codename: Kids Next Door (okay Numbah 3 gets a little bit more credit but still), American Dragon: Jake Long, etc. She can't even escape this in her live action work; she was one of Ross' girlfriends in Friends.
• Sherry Lynn is one of few female voice actors capable of playing female child roles authentically. If her name is in the credits, she's almost certainly going to be a little girl.
• If anime or video games need anyone to voice a Hot-Blooded hero, look no further to Johnny Yong Bosch. Compare Ichigo, Vash, Sanada Yukimura, and Firion. And if he's not voicing hot-blooded heroes, it's most likely smooth talking pretty guys like Itsuki, Lelouch, and (recently^[when?]) Izaya. And yeah, this is all done by a black Power Ranger.
• If a character is voiced by Reuben Langdon, you already know his personality. He'll most likely be a devil may care Badass with a bite bigger than his already huge bark. Examples? Ken of Street Fighter fame (starting in IV), Date Masamune of Sengoku Basara, and, most famously, Dante of Devil May Cry 3 and 4.
  • Possible justification: Langdon, like Johnny Yong Bosch, started off as a stunt performer and mocap artist—he was the Ink Suit Actor for Chris Redfield in Resident Evil Code: Veronica, f'ex. How he ended up voicing Dante from DMC3 onwards is not common knowledge.
• Christine Cavanaugh, while she was still voice acting, seemed to be pigeonholed into voicing little red-haired boys with glasses.
  • She was also Bunnie Rabbot in Sonic Sat AM.
  • Also Dumpling from the One Hundred and One Dalmatians cartoon series.
• Go look up any clips starring Brandon Keener on YouTube and almost invariably, you'll find any number of comments somehow relating Garrus Vakarian to Keener's on-screen role (be it his bit part in He's Just Not That Into You, an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer or random commercials) via Memetic Mutation. To his credit, he doesn't seem to mind that he's only known for Garrus... yet.
• Raphael Sbarge has a very distinctive voice and is also best known for voicing Carth Onasi in Knights of the Old Republic. Unfortunately, this has led to Carth's Hatedom linking nearly every role he's done since then to Carth, even if there's no similarities between them character-wise (see Kaidan Alenko in Mass Effect).
  • And in live-action roles (Star Trek: Voyager, Cold Case, Burn Notice, Journeyman), he's usually playing someone deeply disturbed and violently psychotic...
• And one of the kings (or at least princes) of this Trope is Robbie Benson. Disney's Beauty and the Beast, Prince Valiant, King's Quest VI Heir Today Gone Tomorrow... Guaranteed, he'll be playing some variety of The Wise Prince.
• Averting this trope may be one of the reasons Robert Clotworthy opted to do some work for StarCraft and films like The Emperors New Groove. If not for that, he'd mostly be known for doing narration on Ancient Aliens and other dubious pseudo-science programs on The History Channel: not exactly a boost to one's credibility.
• Tom Kenny once stated himself, that he usually ends up voicing characters who are "really sweet, but not smart at all." Examples: The Mayor of Townsville, Eduardo, Heffer Wolfe, and, obviously, SpongeBob SquarePants. He also does a good announcer voice for said shows, such as the Narrator in PPG.
• Roz Ryan is usually typecast as Sassy Black Women, such as Thalia, Bubbie, the driving instructor from Sym-Bionic Titan, and Witch Lexah from The Looney Tunes Show.
• Melissa Davis has quite a habit of voicing Badass, Stoic, and Troubled but Cute characters such as Mai, Kate, Shiina, Lady, and Chizuru.
  • And if she isn't, she, oddly enough, voices Genki Girls, instead. They're usually with twists, though, such as Kurumi, Kena, and Skuld.
• Greg Ayres has a distinctive high-pitch voice that is unusual for a man in his 40s and is casted into young boys. Many examples include Kazuto, Negi Springfield, Youhei, Kouta, and Yukio. In fact, he's one of the few voice actors to avert the Cross-Dressing Voices trope when it comes to casting voice actors into young boys as young as 8-years-old.
  • Ditto with characters with Ambiguous Gender like Uesugi Kenshin.
  • Well he was Guldo from Dragonball Z Kai which is pretty different from most of his usual characters.
• Laura Bailey frequently plays RPG major characters who do not participate in combat: Rise is a Persona user but stays behind in Mission Control; Isara is a Squad 7 corporal but is not a controllable unit (and also assumes some Mission Control duties); and Serah is a l'Cie but stays in crystal stasis while everyone else saves the world. The last one, of course, is averted in the sequel.
• Michelle Ruff voices Badass babes or just simply hot babes. Rukia Kuchiki from Bleach, Crimson Viper from Street Fighter IV, Saga in A Little Snow Fairy Sugar, Katherine McBride in Catherine, Fujiko Mine from Lupin III, Chii from Chobits, and Miu from DearS.
• Liam O'Brien's characters tend to be flatout psychotic and mentally unstable villain, Mad Scientist, or Anti-Hero that sometimes overlap with Evil Sounds Deep territory. Compare Joachim Armster and Issac from Castlevania, Archer from Fate Stay Night, Gaara from Naruto, Levin and Raksha from Soul Nomad and The World Eaters, Father Balder from Bayonetta, Dr. Clive from Haré+Guu, Dist from Tales of the Abyss, Caius Ballad from Final Fantasy XIII-2, Cumore from Tales of Vesperia, Lloyd from Code Geass, and Count Waltz from Eternal Sonata.
• If you watch any anime dubbed by FUNimation, chances are that the lead character of the series will be voiced by Todd Haberkorn.
• Brad Swaile is known for playing young male leads or heroes that are total idiots. Think of Setsuna F. Seiei, Rock, and Kicker.
  • Not to mention he is also known for voicing mentally crazy characters like Light Yagami and Slappy.
• Keith Silverstein would be happen to voice characters that are either evil or crazy. Compare Johan Liebert from Monster, Coyote Starrk from Bleach, HUNK from Resident Evil, and Bryan Fury from Street Fighter X Tekken.

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Japanese Seiyuu

• Akira Ishida plays effeminate and/or gay characters roles fairly frequently, a role usually given to female voice actors. This seems intentional as many of his character roles even look similar.
• Kikuko Inoue generally plays three extremes: gentle, motherly characters, shrill, cackling loons or Hot Moms. Of late^[when?], though, she has also played gruff tomboys in Saber Marionette J and the Sakura Taisen series, and sexy she-bitch I-no in the Guilty Gear games.
  • Let's not forget her role as the psycho Alv in Kiddy Grade.
  • Macross Frontier gets her a role as Grace O'Connor, who initially sounds like the caring mother, but things change quickly enough in the second half the series, and in Episode 18 she gets to crank out the evil, sexy voice as she smashes Sheryl's ego into tiny pieces.
  • Mobile Suit Gundam MSIGLOO 2: The Gravity Front has her be a really creepy Shinigami who haunts the first episode's protagonist.
  • She plays kind sisterly/motherly characters so often she's even called Onee-chan (Big Sister) by her fellow seiyuu and fans.
  • Bridget Hoffman has served as Inoue's English voice counterpart on at least four occasions: Belldandy, Chitose Hibiya, Rune Venus, and Mizuho Kazami. She is even typecast as Yamato Nadeshikos as Inoue is.
    • She played a slight inversion of her pigeonhole as covert Knife Nut Ryoko Asakura.
  • Played Tsubasa Ozora in Captain Tsubasa: Road to 2002.
• Megumi Ogata plays male characters (often Bishonen) or androgynous women. A famous exception is the willowy Princess Emeraude in Magic Knight Rayearth, and she released a drama track of her conversation with a presumably different Kawaiiko character that's actually her doing the other voice.
  • Ogata's roles in Samurai Deeper Kyo. Nuff said.
  • Need more examples? Sailor Uranus/Haruka, Eagle Vision, Yukito/Yue, Masaya Aoyama, Shinji Ikari, Yugi Mutou, and more. Among her "masculine girl" roles are Sailor Uranus, Sizer, and others.
• Similar to Ogata is Romi Park, who tends to play younger male characters like Toshiro Hitsugaya or Edward Elric... and her characters are usually young prodigies who are vertically challenged and sometimes have... issues... when this is mentioned.
  • Except Giorno Giovanna, who is not only cunning but is 5ft7 at the age of 15!
  • In addition, her characters tend to be Older Than They Look. (Edward Elric, Toshiro Hitsugaya and Zidane Tribal).
• Mamiko Noto is known for playing Kawaiiko and Yamato Nadeshiko characters, but was notably Playing Against Type as the Tall, Dark and Bishoujo Hazumi in Yami to Boushi to Hon no Tabibito and as Creepy Child Ai Enma in Hell Girl.
  • However, you can still expect most of her boy characters to be on the passive side. Look at Yukinari from Girls Bravo and Kouta from Kanokon.
• Nana Mizuki voices Dark Magical Girl Rue, Dark Magical Girl Utau, Dark Magical Girl Fate, Dark Magical Girl Ouji. On the other side, she also voices Shrinking Violet Hinata and Shrinking Violet Tsubomi... as well as Genki Girl Shinobu.
• Atsuko Tanaka is often cast as a Cool Big Sis type of characters, or females that combines both authoritive or style, such as her role as Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell, and Caster in Fate Stay Night.
• Although he has a wide range, Shinichiro Miki is usually typecast as a blond pretty playboy type of characters (including Kurz Weber or Limone). Also, his characters often harbor, uh, affection towards girls much younger than themselves, examples include: Allen Schezar (towards Hitomi), Crim (towards Subaru), Shannon Casull (towards Pacifica), Heinz Schneider (towards Ellis), Reiot Steinberg from Straight Jacket (towards Kapel Theta)... all these despite being versatile enough to play as Kojiro (James) all the way to Aladdin in the Japanese dub of the Disney series, or to Bob Makihara of Tenjho Tenge.
  • His 'interact with girls younger than his character' is also very much seen in Gundam 00, as Big Brother Mentor Lockon Stratos interacts a lot with Emotionless Girl Feldt Grace. The catch is, instead of Lockon being interested at her, it was Feldt who ends up having an unrequited crush on him.
  • Recently^[when?] we have Miki Shinichiro voicing Hijikata Toshizou in the PlayStation 2 Otome Game Hakuouki Shinsengumi Kitan. Our heroine Yukimura Chizuru looks...quite young, and is even called a shota for being literally flat...
  • He has also voiced Sieg from Kamen Rider Den-O, fitting completely into type
• Hikaru Midorikawa's most common roles are quiet, antisocial bishounen types. However, in the Banpresto multiverse, he's cast as a loud-mouthed ignorant jock of a character. In one of the "Preview of Next Episode" savescreens, he imitated Heero Yui, a more standard Midorikawa Hikaru role, and confused everyone.
  • He was also the voice of Marth in the Super Smash Bros. series, with a much lighter tone to his voice than his usual roles.
• Expect almost any characters played by Ayako Kawasumi to have a 'dark side'. It happened many times... First, her character in Gate Keepers Ruriko Ikusawa had her powers converted to the dark when she's kidnapped, second, Chikane Himemiya in Kannazuki no Miko snaps and converts a Mecha into evil while submitting to a dark god, though to be honest, it's just a huge Gambit Roulette to her, and lastly one of the routes in Fate Stay Night had Saber get defeated and turn to... Saber Alter.
  • However, she seems to have bucked the trend with her most recent^[when?] role as Saki from To LOVE-Ru, who doesn't seem to have a true dark side (as far as we're concerned...)
    • Doesn't Akari in To Heart precede Saki here? By ten years?
    • Kaori's Wangst in Kanon 2006 doesn't count as a dark side, right?
• Nobuyuki Hiyama has a lot of range from deranged villains to cool and calm characters, but thanks to his role as Guy Shishioh, fans noted that his common roles are hot blooded characters. He is also notable for being the "voice" of Link in Ocarina of Time.
  • Considering that whenever a hot blooded character voiced by Hiyama Nobuyuki starts yelling about something, they start sounding like Guy, (and that he has also done the voices of Ikkaku Madarame and Viral) it's not exactly surprising he gets picked for the hot blooded roles: it doesn't matter what the voice sounds like normally, as long as it starts sounding like Guy when he starts yelling, it will ALWAYS be epic.
  • The guy seems incapable of yelling in deep voice. He always yells like Guy, even if his voice jumps three octaves in an instant to get. Not that it's not awesome mind you.
• Junko Takeuchi, thanks to her role as Naruto, has been often typecast as goofy young boys.
  • Hokutomaru in Garou Mark of the Wolves, and Dieter from Monster, Gon Freeces In Hunter X Hunter.
• Yuu Asakawa seems to be Pigeonholed to women that are Tall, Dark and Bishoujo. It's not seldom that she'll play characters who are the most well-endowed between the cast, thereby turning her to be the candidate of the series' Ms. Fanservice. If the series is full of Ms Fanservices already... let's just say she'll be one of the top Fan Service providers.
  • If she's voicing a boy, expect that boy to be somewhat arrogant and sure of his abilities. There's Mitani from Hikaru no Go, Kouji from Kyo No Go No Ni, and Sefuru from Harukanaru Toki no Naka de.
  • Ms. Asakawa's ex-husband, Shoutarou Morikubo, has also fallen into typecasting, mostly as bad-tempered guys who switch back and forth between Jerkass and Jerk with a Heart of Gold types. Look no further than Akaya Kirihara from The Prince of Tennis or Krylancelo Finrandi aka Orphen from Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.
    • He's also Shikamaru Nara, who tends to be a jerkass with women.
    • He also tends to play the adorable dorks who, while not necessarily evil or a jerkass, could probably kick your ass if they had to e.g. Amano Ginji in GetBackers, Ichiro in Nerima Daikon Brothers, or Narugami/Thor in Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok.
• Yuko Miyamura tends to be cast in the roles of reckless, loud, and boastful young women, such as Aisha Clan-Clan of Outlaw Star and Asuka of Neon Genesis Evangelion.
  • A better description of her standard character would be "crazy". Whether artificial girl (My Dear Marie), Yakuza boss’s daughter with a crush on teacher (Very Private Lesson), or action heroine with a dark past (Asuka from Neon Genesis Evangelion and Casca from Berzerk), all are a narrow margin from going crazy, and dangerously so. She was also the "instructor" on tape in Battle Royale, which was live-action (but she was crazy).
  • She was also Larxene from Kingdom Hearts. Now that was definitely a messed-up person...
  • A sort-of middle ground could be Alyssa Searrs from My-HiME...
• Rie "Teh Rie" Kugimiya has become known for her Tsundere roles: Shana (Shakugan no Shana), Louise (The Familiar of Zero), Iori (The Idolmaster), Nagi (Hayate the Combat Butler), Astarotte (Astarotte no Omocha), and Taiga (Toradora!). It doesn't help that she has the body of a loli herself.
  • She's been trying to get out of the pigeonholing by playing the Cute and Psycho Nena Trinity from Gundam 00 and the Yamato Nadeshiko Token Loli Liechtenstein from Axis Powers Hetalia.
  • She also has a number of male roles. The sweet and naive Takasato Kaname/Taiki in The Twelve Kingdoms, suit of armour kind soul Alphonse Elric in Fullmetal Alchemist and wild brat Raised by Wolves Ikuto in Digimon Savers.
  • Definitely a case of Playing Against Type by her role as Shrinking Violet Meido Shannon in Umineko no Naku Koro ni, as well as Nemu from Bleach and Yua Sakurai from two episodes of Shugo Chara Doki.
  • And recently^[when?], the cat in Fairy Tail. THE CAT. Which tsukkomi at every single chance she get, regardless of scene/event.
• Even the amateur voice acting world isn't exempt from this. Hideki does Harem Genre leads, Satouberri does cute squeaky girls...
• Tomokazu Sugita may be falling towards this as he becomes known for playing snarky and sarcastic male leads. But then there's Baccano!'s utterly deranged homicidal mechanic/gang leader/killer, Graham Spector. And the completely serious and professional (when he's not banging his subordinate) Leon Mishima of Macross Frontier.
  • And don't forget on several occasions he's cast as someone with the voice of some Unlucky Everydude. Point in case: Hideki Motosuwa in Chobits, Rin Tsuchimi in SHUFFLE!. Even Sugita uses his Unlucky Everydude voice type for Brooklyn 'Bullet' Luckfield.
    • Of course Rin Tsuchimi is pretty sarcastic himself so that fits his type.
    • A somewhat subversion is his role as Ragna The Bloodedge.
      • Well, he's had practice with being That Man in Guilty Gear, as well as his role as Mayama in Honey and Clover.
• Ryusei Nakao, has been typecast as cruel, quirky, disturbing, sadistic men (mostly villains) with high pitched voices, including Freeza (and his brother, Cooler), Mayuri Kurotsuchi in Bleach and Him in Demashita! Powerpuff Girls Z as well as Farfarello. He, however, is capable of other types of roles; notably, he sang a very sweet love song with fellow seiyuu Junko Iwao. Strangely enough, he also happens to be Buster Bunny and Yakko Warner from Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs respectively in their Japanese dubs. That's some creative casting there.
  • Junko, you say? Makes you wonder if that role as Tatsuya Sudou in the Persona 2 games wasn't just coincidence...
• Need a Badass with a Large Ham tendency? Two Words: Norio Wakamoto. He isn't always, but often play ham-eater Big Bad. Among his roles: Igniz and Rugal (If only for one game so far), Cell, M.Bison/Vega, Vicious, MD Geist, Coach Ohta, Emperor Charles of Britannia (Emperor Wakamoto), and Dracula in almost all the Castlevania games that has voice acting. To sum up: he dubbed Lando Calrissian in Star Wars.
  • Exception of scene-chewer that isn't a Big Bad: Victoream from Konjiki no Gash Bell, Shuren of Fist of the North Star, Woodchuck in Record of Lodoss War
  • Exception of non scene-chewer but still utterly awesome: Playboy Johnny of Guilty Gear, or the hilarious narrator in Hayate the Combat Butler. Further subversion, he plays Reuenthal, the angsty ladies' man in Legend of Galactic Heroes.
  • I wish I were a bird.
• Voice actress Yuki Kaida has been more or less typecast to play soft-spoken teenage boys with hidden agendas or skills, like Shusuke Fuji from The Prince of Tennis and Kurapica from Hunter X Hunter (whom she even plays in the musicals). One of the few different roles she has been casted as is the gentle and troubled Machi Kuragi in the Fruits Basket CD-dramas.
  • Don't forget Tsukasa Futaba from Ryuusei No Rockman; the fact that he's also known as Gemini Spark should clue you in on his double nature...
  • Generally, when she doesn't play soft-spoken boys, she plays kind, sisterly characters.
  • She has a pretty wide range, though. In just The Prince of Tennis, she plays three different characters. One is Fuji Syuusuke, and another is his older sister Yumiko. They sound fairly much alike, although Syuusuke has a slightly deeper tone. But the most surprising thing, is that she also voices the otherwise masculine youngest brother Yuuta (though only in a flashback of when the siblings were younger).
• Yūko Gotō often plays girly Moe Moe characters like Mikuru from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Ironically, Goto (aka "Gotouther-sama" after a character from Fist of the North Star, of which she is a fan) is apparently a hardcore biker in real life. Parodied in Lucky Star, in which she appears as an intimidating, hypermasculine Yakuza-style biker, then zooms off on her motorcycle making cutesy "vroom, vroom" noises.
  • These days, however... it seems she is set to not only Moe Moe characters, but also Yandere characters. If Anya Alstreim is telling you something...
    • Anya seems to be more of a mix of Little Miss Badass with No Social Skills and a bit of Wise Beyond Their Years, rather than a true Yandere. A more straight Yandere gal played by Gotou-san would be Kaede from SHUFFLE!.
• Daisuke Ono seems to be associated with charming Bishonen like Yukito in AIR Koizumi in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and himself in Lucky Star (which is exactly as it's said: charming bishonen).
  • Let's not forget Hosaka from Minami-ke.
  • In Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, he plays Mamoru Akasaka, so that could be a subversion.
  • And in the upcoming Umineko no Naku Koro ni anime, he'll be playing the ecchi, stubborn Battler Ushiromiya, so that's definitely a subversion.
    • He's also Silver and El Fuerte.
      • And in the upcoming remake to The King of Fighters 2002, he voices a replacement for K9999 called...Nameless.
        • Then there's Snow Villiers in the upcoming Final Fantasy XIII.
  • Ahem. Shizuo Heiwajima. Can you say "subversion"?
  • Another aversion would be his evil turn as the enigmatic Battle Butler Sebastian in Black Butler.
    • However, this one would count more as a subversion because his voice varies in this role, going from completely playing his type to "holy crap, how can that be the same person?"
  • And if that wasn't enough, check out ANY episode of his radio show with Hiroshi Kamiya or ANY live events with him and behold his dorky personality in real life.
  • Let's just say ever since Umineko no Naku Koro ni, Ono D's pigeonholing as "charming" has been given a big fat NOT NO MORE.
• Ikue Ohtani, Pikachu herself. Among other adorable GenkiGirls and Keets include Gash Bell, Ojamajo Doremi's Hana-chan, Iincho from Doki Doki School Hours (sort of a subversion, but she's a SMAP fangirl...), and Tony Tony Chopper of One Piece.
  • She voices two characters from Kannazuki no Miko: Mako-chan and crazy-nun Miyako. Mako-chan's voice probably fits more closely to her regular roles...
• If you want a good seiyuu for a female character older than 30? Go to Masako Katsuki. She started with Naive Everygirl (like Maya Kitajima form Garasu no Kamen) or Cool Big Sis (like Reccoa from Zeta Gundam) roles, but ever since she played Michiru aka Sailor Neptune in Sailor Moon she's been playing older ladies.
  • She played some older ladies before that, too; take Ikari-sensei from Highschool Kimengumi in the 1980s.
• Fumihiko Tachiki is well-known for his work voicing sinister older villains, who usually share very personal connections to one or more of the main characters. This also usually goes hand in hand with his roles' tendencies, if they have children, to be at best distant or at worst downright manipulating and bad fathers. Most famously, of course, is Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but he has also played Kratos Aurion from Tales of Symphonia, Odin from Odin Sphere and Zaraki Kenpachi from Bleach. And even young comic relief Boss from Mazinkaiser. To sum it up, he's a very good choice for Big Guy type of characters, even moreso if they have a veteran-ish aura.
  • Uh, just a sec, those guys (Gendo, Kratos, Odin, Kenpachi) are fathers or sorts, right? (Well, Kenpachi is no father, but he DOES adopt Yachiru...). Not to mention they also have a 'bad' image painted on them...
  • And then, in an apparent parody, he plays Hasegawa in Gintama, a middle-aged man who lost his prestigious job and family (thanks to the heroic speeches of the main character) and is frequently called a no-good, worthless old dude. The fact that Hasegawa resembles Gendo to an extent makes it all the better.
  • You also have to consider Kasai from Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. He's gruff and is technically yakuza but he's definitely a good guy (and an awesome one, at that), as well as a father-figure of sort to Shion.
    • He's also Nightmare in Soul Calibur 3.
• Joji/George Nakata and Akio Ohtsuka only play extremely hard-boiled Badasses, though their characters frequently get put into situations not quite of their calibur to add flavor.
  • George Nakata = Villain. That's all that needs to be said. Granted, some of those villains are also protagonists, like Alucard in Hellsing, but villains nonetheless.
    • A slight exception: Nakata was behind the voice of Sonic Adventure's E-102 Gamma.
    • Giroro is kind of a gray area ... but Roy Revant?
• Hideyuki Hori, though not as much as obviously seen, seems to be a rather popular choice for ninja characters. Including Ryu Hayabusa in Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive, Schwarz Bruder in G Gundam, and in the crossover Namco X Capcom, he plays Team Commando's resident ninja Sho/Ginzu.
• If you see Show Hayami's name in a cast list, take extra caution. If that character seems to be affably good, there is a chance that the character may be the worst man to ever exist (case in point, Dr. Kazutaka Muraki in Yami no Matsuei, Masami Eiri in Serial Experiments Lain, and Sousuke Aizen in Bleach). It's also often that he plays just plain sociopaths...
  • And even if he is playing a good guy, expect that character to be pretty fucked up in the head, like male lead Idol Singer Kouji from the yaoi anime Zetsuai 1989 or Klein Sandman
• Kumiko Watanabe comes in two flavors: If she's playing a boy, she's most likely to play young heroes (doesn't need to be main) or Bratty Half-Pint in general. If she's playing a female... then just be ready that her character may turn out to be the worst bitch in the series (Hello, Katejina Loos).
• In a weird variation of this trope, two of the main characters of One Piece were designed with their voice actors in mind. More impressive in the case of Mayumi Tanaka (Luffy), since there was no guarantee that the series would even receive an anime adaptation, while Kazuki Yao (Franky) had voiced several characters in One Piece after it had already been successful.
  • Speaking of Mr. Yao, it seems he likes to do "crazy" characters: bar Franky, his others in One Piece were Mr. 2 Bon Clay and Jango.
    • He also was Hot-Blooded Judau in Gundam ZZ, as well as Shinobu Fujiwara in Dancougar.
• Yuuichi Nakamura tends to play guys who, for a lack of better description, are jerks. Usually with hearts of gold underneath. We have Okazaki Tomoya from Clannad (a jerk who quickly softens up for his various love interests), Abe Takaya from Ookiku Furikabutte (a jerk who doesn't realize that yelling at his shy, meek pitcher isn't helping said pitcher's self-esteem any), Saotome Alto of Macross Frontier (a jerk who has trouble recognizing other people's kindness toward him, especially if they happen to be his love interests), Graham Aker from Mobile Suit Gundam 00 (a jer—actually, he's quite the hero, at least for now), Ikuto Tsukiyomi of Shugo Chara, etc.
  • And then we have Hazama aka his pigeonholed role dialed Up to Eleven. Seriously, this Jerkass Complete Monster makes every single jerk roles he had look so tame. It's also his most awesome role to date.
  • Not really, it was more of Playing Against Type. If you notice, Yuuichi Nakamura seems to have been landed with more straightforward, if witty and snarky, hero, or 'Slice of Life series' protagonist, thus Hazama is one huge case of Playing Against Type.
  • Graham is the Playing Against Type case here. A Hot-Blooded, Large Ham, ace rival who is very far from being a jerk.
  • He completely plays against his type with Koichi Minamoto.
• Kappei Yamaguchi's kind of stuck with "hotheaded hero," having voiced Manga/Ranma|One Half, Manga/Inuyasha, and Monta from Eyeshield 21, among many others. One of the few notable exceptions is one of his earlier roles, Daisuke Kusama from Giant Robo. Or L from Death Note.
  • Though, he subverts the trend beautifully in roles such as Tororo from Keroro Gunsou and (most of all) Usopp from One Piece.
    • And don't forget the Serenely Dissonant, Extreme Doormat that is Mr. Tick Jefferson
  • Artemis from Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
• Hitomi Nabatame is a versatile voice actress, doing stuffs from Loli, graceful princess, outgoing girls or Tall, Dark and Bishoujo characters. However, if there's several things she's most known for, it's either her Bottle Fairy roles, or roles that have Les Yay painted in it. She may be even like this in real life.
  • She does consider Shizuka Itoh to be "Main Wife", Mamiko Noto is "Lover No.1", Kaori Shimizu is "Lover No. 2" and Ami Koshimizu is "Lover No.3" Granted they all worked together at some point (School Rumble).
    • Given that, according to her blog, she's in a serious relationship with Shizuka Itoh, "may" might not be strong enough a word.
      • * Cue major Squee * Not, if the fans laid off Tetsuya Kakihara for going out with "Lover n°1"
• Mamoru Miyano could do with a bit more typecasting...
  • Lately^[when?] he is quite suited roles of cold covert killers such as Setsuna from Gundam 00 and Vampire Knight. Death the Kid, even if not cold all the time, could count as well since he is the son of the Shinigami.
• Sometimes, a voice actor is pigeonholed into one type, but as time passed on, he/she is pigeonholed in another type and almost abandons their old pigeonholed types. The example of this is Aya Hisakawa, known as young, mostly spunky girl characters, especially Skuld and Chai Xianghua. But as time passed, she finds herself pigeonholed into mature women that knows her stuffs, such as Maya Natsume, "Captain Mom" Unohana Retsu or even Stripperiffic Ms. Fanservice Judith. This is also somehow reflected in her old pigeonholed types—the recent^[when?] Ah! My Goddess series features Skuld with an older form, and Hisakawa left Xianghua's role after Soul Calibur III.
• And the other example of 'switch pigeon hole' voice actor is Miki Ito. Beforehand, she's known as Femme Fatale type characters, sometimes overlapping with villains, such as Android no 18, Nova, Legretta the Quick. Now you find her voicing genuinely good Genki Girls like Asa Shigure, Taiga Fujimura...
  • Though recently^[when?], she's returned to her old type with Miyo Takano who, incidentally, is the Big Bad.
  • As well as Eva Ushiromiya in its spiritual sequel Umineko no Naku Koro ni.
• Natsuko Kuwatani is mostly known for absolutely loyal henchwoman to whomever she works for rather then the actual cause her master follows and rarely cares for anybody else. Kasuga in Sengoku Basara, Sette and Arf in Nanoha are good examples of following her master to the ends of the earth and often hints of a romance of them (some more blatant then others). Just call her Natsuko Kunoichi in that case.
  • Does cutesy Suiseiseki count as the part of 'loyal to the master to the end of the earth' part, DESU~?
    • Yes, to Jun (although more hidden than most). I forgot to mention Nanto Yaya from Strawberry Panic, the girl not only protects Hikari buts wants her as well. And does Henne from Mugen no Frontier count as so?
      • Also Micaiah...
        • It's Sothe
          • Subverted in Suzumiya Haruhi where Ryoko Asakura disobeys Nagato's orders in that she wanted to kill Kyon to see what Haruhi's reaction would be. Somewhat justified in that Asakura comes from a rogue faction within the Data Overmind.
          • Ryoko Achakura in Haruhi-chan. That is all.
• Shizuka Ito is known for her refined sexy personality (she does do hentai after all) and is often seen working with possible girlfriend Hitomi Nabatame (They have a good relationship, and apparently they are girlfriends if Hitomi's blog is to be believed) and the ability to go between romantically teasing or generally stoic and serious. Rest assured, she is a skilled femme fatale who is on fire (or at least her element in animes like Shakugan no Shana)
• Soichiro Hoshi is often the guy who is the younger partner of Akira Ishida, aside from that, he plays normally passive characters with hidden berserker streaks to him such as Kira Yamato from Gundam Seed franchise and Brooklyn from Beyblade. His roles often have a common thing among them as carrying sticks or similar stick like weapons to battle. Beamspam Jesus has nothing on stick smack Jesus.
  • Kazuma and Keiichi Maebara may be considered inversions. Both definitely have berserker sides to them, and Keiichi has a baseball bat as a Weapon of Choice but Kazuma is openly loud, brash and violent while Keiichi is a loud, perverted dork who only becomes violent when he falls victim to the Hate Plague. Then, there's also Sanada Yukimura who seems to not possess any indoor voice.
  • Ditto Masaru, who is made of Hot-Blooded and punches out fifty-feet giant chickens in his spare time.
• Tessho Genda is mostly known for his The Big Guy roles. If you see a character voiced by him, expect them to fulfill the Mighty Glacier role, such as the younger Toguro in Yu Yu Hakusho, Takeda Shingen in Sengoku Basara, Mighty Kongman in Tales of Destiny, Largo the Black Lion in Tales of the Abyss and... Zangief from Street Fighter, at least the later version. He does some exceptions, though, like... the dubbed version of Batman.
• Miyu Matsuki has a reputation of being cast for death with Mecha roles, aside from that she is a well known Yuri typecast
  • But she also played Isumi Saginomiya.
• Saki Nakajima loves to do Meido roles in general in terms of roles in general typecasts.
  • But she also played Chizuru Honshou
  • And Karin Sasamori.
• Mitsuki Saiga mainly plays male roles despite being a female seiyuu. Many of the roles he plays is mainly as protectors but when she also has to play a villain as well, it becomes a Well-Intentioned Extremist character. Example is Makubex from GetBackers. And if she doesn't play boys, she plays Action Girl types, like Jun from the Mazinkaiser OAV.
• One curious case is Masami Kikuchi. He was pigeonholed for years as the Unlucky Everydude / Harem Cast Lead types (like Keiichi Morisato in Ah! My Goddess) and got to play against type in the course of a series saga. Compare his Jou Kido to his Rob Mc Coy aka "Dolphin" and his Akihiko Kurata. And then compare these to his Hiroshi Wakato from The Prince of Tennis...
• Yukari Tamura seems destined to be the go-to name for (usually loli) Genki Girl Magical Girls, with the titular Otogi Juushi Akazukin and Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha. She has done several different roles (Mai Kawasumi in Kanon), but even if not magical, a large number of her characters tend to at least look somewhat loli (Sakura Yoshino in Da Capo, Mei Sunohara in Clannad, Ichigo Morino in Please Teacher!, Ink Nijihara in Moetan).
  • Rika Furude is an inversion. She seems to play it straight for awhile, but eventually it becomes clear that there's more to her than meets the eye.
  • And then there's Bernkastel, who is a Rogue Protagonist in Umineko no Naku Koro ni, by virtue of her being the summation of all pre-Matsuribayashi-hen incarnations of Rika Furude.
• Marina Inoue when doing major roles is mostly cast in the Ojou role most of the time. While not always of the lady in fine dress theme, there is a generally air of being a woman with a duty. Examples are Yoko, Petra and Alicia. And did we mention that these characters are pretty handy with their Guns Akimbons?
  • Jessica Ushiromiya is an inversion. She's an Ojou, but she's also a tomboyish Tsundere.
  • Subverted in Skip Beat!. Kyoko dreams of being an Ojou or a Princess but is also a poor aspiring actress lusting for revenge (and has the evil aura to prove it).
  • Don't forget Wataru Tachibana.
• Most characters voiced by Nozomu Sasaki end up creepy or evil or both. These include characters like Tetsuo (and his very obvious Expy K9999), Mello, Olba Frost, Enishi Yukishiro, and the worst of them all... Johan Liebert. The only exception is Yuusuke Urameshi, but that's just ONE breakout role compared to his whole lot of... that type of character.
  • Kazuya Hasukawa of Here Is Greenwood is another exception. He's really just an Ordinary High School Student.
    • Let's not forget Sasaki playing Unlucky Everydude Youta Moteuchi in the Video Girl Ai Drama CDs.
  • Jin Akutsu from The Prince of Tennis initially plays it straight by being a huge Jerkass, but later subverts it by getting Character Development, evolving into a Jerk with a Heart of Gold and an Aloof Big Brother to Taichi Dan.
  • Nozumu himself is probably a good example of someone who switched typecasts—he used to play a lot of sweet-voiced young boys (Kazuya from Here Is Greenwood, Chihaya from Earthian, etc) and now does more creepy evil types. There were even rumors in Japan that he'd had some kind of surgery or injections to alter his voice. In Legend of Galactic Heroes, which was made over a period of several years, try comparing Julian's voice at the beginning and end of the series to hear the 'change' (although arguably this could just be an example of acting, as the character had grown and matured).
    • Sasaki started smoking at some point, which is the cause of his deeper/raspier voice in later series.
• Isshin Chiba is mostly not-quite-so-active in anime. But when in video games, he has a lot of infamous roles, mostly as someone who is a Jerkass, or has an evil side. Including Albel Nox from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Melfice from Grandia II, Jedah Dohma from Darkstalkers and even Jin Kazama from Tekken, who has currently^[when?] embraced his evil side. And, of course, who could forget that he is the main voice of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure's Dio "ZA WARUDO" "WRRRYYYYYY!!!" Brando?
• Need an Tsundere Idol? Try Sakura Nogawa, often her roles will interlace with something idol related, famous roles includes Tsundere Tsubomi from Strawberry Panic, Shiho from My-HiME and being one of Gust (Creator of the Atelier Series) newest^[when?] talent to rely on. She has been cast in every Ar tonelico series so far. The only exception of this might be Hinaichigo from Rozen Maiden.
  • Don't forget she was the voice of Kaori Aida from Azumanga Daioh.
• Koji Tsujitani is known for his roles within being a Chivalrous Pervert and having one Star-Crossed Lovers too many (mostly unintentional). Examples of characters of exhibiting either trait include Bernard Wiseman, Seabook Arno, Azai Nagasawa and Miroku. He has other roles as well, but these comes to a troper's mind first when they think about this actor.
  • And then there's Itsuki...
• Yuki Matsuoka is known for voicing extremely weird and eccentric characters such as Osaka and Orihime Inoue from Bleach. OTOH, she voiced characters that are very much loved by the fandom such as Osaka and Suzumiya Haruhi's Tsuruya.
  • Also, Orihime and Tsuruya have undergone Memetic Mutation, both involving food products (leeks and smoked cheese, respectively).
• Ami Koshimizu may have versatile voice styles, but she often has a consistent fanservice and humorously ecchi feeling to her roles that she plays.
  • But she also played Rosa Ushiromiya.
• Kenichi Suzumura plays a lot characters whom knows or have the worst luck examples are Ichigo 100% and Gundam SEED Destiny, don't feel bad though, at least the VA gets to be quite close with Hitomi Nabatame... His characters also tend to be very loud, childish or rude and scream a lot (think Shinn Asuka in SEED Destiny or Chika Akatsuki in Zombie Loan)
• Hiro Shimono most notable typecast as a lead is seen as a somewhat meek person with a good sense of artist touch within him. His characters is usually pretty good at art or something culturally creative. Also, on 2 occasions he voiced roles which are also done by Johnny Yong Bosch.
• Miyu Irino seems to be cast as an Unlucky Everydude who also have high chances of being a Woobie or a Scrappy. Case in point being Syaoran from Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, Saji from Gundam 00, Tomoharu from Asura Cryin', Kou from Cross Game and Zwei from PhantomRequiem for the Phantom. Just note that his romantic interests tends to end up dead or horribly maimed.
• Ryuzaburo Otomo's voice is more often than not linked with villainous characters with an already-imposing stature, such as Sir Crocodile, Dabura, Tetsu Ushio in the first season of the Yu-Gi-Oh, Vamdemon, Uka-Uka, Astaroth, The Terminator, and... Mr. Freeze?
  • Speaking of which, the last two are also played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
• Satoshi Hino seems to be one of the go-to guys for Ordinary High School Student types who get overshadowed by his female companions. Let's see: Yuji Sakai, Saito Hiraga, Koukin Shuyu, and Tayutama's Yuuri Mito.
  • Yuuto from Cross Edge is a notable mention
    • Try Kamui from Gintama. Seriously.
• Mobile Suit Gundam and it spin offs just can't get along with Pretty Cure at all. Almost every VA whom had at least one stint with Gundam went on to be a villain in Pretty Cure. The only exception was Romi Park (Turn A's Loran Cehack).
• Kana Hanazawa is one of the best recent^[when?] choices for timid, kind, if somewhat fragile, female characters such as Sengoku Nadeko. Though she has played against this on occasion, such as Mikan Yuuki in To LOVE-Ru or Zange in Kannagi, a great lot of her characters end up falling into the main type. She also falls in The Woobie typecast with Tenshi and Suou in Angel Beats! and Darker than Black.
  • Recently^[when?] she also voices Genki Girls such as Nessa and Rana Linchen.
• Aki Toyosaki got her start playing bubbly, somewhat ditzy female characters with Amuro in Umisho, and hasn't really left it since. Roles such as Tomo in Seikon no Qwaser, Suu in Shugo Chara and, above all, Yui in K-On! are good examples of this characterization.
• Yoko Hikasa, taking off from her Star-Making Role as K-On!'s Shrinking Violet Mio Akiyama, has been pigeonholed into Tall, Dark and Bishoujo girls with long black hair (and sometimes a Hime Cut), but not necessarily as shy as Mio, such as Seraphim (Kore wa Zombie Desu ka?), Houki Shinonono (Infinite Stratos), Maya Kumashiro (Seikimatsu Occult Gakuin) and Shino Amakusa (Seitokai Yakuindomo). Seen here ^{[dead link]}
• Wataru Takagi is commonly typecast as any form of Gangster/Delinquent and other forms of the dregs of society. Naturally, this often gets him into villain roles, such as Horada in Durarara!!, Chaka in Black Lagoon or Tobi in Naruto. However, he may also play the converted Delinquent such as Aoki in Hajime no Ippo or the Great Teacher Onizuka himself.
  • Bizarrely enough, he voiced the author of the original manga in Excel Saga.
• Hiroaki Hirata has recently^[when?] lamented that, after ten years building a reputation as anime's "pirate seiyuu," (Sanji, Benny, Balthier, Captain Jack Sparrow, etc.), it took exactly one role (Kotetsu T. Kaburagi from Tiger and Bunny) for him to lose this title and instead become known as the "Oyaji seiyuu."
• Chiaki Takahashi is mostly known for her roles as Ms. Fanservice (occasionally overlapping with Cool Big Sis) or the one who is considered sexiest on the cast, considering she is a gravure idol. However, in a subversion, the personalities of her characters could differ from ditzy (Azusa), kind and nurturing, if conflicted (Litchi), utterly flirtuous (Haineko), and... well a lot more, but they always held the 'Sexy' part well.

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Spanish actores de doblaje

• Salvador Vidal. Arguably the most well-known male voice in Spain, even though his name isn't nearly as publicly famous as Constantino Romero or Ramón Langa. He has voiced most of Holywood mature stars of the last 40 years: George Clooney, Harrison Ford, and Michael Douglas are just a few examples. Not to mention that he is insanely prolific in advertising, which gives a lot of people the impression that he is practically everywhere.
• Constantino Romero. Probably the most famous voice actor in Spain, since, unlike most voice actors in the country, most people know his face due to his work as a successful TV host. Also, some of the most famous pop culture classics has been voiced by him. For starters, he's Clint Eastwood's regular voice actor. Then he was The Terminator in all three movies, Mufasa, Judge Claude Frollo... and Darth F***** Vader.
• Jordi Brau. One of the most chameleonlike voice actors in Spain and probably the world. He's the usual voice actor for Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Robin Williams, and Steven Seagal, just to name a few.
• Luis Posada. With his soft natural voice and incredible range, he has dubbed a lot of attractive young adults and a lot of wacky comedy actors with equally awesome results. Famous actors dubbed by him are Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp (whom he nails every single time, including Jack Sparrow), John Cusack, Jim Carrey, and Chris Rock. He also was Quasimodo's voice.
• Nuria Mediavilla has dub SO MANY attractive women that half of the female elite of Hollywood has been voiced by her at some point: Uma Thurman, Angelina Jolie, Cameron Diaz, Salma Hayek, Kate Winslet, Winona Ryder, etc, etc... Some consider her, not only one of the best voice actresses in Spain, but one of the best voice actresses in the world.
• Marta Barbará. Usually she dubs teenagers and young adult women and is Scarlett Johansson's usual VA in Spain.
  • However, here's the kicker: She was THE Spaniard Disney female lead voice during the The Renaissance Age of Animation. She was the female lead in FOUR MOVIES IN A ROW. To be precise, she voiced Jasmine, adult Nala, Pocahontas, and Esmeralda. Wow!
• Nuria Trifol. She is one of the most prolific voice actresses for children and female teenagers in Spain, although she's perfectly capable of adult women. Extra points for being also in practically every single Spanish anime dubbing recorded in Barcelona, and doing important roles most of the time. In fact, she has appeared even more in Catalonian dubs. She's also Keira Knightley's usual voice actress in Spain.
• Graciela Molina. She rivals Nuria Trifol in the most prolific voice actress for children and female teenagers, although she's a little bit more focused in young adult women and way more in live action. Fun fact: both actresses act together often in female friends and kid siblings roles, and both of them dub Natalie Portman regularly.
  • The Natalie Portman part has an anecdote: Molina voiced Padme in Episode I, while Trifol voiced her decoy (performed by Keira Knightley). However, this led to a confusion in Lucasfilm, making them to cast Trifol for Episodes II and III.
• Luis Bajo. The same as Salvador Vidal, but in TV Shows rather than film. He's also becoming the Spaniard equivalent of Nolan North in video games (although he has a wider range of voices than North). During the last three years or so, it seems like he's everywhere in digital media.