Phil LaMarr

Phil LaMarr is an American actor, comedian, and voice actor born in 1967 in Los Angeles, California. His decision to pursue acting came during middle school, when he performed in a school play. Before graduating high school, he had already secured a voice role on the animated series Mister T. He went on to attend Yale University, where he majored in English, and later developed his skills as a comedy writer before establishing himself as one of the most prolific voice actors in the industry.

LaMarr gained widespread recognition as one of the nine original featured cast members on the sketch comedy series Mad TV, where he remained for five seasons before departing at the end of the 2000 season. Among the recurring characters he created for the show were Desperation Lee, Jaq the UBS Guy, talentless R&B singer Savante, and Lieutenant Abraham Jefferson of Rocket Revengers. He also performed celebrity impressions on the series, including an African-American interpretation of Moe Howard from The Three Stooges.

His voice acting career spans an extensive range of animated television series. LaMarr originated the title role of Samurai Jack and voiced John Stewart as Green Lantern across Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, as well as Virgil Hawkins as Static in Static Shock. He played Hermes Conrad in Futurama, reprising the role in the films Bender's Big Score, The Beast with a Billion Backs, Bender's Game, and Into the Wild Green Yonder, as well as in the series' 2010 revival. Additional animated credits include Wilt in Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Carver Descartes in The Weekenders, Bolbi Stroganofsky in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, Ollie Williams and Judge Dignified Q. Blackman in Family Guy, Philly Phil in Class of 3000, Black Vulcan in Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law, Hector Con Carne in Evil Con Carne, Osmosis Jones in Ozzy and Drix, Jazz and Omega Supreme in Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Aquaman and other characters in Young Justice, Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, J.A.R.V.I.S. in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Lucius Fox in DC Super Hero Girls, Professor Thistlethorpe in BoJack Horseman, and Alphabittle in the Netflix film My Little Pony: A New Generation. In July 2021, he voiced Orn Free Taa in Star Wars: The Bad Batch. He also voiced Browntooth the Goblin Rogue in a Critical Role episode.

LaMarr's film career began before his television prominence. His second film role was Marvin in Pulp Fiction in 1994, followed by Bio-Dome in 1996. He appeared in Speaking of Sex in 2001, Spider-Man 2 in 2004 as a passenger on a subway train, and Real Steel in 2011. Additional film credits include Kill the Man, Free Enterprise, Cherish, Manna from Heaven, Back by Midnight, Fronterz, Choose Your Own Adventure: The Abominable Snowman, Cook Off, and a cameo in the Will Ferrell film Step Brothers.

Video game voice work has constituted another significant dimension of LaMarr's career. He voiced Vamp in both Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, and later returned to the franchise as Kevin Washington in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. His Final Fantasy credits include Reddas in Final Fantasy XII and Ramza in the PSP version of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions. He voiced Sig and Count Veger in the Jak and Daxter series, Vulgrim in Darksiders, Sam B in Dead Island, John White and The Beast in Infamous and Infamous 2, Phoebus in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Kotal Kahn in Mortal Kombat, and both Aquaman and John Stewart in Injustice: Gods Among Us and its 2017 sequel Injustice 2. Additional game credits include Gadon Thek in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Chris Jacobs in Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction and Mercenaries 2: World in Flames, Mr. Sunshine in Saints Row 2 and Saints Row IV, Dr. Bradley Ragland in Prototype, Kane in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, Rick Grimes in the motion comic adaptation of The Walking Dead, and multiple roles in the Halo 5: Guardians audio drama Hunt the Truth.

LaMarr's stage work includes productions of The Tempest, As You Like It, Guys and Dolls, Asylum, South Coast Repertory's Make the Break, and the Sacred Fools Theater Company's inaugural production of The Fatty Arbuckle Spookhouse Revue. His Broadway credit came in 2010 with The Pee-wee Herman Show, in which he played Cowboy Curtis, a role originally portrayed by Laurence Fishburne. LaMarr first performed the role in the Los Angeles production, which ran from January 12 to February 7, 2010, at Club Nokia at LA Live. The Broadway production opened on November 11, 2010, and concluded its limited engagement on January 2, 2011. The New York production was subsequently recorded for an HBO special that aired in March 2011.