The stars behind gaming's voices

September 18, 2007

What do Bender from Futurama, Marcus Fenix from Gears of War and Wakka from Final Fantasy X all have in common? Amazingly, they're all voiced by the same guy - John DiMaggio.In fact,once you get looking around, it's amazing how many stars do games voiceovers for abit of extra cash. Of course, in some circumstances, getting professional actors in is essential - just look at Heavenly Sword's excellent cutscenesfor proof of that. We decided to find out who's done what - and the results are quite surprising. Check out this little lot, starting with John...

Game: Gears of War (Xbox 360, PC)
Star: John DiMaggio as Marcus Fenix
Best known for: The voice of Futurama's Bender

John is probably best known for being the voice Bender the robot in Futurama. But a quick look at his credited appearances reveals a very impressive scope of roles. As well as Wakka in Final Fantasy X and X-2, he also voiced Kimahri Ronso. Then there's Tiny Tiger in Crash: Nitro Kart. Bizzaro in Superman Returns. Juggernaut in X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse.It's amazing how varied the work can be for a voice actor - and not just in videogames.

The list goes on - Jackie Chan Adventures, Kim Possible (not as Kim - that really would be versatility), Ultimate Spider-Man... we're impressed. If we were giving out awards, John would win. But we're not, it's just for fun. Yeah, "Bite my shiny metal ass", we know...

Above: John DiMaggio (bottom-left) who plays Wakka, Marcus Fenix and Bender. And that's just for starters...

Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.

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