Curious who the greatest American voice actors are? Discover the top 15 legends who shaped the voice over industry, and find out how to hire professional American voice talent for your next project with fast, high-quality results.
Posted Aug 27, 2024·Updated Nov 14, 2026·12 min read
Share
Key Takeaways
Mel Blanc is one of the most successful American voice actors of all time having voiced more than 400 characters, including Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird, and Barney Rubble.
Nancy Cartwright and Dan Castellaneta have become synonymous with The Simpsons, voicing Bart Simpson and Homer Simpson respectively, as well as numerous other characters.
The iconic movie trailer catchphrase “In a world where…” is attributed to Don LaFontaine.
Laura Bailey has voiced over 500 video game characters.
Two of the most famous early female cartoon characters, Betty Boop and Olive Oyl from Popeye, were both voiced by 1930s vaudeville actress Mae Questel.
Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor were the longest-running voices of Mickey and Minnie Mouse, playing the characters for more than 30 years.
While there are several heavy hitters in the US voice over industry today, our top 15 American voice actors of all time include legendary performers such as Mel Blanc, Nancy Cartwright, Don LaFontaine, Laura Bailey, Dan Castellaneta, and Tara Strong.
Their skill, versatility, and distinctive voices have brought some of the craziest video and cartoon characters to life, making them stand out from the rest.
Want to know who else we think are the best in the business? Read on to find out!
You can’t talk about voice artists without mentioning Mel Blanc.
Best known for his work on Looney Tunes, iconic characters he voiced include Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, and Foghorn Leghorn.
The Warner Bros. franchise wasn’t the only animation company on his six-decades-long resume, though.
Blanc was also the voice of Barney Rubble on Hanna-Barbera’s The Flintstones and originated the iconic laugh and voice of Woody Woodpecker for Universal Pictures.
With over 400 characters’ voices to his credit, chances are that even if you never knew his name, you grew up listening regularly to the great Mel Blanc.
Check out this Looney Tunes favorite featuring three of his most famous characters:
I’ll eat my shorts if you haven’t heard of Nancy Cartwright.
After all, for 30 years she was the voice of the most famous 10-year-old boy of all time – the ever-irreverent Bart Simpson.
She may have made her name with Bart on Fox television’s The Simpsons, receiving a Primetime Emmy Award for her efforts; Cartwright’s talents didn’t end there.
She’s voiced a slew of other celebrated cartoon characters from Rufus on Kim Possible to Chuckie on Rugrats.
3. Don LaFontaine
In a world where movie trailer VOs are often more memorable than the movies themselves, one man’s voice stands out… that of the late, great Don LaFontaine.
Image courtesy of Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_LaFontaine
With the deep tones of a man you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night, it was LaFontaine, a.k.a. ‘The Voice of God”, who supposedly originated that iconic trailer catchphrase “In a world where…”, though he later said he never used it!
Still, in a career that spanned 5,000 movie trailers and 350,000 commercials, we can forgive him for not remembering every line he uttered – even if it is one of the most famous sentences to never appear in a movie!
Gamers get it–Laura Bailey is THE queen! Of anime and video games, anyway.
She made her debut as Kid Trunks in the anime Dragon Ball Z and never looked back.
From playing several characters in Naruto, one of the most popular Manga series of all time, she also stepped into video game territory. Here, she’s notched up over 500 character voices.
Notable mentions in this genre go to Mass Effect badass Commander Shepard, Chun-Li from Street Fighter, Jaina Proudmoore in World of Warcraft, and the VO that scooped her a BAFTA for Best Performer in a Leading Role, Abby Anderson in the 2020 video game The Last of Us Part II.
Anyone who has lived on Planet Earth these last three decades knows at least one of the characters that American voice actor Dan Castellaneta has voiced.
He’s had roles on Futurama, Justice League, The Adventures of Dynamo Duck, and Hey Arnold! to name but a few.
But did we forget his most famous role? Doh! I guess that has to be TV’s much-loved dimwit dad, Homer Simpson.
And yet, the wonder of Castellaneta’s talent is that alongside this unforgettable character, the Emmy Award-winning actor has voiced dozens of other Simpson favorites including Krusty the Clown, Groundskeeper Willie, Mayor Quimby, Barney Gumble, and Grampa Simpson.
6. Mae Questel
It’s true we love Minnie and Daisy, but not all our favorite animated female characters are animals.
Two of the most popular cartoon gals just happened to have come from the voice of 1930s vaudeville actress Mae Questel.
Those characters? None other than doe-eyed flapper Betty Boop and Popeye the Sailor’s sweetheart, Olive Oyl.
Both Betty’s squeaky singing sound and Olive’s high-pitched chatter are an integral part of these cultural TV icons’ characters and the reason why Questel is in our list of the top 15 American voice over artists.
Check out Betty Boop doing her do courtesy of Questel in this 1936 cartoon:
Hear voices against your actual script
Free custom auditions from professional voice talent — no commitment.
If you were ever a fan of “cool teens doin’ ninja things”, then you had the privilege of hearing the incredible work of American voice actor, Rob Paulsen.
His work on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was so good, he did it twice, both in the original 1987 series and the 2012 reboot.
But these were only two VO outings in his extensive career.
Others include Dick Dastardly of Wacky Races fame, Carl Wheezer in Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and the role with which the versatile voice artist is most closely associated, Pinky, from the multi-Emmy Award-winning Pinky and the Brain.
8. Tara Strong
From the sweet and strong to sullen and moody, Tara Strong has been the American voice actress behind some of the most iconic characters that teens fan-girled over in the early 2000s.
Without her, we wouldn’t have had peppy Twilight Sparkle from the My Little Pony franchise, soft-hearted Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls, or brooding Raven in Teen Titans (whom she still voices).
Of course, she’s been a noted voice on hundreds of other shows too, including Rugrats, Family Guy, Batgirl, Ben 10, and Spirited Away.
But she claims the above-mentioned three characters are among her favorites.
Once you create a character, they live in your head. And that’s the hardest part emotionally – letting go of a character that you really helped bring to life and to the world.”
9 & 10. Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor
If Tara Strong will forever be the voice of Teen Titan, Raven, then the voices behind animation’s most famous mice, Mickey and Minnie, will forever be associated with Wayne Allwine and Russi Taylor.
We’re including both artists in the same paragraph because, like PB & J or RuPaul and Drag, you just can’t have Mickey without Minnie.
Interestingly, Allwine and Taylor were both the third actors to take on the iconic roles, though they ended up voicing their characters the longest.
Allwine was the voice of the bubbly rodent for 32 years, while Taylor held on one year longer, voicing Mickey’s cute companion for 33 years in total.
Equally interesting is the fact that Allwine and Taylor didn’t just play lovebirds behind the mic – they were married in real life too. Oh boy!
The School of Rock comic actor may not immediately make you think of voice acting.
But mention animated film titles such as Ice Age, Shark Tale, and, of course, Kung Fu Panda, and you’ll likely see where we’re going with this.
In fact, Black has a surprisingly successful career as a voice actor, taking on impressive VO duties in several video games too, including Broken Age and Brütal Legend.
But it’s perhaps his role as the scary, if soft-centered, Bowser in the 2023 Super Mario Bros. Movie that has helped land him in our top 15 American voice actors.
12. Julie Foray
Starting work at the age of 12 might conjure up images of kids down in the coal mines, but this was, in fact, when multi-talented Julie Foray stepped into her first drama role on the radio.
It was 1929, and radio was all the rage. By 15, she was working full-time, honing her craft on regular radio shows over the next few years.
However, it was in 1950 when she bagged the role of Lucifer the Cat in Disney’s Cinderella that her star as a leading American voice actor really started to rise.
From there, she went on to voice hundreds of cartoons, commercials, radio shows, and TV animated specials.
While she’s best known for voicing Rocky the Flying Squirrel on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, other significant cartoons she worked on included The Jetsons, The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You, The Garfield Show, and The Smurfs.
Fabulously, she also provided the spoken words for Mattel’s original pull-string Chatty Cathy doll in 1959.
In a 2012 interview with Animation World Magazine, famous Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones stated:
June Foray is not the female Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc was the male June Foray.”
To a certain generation, Mark Hamill will always be Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker.
But to another younger generation, he’s the Joker, the terrifying nemesis of Batman who appeared in various DC Comics projects.
Hamill first took on the supervillain’s role in Batman: The Animated Series in 1992. He was an instant hit.
However, it was playing the character in 2001’s Batman: Vengeance and the mega-popular Batman: Arkham Asylum video games that really rocketed him to fame as the archenemy of Gotham City’s protector.
14. Kevin Conroy
While Mark Hamill gave us a disturbing new version of the Joker, no one defined his partner-in-crime, Batman, quite like Kevin Conroy.
Conroy embraced his inner bat at the same time Hamill starred as Joker on Batman: The Animated Series.
He continued to play the Dark Knight from then until his death in November 2022, featuring in 15 films, 15 animated series, and over 24 video games.
15. Kath Soucie
From animated films and TV series to video games and commercials, Kath Soucie has done it all, and then some.
Among the thousands of roles she’s known for, she’s voiced Lola Bunny in the Looney Tunes franchise, the younger Nick Wilde in Zootopia, and Jek Lawquane in Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
She’s also clocked in a tonne of voice work on video games such as Full Throttle, Fallout, StarCraft II, and World of Final Fantasy.
Looking for YOUR BEST American voice actor of all time?
These are our top 15 American voice actors of all time, but truth be told, there are thousands more doing a fantastic job each and every day.
You only have to look at our recent selection of the 10 top American voice actors working today to see the high caliber of talent.
So, if you’re searching for an American VO artist for your current project, check out these fine artists, or take a deeper dive into the many great professionals you’ll find on the Voice Crafters website.
You can also post your project on our online platform. Make sure you request custom auditions based on your script (it’s free!) to really hone in on the voice that’s right for your brand and message.
Additionally, if you need help casting the right talent for you, drop us a line, and we’ll be happy to help!
Frequently Asked Questions
Why is Mel Blanc considered one of the greatest American voice actors of all time?
Mel Blanc is widely considered one of the greatest American voice actors because he has voiced more than 400 character voices, including many iconic Looney Tunes favourites such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Bird, and Foghorn Leghorn.
Who are the original voice actors on The Simpsons?
The original main voice actors on The Simpsons include Nancy Cartwright, who famously voices Bart Simpson, Dan Castellaneta who voices Homer Simpson and various other characters, and Julie Kavner, Hank Azaria, Yeardley Smith, and Harry Shearer who between them voice several of the other main characters.
How many movie trailers did Don LaFontaine voice over the span of his career and why was he called the ‘Voice of God’?
Don LaFontaine voiced over 5,000 movie trailers and about 350,000 commercials over his career.
He became known as the “Voice of God” because of his distinctive deep voice.
Were there any women voice actors working in the early days of animation voice acting?
Yes. Two of the most famous women voice actors in the early days of animation were Mae Questel, who voiced Betty Boop and Popeye’s Olive Oyl, and June Foray, who began working on radio in 1929 but got her break when she voiced Lucifer the Cat in Disney’s 1950 film Cinderella. She went on to voice characters in Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, The Jetsons, The Flintstones, and Scooby-Doo, among others.
Who voiced Batman and the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series?
Kevin Conroy voiced Batman, while Mark Hamill voiced the Joker.
Their performances helped define the voices of the Joker and Batman, respectively, across the animated series and further films and video games.
0 Comments