Dee Bradley Baker | |
|---|---|
 Baker in 2024 | |
| Born | (1962-08-31)August 31, 1962 (age 63) Bloomington, Indiana, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Colorado College (BA) |
| Occupation | Voice actor |
| Years active | 1989–present |
| Works | Full list |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 2 |
| Website | deebaker |
Dee Bradley Baker (born August 31, 1962) is an American voice actor. Much of his work has consisted of vocalizations of animals and monsters. Baker's roles include animated series such asAdventure Time,American Dad!,Avatar: The Last Airbender,Ben 10,Codename: Kids Next Door,The Fairly OddParents,Gravity Falls,Handy Manny,Jungle Junction,Miles from Tomorrowland,Milo Murphy's Law,Muppet Babies,My Friends Tigger & Pooh,Phineas and Ferb,SpongeBob SquarePants,Steven Universe,The 7D, andThe Legend of Korra. His voice work in live-action series includesLegends of the Hidden Temple andShop 'til You Drop, as well as films such asSpace Jam andThe Boxtrolls.
Baker is especially known for his work on variousStar Wars television series, mainly as the voice ofCaptain Rex and otherclone troopers inStar Wars: The Clone Wars,Star Wars Rebels, andStar Wars: The Bad Batch. He has also voiced characters in video games includingHalo,Gears of War,Viewtiful Joe,Destiny,Overwatch, andPortal 2.
Baker was born inBloomington, Indiana, on August 31, 1962,[1][2] to Nancy Ann (née McCaslin; 1935–2007)[3] and Edwin Dee "Buddy" Baker (1932–2023),[4] and grew up inGreeley, Colorado.[5][6] He has one sister and one brother.[4] He started performing at the age of nine and steadily worked in musicals, operas, plays, and stand-up comedy. As a child, he was a fan ofStar Trek,Star Wars,Planet of the Apes, and the music ofFrank Zappa; he also had an interest in insects, arthropods, and dinosaurs.[7] He graduated fromUniversity High School in 1981 and received aBoettcher Scholarship.[5][8]
Baker attendedColorado College inColorado Springs, Colorado, where he studied philosophy, biology, fine arts, and German, the last of which he studied overseas for a year at theUniversity of Göttingen.[9] He was involved in local theater productions and singing groups. After graduating with aBA in philosophy in 1986, he was involved in many community theater projects, including a sketch comedy movie that aired on local public television.[10]
In 1989, Baker moved toOrlando, Florida, where he worked on an improv sketch comedy show titledThe Anacomical Players atEPCOT Center'sWonders of Life pavilion and joined various projects for Disney and Universal Studios.[2][10][11] His first major experience on national television was on the Nickelodeon game showLegends of the Hidden Temple from 1993 to 1995, where he was not only the announcer, but also the giant talking rock-god Olmec.[10][12] He portrayed Olmec with a "big, booming, loud, god-like voice". During parts of the show, he would narrate a legend, and then ask the kid contestants related trivia questions. The show lasted three seasons and 120 episodes. When hostKirk Fogg moved to Los Angeles, he was encouraged to move there as well.[13] In 2016, he and Fogg reprised their roles for alive action television movie adaptation of the show.[14] He reprised his role of Olmec again when Legends was revived in 2021 onThe CW.[15]
Baker moved to Southern California about a year before the1994 Northridge earthquake.[5] He got involved in voice-over work; his first major character was Cow & Chicken's dad in theCow & Chicken andI Am Weasel cartoons.[10] His first feature film voice-over was on thebasketball-themedLooney Tunes filmSpace Jam where he voicedDaffy Duck,Taz andToro.[10] He did voice work for various episodic and recurring cartoon characters inThe Real Adventures of Jonny Quest,[16]Johnny Bravo,Dexter's Laboratory,[17]SpongeBob SquarePants,[18] andThe Powerpuff Girls.[19] He voiced starring characters Og inMike, Lu & Og[20] andBagheera in the second season ofJungle Cubs.[21] In 2001, he added voice roles for Sanjay, Binky and other characters forThe Fairly OddParents[22][23] and co-starred as Mandy's father onBilly and Mandy.[24][23] He had a lead role as Numbuh 4 inCodename: Kids Next Door.[25]
On the live-action front, he became the co-host and announcer for the game showShop 'til You Drop which spanned several hundred episodes when it resumed broadcasting on theFamily Channel (of which he was their announcer in 1999) and on thePax television network, until a series retool in 2003; it was produced by Stone Stanley Entertainment, which had earlier co-producedLegends of the Hidden Temple.[26] He also had an on-screen recurring role as Phil Berg in the Nickelodeon sitcom seriesThe Journey of Allen Strange where he plays a crazed journalist who tries to expose Allen's identity as a space alien.[27]
Starting with gigs onThe Wild Thornberrys, he voiced an assortment of animal characters, which would become one of his specialties.[23] He voiced Pig George in the live action animal filmMy Brother the Pig.[28] Baker has also been involved with television shows for younger children including:Dora the Explorer where he provided animal sounds;[29]Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where he voicesBoo Boo Chicken;[30]Curious George where he voices Gnocchi,[31]My Friends Tigger & Pooh where he voicesBuster the dog[32] andJake and the Neverland Pirates (airing onDisney Junior) where he voices Tick-Tock the crocodile.[23] InAvatar: The Last Airbender where he voiced the creaturesAppa andMomo[33] and would soon voice many other creatures in the series as well as its sequel,The Legend of Korra, where he voices Naga, Pabu and Oogi. He voiced in theAmerican Dragon: Jake Long[34] andBen 10 series, the latter of which he voiced many alien creatures such asStinkfly andWildmutt, as well as some of the transformations.[23][35] He also voiced in theBen 10 sequels such asBen 10: Alien Force,[36]Ben 10: Ultimate Alien andBen 10: Omniverse, as well as its live-action adaptations and the show'sreboot.[23][37][38] Derrick J. Wyatt, who was the art director forOmniverse, noted that they had to allow other voice actors to do some of the aliens in the later series because Baker was doing almost all of them and some of the characters were putting a strain on his throat.[38] Outside of television, he provided the voice ofCaptain Jack Sparrow's talking parrot in the refurbishedPirates of the Caribbean rides at Disneyland and theMagic Kingdom.[11][39]
In 2007, Baker got the role ofPerry the Platypus in the Disney seriesPhineas and Ferb. At the 2013San Diego Comic-Con panel, Baker mentioned that when he auditioned, he was asked to provide three different creature sounds, regardless of whether it actually sounded like a platypus, of which one was selected as Perry's characteristic sound.[40] Perry has become abreakout character for the series,[41] with Baker appearing at multiple Comic-Con panels for the show.[40] In 2014, Perry was nominated for aNickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Best Animal Sidekick. Coincidentally, another one of Baker's voiced characters, Waddles the pet pig inGravity Falls, was nominated for the same category.[42] He provides the voice of Eagly, the eagle, in HBO's TV seriesPeacemaker.
In 2005, Baker landed a role asKlaus Heisler, an Olympic ski jumper from Germany who wasbody-swapped into a goldfish, in the primetime cartoon sitcomAmerican Dad![43][44] The series has run for 20 seasons on Fox and TBS. In an interview withPop Break, Baker said that he liked playing Klaus because he loves the German language, the part was well written, and it is not stressful on his voice. He compared the rehearsals to being onThe Carol Burnett Show.[45] He participated inAmerican Dad panels atSan Diego Comic-Con in 2010,[46] 2012,[47] and 2014;[48] and theNew York Comic Con in 2014.[49] In 2017, he received a nomination for thePrimetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance for Klaus in the episode "Fight or Flight".[6] He also voices other characters on the show, most notably Rogu, a homunculi tumor that came off of Roger.
His voicing of council member Tarrlok inKorra garnered a nomination for the Behind the Voice Actors (BTVA) Voice Acting Award in 2012.[50][51][52][53] In addition to television shows, Baker voiced characters in many animated and live action animation films, including some of the classic ghost monsters inScooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed,[54] and Maurice inHappy Feet.[23] He also had roles in theScooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated TV series and its direct-to-video releases.[23]
Baker was involved in theStar Wars: The Clone Wars film released in 2008 andits television series afterwards which ran for seven seasons. He provided the voices for not only the charactersCaptain Rex and Commander Cody, but also all the supportingclone troopers,[55][56][57] the last of which he received anAnnie Award nomination for Voice Acting in a Television Production in 2012.[58] He has also reprised the role of Captain Rex inStar Wars Rebels, beginning with its second season. He also provided the voice ofBoba Fett forStar Tours – The Adventures Continue.[11] In the 2011Family Guy episode "It's a Trap!", a parody of theStar Wars filmReturn of the Jedi, he voiced Klaus asAdmiral Ackbar.[59] In 2021, he reprised the role of the clones in theClone Wars spin-offThe Bad Batch, including the titular group of experimental clones.[60][61] In 2023, he was announced as a voice actor in theStar Wars Outlaws video game, playing Nix, Kay Vess's loyal companion.[62]
In the video game world, Baker reprised his roles in Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon's multitude of show-related game releases. He provided the voice for Otto Von Fassenbottom, a German race car in the 2007 video game,Cars Mater-National Championship. He also voicedGravemind inHalo 2 andHalo 3,[23] and the title character Joe in theViewtiful Joe series released from 2003 to 2005.[63] He provided the creature sounds for theSpore video game which allows players to create and evolve their own creatures.[64][65] At the 2008 San Diego Comic-Con opening night, he was a featured performer at theVideo Games Live concert, where he voiced characters fromGears of War and other series.[66] He provided voices for twoBlizzard Entertainment characters – Murky, a babymurloc inHeroes of the Storm, andHammond, a genetically engineered hamster inOverwatch.[67] He voiced multiple characters from theDe Blob series. He is also the voice of the Death inDante's Inferno, released in 2010,[68] and Atlas and P-body inPortal 2, released in 2011.[69] He also voiced Reuben the pig inMinecraft: Story Mode in 2014.
In 2014, Baker continued participating inAmerican Dad,Gravity Falls, and a fourth season ofThe Legend of Korra. He voiced Dopey in the Disney XD seriesThe 7D;[70] and Fish, Wheels and Bucket inThe Boxtrolls film,[71][72][73] in which he was nominated for an Annie Award for voicing Fish.[74][75] In theLego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game, he voicedBrainiac.[76] He voiced George Clooney and his dog in "The Animated Episode" of the TV Land seriesHot in Cleveland.[77] In 2020, he voiced the hero Leef inRocket Arena.[78]
Baker has appeared on various panels at Comic-Con and other conventions where he talks about voice acting in general.[79] He also created a website called IWantToBeAVoiceActor.com, where he answers frequently-asked questions about voice acting and gives advice.[72] The site has been cited by fellow voice actorsSteven Blum andRob Paulsen as a valuable resource for getting into voice acting.[80][81]
Baker met his wife Michelle Brown when they were doing children's theatre at theColorado Springs Fine Arts Center.[2][5][10] They married in 1990, and have two daughters.[5][10] They live inLos Angeles.
Outside of voice acting, Baker enjoys photography, mostly taking pictures of small flowers and insects.[72][82] He is fluent in German.[9][83]
| Year | Organisation | Category | Project | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Children's and Family Emmy Awards | Outstanding Voice Performer in a Preschool Animated Program | Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures | Pending | [84] |
At the age of 28, Baker is among the lucky minority of entertainers who can call themselves working actors
