More than just Bender, John DiMaggio deserves our praise.
John DiMaggio would be the first to tell you that a common thread throughout the characters he’s been voicing since the late ‘90s is their bawdiness. It’s just the kind of jovial, broad, warm timbre his voice brings to iconic roles like Bender from Futurama and Jake the Dog from Adventure Time. These characters have solidified his career with two outrageous, series-saving foils to their show’s more simple protagonists. But his work doesn’t always involve inviting people to bite his shiny metal ass or announcing his inventions to place his disturbingly well-defined dog butt on people’s heads.
DiMaggio finds nuance in his roles (which, of course, must be true of any working voice actor who wants a career outside of a single character), separating himself off into the big leagues of those voiceover actors he documented as executive producer and narrator of I Know That Voice.
DiMaggio, who turned 49 yesterday, has been all over the map in his career – so much so that you can’t contain it all in a filmography. A video game-ography? Mediography? Someone that effortlessly flows between the different challenges of TV, film, and video games deserves recognition. Thankfully, editor Cuttleboss has created a supercut appreciation of the actor that analyzes his strengths, his refusal to be pigeonholed, and of course, his roles. Voice actors are often the unsung heroes of our favorite shows, treated like dancing monkeys in the real world by fans (“Hey, say the catchphrase!”), so it’s nice to see someone shining a spotlight on one of the best people working in his field.
Related Topics: Voice Acting
