Jess_Harnell

Jess Harnell

Jess Harnell

American voice actor

Jess Harnell (born December 23, 1963[1]) is an American voice actor. His roles include Wakko Warner in Animaniacs, Captain Hero in Drawn Together, Jerry in the first two seasons of Totally Spies, Ironhide in the first three Transformers films directed by Michael Bay, the titular character in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, and Wooton Bassett in Adventures in Odyssey. Harnell has also been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.

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Early life

Harnell was born on December 23, 1963, at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Teaneck,[1] the son of Joe Harnell (a jazz composer) and his wife Alice.[2][3]

Career

In 1989, Harnell provided the voices of Br'er Rabbit and many other critters for the Splash Mountain attraction at Disneyland Park. Harnell also recorded some new character dialogue for the subsequent Walt Disney World version of the attraction. He has continued to reprise the role of Brer Rabbit in new Disney projects when needed, such as in the 2011 video game Kinect: Disneyland Adventures.

In 1990, Harnell served as a casting director on DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp. In 1993, he went on to voice Wakko Warner on Animaniacs and Secret Squirrel on 2 Stupid Dogs. That same year, he became the singing voice of father in the current version of Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress.[4] From 1994 to 1996, he supplied the voices of Sewer Urchin, the Human Bullet and Chief Louder in the animated series The Tick.

Also, in 1996, Harnell voiced Hunter in Road Rovers. One of Harnell's next appearances was as the principal stormtrooper in the 1997 Star Wars fan film Troops, a parody of Cops set in the Star Wars expanded universe. Harnell voiced Rudy's father, Joe Tabootie and Chalk Dad on the Nickelodeon show ChalkZone, Crash Bandicoot in Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, Crash: Mind over Mutant, and Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, Lo-Lo in Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Rodney Copperbottom in the Robots video game, Spyro the Dragon in Spyro: A Hero's Tail and Spyro: Shadow Legacy, Marlin, Bruce and Crazy Drivers in the Finding Nemo video game, Jerry in the first two seasons of Totally Spies, Linguni in Pucca and Evil Scientist in The Nightmare Before Christmas' video game spin-offs, as well as in the Kingdom Hearts series. In 2005, he voiced Buzz Blister in Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars and numerous other characters in subsequent Tom and Jerry features. He also voiced wild and energetic Cro-Magnon Doubledome from the Longhair and Doubledome cartoon shorts for Cartoon Network's Big Pick (also starring Daniel Davis as Longhair).

In 2001, Harnell was the singing voice of Buster on Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure. He also voiced Captain Hero on Comedy Central's animated comedy Drawn Together and he also does the voices of Wooton Bassett and Bennett Charles on the radio drama Adventures in Odyssey,[5] as well as playing the lead role of Finnian Jones for the Lamplighter Theatre Radio Drama. He also made appearances on Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. His voice also made an appearance in NASCAR Rumble, and is credited for in-game commentary in the follow-up game Rumble Racing. Jess also replaced Brad Garrett as the voice of Fatso during season 3 of The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper. He also guest starred in Samurai Jack as he voiced Ringo and a waitress in the episode "Jack Under the Sea". He also produced the 2004 film Comic Book: The Movie along with Billy West, Mark Hamill, Eric Mittleman, Scott Zakarin and Roger Rose as well as playing the character Ricky. In 2006, he worked as a voice director on Pet Alien. In 2007, he replaced Neil Flynn as the voice of The Plumber in Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time. He also voiced the Smuggler in that popular series.

In that same year, Harnell voiced the characters of Ironhide and Barricade in the Michael Bay-directed Transformers, making him the only voice actor to play both an Autobot (Ironhide) and a Decepticon (Barricade) in that film. He returned to voice Ironhide once again in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen[6][7][8] and Transformers: Dark of the Moon as well as Barricade in Transformers: The Last Knight.

Harnell voiced a character in Up and replaced Brad Garrett as the voice of Professor Buffo in Special Agent Oso. He also voiced Flip Wreck, Blast Zone and Bucko in the Skylanders reboot of the franchise and Cowardly Lion and Reegull in Lego Dimensions. Harnell also provided the voice and singing voice of Cedric the Sorcerer from Sofia the First from 2013 to 2018.

Music career

Main article: Rock Sugar (band)

Harnell released his only solo album, The Sound of Your Voice, in 1995. He is the lead vocalist in the pop/metal mashup rock band, Rock Sugar, which evolved from his previous band, Loud & Clear. With Loud & Clear or Rock Sugar, Harnell released five albums: Disc-Connected (2003), self-titled demo album (2007), Festival of Fire (2008), Reimaginator (2010), and Reinventinator (2021)[9][10][11][12]

Personal life

On November 8, 2019, Harnell proposed to his girlfriend Cara Leanne,[13] and the couple married on November 19.[14][15]

Filmography

Film

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Television

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Video games

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Live-action

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Theme parks

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Radio

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Soundtrack appearances

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References

  1. [1]
    "Happy Birthday To Noted Voice Actor Jess Harnell, of Englewood". Englewood Daily Voice. Englewood, New Jersey. December 23, 2016. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2017.
  2. [2]
    https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/arts/music/joe-harnell-music-arranger-dies-at-80.doc
  3. [3]
    Zayas, Javier. "'Wakko Yaks: A Conversation with Jess Harnell' by Javier Zayas" Archived 2015-06-18 at the Wayback Machine, Fulle Circle Magazine, April 17, 2015. Accessed June 17, 2015. "Javier Zayas: So you were born in Teaneck, New Jersey? Jess Harnell: Actually it was Englewood Hospital, but right near Teaneck and that's where I lived so we'll stick with that."
  4. [4]
    "Your Disney Questions Answered—by Disney Legend Dave Smith". D23. January 26, 2017. Archived from the original on May 10, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
  5. [5]
    "The Odyssey Scoop - Cast & Crew: Jess Harnell". Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  6. [6]
    "Voice Cast Announced on Program at Australia Premiere". Seibertron. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved June 21, 2007. [better source needed]
  7. [7]
    "Transformers Movie Voice Cast Revealed!". TFormers.com. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 21, 2021. [better source needed]
  8. [8]
    ""Transformers" Movie Credits". About.com. Archived from the original on July 24, 2008. Retrieved June 21, 2007.
  9. [9]
    "Jess Harnell of Rock Sugar". December 14, 2020. Archived from the original on June 18, 2021. Retrieved July 11, 2021.
  10. [10]
    Reinartz, Joe (5 April 2010). "Yet Another Rock Sugar Update". Pollstar. Archived from the original on 7 April 2010. Retrieved 22 April 2010.
  11. [11]
    "Rock Sugar". ReverbNation. Archived from the original on February 2, 2011. Retrieved April 22, 2010.
  12. [12]
    "Album Review: ROCK SUGAR – Reinventinator". MetalNation. Archived from the original on May 1, 2021. Retrieved January 14, 2012.
  13. [13]
    "Jess Harnell's Life Became Complete After Getting Married to His Wife". June 18, 2021. Archived from the original on January 5, 2023. Retrieved January 5, 2023.
  14. [14]
    "Voice Actor Jess Harnell honored with Utah Law Enforcement Day". November 30, 2019. Archived from the original on January 27, 2020. Retrieved January 27, 2020.
  15. [15]
    Harnell, Jess [@JessHarnell] (November 30, 2019). "Welcoming Mr. & Mrs. Jess & Cara Harnell!⛪️💍 We were married in an extremely small, intimate and beautiful wedding, and we couldn't be happier! Celebration details to follow in the new year! 🖤💙 https://t.co/2HMY1ONDUQ" (Tweet). Archived from the original on January 25, 2021. Retrieved June 21, 2021 – via Twitter.
  16. [16]
    "Jess Harnell (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Archived from the original on August 2, 2017. Retrieved April 28, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  17. [17]
    Pastrick, Chris (October 9, 2019). "Original voices set to return for 'Animaniacs' reboot on Hulu". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 9, 2019. Retrieved October 9, 2019.
  18. [18]
    "Hulu Renewed the 'Animaniacs' Reboot for a Second Season of "Zany to the Max" Antics". August 8, 2020. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020. Retrieved December 21, 2020.
  19. [19]
    Parker, Ryan (May 19, 2022). "'Batwheels' Adds Gina Rodriguez and Xolo Mariduena to Supervillain Lineup (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on May 19, 2022. Retrieved May 20, 2022.
  20. [20]
    Vicarious Visions. Skylanders: SuperChargers. Activision. Scene: Closing credits, 7:13 in, Voice Actors.
  21. [21]
    Gilbert, Ron (August 8, 2022). "For those of you wondering, LeChuck is voiced by the amazing @JessHarnell". Twitter. Archived from the original on August 23, 2022. Retrieved August 23, 2022.
  22. [22]
    "Splash Mountain voice actor Jess Harnell says original Splash Mountain theme isn't offensive". November 18, 2020. Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  23. [23]
    "Jess Harnell interview (Animaniacs, The Looney Tunes Show, Rock Sugar)". Archived from the original on April 2, 2023. Retrieved April 2, 2023.
  24. [24]
    "Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, Anaheim". Inspirock. Archived from the original on December 15, 2021. Retrieved December 15, 2021.
  25. [25]
    "Your Disney Questions Answered—by Disney Legend Dave Smith". January 26, 2017. Archived from the original on May 10, 2020. Retrieved June 25, 2018.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jess Harnell.
Preceded by Announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos
1998–present		 Succeeded by
incumbent
Preceded by Voice of Spyro the Dragon
2004–2005		 Succeeded by
Preceded by Voice of Crash Bandicoot
2005–2019		 Succeeded by
Preceded by Voice of Ironhide
2007		 Succeeded by
Preceded by Voice of Ironhide
2009		 Succeeded by
Preceded by Voice of Ironhide
2011		 Succeeded by
Current
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