Dee Bradley Baker

Early life

Baker was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and grew up in Greeley, Colorado. He started performing at age nine and steadily worked in musicals, operas, plays, and stand-up. Regarding his early life, Baker said in an interview with VO Studio that he was a fan of Star Trek, Star Wars, Frank Zappa, the Planet of the Apes, and also liked insects, arthropods, and dinosaurs. He graduated from University High School, and received a Boettcher Scholarship. He attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he studied philosophy, biology, fine arts, and German, the last of which he studied overseas for a year at the University of Goettingen. He was involved in local theater productions and singing groups. After graduating with a BA in philosophy, he was involved in many community theatre projects, including a sketch movie that aired on local public television.

Career

Baker moved to Orlando in 1989 to work on an improv sketch comedy show titled "The Anacomical Players" at EPCOT Center's Wonders of Life pavilion, and joined various projects for Disney and Universal Studios. His first major experience on national television was on the Nickelodeon game show Legends of the Hidden Temple, where he was not only the announcer, but also the giant talking rock-god Olmec. 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 host Kirk Fogg moved to Los Angeles, he was encouraged to move there as well. In 2016, he and Fogg reprised their roles for a live-action television movie adaptation of the show.

Baker moved to Southern California in time for the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He got involved in voice-over work; his first major character was Cow & Chicken's dad in the Cow & Chicken and I.M. Weasel cartoons. His first feature film voice-over was on the basketball/Looney Tunes-themed movie Space Jam where he voiced Daffy Duck and Taz. He did voice work for various episodic and recurring cartoon characters on The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Johnny Bravo, Dexter's Laboratory, SpongeBob SquarePants and The Powerpuff Girls. He voiced starring characters Og in Mike, Lu & Og and Bagheera in the second season of Jungle Cubs. In 2001, he added voice roles for Sanjay, Binky and other characters for The Fairly OddParents; and co-starred as Mandy's father on Billy and Mandy, He had a lead role as Numbuh 4 in Codename: Kids Next Door. On the live-action front, he became the co-host and announcer for the game show Shop 'til You Drop which spanned several hundred episodes when it resumed broadcasting on the Family Channel and on the Pax television network, until a series retool in 2003; it was produced by Stone Stanley Entertainment, which had earlier co-produced Legends of the Hidden Temple. He also had a recurring role as Phil Berg in the Nickelodeon sitcom series The Journey of Allen Strange where he plays a crazed journalist who tries to expose Allen's identity as a space alien.

Starting with gigs on The Wild Thornberrys, he voiced an assortment of animal characters, which would become one of his specialties. He voiced Pig George in the live-action animal film My Brother the Pig. Baker has also been involved with television shows for younger children including: Dora the Explorer where he provided animal sounds; Mickey Mouse Clubhouse where he voices Boo Boo Chicken; Curious George where he voices Gnocchi; My Friends Tigger & Pooh where he voices Buster the dog; and Jake and the Neverland Pirates (airing on Disney Junior) where he voices Tick-Tock the crocodile. In Avatar: The Last Airbender where he voiced the creatures Appa and Momo, 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 the American Dragon: Jake Long and Ben 10 series, the latter of which he voiced many alien creatures such as Stinkfly and Wildmutt, as well as some of the transformations. He also voiced in the Ben 10 sequels such as Ben 10: Alien Force, Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, and Ben 10: Omniverse, as well as its live-action adaptation. Derrick J. Wyatt, who was the art director for Omniverse, 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. Outside of television, he provided the voice of Captain Jack Sparrow's talking parrot in the refurbished Pirates of the Caribbean rides at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom.

In 2007, Baker got the lead role of Perry the Platypus in the Disney series Phineas and Ferb. At the San Diego Comic-Con 2013 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. Perry has become a breakout character for the series, with Baker appearing at multiple Comic-Con panels for the show. In 2014, Perry was nominated for a Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Award for Best Animal Sidekick. Coincidentally, another one of Baker's voiced characters, Waddles the pet pig in Gravity Falls, was nominated for the same category.

Baker would continue to do regular voice-over roles. In 2005, landed the starring role as Klaus Heissler, an Olympic ski jumper from Germany who was body-swapped into a goldfish, in the primetime cartoon sitcom American Dad!, which has run over eleven seasons on Fox and TBS. In an interview with Pop Break, Baker said that he liked playing Klaus because he loves the German language, the part was well written, and it is light duty on his voice. He compared the table reads to being on The Carol Burnett Show. He participated in American Dad panels at San Diego Comic-Con 2010 2012, and 2014; and the New York Comic-Con in 2014. His voicing of council member Tarrlok in Korra garnered a nomination for the Behind the Voice Actors (BTVA) Voice Acting Award in 2012. In addition to television shows, Baker voiced characters in many animated and live-action animation films, including some of the classic ghost monsters in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Maurice in Happy Feet, He had roles in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated TV series and its direct-to-video releases.

Baker was involved in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars film released in 2008 and its television series afterwards which ran for six seasons. He provided the voices for not only the characters Captain Rex and Commander Cody, but also all the supporting Clone Troopers, the last of which he received an Annie Award nomination for Voice Acting in a Television Production in 2012. He reprised the role of Captain Rex in Star Wars Rebels, beginning with its second season. He also provided the voice of Boba Fett for Star Tours – The Adventures Continue. In the 2011 Family Guy episode "It's a Trap!", a parody of the Star Wars film Return of the Jedi, he voiced Klaus as Admiral Ackbar.

In the video game world, Baker reprised his roles in Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon's multitude of show-related game releases. He also voiced Gravemind in Halo 2 and Halo 3, and the title character Joe in the Viewtiful Joe series released from 2003 to 2005. He provided the creature sounds for the Spore video game which allows players to create and evolve their own creatures. At San Diego Comic-Con 2008's opening night, he was a featured performer at the Video Games Live concert, where he voiced characters from Gears of War and other series.

In 2014, Baker continued participating in American Dad, Gravity Falls, and a fourth season of The Legend of Korra. He voiced Dopey in the Disney XD series The 7D; and Fish, Wheels, and Bucket in The Boxtrolls film, in which he was nominated for an Annie Award for voicing Fish. In the Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game, he is slated to do the voice of Brainiac. He voiced George Clooney and his dog in "The Animated Episode" of the TV Land series Hot in Cleveland.

Baker has appeared on various panels at Comic-Con and other conventions where he talks about voice acting in general. He hosts a website where he answers frequently-asked questions about voice acting. The site has been cited by fellow voice actors Steve Blum and Rob Paulsen as a valuable resource for getting into voice acting.

Personal life

Baker met his wife, Michelle, when they were doing children's theatre at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. They were married in 1990 and have two daughters: Josie Baker and Cora Baker. They live in the Los Angeles area. Outside of voice acting, Baker enjoys photography, taking pictures of mostly little flowers and insects.