Kevin Michael Richardson
Kevin Michael Richardson is an actor, born 1964.
Kevin Michael Richardson, born in the Bronx in 1964, has one of the most recognisable instruments in American animation and one of the least recognised faces. The voice sits somewhere below the floor of a normal bass register, and for most of his career casting directors have used it the obvious way: as villainy. He voiced Goro in the 1995 Mortal Kombat and again in Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, Captain Gantu across the Lilo & Stitch films, Mr. Gus on Uncle Grandpa, and the Deus Ex Machina in The Matrix Revolutions, which may be the only performance in that trilogy delivered entirely as a machine speaking through a swarm.
What makes him more than a novelty low end is elasticity. On Invincible he plays both Mauler twins, which means he spends whole scenes arguing with himself in two voices that a listener can genuinely tell apart. On The Simpsons he voices Dr. Hibbert, a character defined by an inappropriate chuckle rather than by menace. Gravity Falls used him as Sheriff Blubs, a small-town idiot with no threat in him at all. The Princess and the Frog gave him a Cajun gator. Sir Urchin on SpongeBob SquarePants is a preening hero. None of those trade on being frightening.
He works constantly, and the credit list reads like a map of thirty years of American cartoons: Family Guy, American Dad!, Futurama, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Adventure Time, Teen Titans, Young Justice, the DC animated features. Recent years have added Kamek to the Super Mario films, a role he carries into The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.
Movies (129)
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026)
- The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
- Extreme Makeover: Homer Edition (2026)
- Mortal Kombat (1995)
- The Princess and the Frog (2009)
- Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
- Lilo & Stitch (2002)
- We Bare Bears: The Movie (2020)
- Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge (2020)
- The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
- Bound (1996)
- The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water (2015)
- Trolls Band Together (2023)
- Mulan II (2004)
- Trolls World Tour (2020)
- Hoodwinked! (2005)
- Tinker Bell and the Pirate Fairy (2014)
- The Animatrix (2003)
- Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp (2024)
- Open Season 2 (2008)
- TMNT (2007)
- Planes: Fire & Rescue (2014)
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
- LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: Batman Be-Leaguered (2014)
- Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
- The Wild (2006)
- Joseph: King of Dreams (2000)
- Extinct (2021)
- Batman: Under the Red Hood (2010)
- Strange Magic (2015)
TV (162)
- The Simpsons (1989)
- Family Guy (1999)
- American Dad! (2005)
- Futurama (1999)
- Teen Titans Go! (2013)
- INVINCIBLE (2021)
- Adventure Time (2010)
- Gravity Falls (2012)
- Young Justice (2010)
- The Fairly OddParents (2001)
- Dexter's Laboratory (1996)
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
- Kim Possible (2002)
- Blaze and the Monster Machines (2014)
- Emergency! (1972)
- New Looney Tunes (2015)
- Star vs. the Forces of Evil (2015)
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010)
- The Penguins of Madagascar (2008)
- The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2002)
- Summer Camp Island (2018)
- Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)
- Samurai Jack (2001)
- The Owl House (2020)
- Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020)
- Cow and Chicken (1997)
- The Boondocks (2005)
- Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008)
- Batman Beyond (1999)
Where to start with Kevin Michael Richardson
INVINCIBLE is the fastest demonstration of what he can do, because the Mauler twins force him to hold two versions of the same voice in one conversation without either collapsing into the other. Follow it with The Matrix Revolutions, where the same register is used for something inhuman.
For the range, go the other direction. Gravity Falls casts him as a harmless small-town cop, The Princess and the Frog as a swamp gator with a horn section, and Lilo & Stitch as a bruiser who is more bureaucrat than monster. The Simpsons is where he does the least showy work and the most sustained.
If you want the villain material undiluted, Batman: Under the Red Hood and Mortal Kombat are the deep end, and both of them let him sit right at the bottom of his range for the whole running time.
The animated villains built on that low register
Casting directors reach for Richardson when a character needs to sound physically larger than everyone else in the room. Goro, the Joker in Under the Red Hood, the Star Wars heavies. He plays menace slowly and lets the bass do the work rather than shouting, which is why these hold up on a rewatch.
The comedies where he plays several people at once
Prime-time animation covers an enormous cast from a small pool of actors, and Richardson is one of the reliable ones. Once you know the voice you cannot unhear it: a police chief here, a neighbour there, three background men in one crowd scene.
Richardson doing warmth instead of menace
The deep voice gets typecast as threat, so the exceptions stand out. Captain Gantu is a bully with a soft centre. The Disney and Nintendo films use him for size and comedy rather than intimidation, and Avatar hands him a part that needs gravity instead.