Mike Henry
Mike Henry is an actor, born 1965.
Mike Henry is a writer first, which is the least visible fact about a man known for voices. He came to Family Guy as a writer and producer and ended up voicing a large share of its supporting bench, Cleveland Brown, Herbert, Bruce, Consuela and the Greased-up Deaf Guy among them, a set of characters with almost nothing in common except that they all work on rhythm rather than volume.
That is the technique. Henry's characters talk slowly, leave the pause in, and let the audience get ahead of the joke, which is a writer's instinct applied to performance. It is also why they survived a series that burns through gags fast enough to flatten most recurring parts.
Cleveland got his own show in 2009. Henry co-created The Cleveland Show and voiced both Cleveland and Rallo Tubbs across its run to 2013. Outside the Seth MacFarlane orbit he has been Dann on The Orville, Jackson on American Dad!, Yaddle in a Robot Chicken Star Wars special and a bank employee on ted. The remainder of this page is the Family Guy universe in special form, from three Star Wars parodies to a Christmas special and a live comedy show.
Movies (9)
- Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story (2005)
- Family Guy Presents: Something, Something, Something, Dark Side (2009)
- Family Guy Presents: It's a Trap! (2010)
- Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest (2007)
- Family Guy Presents: Stewie Kills Lois and Lois Kills Stewie (2009)
- TV's Funniest Animated Stars: A Paley Center for Media Special (2015)
- Family Guy Presents: Seth & Alex's Almost Live Comedy Show (2009)
- A Very Special Family Guy Freakin' Christmas (2001)
- Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode III (2010)
TV (7)
Where to start with Mike Henry
Any episode of Family Guy will do to begin with, but the most useful way to hear Henry is to pick one heavy on Herbert or Consuela rather than a Cleveland episode, because the smaller characters are where the timing shows.
The Cleveland Show is the fuller argument, a spinoff he co-created and ran with, warmer and slower than its parent. The Orville is the credit people forget, a recurring live-action role in a science fiction series. Among the specials, Family Guy Presents: Blue Harvest is the best of the Star Wars parodies and Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story the most ambitious. American Dad! and ted fill in the rest of the MacFarlane universe.