20 Voice Actors Who Look Exactly Like Their Characters

Kellen Perry
Updated March 11, 2020 960.3K views
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Vote up the voice actors who look strikingly like the characters they play.

Before Aladdin made casting big-time celebrities the norm, voice actors used to be the unsung heroes of Hollywood. There simply weren't that many cartoon characters that looked just like the people voicing them, such as the way Robin Williams's rubber-faced antics were integrated into the fast-talking Genie. Today, actors who look like their cartoon counterparts are incredibly common, with 2004's Shark Tale being perhaps the most striking example.

Pre-Aladdin, there were, in fact, a handful of voice actors who looked like cartoons, but they weren't major celebrities, so the resemblance wasn't meant to help sell tickets. Disney, for example, didn't just hire incredible voice talent; they also hired strong actors such as Eleanor Audley and Bobby Driscoll and filmed them acting out the roles on a sound stage to assist the animators in creating more compelling, lifelike characters. 

This list is a mix of voice actors from TV and film that look uncannily like their cartoon counterparts. Excluded are characters that are explicitly based on a real-life person, because where's the fun in that? (In other words, no Rover Dangerfield.) Vote up the doppelganger you think is the most convincing.

  • 1
    8,804 VOTES

    Jessica Walter And Malory Archer ('Archer')

    Jessica Walter And Malory Archer ('Archer')
    Photo: Fox / FX

    Jessica Walter looks so much like her Archer character Malory Archer that she had to be the inspiration, right? Not exactly.

    The producers actually used the appearance of Kathleen Cohen, a local Atlanta actress, as inspiration.

    8,804 votes
  • 2
    7,917 VOTES

    Kevin Michael Richardson And Principal Lewis ('American Dad!')

    Kevin Michael Richardson And Principal Lewis ('American Dad!')
    Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons / Fox / CC-BY-SA 2.0

    Principal Lewis is basically just an American Dad!-ified Richardson, with the same bald head and beard.

    Richardson's other voice credits include far more diverse looking characters, including Shredder in the 2012 reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

    7,917 votes
  • 3
    8,172 VOTES

    Eleanor Audley And Lady Tremaine ('Cinderella')

    Eleanor Audley And Lady Tremaine ('Cinderella')
    Photo: Cinderella / RKO Radio Pictures

    Audley was the live-action model and voice actor for Cinderella's evil stepmother.

    Disney said Lady Tremaine was drawn "with a sinister and lifelike subtlety that contrasted with the broader treatment given to many of the other characters."

    8,172 votes
  • 4
    7,887 VOTES

    Kathryn Beaumont And Alice ('Alice in Wonderland')

    Kathryn Beaumont And Alice ('Alice in Wonderland')
    Photo: Disney / RKO Radio Pictures

    Beaumont performed on a nearly empty stage to create a live-action reference for the animators of Alice in Wonderland.

    10-year-old Beaumont was selected by Walt Disney after he saw her in the film On an Island With You.

    7,887 votes
  • 5
    8,557 VOTES

    Danny DeVito And Philoctetes ('Hercules')

    Danny DeVito And Philoctetes ('Hercules')
    Photo: FX / Buena Vista Pictures

    Philoctetes isn't the only cartoon creation voiced by DeVito that matches his diminutive 4-foot-10-inch frame.

    He also voiced Mr. Swackhammer, the alien manager of the intergalactic theme park Moron Mountain in 1996's Michael Jordan vehicle Space Jam.

    8,557 votes
  • 6
    8,109 VOTES

    Jane Lynch And Sergeant Calhoun ('Wreck-It Ralph')

    Jane Lynch And Sergeant Calhoun ('Wreck-It Ralph')
    Photo: New You Media / Disney

    Lynch describes the final incarnation of Calhoun as "me 20 years ago with a kickass body." Her look changed throughout the process: Lynch said all the Wreck-It Ralph characters, in fact, "started to look more and more like us because they videotaped us while we recorded our lines."

    Lynch's biggest surprise? "Sergeant Calhoun moves her mouth in a certain way, which is exactly how I talk."

    8,109 votes
  • 7
    8,187 VOTES

    Ed Asner And Carl Fredricksen ('Up')

    Ed Asner And Carl Fredricksen ('Up')
    Photo: CBS / Disney

    While there's a definite resemblance between Asner and his Up counterpart, the character was actually based on Spencer Tracy and Walter Matthau.

    8,187 votes
  • 8
    7,644 VOTES

    Anika Noni Rose And Princess Tiana ('The Princess and the Frog')

    Anika Noni Rose And Princess Tiana ('The Princess and the Frog')
    Photo: Peabody Awards/Wikimedia Commons / Disney / CC BY 2.0

    Not only did Rose's performance inspire the look of Princess Tiana, but the animators also went the extra mile and made Tiana left-handed, just like Rose.

    7,644 votes
  • 9
    7,759 VOTES

    Eartha Kitt And Yzma ('The Emperor's New Groove')

    Eartha Kitt And Yzma ('The Emperor's New Groove')
    Photo: Alan Light/Wikimedia Commons / Buena Vista Pictures / CC BY 2.0

    Although Yzma does bear a resemblance to Kitt, Peruvian singer Yma Sumac was the true inspiration for the over-the-top character.

     

    7,759 votes
  • 10
    7,276 VOTES

    Aisha Tyler And Lana Kane ('Archer')

    Aisha Tyler And Lana Kane ('Archer')
    Photo: CBS / FX

    Because voice actress Aisha Tyler was too busy to attend the lengthy photoshoot required to create the Lana Kane character, the Archer producers are believed to have instead cast Kynyetta Lester, a Tyler doppelganger and Hooters waitress.

    Series creators Adam Reed and Matt Thompson discovered Lester at a birthday party.

    7,276 votes
  • 11
    6,888 VOTES

    Bobby Driscoll And Peter Pan ('Peter Pan')

    Bobby Driscoll And Peter Pan ('Peter Pan')
    Photo: RKO Radio Pictures / RKO Radio Pictures

    Not only did Disney animators use Driscoll as the inspiration for Peter's look, but Driscoll and some of his fellow voice actors also shot a live-action "reference" film to help animators bring the classic to life.

    6,888 votes
  • 12
    6,669 VOTES

    Steve Buscemi And Wesley ('Home on the Range')

    Steve Buscemi And Wesley ('Home on the Range')
    Photo: HBO / Buena Vista Pictures

    Disney essentially made a Steve Buscemi caricature when they designed Wesley, the villainous cattle broker in the largely forgotten Home on the Range.

    The resemblance is even more striking when Buscemi's in his full Boardwalk Empire best.

    6,669 votes
  • 13
    7,117 VOTES

    John C. Reilly And Wreck-It Ralph ('Wreck-It Ralph')

    John C. Reilly And Wreck-It Ralph ('Wreck-It Ralph')
    Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures / Disney

    Reilly worked with the animators of Wreck-It Ralph to develop the look of the character.

    They incorporated his gestures via motion studies, which Reilly said made him truly recognize himself in the final product, especially "the secondary gestures, like picking-at-himself kind of things." 

    7,117 votes
  • 14
    7,350 VOTES

    Will Smith And Oscar ('Shark Tale')

    Will Smith And Oscar ('Shark Tale')
    Photo: Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons / DreamWorks Pictures / CC-BY-SA 3.0

    The entire cast of Shark Tale could make this list, with undersea versions of Angelina Jolie, Robert De Niro, Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Peter Falk, and Katie Couric. One critic noted this was likely DreamWorks trying to maximize their investment.

    "Shark Tale was paying lavishly for a few days of Will Smith or Robert De Niro’s voice acting, so it might as well appropriate their images and histories as part of the deal," Nathan Rabin wrote. 

    7,350 votes
  • 15
    6,194 VOTES

    Irene Bedard And Pocahontas ('Pocahontas')

    Irene Bedard And Pocahontas ('Pocahontas')
    Photo: Miramax / Buena Vista Pictures

    Despite the uncanny resemblance, Bedard was just one of many multiethnic visual inspirations for the look of Pocahontas, which included white supermodel Christy Turlington, black supermodel Naomi Campbell, and a Filipino model named Dyna Taylor.

    At the time, Taylor was an art school student who was paid $200 by Disney for the modeling session.  

    6,194 votes
  • 16
    5,889 VOTES

    Christopher Plummer And Charles Muntz ('Up')

    Christopher Plummer And Charles Muntz ('Up')
    Photo: A24 / Disney

    Much like Up's hero, Carl, resembles voice actor Ed Asner, villain Charles Muntz looks quite a bit like Christopher Plummer.

    Pixar animators said they wanted Muntz to look like "a warm, loving grandfather who could become sinister at the drop of a hat," which is also pretty great description of Plummer.

    5,889 votes
  • 17
    6,402 VOTES

    Zachary Levi And Flynn Rider ('Tangled')

    Zachary Levi And Flynn Rider ('Tangled')
    Photo: Wikimedia Commons / Disney / CC-BY-SA 2.0

    There's definitely more than a bit of Levi in the character of Flynn Rider, but the directors also said they added a dash of Clark Gable and David Beckham.

    6,402 votes
  • 18
    6,544 VOTES

    Rowan Atkinson And Zazu ('The Lion King')

    Rowan Atkinson And Zazu ('The Lion King')
    Photo: Endemol UK / Buena Vista Pictures

    Zazu's supervising animator, Ellen Woodbury - the second woman in Disney history to hold that title - said Atkinson's voice was "incredibly rich" and "listening to his readings gave me so much to work with."

    She also said Atkinson's series Blackadder "was a particularly rich source" for helping to get his "malleable" characteristics onto a hornbill.

    6,544 votes
  • 19
    7,019 VOTES

    Robin Williams And Genie ('Aladdin')

    Robin Williams And Genie ('Aladdin')
    Photo: Universal Studios / Buena Vista Pictures

    Often cited as kicking off the so-called "celebrification of voice work," Williams was indeed the inspiration for the Genie, both visually and personality-wise. 

    To sell him on the role, producers even animated the Genie doing some of his old stand-up.

    7,019 votes
  • 20
    6,003 VOTES

    Ming-Na Wen And Mulan ('Mulan')

    Ming-Na Wen And Mulan ('Mulan')
    Photo: Anthony Citrano/Wikimedia Commons / Buena Vista Pictures / CC BY 2.0

    Ming-Na Wen said several of her real-life gestures "took" and made it into the final film after Disney animators filmed her doing her voice work, including the way Mulan touches her hair in the blossom scene with Mulan's father.

    6,003 votes