Troy Baker

Troy Baker (born April 1, 1976) is an American voice actor and musician. Baker is known for his video game roles, including Joel Miller in ''The Last of Us'' (2013) and its sequel (2020), Booker DeWitt in ''BioShock Infinite'' (2013), Samuel "Sam" Drake in '' Uncharted 4: A Thief's End'' (2016) and '' Uncharted: The Lost Legacy'' (2017), Rhys in '' Tales from the Borderlands (2014),'' Delsin Rowe in ''Infamous Second Son'' (2014), Snow Villiers in ''Final Fantasy XIII'' (2010), Kanji Tatsumi in ''Persona 4'' (2008), Higgs Monaghan in ''Death Stranding'' (2019), and Talion in '' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor'' (2014) and '' Middle-earth: Shadow of War'' (2017). Baker currently holds the record for the most acting nominations at the BAFTA Games Awards, with five between 2013 and 2021.

Baker has also voiced Batman, Joker, Hawkeye, and Loki in various media, and has provided voices for a number of English dubs of anime, including ''Bleach'', '' Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood'', '' Naruto: Shippuden'', ''Code Geass'', and '' Soul Eater''. He was previously the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band Tripp Fontaine, with whom he released an album titled ''Random Thoughts on a Paper Napkin'' (2004). He then released the solo album ''Sitting in the Fire'' (2014) before he and his backing band changed their name to Window to the Abbey and released the album ''Moving Around Bias'' (2017).

In early 2022, Baker was the subject of controversy after an NFT company that Baker announced his partnership with was revealed to have plagiarized voice lines generated from 15.ai, an artificial intelligence text-to-speech project developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), as part of their marketing campaign.

Career

Acting

upBaker in January 2011
Baker began his voice acting career doing radio commercials in Dallas. He was recruited by Christopher Sabat to do voice-over work at Funimation for the English adaptation of the anime ''Case Closed''. He went on to work in dubbing anime such as ''Bleach'', ''Dragon Ball Z'', ''Fullmetal Alchemist'', '' Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood'', ''Naruto'', '' Naruto: Shippuden'', and the Funimation dub of ''One Piece''. He then moved to Los Angeles and began working on Marvel-based animated series, providing the voice of various characters in '' The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes'', as well as Hawkeye and Loki in ''Ultimate Spider-Man'' and '' Avengers Assemble''.

Baker's career in the video game industry began when he voiced Matt Baker in the tactical shooter series '' Brothers in Arms''. In an interview with ''The Griff'', he said, "It was starting to become necessary for actors to become involved n gaming so I got into that and it was literally stumbling from one job into the next. That was kind of my first snowball effect." His most notable roles came in 2013, when he provided the voice of Booker DeWitt in ''BioShock Infinite'' and the voice and motion capture of Joel in ''The Last of Us''. Both games earned critical acclaim, gaining scores over 90% on GameRankings and Metacritic, and widespread commercial success. He was nominated for both of these roles at VGX 2013, winning for ''The Last of Us''. He then worked on '' Uncharted 4: A Thief's End'', playing Nathan Drake's older brother Sam. He reprised the role in '' Uncharted: The Lost Legacy''.

In 2011, Baker became the voice of Siris, the hero of Chair Entertainment's blockbuster mobile game series ''Infinity Blade'', and in 2014 he was the voice of Talion, the protagonist of '' Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor'', which earned a rating of 9.3 on IGN. He also voiced Ace (Experiment 262) in the English dub of the anime ''Stitch!'' He was listed on ''Entertainment Weekly'' in their best of 2013 issue for best breakout actor in the video game industry for his performances in ''The Last of Us'', ''BioShock Infinite'', and as the Joker in '' Batman: Arkham Origins''. He is one of the few actors to have portrayed Batman ('' Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes'', '' Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham'', ''Lego Dimensions'', '' Batman: The Telltale Series'' and '' Batman: The Enemy Within''), the Joker (''Batman: Arkham Origins''), and the three major iterations of Robin (Tim Drake in '' Batman: Arkham City'', Dick Grayson (as Nightwing) in '' Injustice: Gods Among Us'' and Jason Todd (as Red Hood and the main antagonist) in '' Batman: Arkham Knight''.

In May 2018, Baker and voice actor Nolan North began hosting the weekly YouTube series ''Retro Replay''. In April 2020, due to an apparent disagreement on the future direction of the show, Baker left to start his own series.

15.ai / Voiceverse NFT plagiarism scandal

On January 14, 2022, it was discovered that Voiceverse NFT, a company that Baker announced his partnership with, had stolen voice lines generated from 15.ai as part of their marketing campaign without permission. Log files showed that Voiceverse had generated audio of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash from the show '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'' using 15.ai, pitched them up to make them sound unrecognizable from the original voices, and appropriated them without proper credit to falsely market their own platform—a violation of 15.ai's terms of service.

The initial partnership between Baker and Voiceverse was met with severe backlash and universally negative reception. Critics highlighted the environmental impact of and potential for exit scams associated with NFT sales. Commentators also pointed out the irony in Baker's initial tweet announcing the partnership, which ended: "You can hate. Or you can create. What'll it be?" This was hours before the public revelation that the company in question had resorted to theft instead of creating their own product. Baker responded that he appreciated people sharing their thoughts and their responses were "giving ima lot to think about". He also acknowledged that the "hate/create" part in his initial tweet might have been "a bit antagonistic", and asked fans on social media to forgive him.

Two weeks later, on January 31, Baker announced that he would discontinue his partnership with Voiceverse.

Music

Before pursuing acting, Baker was the lead singer and rhythm guitarist for the alternative rock band Tripp Fontaine, which released the radio single "Burning Out" from their debut album ''Random Thoughts on a Paper Napkin'' in 2004.

Baker's first solo album, ''Sitting in the Fire'', was released on October 14, 2014. On October 6, 2017, Baker and his backing band, also called Sitting in the Fire, released his second album ''Moving Around Bias'' under the new name of Window to the Abbey.

Personal life

Troy Baker was born in Dallas, Texas, on April 1, 1976. In 2012, Baker married photographer Pamela Walworth, also from Dallas. They reside in Los Angeles. Their son, Traveller Hyde Baker, was born on May 3, 2018.

Filmography

Anime

Animation

Film

Video games

Other

Live-action

Discography

Studio albums

* ''Random Thoughts on a Paper Napkin'' (2004, with Tripp Fontaine)
* ''Sitting in the Fire'' (2014, solo)
* ''Moving Around Bias'' (2017, with Window to the Abbey)

Singles

* "Burning Out" (2004, with Tripp Fontaine)
* "My Religion" (2013, solo)
* "Merry Christmas" (2015, solo)
* "Water into Wine" (2017, with Window to the Abbey)
* "The Promise" (2017, with Window to the Abbey)

Video game performances

* "Take Me to Hell (Broken Dream)" in ''Shadows of the Damned'' (2011)
* "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" (with Courtnee Draper) in ''BioShock Infinite'' (2013)
* "Cold, Cold Heart" in the '' Batman: Arkham Origins'' DLC of the same name (2013)
* " Happy Birthday: Congratulations" in '' Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain'' (2015)
* " Wayfaring Stranger" (with Ashley Johnson) and "Future Days" in ''The Last of Us Part II'' (2020)

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Baker, Troy
1976 births
Living people
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
21st-century American male singers
21st-century American singers
American alternative rock musicians
American male video game actors
American male voice actors
Male actors from Dallas
American male YouTubers
YouTubers from Texas
Spike Video Game Award winners