Nolan North

Nolan Ramsey North (born October 31, 1970)[2] is an American actor and voice actor. His voice-work includes characters such as Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series, Desmond Milesfrom the Assassin's Creed series, Ghost from Bungie's titles Destiny and Destiny 2, the Penguin in the Batman: Arkham franchise, Palawa Joko from Guild Wars 2, Meepo the Geomancer in Dota 2, David in The Last of Us, Cpt. Martin Walker in Spec Ops: The Line, Deadpool in various media, Superboy in Young Justice, himself as one of the voices for the Boss in Saints Row IVand Edward Richtofen in the Call of Duty Aether storyline.[3] He voices the titular character from the Nick Jr. series Blaze and the Monster Machines.
== Life and career ==
North was born in New Haven, Connecticut and raised in Rhode Island. He attended Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick and played baseball there.[4] He majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a baseball scholarship.[5][6] He worked as a reporter for almost a year in New Jersey before moving to New York to pursue stand-up comedy and acting.[5] North eventually relocated to Hollywood and was cast in the General Hospital spin-off series Port Charles, playing Dr. Chris Ramsey during the show's run from 1997 to 2003.[6] He married fellow Port Charles actress Jill Murray in 1999,[5] and has two children. During the run of Port Charles, he worked on a few video games as a voice actor and began to focus on voice acting following the cancellation of Port Charles.[6]
One of his most notable roles came in 2007 when he voiced and performed motion capture for the character Nathan Drake for the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Since then, he has continued to portray the character in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (2009), and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (2011). In an interview with The Guardian, North reflects on his time as Drake as requiring "a lot of imagination. Motion capture is basically theatre in Spandex; there's minimal props, and you need a willingness to make an ass of yourself."[7] North as Drake has been twice nominated at the Spike Video Game Awards in the "Best Performance by a Human Male" category. North reprised his role as Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, released in 2016.[8]
North had a role in Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to 2009's live-action movie Star Trek. Director J. J. Abrams cited North's performance as Drake for the casting, he and his son being fans of the Uncharted series.[9]
He's a huge fan of gaming and he was telling me how people just don't understand [the medium] yet, but they're going to catch up. They don't understand how amazing this technology is and it doesn't get the respect it deserves, but if it keeps making the money it makes you're going to see more and more people converted. I mean, Gary Oldman, one of the greatest actors on the planet, did Call of Duty. He wouldn't have done it 10 years ago. It's a new age dawning, and I'm just really proud to be part of it.
Other notable video game voice work includes roles as the Prince in Prince of Persia, Shun in Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica, Vossler in Final Fantasy XII, Eradan in Lord of the Rings: War in the North, Doctor Edward Richtofen in Call of Duty: World at War, Call of Duty: Black Ops, Call of Duty: Black Ops II and Call of Duty: Black Ops III, Brawl in Transformers: War for Cybertron, Ghost Rider in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Shadow Demon, Lycan, Lone Druid, Brewmaster, Gyrocopter, Ogre Magi, Meepo, Earth Spirit, Troll Warlord, the Keeper of the Light in Dota 2, and voices various Team Fortress 2 characters, including Merasmus, Redmond Mann, Blutarch Mann, Zepheniah Mann, various lines for the Engineer and the Bombinomicon. More recently, he replaced Peter Dinklage as the voice of the Ghost in Destiny: The Taken King. In addition, he re-recorded all of Dinklage's lines from the base game of Destiny and continues to voice the character in subsequent releases.
North is well known in his animation roles such as Cyclops in Wolverine and the X-Men, Snow Job in G.I. Joe: Renegades, Raphael in TMNT, both Superboy and Superman in Young Justice, and Smokescreen in Transformers: Prime. He has also voiced Blaze in Blaze and the Monster Machines since 2014.
North will be honored at a special event hosted by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts during Electronic Entertainment Expo 2018, where he will be given a Special Award for his "outstanding contribution to performance in games".[10]
As of May 6, 2018, North and fellow voice actor Troy Baker host the weekly YouTube series, Retro Replay.
Category:Voice Actors