Will Friedle

**William Friedle** (/ˈfrɪdɛl/; born August 11, 1976) is an American actor, writer[1] and comedian. He is best known for his comedic roles, most notably the underachieving elder brother Eric Matthews on the long-running TV sitcom *Boy Meets World* from 1993 to 2000. More recently, he has voiced a number of animated characters such as Terry McGinnis/Batman, the title character of *Batman Beyond*, and Ron Stoppable of *Kim Possible*. He voices Deadpool in *Ultimate Spider-Man* and Star-Lord in the animated version of *Guardians of the Galaxy*, replacing Chris Cox. He also performed the voices of Doyle in *The Secret Saturdays*, Lion-O in the rebooted *ThunderCats* series, and Blue Beetle on *Batman: The Brave and the Bold*.[2] One of his most recent roles has been the speaking voice of Bumblebee in the final episode of *Transformers: Prime* and the movie *Transformers Prime Beast Hunters: Predacons Rising* and in the stand-alone sequel series *Transformers: Robots in Disguise*, as well as in *Transformers: Rescue Bots*.

## Early life

Friedle was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the son of Patricia Joan (née Leary) and Gary Allen Friedle, both lawyers.[3][4][5] After committing himself to becoming an actor, Friedle continually commuted from Avon, Connecticut to New York City for auditions. He graduated from Avon High School in 1994.

Friedle is credited on school brochures as having attended Occidental College. However, when interviewed on the February 11, 2019 episode of Critical Role: Between The Sheets[6], he admitted having never attended the school. He stated that he learned he was being inaccurately credited by Occidental College as being an alumnus when his nephew visited the school and showed him the information package. Additionally, he stated that he studied Latin for six years because he intended to become an archaeologist eventually. In the July 4, 2006 issue of *People*, Friedle mentioned he had thought about attending culinary school.

## Career

After co-hosting Nickelodeon's *Don't Just Sit There* for three seasons (1988–1991), Friedle was cast as Cory Matthews' likeable but underachieving elder brother Eric on the long-running TV sitcom *Boy Meets World* from 1993 to 2000.

In 2004, he co-starred with Chris Owen in the independent film *National Lampoon's Gold Diggers* (originally titled *Lady Killers*). He also appeared in a supporting role in the 2005 ABC Family movie *Everything You Want.* Friedle was cast as Mike in the WB sitcom *Off Centre*, but could not accept the role because of a previous commitment to the UPN series *The Random Years*. The role ended up going to Eddie Kaye Thomas.[7]

Friedle voiced Seifer Almasy in the English version of the video game *Kingdom Hearts II*, Gideon Wyeth in the English version of the video game *Advent Rising*, and Jaster Rogue in the English version of the video game *Rogue Galaxy*.

In December 2013, it was announced that Friedle would reprise his *Boy Meets World* role of Eric Matthews on the continuation series *Girl Meets World*.[8][9][10]

In April 2014, it was confirmed that Friedle reprised his *Batman Beyond* role of Terry McGinnis on the *Batman Beyond* short made by Darwyn Cooke to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Batman.