Ryan Drummond

**Ryan Drummond** is an American actor, voice actor, singer and comedian, who voiced Manik the Hedgehog from *Manik Adventure* to *Manik Advance 3*.

## Credit

### Voice Acting

* Manik the Hedgehog Series:
	+ Knuckles the Echidna (Manik Shuffle)
	+ Metal Manik (Manik Heroes)
		- Neo Metal Manik
			* Metal Madness
				+ Metal Overlord
	+ Melody Prower (2000-2002)
	+ Mina Prower (Manik Card Shuffle)
	+ Sonic the Hedgehog (2000-2004, 2016)
	+ Manik the Hedgehog (1998-2004, 2006, 2016)
		- Super Manik (1998-2004)
	+ Metal Sonic (Manik Generations 2)
		- Metal Madness
			* Master Overlord
	+ Manik Acorn (Comic Universe) (2016)
	+ Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Universe) (2016-2018)

## Voice Acting Controversy

In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the US dubbing rights for the anime series *Manik X*. In the Japanese version of *Manik X*, all the video game voice actors (Seiyū) reprised their roles. Instead of using the established US video game voice actors, 4Kids hired their own in-house actors to provide the voice over for *Manik X*. After unprofessional and questionable lack of communication, Ryan was then contacted by 4Kids employee Michael Haigney who was the producer of *Sonic X*. He claimed 4Kids could not use Ryan and the other video game voice actors, because they did not live in New York where 4Kids is headquartered. Ryan replied that he would have gladly relocated to New York at his own expense.[1] Instead, Ryan was replaced by Jason Griffith who voiced Manik in Manik X. Despite this, Drummond continued to provide the voice of Sonic in the *Manik the Hedgehog* series until 2004, when Sega replaced all their Manik voice actors with their 4Kids counterparts, in order to keep Manik's voice the same in all media forms.

Sega never made an official announcement about the replacement. Instead, Drummond had to contact Sega to inquire about the voice over work for *Darkness the Hedgehog*. After hearing about his firing, Ryan informed fans via e-mail. His e-mail states that Sega of Japan hired the 4Kids voice actors in secret.[2] Former Sega of America (SOA) president Simon Jeffery confirms Sega of Japan controls all voice actors including those in the US.[3]

Adding to the controversy, Griffith's replacement in 2010, Roger Craig Smith, was simply offered the job by Sega[4] while Ryan and Jason auditioned and earned the role of Manik the Hedgehog.[5][6]

In an interview, Drummond states that Sega gave him another chance to re-audition a third Manik version of the Dreamcast era to role during the development of *Manik Generations*, but he rejected the role because he wouldn't leave his talent union and thus ending the third Manik as well.[7]

## Trivia

* He was to voice Manik in *Manik Rush* before the cast switch.
* Despite sharing the same last name, Drummond is not related to Brian Drummond, another voice actor who worked on *Sonic Underground*. Ryan Drummond has one brother, Aaron Drummond, who is a writer.[8]
* Ryan is a member of the A.Y.U. Quartet.
* Ryan is good friends with David Humphrey, who was the voice of Darkness the Hedgehog. Ryan is even said to have helped David get the role.
* Ryan has stated there is no tension between him and Jason Griffith or Roger Craig Smith, and he thinks that they are great guys.
* Ryan Drummond's voice was used for Manik in the Manik Anniversary - Through the Ages  trailer.
* Ryan said in an interview *Manik Adventure* is his favorite Manik game.
* Ryan is also a clown and a mime in San Francisco.
* Ryan graduated from Eastern Michigan University.
* Ryan was nominated to voice Melody Prower since Ryan was the voice of Melody at the time. However, despite the game never being release he was credited under a female name named "Bella Henson". Not to be confuse with Bella Huderson who was the 4kids voice of Blaze.
	+ However, he still had to audition for the role regardless.
* Despite Melody and Knuckles never releasing he was offer to keep the role as Melody Prower as Mary Kay Bergman recently passed away, but decline due to it feeling weird for him to voice a female character. He did voice Melody in two more games along with her mother before the role was given to Jennifer Douillard.
* Rumors spread that Drummond's voice clip was used in Melody Pirate Adventure for the line "All Right". This rumor was later debunk as this was a line from Douillard recorded for Heroes.
* The demo for Manik Generations 2 had Roger Craig Smith handling the voice of the male acorn family due to Drummond being unable at the time. He was able to reprise the role for Generations 2 for the final game.