Jess Harnell


Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer. He voiced Wakko Warner in Animaniacs and Crash Bandicoot in the video game franchise of the same name. Harnell has also been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.

Early life

Harnell was born on December 23, 1963 at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, in Englewood, New Jersey, and grew up in nearby Teaneck, the son of Joe Harnell and his wife Alice.

Career

In 1989, Harnell provided the voices of Br'er Rabbit and many other critters for the Splash Mountain attraction at Disneyland Park. Harnell also recorded some new character dialogue for the subsequent Walt Disney World version of the attraction. He has continued to reprise the role of Brer Rabbit in new Disney projects when needed, such as in the 2011 video game '.
In 1990, Harnell served as a casting director on
'.
In 1993, he went on to voice Wakko Warner on Animaniacs and Secret Squirrel on 2 Stupid Dogs. That same year, Harnell became the singing voice of father in the current version of Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. From 1994 to 1996, he supplied the voices of Sewer Urchin, the Human Bullet and Chief Louder in the animated series The Tick.
Also, in 1996, he was Hunter on Road Rovers. One of Harnell's next appearances was as the principal stormtrooper in the 1997 Star Wars fan film Troops, a parody of the Cops TV series set in the Star Wars expanded universe. Harnell voiced Rudy's father, Joe Tabootie on the Nickelodeon show ChalkZone, Crash Bandicoot in Crash Tag Team Racing, Crash of the Titans, ', and Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, Lo-Lo in ', Spyro the Dragon in ' and ', Marlin, Bruce and Crazy Drivers in the Finding Nemo video game, Jerry in Totally Spies, Linguni in Pucca and Doctor Finklestein in The Nightmare Before Christmas video game spin-offs, as well as in the Kingdom Hearts series. In 2005, he voiced Buzz Blister in ' and numerous other characters in subsequent Tom and Jerry features. He also voiced wild and energetic Cro-Magnon Doubledome from the Longhair and Doubledome cartoon shorts for Cartoon Network's Big Pick.
In 2001, he was the singing voice of Buster on '. He also voiced Captain Hero on Comedy Central's animated comedy
Drawn Together and he also does the voices of Wooton Bassett and Bennett Charles on the radio drama Adventures in Odyssey, as well as playing the lead role of Finnian Jones for the Lamplighter Theatre Radio Drama. He also made appearances on Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad. His voice also made an appearance in NASCAR Rumble, and is credited for in-game commentary in the follow-up game Rumble Racing. Jess also replaced Brad Garrett as the voice of Fatso during season 3 of The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper. He also guest starred in Samurai Jack as he voiced Ringo and a waitress in the episode "Jack Under the Sea". He also produced the 2004 film ' along with Billy West, Mark Hamill, Eric Mittleman, Scott Zakarin and Roger Rose as well as playing the character Ricky. In 2006, he worked as a voice director on Pet Alien. In 2007, he replaced Neil Flynn as the voice of The Plumber in ' and '. He also voiced the Smuggler in that popular series.
In that same year, he voiced the characters of Ironhide and Barricade in the Michael Bay-directed
Transformers, making him the only voice actor to play both an Autobot and a Decepticon in that film. He returned to voice Ironhide once again in ' and '.
He voiced a character in
Up and replaced Brad Garrett as the voice of Professor Buffo in Special Agent Oso.
He also voiced Flip Wreck, Blast Zone and Bucko in the
Skylanders reboot of the franchise and Cowardly Lion and Reegull in Lego Dimensions.
Harnell also provided the voice and singing voice of antagonist
Cedric the Sorcerer from Sofia The First from 2013-2018
He also voiced a male tourist in
Norm of the North''.

Music career

As a musician, Harnell released his only solo album, The Sound of Your Voice, in 1995. He is the lead vocalist in the pop/metal mashup rock band, Rock Sugar, which evolved from his previous band, Loud & Clear. With Loud & Clear or Rock Sugar, Harnell released four albums: Disc-Connected, self-titled demo album, Festival of Fire, and Reimaginator.

Personal life

Harnell married his wife Cara on November 19, 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Live-action

Theme parks

Soundtrack appearances