Photo credit: Gage Skidmore
Over the years, Canada has become a household name for everything video game related. Whether it was manufacturing with Coleco in Montreal, QC, or design with Distinctive Software in Burnaby, BC, in the early 80s, the Great White North slowly but surely made its way on the podium of the gaming industry. However, there is another area that has seen Canadians shine over the years: voice acting. In our Voices of the North series, we highlight the Canadian voice talent behind your favourite video game characters.
Although he’s more known for his acting career, Nathan Fillion is an accomplished voice actor as well. Originally from Edmonton, Alberta, Fillion, a graduate from Concordia University College of Alberta and the University of Alberta, quickly moved to the US but not before appearing in the live soap opera Die-Nasty, which Mark Meer (the male voice of Commander Shepard in BioWare’s Mass Effect) is famously a part of as well.
Over in New York Fillion got his first TV break as Joey Buchanan in the daytime TV show One Life to Live. This led to several other key roles, such as Captain Malcolm “Mal” Reynolds in Firefly, Caleb in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and most importantly Castle in the eponymous TV show.
Along the way, Nathan Fillion also starred in video games lending his voices to supporting characters, like Gao the Lesser in BioWare’s Jade Empire, and Edward Buck in the Halo series. For this latter part he even joined the motion capture team and lent his likeness in Halo 5.
But that’s not even the Canadian actor’s most prominent role in a game, as he literally played God in the satire game Saints Row: Gat out of Hell. How many actors can say that?
We most recently heard Fillion’s voice as the robot Cayde-6 in Bungie’s Destiny series, guiding the player through the tutorial and other sections of the game. Fillion hasn’t announced any upcoming roles in the video game industry. In 2018 he starred in a fan-made Uncharted short film as Nathan Drake, but the production of the upcoming official Uncharted film ultimately went with Tom Holland and a story about the younger days of the hero. But never say never – we are looking forward to the next time Fillion lends his signature voice to a video game production.