Ryan Drummond

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Ryan Drummond
Born January 10, 1973
Spouse(s) Lisa Drummond
Notable roles Sonic the Hedgehog

Ryan Drummond (born January 10, 1973), an actor/comedian, is best known as the character Smudge in the San Diego, California production of the comedy Forever Plaid. He was also well known as the voice of Sonic the Hedgehog in the popular Sega video game franchise. His youthful, energetic, yet realistic sounding voice was well known and very popular with fans of the series.

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[edit] Sonic The Hedgehog Performance

While Drummond was not the first English-speaking voice actor to play the part of Sonic the Hedgehog, he was one of the first English Sonic voice actors, with a fully speaking role, to be featured in much mainstream Sonic media, along with his spiritual predecessor, Jaleel White. Previous English voice actors included actors who only uttered short phrases, or were featured in more obscure or spin-off titles.

Ryan Drummond first played the role of Sonic the Hedgehog in the Dreamcast game, Sonic Adventure, and in Sega-related commercials. His voice was also used for various talking toys inspired by, and based off of Sonic Adventure. Drummond again played the role of Sonic, in the Dreamcast spin-off title, Sonic Shuffle. He also played the role of Knuckles the Echidna, exclusively for this title, because the actor cast for Sonic Adventure stepped down from the role, for unknown reasons.

Drummond, again, took on the role of Sonic the Hedgehog, in Sonic Adventure 2, for the Dreamcast, the sequel to the original Sonic Adventure. Drummond also played a part in casting David Humphrey, his friend and fellow actor, as the role of Shadow the Hedgehog. Drummond was then cast to record the voice of Sonic for various Sonic commercials, advertising the inclusion of Sonic the Hedgehog toys in McDonald's Happy Meals.

Sonic Heroes, for the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube was the next game for which Drummond provided the voice of Sonic. By this time, there was an audible difference between the voice he used for Sonic Adventure, and the voice he was presently using. While they were both the same basic voice, Drummond's Sonic Heroes voice was noticeably higher pitched than his Sonic Adventure voice. Drummond's next two roles as Sonic the Hedgehog were the handheld games Sonic Battle and Sonic Advance 3. While these games were not especially dialogue heavy, they contained several in game voice clips, mostly consisting of short phrases or shouts.

Ryan Drummond's next, and final roles as Sonic the Hedgehog, was in a McDonald's commercial, called "Wipeout", advertising the return of Sonic toys to McDonald's Happy Meals.

[edit] 4Kids Entertainment Controversy

In mid-2003, an animated Sonic the Hedgehog TV series, known as Sonic X, began airing in Japan. The voice cast featured in the Japanese version was essentially the same as the video game cast.

The English dubbing rights for Sonic X were acquired by 4Kids Entertainment a company with a long history of dubbing Japanese anime. Drummond attempted to obtain the role of Sonic the Hedgehog for the cartoon, both through contacting Sega and 4Kids.

After putting in calls and emails with 4Kids, Drummond was contacted by Michael Haigney, and informed that 4Kids could not use him as the voice of Sonic, alledgedly because of 4Kids' Headquarters' location in New York. 4Kids, instead of casting Drummond for the part, chose Jason Anthony Griffith. Drummond stated in a reply to Haigney, and on his website that, while he appreciated his honesty, he was frustrated that 4Kids wasn't able to contact him sooner, and that he would have willingly relocated to New York at his own expense.

Adding to the controversy, however, it was revealed during production of Shadow the Hedgehog, by Drummond himself, that the title, and all subsequent titles, would use the 4Kids voice cast instead of the already-established voice cast. Similarly, Drummond's voice clips for the Nintendo DS game Sonic Rush (which were recycled from the game Sonic Advance 3), seen in an early trailer of the game, was also replaced by Griffith's voice. This was allegedly done for continuity between the show and the games (despite the two not having any plot continuity beyond a few game adaptations in the anime).

The possibility of Drummond returning to voice Sonic the Hedgehog was hinted at during the Digital Life Expo in New York City, by a Sega representative, who claimed that Sonic X was finishing its run, and that Sega would have "no reason" to use the 4Kids cast anymore. Nothing further has been confirmed by Sega or any other entity.

Drummond has stated that he has emailed Sega about this, and has yet to update on the status of this email. [1]

[edit] A.Y.U. Quartet

A photo of the A.Y.U. quartet, Drummond in the bottom middle.
Enlarge
A photo of the A.Y.U. quartet, Drummond in the bottom middle.

Drummond is part of an acappella quartet, know as the A.Y.U. Quartet, which formed in 1991. While the group is not especially active, as the members have all pursued different interests, they still regroup occasionally, and are open for booking.

[edit] Sonic Games That He Voiced In

[edit] Other Voice Acting Credits

[edit] External links

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