Jess Harnell (born December 23, 1963) is an American voice actor and singer. His notable roles include

Captain Hero This is a list of characters appearing in the animated television series ''Drawn Together''. Main characters Princess Clara ;Voiced by Tara Strong Princess Clara is a parody of Disney princesses (mostly Ariel from ''The Little Mermaid'' ...

in the animated TV series ''

Drawn Together ''Drawn Together'' is an American adult animation, adult animated sitcom created by Dave Jeser and Matt Silverstein and premiered on Comedy Central on October 27, 2004. The series is a parody of ''The Surreal Life'' and follows the misadventures ...

'',

Wakko Warner This is a list of characters in the 1993 animated series, ''Animaniacs'', and its 2020 revival. The Warner Siblings (Animaniacs) The Warner Siblings (also known as "the Animaniacs" by fans and the media) are small, silly, mischievous, anthro ...

in ''

Animaniacs ''Animaniacs'' is an American animated comedy musical television series created by Tom Ruegger for Fox Broadcasting Company's Fox Kids block in 1993, before moving to The WB in 1995, as part of its Kids' WB afternoon programming block, unti ...

'', Ironhide in the first three ''Transformers'' films produced by

Michael Bay Michael Benjamin Bay (born February 17, 1965) is an American film director and producer. He is best known for making big-budget, high-concept action films characterized by fast cutting, stylistic cinematography and visuals, and extensive use of ...

, and

Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series c ...

in the video game franchise of the same name. Harnell has also been the announcer for ''

America's Funniest Home Videos ''America's Funniest Home Videos'', also called ''America's Funniest Videos'' (abbreviated as ''AFV''), is an American video clip television series on ABC, based on the Japanese variety show ''Fun TV with Kato-chan and Ken-chan''. The show featur ...

'' since 1998.

Early life

Harnell was born on December 23, 1963 at

Englewood Hospital and Medical Center Englewood Health is an acute care 289-bed teaching hospital in Englewood, New Jersey. In 2021 it was given a grade A by the Leapfrog patient safety organization. History It was incorporated in 1888 as a "non-profit, non-sectarian voluntary health ...

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, which at the 2020 United States census had a population of 29,308. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from por ...

, and grew up in nearby

Teaneck Teaneck () is a township in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is a bedroom community in the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 39,776, reflecting an increase of 516 (+1.3%) f ...

, the son of

Joe Harnell Joseph Harnell (August 2, 1924 – July 14, 2005) was an American composer, musician, and music arranger. Early life His father was a vaudeville performer who also played in jazz and klezmer ensembles. Harnell began playing piano at age six and ...

(a jazz composer) and his wife Alice.

Career

In 1989, Harnell provided the voices of

Br'er Rabbit Br'er Rabbit (an abbreviation of ''Brother Rabbit'', also spelled Brer Rabbit) is a central figure in an oral tradition passed down by African-Americans of the Southern United States and African descendants in the Caribbean, notably Afro-Bahami ...

and many other critters for the

Splash Mountain Splash Mountain is a log flume at Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Magic Kingdom, based on the animated sequences of the 1946 Disney film ''Song of the South''. Although there are variations in the story and features between the three locatio ...

attraction at

Disneyland Park Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envision ...

. Harnell also recorded some new character dialogue for the subsequent

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, th ...

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 '' Kinect: Disneyland Adventures''. In 1990, Harnell served as a casting director on '' DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp''. In 1993, he went on to voice

on ''

'' and

Secret Squirrel ''Secret Squirrel'' is a cartoon character created by Hanna-Barbera and also the name of his segment in ''The Atom Ant/Secret Squirrel Show'', which debuted in 1965. He was given his own show in 1966, titled ''The Secret Squirrel Show'', but was ...

on ''

2 Stupid Dogs ''2 Stupid Dogs'' is an American animated television series created and designed by Donovan Cook and produced by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. It originally ran from September 5, 1993, to May 15, 1995, on TBS as a part of their ''Sunday Morning in Fr ...

''. That same year, he became the singing voice of father in the current version of

Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress is a rotating theater audio-animatronic stage show attraction in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Crea ...

. From 1994 to 1996, he supplied the voices of

Sewer Urchin This article details the characters found in all four versions of ''The Tick''. Main characters The Tick The Tick is a superhero in a blue bug suit (which may or may not be part of his body). He is the main protagonist of the Tick franchise. Ar ...

, the Human Bullet and Chief Louder in the animated series ''

The Tick ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

''. Also, in 1996, Harnell was Hunter on ''

Road Rovers ''Road Rovers'' is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation that premiered on Kids' WB on September 7, 1996, and ended after one season on February 22, 1997. It was later shown on Cartoon Network from February 7, ...

''. One of Harnell's next appearances was as the principal stormtrooper in the 1997

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

fan film A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book, book, or video game created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the mo ...

Troops A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Troop Ro ...

'', a parody of '' Cops'' set in the ''Star Wars'' expanded universe. Harnell voiced Rudy's father, Joe Tabootie on the

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

show '' ChalkZone'',

in ''

Crash Tag Team Racing ''Crash Tag Team Racing'' is a 2005 kart racing game developed by Vancouver-based Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Universal Games under the Sierra Entertainment label for the GameCube (NGC), PlayStation 2 (PS2), Xbox, and the P ...

'', ''

Crash of the Titans ''Crash of the Titans'' is a 2007 platform beat 'em up video game developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Vivendi Games for the PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Wii and Xbox 360. It is the first game in the ''Crash Bandicoot' ...

'', '' Crash: Mind over Mutant'', and '' Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy'', Lo-Lo in '' Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex'',

Rodney Copperbottom ''Robots'' is a 2005 American computer-animated science fiction adventure comedy film produced by Blue Sky Studios and distributed by 20th Century Fox. It was directed by Chris Wedge and written by David Lindsay-Abaire, Lowell Ganz and Babaloo M ...

in the ''

Robots "\n\n\n\n\nThe robots exclusion standard, also known as the robots exclusion protocol or simply robots.txt, is a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the site they are allowed to visi ...

'' video game,

Spyro the Dragon ''Spyro the Dragon'' is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation on September 9, 1998. The first game in the ''Spyro'' series, it stars the title character, a young purple dr ...

in '' Spyro: A Hero's Tail'' and '' Spyro: Shadow Legacy'', Marlin, Bruce and Crazy Drivers in the ''

Finding Nemo ''Finding Nemo'' is a 2003 American computer-animated comedy-drama adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Andrew Stanton with co-direction by Lee Unkrich, the screenplay was writ ...

'' video game, Jerry in ''

Totally Spies ''Totally Spies!'' is an animated spy-fi series created by Vincent Chalvon-Demersay and David Michel mainly produced by French animation company Marathon Media and French broadcaster TF1, with seasons 3 to 5 being co-produced with Canadian comp ...

'', Linguni in ''

Pucca ''Pucca'' (; ko, 뿌까 ) is a South Korean media franchise from the South Korean company VOOZ Character System. The main and titular character, Pucca, is the niece of three Korean men who run a Chinese-style restaurant. The restaurant, known as ...

'' and

Doctor Finklestein This article lists characters seen in the film ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' and two video games: ''The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Pumpkin King'' and ''The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge''. Design The filmmakers construc ...

in ''

The Nightmare Before Christmas ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Henry Selick (in his feature directorial debut) and produced and ...

video game spin-offs Video is an electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving visual media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, which were quickly replaced by cathode-ray tube (CRT) system ...

, as well as in the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series. In 2005, he voiced Buzz Blister in '' Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars'' and numerous other characters in subsequent ''

Tom and Jerry ''Tom and Jerry'' is an American Animated cartoon, animated media franchise and series of comedy short films created in 1940 by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Best known for its 161 theatrical short films by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the series c ...

'' features. He also voiced wild and energetic

Cro-Magnon Early European modern humans (EEMH), or Cro-Magnons, were the first early modern humans (''Homo sapiens'') to settle in Europe, migrating from Western Asia, continuously occupying the continent possibly from as early as 56,800 years ago. They ...

Doubledome from the Longhair and Doubledome cartoon shorts for

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

's Big Pick (also starring

Daniel Davis Daniel Davis (born November 26, 1945) is an American film, stage and television actor. Davis is best known for portraying Niles the butler on the sitcom ''The Nanny'' (1993 to 1999), and for his two guest appearances as Professor Moriarty on ...

as Longhair). In 2001, Harnell was the singing voice of Buster on '' Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure''. He also voiced

on Comedy Central's animated comedy ''

'' and he also does the voices of Wooton Bassett and Bennett Charles on the radio drama ''

Adventures in Odyssey ''Adventures in Odyssey'' (AIO), or simply ''Odyssey'', is an Evangelical Christian radio drama and comedy series created and produced by Focus on the Family. Aimed at families with children age 12 and younger, the series first aired in 1987 as ...

'', 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 ''Superhuman Samurai Syber-Squad'' (or, in short, ''SSSS'') is an American television series. It was produced by Tsuburaya Productions, Ultracom Inc. and DIC Productions, L.P., with distribution by All American Television, and ran for a duration ...

''. His voice also made an appearance in '' NASCAR Rumble'', and is credited for in-game commentary in the follow-up game ''

Rumble Racing ''Rumble Racing'' is a 2001 Racing video game, racing video game developed and published by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 2 console. It was heavily influenced by ''NASCAR Rumble''. Reception The game received "favorable" reviews accordin ...

''. Jess also replaced

Brad Garrett Bradley Henry Gerstenfeld (born April 14, 1960), known professionally as Brad Garrett, is an American actor and stand-up comedian. Possessing a distinctive deep voice, he has appeared in numerous television and film roles in both live-action and ...

as the voice of Fatso during season 3 of ''

The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper ''The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper'' is an animated television spin-off and a sequel of the feature film ''Casper'', which, in turn, was based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Production At the time ...

''. He also guest starred in ''

Samurai Jack ''Samurai Jack'' is an American animated action-adventure television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network and distributed by Warner Bros. Domestic Television. Tartakovsky conceived ''Samurai Jack'' after finishing his wor ...

'' as he voiced Ringo and a waitress in the episode "Jack Under the Sea". He also produced the 2004 film '' Comic Book: The Movie'' along with

Billy West William Richard Werstine (born April 16, 1952), known professionally as Billy West, is an American voice actor. His voice roles include Bugs Bunny in the 1996 film ''Space Jam'' and several subsequent projects, the title characters of '' Doug'' ...

Mark Hamill Mark Richard Hamill (; born September 25, 1951) is an American actor and writer. He is known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the ''Star Wars'' film series, beginning with the original 1977 film and subsequently winning three Saturn Awards f ...

, Eric Mittleman,

Scott Zakarin Scott Zakarin (born September 2, 1963) is an American film producer. He is known as the creator of the Web series medium due to his introduction of the first internet episodic website The Spot. Early life Born in Long Island, New York, Zakarin ...

and

Roger Rose Roger Rose (born August 15, 1958) is an American actor and former VH1 VJ, known for such films as ''Ski Patrol'' and for voice work in animated films and television series such as ''Happy Feet'', ''Rugrats'', ''Scooby-Doo'', '' The Grim Adventure ...

as well as playing the character Ricky. In 2006, he worked as a voice director on ''

Pet Alien ''Pet Alien'' is a French-American computer-animated series produced by Mike Young Productions, Taffy Entertainment, Antefilms Productions, and John Doze Studios in 2005. It was created by Pajanimals creator Jeff Muncy and the episodes are ma ...

''. In 2007, he replaced

Neil Flynn Neil Richard Flynn (born November 13, 1960) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his roles as Janitor on '' Scrubs'' and Mike Heck in the ABC comedy series '' The Middle''. He has had notable appearances in television series, ...

as the voice of The Plumber in '' Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction'' and '' Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time''. He also voiced the Smuggler in that popular series. In that same year, Harnell voiced the characters of Ironhide and

Barricade Barricade (from the French ''barrique'' - 'barrel') is any object or structure that creates a barrier or obstacle to control, block passage or force the flow of traffic in the desired direction. Adopted as a military term, a barricade denot ...

in the

-directed ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

'', making him the only voice actor to play both an

Autobot The Autobots are the main protagonists in the fictional Continuity (fiction), continuities of the Transformers (fiction), Transformers multimedia franchise, and are depicted in a collection of various toys, cartoons, films, graphic novels, and p ...

(Ironhide) and a

Decepticon The Decepticons are the main antagonists in the fictional continuities of the ''Transformers'' multimedia franchise. They are depicted as a faction of sentient robotic lifeforms led by Megatron, identified by a purple face-like insignia. Capa ...

(Barricade) in that film. He returned to voice Ironhide once again in '' Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'' and '' Transformers: Dark of the Moon'' as well as Barricade in '' Transformers: The Last Knight''. Harnell voiced a character in '' Up'' and replaced

as the voice of Professor Buffo in ''

Special Agent Oso ''Special Agent Oso '' () was an American computer animation, computer-animated children's television series. The series was created by Ford Riley. It premiered on April 4, 2009 with 2 episodes airing that day as part of Disney Channel's Playhou ...

''. He also voiced Flip Wreck, Blast Zone and Bucko in the ''

Skylanders ''Skylanders'' is a toys-to-life action-adventure video game series published by Activision. ''Skylanders'' games are played by placing character figures called the Skylanders on the "Portal of Power", a device that reads the figures' tags throu ...

'' reboot of the franchise and

Cowardly Lion The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, but like all animals in Oz, he can speak. Since lions are supposed to be "The Kings of Beasts," the Cowardly ...

and Reegull in ''

Lego Dimensions ''Lego Dimensions'' is a Lego-themed action-adventure platform crossover video game developed by Traveller's Tales and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox One and Xbox 360. It fo ...

''. Harnell also provided the voice and singing voice of Cedric the Sorcerer from ''

Sofia the First ''Sofia the First'' is an American animated fantasy children's television series. The show follows a young peasant girl named Sofia ( Ariel Winter), who becomes a princess after her mother marries the king of Enchancia. Episodes focus on her ad ...

'' from 2013 to 2018.

Music career

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 Rock candy or sugar candy, also called rock sugar, or crystal sugar, is a type of confection composed of relatively large sugar crystals. This candy is formed by allowing a supersaturated solution of sugar and water to crystallize onto a su ...

, which evolved from his previous band, Loud & Clear. With Loud & Clear or Rock Sugar, Harnell released five albums: ''Disc-Connected'' (2003), self-titled demo album (2007), ''Festival of Fire'' (2008), ''Reimaginator'' (2010), and ''Reinventinator'' (2021)

Personal life

Harnell married his wife Cara on November 19, 2019.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Live-action

Theme parks

Soundtrack appearances

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Harnell, Jess 1963 births Living people American male voice actors American male video game actors American male film actors American male television actors American male radio actors Radio and television announcers American male singers American rock singers American casting directors American voice directors Disney people 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors People from Englewood, New Jersey People from Teaneck, New Jersey Male actors from New Jersey American impressionists (entertainers) Audiobook narrators 20th-century American comedians 21st-century American comedians