Will Friedle () (born August 11, 1976) is an American actor and writer. He is best known for his role as Eric Matthews on the

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...

sitcom ''

Boy Meets World ''Boy Meets World'' is an American coming-of-age sitcom created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that aired on ABC for seven seasons between September1993 and May2000. The series centers on Cory Matthews (Ben Savage) and his friends and famil ...

'' (1993–2000). In animation, he voices Terry McGinnis / Batman on ''

Batman Beyond ''Batman Beyond'' (known as ''Batman of the Future'' outside the United States) is an American superhero animated television series developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Alan Burnett. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation in collaboration ...

'' (1999–2001), Ron Stoppable on ''

Kim Possible ''Kim Possible'' is an American animated action comedy-adventure television series created by Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle for Disney Channel. The title character is a teenage girl tasked with fighting crime on a regular basis while coping wi ...

'' (2002–07), Doyle Blackwell on ''

The Secret Saturdays ''The Secret Saturdays'' is an American animated television series created by Canadian cartoonist Jay Stephens for Cartoon Network. It debuted on October 3, 2008 in the United States. The series follows the adventures of the Saturdays, a family of ...

'' (2008),

Blue Beetle Blue Beetle is the name of three fictional superheroes who appear in a number of American comic books published by a variety of companies since 1939. The most recent of the companies to own rights to Blue Beetle is DC Comics, which bought the ri ...

on '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'' (2008–11),

Lion-O Lion-O is a fictional superhero and the main protagonist character of the '' ThunderCats'' franchise. Lion-O is the leader and the hereditary "Lord of the ThunderCats." Lion-O is based on the lion and wields the legendary Sword of Omens, which i ...

on '' ThunderCats'' (2011–12),

Bumblebee A bumblebee (or bumble bee, bumble-bee, or humble-bee) is any of over 250 species in the genus ''Bombus'', part of Apidae, one of the bee families. This genus is the only extant group in the tribe Bombini, though a few extinct related gener ...

in the ''

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 ...

'' franchise and

Star-Lord Star-Lord (Peter Jason Quill) is a fictional character and superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character, created by Steve Englehart and Steve Gan, first appeared in ''Marvel Preview'' #4 (January 1976) ...

on ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It may more specifically refer to: Comic book teams * Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), the original 31st-century team fr ...

'' (2015–19).

Early life

Friedle was born in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, the youngest of three boys of Patricia Joan (née Leary) and Gary Allen Friedle, both lawyers. His older brothers are Gary and Greg Friedle. After committing himself to becoming an actor, Friedle continually commuted from

Avon, Connecticut Avon ( ) is a town in the Farmington Valley region of Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. As of the 2020 census, the town had a population of 18,932. History Avon was settled in 1645 and was originally a part of neighboring Farmington, ...

, to New York City for auditions. He graduated from Avon High School in 1994. Friedle is allegedly credited on school brochures as having attended

Occidental College Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...

. However, when interviewed on the February 11, 2019, episode of ''Critical Role: Between The Sheets'', he admitted having never attended the school. He stated that he learned he was being inaccurately credited by Occidental College as being an alumnus when his nephew visited the school and showed him the information package. Occidental College is not able to confirm that Friedle was ever used on marketing brochures; however, co-star

Rider Strong Rider King Strong (born December 11, 1979) is an American actor, producer, director and screenwriter. He is best known for starring as Shawn Hunter on the ABC sitcom ''Boy Meets World'' (1993–2000), which he reprised in its sequel series ''Girl ...

attended Occidental College briefly during the filming of ''Boy Meets World''. Additionally, he stated that he studied Latin for six years because he intended to become an archaeologist eventually. In the July 4, 2006, issue of ''

People A person (plural, : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of pr ...

'', Friedle mentioned he had thought about attending culinary school.

Career

After co-hosting

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 ...

's ''

Don't Just Sit There ''Don't Just Sit There!'' is a television show on Nickelodeon that first aired in 1988 and lasted for three seasons. It was a variety talk show comedy show. Segments included making food or taking things apart such as a Nintendo, interviews with ce ...

'' for three seasons (1988–1991), Friedle was cast as Cory Matthews' likeable but underachieving elder brother

Eric The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, or Eirik is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-Norse ''* ain ...

on the long-running TV sitcom ''

'' from 1993 to 2000. In 1998, he starred with

Elizabeth Harnois Elisabeth Harnois ( ; born ) is an American actress. Her career started at the age of five, where she began appearing in a number of film and television roles. As a child, she starred as Alice in Disney's ''Adventures in Wonderland'' and as an a ...

Dabney Coleman Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor. Coleman's best known films include ''9 to 5'' (1980), '' On Golden Pond'' (1981), ''Tootsie'' (1982), '' WarGames'' (1983), '' Cloak & Dagger'' (1984), ''The Beverly Hillbillies ...

Jay Thomas Jay Thomas (born Jon Thomas Terrell; July 12, 1948 – August 24, 2017) was an American actor, comedian, and radio personality. He was heard in New York from 1976–1979 on top-40 station 99X, and later on rhythmic CHR station 92KTU, and in L ...

in ''

My Date with the President's Daughter ''My Date with the President's Daughter'' is a 1998 American made-for-television romantic comedy film produced by Walt Disney Television and premiered as part of ABC's revival of ''The Wonderful World of Disney''. It was shot in various locatio ...

'' as part of

The Wonderful World of Disney The Walt Disney Company has produced an anthology television series since 1954 under several titles and formats. The program's current title, ''The Wonderful World of Disney'', was used from 1969 to 1979 and again from 1991 to the present. The pr ...

. In 2004, he co-starred with Chris Owen in the

independent film An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...

National Lampoon's Gold Diggers ''National Lampoon's Gold Diggers'' (also known as ''National Lampoon's Lady Killers'') is a 2003 American black comedy film written and directed by Gary Preisler. It features two friends (Will Friedle and Chris Owen) who marry two elderly sisters ...

'' (originally titled ''Lady Killers''). He also appeared in a supporting role in the 2005

ABC Family The American cable television, cable and satellite television network that is now known as Freeform (TV channel), Freeform was originally launched as the CBN Satellite Service on April 29, 1977, and has gone through several different owners (and s ...

movie '' Everything You Want.'' Friedle was cast as Mike in the WB sitcom ''

Off Centre ''Off Centre'' is an American sitcom that aired on The WB network from October 14, 2001, to October 31, 2002. Created by Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz, and Danny Zuker, the series was heavily promoted as "from the guys who brought you '' American Pie ...

'', but could not accept the role because of a previous commitment to the

UPN The United Paramount Network (UPN) was an American broadcast television network that launched on January 16, 1995. It was originally owned by Chris-Craft Industries' United Television. Viacom (through its Paramount Television unit, which pr ...

series '' The Random Years''. The role ended up going to

Eddie Kaye Thomas Eddie Kaye Thomas (born October 31, 1980) is an American actor who rose to prominence as Paul Finch in the ''American Pie'' film series. His other notable appearances include Andy Rosenberg in the ''Harold & Kumar'' series, Jeff Woodcock in ...

. Friedle voiced

Seifer Almasy ''Final Fantasy VIII'', a 1999 best-selling role-playing video game by Square (video game company), Squaresoft, features an elite group of mercenary, mercenaries called "SeeD", as well as soldiers, rebels, and political leaders of various natio ...

in the English version of the video game ''

Kingdom Hearts II is a 2005 action role-playing game developed and published by Square Enix in collaboration with Disney Interactive Studios, Buena Vista Games for the PlayStation 2 video game console. The game is a sequel to ''Kingdom Hearts (video game), King ...

'', Gideon Wyeth in the English version of the video game '' Advent Rising'', and Jaster Rogue in the English version of the video game ''

Rogue Galaxy ''Rogue Galaxy'' is an action role-playing video game developed by Level-5 and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 2. The game was released in Japan in December 2005, in North America in January 2007, and in most Europea ...

''. In December 2013, in spite of initial reluctance, it was announced that Friedle would reprise his ''Boy Meets World'' role of Eric Matthews on the continuation series ''

Girl Meets World ''Girl Meets World'' is an American comedy television series created by Michael Jacobs and April Kelly that premiered on Disney Channel on June 27, 2014. The series ran for three seasons, consisting of 72 episodes, and concluded on January 20 ...

''. In April 2014, it was confirmed that Friedle reprised his ''Batman Beyond'' role of Terry McGinnis on the ''Batman Beyond'' short made by Darwyn Cooke to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of Batman. On June 27, 2019, the premiere episode of ''Christy's Kitchen Throwback'' featuring Friedle was uploaded to

Christy Carlson Romano Christy Carlson Romano (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress and singer. She is known for playing Ren Stevens on ''Even Stevens'' and voicing the titular character from '' Kim Possible'', both of which aired on the Disney Channel. Early ...

's YouTube Channel. Beginning March 4, 2022, Friedle and Romano began co-hosting a podcast called ''I Hear Voices'' available on Romano's YouTube channel and other podcast providers. Among the notable guests have included

Eric Bauza Eric Bauza (born December 7, 1979) is a Canadian-American voice actor and comedian. His most-known roles include Stimpy on '' Ren and Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon"'', Foop on ''The Fairly OddParents'' and its reboot ''Fairly Odder'', Thunderbolt Ro ...

, Shelby Young,

Kevin Conroy Kevin Conroy (November 30, 1955 – November 10, 2022) was an American actor. He appeared in a variety of stage performances, television series, and television films, but earned worldwide fame for his voice portrayal of the DC Comics superhero ...

E.G. Daily Elizabeth Ann Guttman, (born September 11, 1961) better known as E. G. Daily and Elizabeth Daily, is an American actress and singer. Daily is best known for her animation voice roles as Tommy Pickles on ''Rugrats'' and its spin-off ''All Grown ...

Phil LaMarr Phillip LaMarr (born January 24, 1967) is an American actor, comedian and screenwriter. LaMarr was one of the original featured cast members on the sketch comedy television series '' Mad TV''. His voice acting roles in animated series include J ...

, Andrea Romano,

Jason Marsden Jason Christopher Marsden (born January 3, 1975) is an American actor, director, producer and YouTuber, who has done numerous voice roles in animated films, as well as various television series and video games. He has been the official voice of ...

(who is also Friedle's real life best friend),

Dan Povenmire Daniel Kingsley Povenmire ( ; born September 18, 1963) is an American animator, writer, director, producer, and voice actor. With Jeff "Swampy" Marsh, Povenmire co-created the Disney animated series ''Phineas and Ferb'' and ''Milo Murphy's Law'' ...

, and

Tara Strong Tara Lyn Strong (née Charendoff; born February 12, 1973) is a Canadian-American actress. She is known for her voice work in animation, websites, and video games. Strong's voice roles include animated series such as ''The New Batman Adventures ...

. On June 7, 2022, the 20th anniversary of ''Kim Possible'', the podcast had a special episode with creators

Mark McCorkle Mark McCorkle (born August 1961) is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. Among others, he is co-creator of the popular Disney animated series, '' Kim Possible''. He frequently collaborates with fellow writer Bob Sc ...

and

Bob Schooley Robert Schooley is an American screenwriter, television writer and television producer. He and Mark McCorkle are the creators of the 2002 animated television series ''Kim Possible'', which aired on Disney Channel. He was also an executive produc ...

and voice actors

John DiMaggio John William DiMaggio (; born September 4, 1968) is an American actor. His various voice roles include Bender on ''Futurama'', Jake the Dog on ''Adventure Time'', Marcus Fenix in the '' Gears of War'' series, Dr. Drakken on '' Kim Possible'', ...

(Drakken) and

Nicole Sullivan Nicole Sullivan (born April 21, 1970) is an American actress and comedian best known for her six seasons (1995–2001) on the sketch comedy series ''MADtv''. She also played Holly Shumpert in five seasons (2001–2005, 2007) of the CBS sitcom '' ...

(Shego), as well as a brand new ''Kim Possible'' scene with the four actors written by McCorkle and Schooley and directed by original voice director Lisa Schaffer. On June 15, 2022, Friedle voiced the character '' Radiant Black'' in a promotional short for the comic's fifteenth issue. The short can be viewed on the official Black Market Narrative YouTube channel. He has hosted the ''Boy Meets World'' rewatch podcast ''Pod Meets World'' with

Danielle Fishel Danielle Christine Fishel (born May 5, 1981) is an American actress, director, model, and television personality. She began her career in theater, appearing in community productions of ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Peter Pan''. She made her debut ...

and

since 2022.

Personal life

In 1997, Friedle dated actress

Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer Love Hewitt (born February 21, 1979) is an American actress and singer. Hewitt began her career as a child actress and singer, appearing in national television commercials before joining the cast of the Disney Channel series ''Kids I ...

, and co-starred with her in the romantic teen comedy ''

Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has ...

''. Hewitt made a guest appearance as Jennifer Love "Feffy" Fefferman on ''

'' episode "And Then There Was Shawn". Friedle is best friends with actor

and was the best man at Marsden's wedding in October 2004. The two have also worked together in numerous productions: ''

'' (until Marsden's departure from the series in season 3 and his character Jason Marsden was eventually replaced by

Matthew Lawrence Matthew William Lawrence (born February 11, 1980) is an American actor and singer, known for his roles in ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ''Boy Meets World''. Lawrence also starred in the series '' Brotherly Love'' with his real-life brothers Joey and An ...

's character Jack Hunter starting in season 5), ''

'', ''

Static Shock ''Static Shock'' is an American superhero fiction, superhero List of animated television series, animated television series based on the Milestone Media/DC Comics superhero Static (DC Comics), Static. It premiered on September 23, 2000, on the W ...

'', ''

Justice League Unlimited ''Justice League Unlimited'' (''JLU'') is a 2004–2006 American superhero animated television series that was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and aired on Cartoon Network. Featuring a wide array of superheroes from the DC Comics universe, and ...

'', '' Batman: The Brave and the Bold'', '' ThunderCats'', '' Transformers: Rescue Bots'' and '' Mad''. He married his girlfriend, Susan Martens, on September 25, 2016, in Connecticut. His affectionate name for her is Mrs. Squirrels in reference to his nickname "Plays With Squirrels" that as Eric he acquired in the final season of ''Boy Meets World''.

Filmography

Film

Television

Video games

Web series

References

External links

* *
Will Friedle
on the Super Hero Speak podcast from NYCC 2019 {{DEFAULTSORT:Friedle, Will Living people American male child actors American male comedians American male film actors American male television actors American male video game actors American male voice actors Comedians from Connecticut Occidental College alumni Male actors from Hartford, Connecticut Writers from Hartford, Connecticut 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American male actors 1980 births