Richard Steven Horvitz

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Richard Steven Horvitz

Horvitz with autographed Invader Zim picture at JACON 2009 in Orlando, Florida
Born Richard Steven Horvitz
July 29, 1966 (1966-07-29) (age 45)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation Voice actor, on-camera actor, stage actor
Years active 1976–present
Spouse Kristen Lazarian
Children Three young sons
Website
http://www.richardhorvitz.com/

Richard Steven Horvitz, sometimes credited as Richard S. Horvitz, Richard Horvitz, or Richard Wood, (born July 29, 1966) is an American actor and voice actor best known for his work as the voice of the original Alpha 5 in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Power Rangers Zeo, and Power Rangers Turbo, as Raz in Psychonauts, Billy and his dad Harold in The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Daggett in The Angry Beavers, the title character Zim from the show Invader Zim, and as Orthopox in the Destroy All Humans! series. He continues to provide the voice of Zim, albeit mostly in video games as the series was canceled in 2002.

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[edit] Career

Horvitz's film career began in 1976 with a Freshen Up Gum commercial, which led to other commercial appearances as well as several hand modeling jobs. After a brief stint in an off-Broadway production of Oliver!, he went on to make appearances on TV shows such as Kids Incorporated and Safe at Home and movies such as Summer School, How I Got Into College and Deadly Weapon. He also starred as Howie for two seasons on the 1988 syndicated television sitcom The Munsters Today which lasted three years until 1991. Howie was best friend of Marilyn Munster (played by actress Hilary Van Dyke).

Starting in 1993, he changed the focus of his career to voice acting, starting with voice of Alpha 5 on the live-action series Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. This is one of Richard's often-forgotten roles that he has performed. From here, he expanded into several other regular voice roles on such animated shows as The Angry Beavers (Daggett), Invader Zim (Zim), Kim Possible, Dave the Barbarian (Ned Frischman), Zatch Bell! (Kanchomé), The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy (Billy, Billy's dad), Ben 10 (Grey Matter), Squirrel Boy (Rodney), and Shorty McShorts' Shorts as Dudley.

After his stint as Alpha 5 ended, Horvitz went on to voice a few monsters in other Power Rangers series, and was also the voice of Alpha 7 in the Power Rangers: Wild Force episode, "Forever Red".

He also played the main character Razputin in Psychonauts and Orthopox in Destroy All Humans!, Destroy All Humans! 2, and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon, in a voice that closely resembles that of Zim (rather, what would happen if Zim adopted an English accent). However, he does not voice Orthopox in Destroy All Humans! Big Willy Unleashed. He has voiced various NPCs in Everquest 2. He also does the voice of the Berserker Darklings in The Darkness and Bumble in Kinectimals.

He also had a minor part as a grocer that Sophie buys potatoes from in Howl's Moving Castle.

Richard also plays the character "Green Grapes" in the Fruit of the Loom commercials.

In a behind-the-scenes style interview on the first Invader Zim DVD collection, when questioned about how hard it was to do Zim's voice (meaning all the screaming he did), he simply stated "Did I find doing the voice of Zim hard on my voice? How do I put this?...yes." He also claims his favorite line from the entire series is "You! Obey the fist!"[citation needed] from Career Day but his favorite exchange was in Rise of the Zitboy, where Zim angrily yells out "Why was there BACON IN THE SOAP?!".

[edit] Personal life

Horvitz was born, grew up, and currently works and resides in Los Angeles, California. On the side he also taught voice acting and theater at the California State University, Northridge. He is friends with comedian actor Fred Willard. He is friends with fellow voice actor Billy West who did the voice of Invader Zim in the pilot episode. He lives with his wife, playwright and screenwriter Kristen Lazarian, and their three young sons; Jake, Cole, and Wyatt. The couple's oldest of their three sons, Jake Elliot Horvitz, was born April 11, 1997, an event proudly mentioned in one of his shows, The Angry Beavers. He and his wife also wrote "Keeper of the Reaper", an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Anime roles

[edit] Western Animation Roles

[edit] Live-action roles

[edit] Movie roles

[edit] Video game roles

[edit] External links

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