In honor of Black History Month, I thought I would choose an African American for the next “How Much Do You Know” topic. There are several folks to choose from in the Star Wars Universe, but I didn’t want to make the obvious choice. I think the others will have their time in future posts but for this month, how much do you know about Phil LaMarr?
Phil LaMarr is pretty interesting. He was born in Los Angeles and he went to Yale University. He is one of the founding members of the Yale improve group, Purple Crayon. This is probably when improv became his life.
A Prolific Career
I think the first time I saw Phil LaMarr is MadTV. In fact that is probably one of the rare times you will see him in live-action. His impressions of Ray Charles, Johnnie Cochran and Sammy Davis Jr are some fond memories. However, what I find most interesting about Phil LaMarr is his voice acting career.
At the time of this writing Phil LaMarr has 502 acting credits and the bulk of them are voice acting roles. He has the occasional live-action role. For example he is Rag Doll in The Flash TV series and Malefic J’onzz on Supergirl. However his versatility really shines in all of his numerous voice acting roles.
In Star Wars (since that’s why we’re here) he is mostly known as the animated voice of Kit Fisto. In various other series he’s also provided the voice for Bail Organa and Orn Free Taa as well as random stormtroopers and other side/background characters. Most recently he’s provided the voice for two characters in The Book of Boba Fett.
Outside of Star Wars, you may recognize him as Hermes in Futurama, Samurai Jack, Ollie Williams in Family Guy, various characters in the DC universe; the list is extensive.
Clearly he’s an amazing actor and I really enjoyed doing the research.
Breathe. Just breathe. Now reach out.
