You know him, you love him, and even if you think you don’t – you do. Prolific doesn’t even begin to describe Yuri Lowenthal’s voice acting career, as the actor has over 800 credits to his name across movies, TV shows, and video games.
When Lowenthal is not voicing major superheroes and lovable main characters, he’s tackling all sorts of background characters in smaller franchises you may have heard of, like Mortal Kombat, Fallout, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy. Most recently, he even confirmed his involvement in Helldivers 2, a performance, “heavily inspired by Starship Troopers.”
I could write a novel-length piece about Lowenthal’s ridiculous career, but this little overview into just a smattering of his best roles will have to do.
Ice-Man/Bobby Drake (X-Men)
It’s hard to really make an impact in the X-Men franchise. There are so many characters with so much history that most fans already have their favorites picked out. Despite that, Lowenthal definitely managed to move the needle when he portrayed Bobby Drake, and he made Ice-Man into a top-tier character for a generation of X-Man fans, myself included.
He voiced Ice-Man in Wolverine and the X-Men back in 2008 and again in 2014’s Marvel Disk Wars: The Avengers. The Wolverine series is the only one that’s really worth watching, but Lowenthal is a joy in both shows.
Tobias Nebbins (Catherine)
This is the first character I think of when I think of Yuri Lowenthal, but admittedly I’m a bit of an oddball. Toby was a supporting character in Atlus’ 2011 Catherine, and his cringe-worthy, but somehow charming, obsession with finding love has stuck with me ever since. Toby is a great example of how Lowenthal evokes pathos, even in his comic relief performances.
More importantly, he’s emblematic of all the other work Lowenthal has done with Atlus, including multiple Shin Megami Tensei and Persona projects. In Persona 4 (and P4: Golden), Lowenthal plays Yosuke Hanamura, a core member of the investigation team. He played the lead character Makoto Yuki in Persona 3: Dancing in the Moonlight, and he recently had a small role as Eiichiro Takeba, the scientist who created Aigis, in Persona 3 Reload.
Ben Tennyson (Ben 10: Alien Force)
If you were a Cartoon Network kid like me, then you know exactly who Ben Tennyson is. In Ben 10: Alien Force, the conveniently named kid got access to an alien armband that allowed him to transform into different creatures. Naturally, he needed to take on a new alien form every week to deal with another extraterrestrial and existential threat to the planet. Lowenthal voiced the character through multiple shows and video game tie-ins, and his performance elevated Ben from a goofy cartoon character to a bona fide sci-fi hero.
Frodo (Lord of the Rings)
Elijah Wood is inarguably our live-action Frodo, but for over a decade, Lowenthal has been the iconic Hobbit’s video game counterpart. Lowenthal first tackled the character in 2009’s The Lord of the Rings: Conquest on PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and — bizarrely – Nintendo DS.
Since then he’s played the character five more times in various video games, but it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to see him sink back into the role. His last outing as Mr. Baggins was in Lego Dimensions all the way back in 2015. Lowenthal’s take on the character is the only one that comes close to Wood’s portrayal, so hopefully, we’ll see him back in the role someday.
He-Man
Even when Lowenthal is playing heroes, he seems to gravitate toward characters who rely on brains over brawn. Whether it’s Peter Parker or Donatello, Lowenthal doesn’t often end up being the voice behind muscle-bound warriors like He-Man. But in Netflix’s Master of the Universe, Lowenthal stepped into the shoes of the mightiest hero around and nailed it. There’s a definite throughline from Lowenthal’s previous roles to He-Man, but if you aren’t already a believer (and really you should be), then this show will prove to you that Lowenthal doesn’t just play one-note heroes.
Sasuke Uchiha (Naruto)
For a long time, it was easy to say that Sasuke Uchiha was Lowenthal’s most iconic character. Now there’s a certain web slinger who’s vying for that title, but for a generation of anime fans, Sasuke is still the man. Lowenthal started voicing Sasuke when Naruto started airing in 2007, and since then he’s stepped into the vocal booth countless times to pick the character back up.
More than any other character, Sasuke has given Lowenthal the chance to act his way through an entire heroic journey, complete with epic failures and inspiring redemption arcs. I’m not going anywhere near the subs v dubs debate, but Lowenthal’s talent alone is a compelling reason to experience Naruto in English.
Spider-Man/Peter Parker
Everyone knows that Lowenthal voiced Peter Parker in the PlayStation Spider-Man games, but that franchise wasn’t his first outing as the wall crawler. Lowenthal actually first voiced Spider-Man in two different 2008 video games: ZEN Pinball and Spider-Man: Web of Shadows.
Since then, he’s voiced the character more than a dozen times in various animated shows and video games. In my opinion, Lowenthal is one of the best Peter Parkers that we’ve ever gotten. He’s got the comedic timing that makes the webhead so entertaining, but he also really understands the more tragic aspects of the character. In his performance as Peter, Lowenthal really captures the melancholy optimism that has been a part of the character’s comic book persona for decades.
