That growling, larger-than-life voice behind the Joker, Shredder, and half of Quahog’s most recognisable side characters all belongs to one man. Kevin Michael Richardson has spent more than three decades turning his booming baritone into some of animation’s most memorable villains and comic relief characters, without ever needing to show his face on screen. From Saturday morning cartoons to Amazon’s biggest superhero drama, his voice has quietly become one of the most recognisable in Hollywood.
| Quick Facts | |
|---|---|
| Full Name | Kevin Michael Richardson |
| Date of Birth | October 25, 1964 |
| Age | 61 (as of 2026) |
| Birthplace | The Bronx, New York City, U.S. |
| Raised In | Mount Vernon, New York |
| Ethnicity | Jamaican-American |
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Alma Mater | Syracuse University (BFA, 1988) |
| Occupation | Actor, voice actor |
| Years Active | 1992 to present |
| Spouse | Monica Richardson (m. 2006) |
| Known For | The Joker (The Batman), Shredder (TMNT), Captain Gantu (Lilo & Stitch), Jerome (Family Guy) |
| Net Worth | Estimated $3 million to $6 million |
Biography
Kevin Michael Richardson was born on October 25, 1964, in the Bronx, New York City, to Jamaican immigrant parents, and he is the youngest of five siblings. Speaking on Mike Henry’s podcast, Richardson said the family moved to Mount Vernon in Westchester County when he was around seven, and that’s where most of his childhood memories come from. He has said that watching performers like Flip Wilson, James Earl Jones, and Laurence Olivier as a child planted the idea of acting in his head early on.
His father worked as a limo driver and ran a small cleaning business before moving into real estate, and Richardson has described him as a strict, hardworking man who wanted his youngest son to have an easier path. In an interview with Mike Henry, Richardson said his father pushed him toward becoming a doctor or a lawyer and was against the idea of comedy as a career, so Richardson settled on acting instead because it felt like a more respectable compromise. His father eventually came around after watching him perform in a Syracuse University production of Waiting for Lefty, and pulled him aside afterward to say he should stick with it. Richardson has also said that as of a 2024 conversation on the show, both of his parents were still alive, with his father at 94 and his mother at 93.
Richardson attended St. Francis Preparatory School, a Catholic high school in Queens, New York, where a teacher encouraged his early interest in theatre. At 17, he was selected as one of only eight American high school students for the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts’ “Arts ’82” program in Miami, an honour that came with a scholarship and landed him a spot in a PBS special directed by John Houseman. That scholarship carried him to Syracuse University, where he majored in theatre and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1988.
Career
After graduating, Richardson spent time pounding the pavement in New York for commercial auditions, picking up a handful of local spots and an AT&T commercial along the way. Speaking on Mike Henry’s podcast, he explained that his connection to a talent agency came through a Syracuse classmate who had seen him in a campus production of How the Other Half Loves and recommended him to the agency Cunningham-Escott, now known as CESD. He first signed with them for on-camera and stage work, and only landed voiceover auditions years later after repeatedly asking to be considered for that side of the business.
His first notable on-camera break came in 1994, playing a recurring patient named Patrick on the debut season of ER, a role he says helped him become friendly with George Clooney and the late Rosemary Clooney on set. In 1991, a Syracuse friend, the late Sam Lloyd, who would go on to play Ted the lawyer on Scrubs, invited him out to Los Angeles for a play called Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at the Tiffany Theater. Richardson has said he only planned to stay for the summer, but small commercial and guest spots kept coming in and he never left.
The Joker and Early Voice Work
His first major animated role was voicing a Viking character named Eric the Red on a mid-1990s revival of The Pink Panther, and in 1995 he landed the role of Mayor Tilton on the animated version of The Mask. His deep, commanding voice steered him toward villains from there, and his biggest early break came in 2004, when he was cast as the Joker on The Batman, making him the first Black actor to voice the character. Talking about the audition on the Talking Voices podcast, Richardson said he was initially reluctant to even try out because he respected Mark Hamill’s take on the role, but a new creative team wanted a different direction, and he channeled his frustration that day straight into the microphone. The performance earned him two Daytime Emmy nominations and opened the door to a run of major DC voice work, including Trigon, Mammoth, and See-More across Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go!, plus Martian Manhunter on Young Justice and Kilowog across the Green Lantern franchise.
Family Guy, American Dad!, and The Cleveland Show
Richardson became a fixture of Seth MacFarlane’s animated universe around the same period. He has voiced Jerome, Lois’s recurring ex-boyfriend, on Family Guy since 2005, played Principal Lewis on American Dad! since the show’s 2005 pilot, and carried The Cleveland Show from 2009 to 2013 as both Cleveland Brown Jr. and the mullet-sporting Lester Krinklesac. Speaking on Mike Henry’s podcast, Richardson said he was actually cast as Lester first, and that the voice for young Cleveland Jr. came together by blending his ER character Patrick with his own idea of what a teenage version of Mike Henry’s Cleveland Sr. might sound like. He has also recalled The Cleveland Show’s table reads as legendary in the writers’ room, with guest stars over the years including Kanye West, Carl Reiner, Craig Robinson, will.i.am, Fergie, Johnny Bench, Shaquille O’Neal, and David Ortiz. In 2021, he took over as the voice of Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons, replacing Harry Shearer in a widely covered casting change.
Superheroes and Franchise Voice Work
Outside network animation, Richardson voiced Captain Gantu across the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Antauri on Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, and Oroku Saki, the Shredder, on the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series through 2017. He played Groot on Disney XD’s Guardians of the Galaxy animated series from 2015 to 2019, taking on the character a full year before Vin Diesel’s live-action version became a household name in Marvel’s wider audience. He also played Bulkhead on Transformers: Prime, and in a 2011 San Diego Comic-Con interview he named working alongside Peter Cullen and Frank Welker on that show among the highlights of his career.
That same year, Richardson took over as Panthro in the 2011 reboot of ThunderCats, a role originally voiced by a white actor in the 1980s original. In the same Comic-Con interview, he said he was aware casting is never guaranteed to follow the racial makeup of a character’s earlier version, and that he was simply glad the producers felt his read was the right fit.
Recent Roles and Other Credits
More recently, Richardson has voiced the Mauler Twins and Monster Girl on Invincible, Midge on the Netflix series Trolls: The Beat Goes On! as noted on the Talking Voices podcast, Crusher on Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Kamek in The Super Mario Bros. Movie and its 2026 follow-up, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. His 2019 performance as Chauncey “Rosie” Roosevelt on F Is for Family, Frank’s union-rep co-worker at Mohican Airways, brought him a Primetime Emmy nomination for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.
Film and Video Games
Richardson’s film credits include Goro in the original Mortal Kombat (1995) and its 2020 animated follow-up Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, and Deus Ex Machina in The Matrix Revolutions. His video game résumé runs just as deep, covering Tartarus in Halo 2, Chairman Drek in the Ratchet & Clank series, Sarevok in Baldur’s Gate, Jolee Bindo in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Stump Smash and Tree Rex across the Skylanders games.
What Is Kevin Michael Richardson Doing Now
Richardson remains one of the busiest voice actors working today. He continues to voice the Mauler Twins and Monster Girl on Invincible, plays Lt. Greg Summers on the animated comedy Grimsburg, and reprised Kamek in 2026’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. He is still a regular presence on Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad!, and Blaze and the Monster Machines, and has added newer roles like Gus on Adventures in Wonder Park and Sebastian on Disney Jr.’s Ariel to an already packed schedule.
Personal Life
Richardson keeps his personal life private and has no publicly reported relationships outside his marriage to his wife, Monica Richardson, a producer, director, and singer, whom he married on April 27, 2006. As her husband, he has collaborated with her musically over the years, contributing vocals to some of her jazz recordings. He is the stepfather to her two sons from a previous marriage, whom he has helped raise since they were young children, and the family lives in Los Angeles.
Away from acting, Richardson practises Transcendental Meditation most mornings, a habit he picked up from a teacher who studied alongside Deepak Chopra, and he has said on VO Buzz Weekly that it helps lower his blood pressure and keeps him focused.
He is also an enthusiastic singer in his off hours. Speaking on VO Buzz Weekly, he said his wife once had him record a cover of “Me and Mrs. Jones” and a version of Barry White’s “Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe,” and that he has sung “My Kind of Town” from Robin and the 7 Hoods alongside Seth MacFarlane and Frank Sinatra Jr. He has said his dream project would be performing a set at the Hollywood Bowl someday.
Net Worth
A more grounded estimate for his net worth has to be built from what is actually known about his career: over 20 years of simultaneous regular-cast voice roles on Family Guy, The Simpsons, and American Dad!, a long-running lead role on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, steady video game and film voice work, and decades of commercial voiceover income before any of his TV work began.
Recurring animated series roles on established network shows typically pay union scale or better per episode, and holding down three or more such roles at once for the better part of two decades adds up to a substantial and unusually stable income by voice-acting standards. Factoring in his video game and film work alongside his real estate, Richardson’s net worth is estimated to fall somewhere between $3 million and $6 million. That figure could grow further given his continued run of new roles into 2026, including Invincible and the Super Mario film franchise.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who has Kevin Michael Richardson voiced? Richardson has voiced dozens of characters across animation, film, and video games, most notably the Joker on The Batman, Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Captain Gantu in the Lilo & Stitch franchise, Groot on the Guardians of the Galaxy animated series, Jerome on Family Guy, Dr. Hibbert on The Simpsons, Bulkhead on Transformers: Prime, the Mauler Twins on Invincible, and Kamek in the Super Mario Bros. film series.
What is Kevin Michael Richardson doing now? He is currently voicing the Mauler Twins and Monster Girl on Invincible, Lt. Greg Summers on Grimsburg, and Kamek in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, while continuing his long-running roles on Family Guy, The Simpsons, and American Dad!.
Who does Jerome’s voice on Family Guy? Kevin Michael Richardson has voiced Jerome, Lois’s on-again recurring ex-boyfriend, since the character’s introduction in the mid-2000s.
How old is Kevin Michael Richardson? Richardson was born on October 25, 1964, which makes him 61 years old as of 2026.
