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Liam O'Brien (born May 28 1976) is an American voice actor. Chances are that if you notice a character who seems aristocratic or have noble standing, they'll have this guy voicing them. Most likely characteristics of his voice are an almost-faux British accent or a very laid-back demeanor. And he doesn't differentiate that much--
--"You want any voice differentiation? That's Gaara!"
His real forte seems to be voicing characters who have more than a few screws loose in their head, from the eccentric to the completely batshit insane. In fact, this is what shot him to fame when he voiced Gaara in Naruto. He has a knack for Ambiguously Gay characters, and one hell of an Evil Laugh that's present in just about every villain he's ever played.
He's currently married to fellow voice actress Amy Kincaid (who played Shirley Fenette in Code Geass and Kotone Himekawa in To Heart), and also does a butt-load of ADR directing (Most notably for the most recent entries in the Resident Evil series).
Texan counterparts? J. Michael Tatum, Chuck Huber and John Burgmeier. Canadian Counterparts? Michael Adamthwaite, Ted Cole, Mark Hildreth and Brian Drummond. Todd Haberkorn is his Spiritual Successor in terms of the villain typecast, which can be compared to that of Keith Silverstein and Doug Erholtz.
Notable roles from Liam O'Brien:[]
- Gaara of the Desert in Naruto
- Master Big Star in Disgaea 3 Absence of Justice
- Ingway in Odin Sphere
- Joachim Armster in Castlevania: Lament of Innocence
- Isaac in Castlevania: Curse of Darkness
- Jonathan Morris in Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
- Jūshirō Ukitake, Soken Ishida, and Sora Inoue in Bleach
- Lloyd Asplund in Code Geass
- Lezard Valeth in Valkyrie Profile 2: Silmeria
- Dr. Clive in Jungle wa Itsumo Hale Nochi Guu
- Ky Kiske in Guilty Gear 2 Overture
- Dist the
RunnyReaperRose in Tales of the Abyss - Once substituted for Steve Blum as Mugen in the Samurai Champloo video game due to Steve Blum's union status.
- Levin and Raksha in Soul Nomad and The World Eaters
- Count Waltz in Eternal Sonata
- Akihiko Sanada in Persona 3
- Kei (Nate) Nanjou in Persona (PSP)
- Archer in Fate Stay Night
- Vayne Aurelius in Mana Khemia Alchemists of Al Revis (Although it's a lot more obvious that it's him with the Evil Counterpart that shows up at the end of the game).
- Goto in Mana Khemia 2 Fall of Alchemy
- Stahn Aileron in Tales of the World: Radiant Mythology.
- Chaos in Atelier Iris 2 The Azoth of Destiny: The Azoth Of Destiny
- Illidan Stormrage in World of Warcraft (YOU ARE NOT PREPARED)
- Ray Lundgrin in Gun X Sword
- Sanctus in Devil May Cry 4
- War in Darksiders
- Miguel Caballero Rojo in Tekken 6
- Marquis Andrea Cavalcanti/ Benedetto in Gankutsuou
- Dr. Kenzou Tenma in Monster.
- Kain Highwind in Final Fantasy IV (DS)
- And reprising the role for Dissidia 012: Final Fantasy.
- Red XIII in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.
- Vincent Law from Ergo Proxy.
- Cumore in Tales of Vesperia.
- Endrance in the .hack//G.U. trilogy.
- Hisoka Kurosaki in Yami no Matsuei.
- Detective Maniwa in Paranoia Agent (starting with episode 5).
- Father Balder in Bayonetta (though he and the other voice actors in the game aren't credited for union issues.)
- Rezo the Red Priest in Slayers Revolution and Evolution-R
- Grimoire Weiss in Nie R Gestalt
- Kazuharu Fukuyama in Girls Bravo
- Ayatane Michitaka in Ar tonelico
- Steven Bisson from the Eureka Seven video games
- Chuck Preston in Wild Arms 5
- Tokugawa Ieyasu in Sengoku Basara (both the anime and Samurai Heroes)
- Baldren Gassenarl from Valkyria Chronicles II
- The generic Ghost and Science Vessel units in Starcraft II.
- Dr. Stahngun/Dimitri Allen in Professor Layton and the Unwound Future
- Clark Triton in Professor Layton and the Last Specter
- Taishi Kuhonbutsu in Comic Party.
- Air Raid in Transformers: War for Cybertron
- Reynard Fisher (Chris and Sheva's contact in Chapter 1) in Resident Evil 5, where he also did the ADR directing
- He is also Wesker...for only one line. When he jumps up to the last platform in the final boss fight and yells "Chris!" (right before he says "I can't lose, not to you!")
- Numerous named NPCs in Fallout: New Vegas like Pacer, Cachino, Major Knight, and Jerry the Punk.
- Numerous other named NPCs in Dungeon Siege III
- Tsubasa in Kannazuki no Miko.
- Durant in Yggdra Union.
- Asura from Asura's Wrath
- P.M.C Multiplayer Announcer in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
- Caius Ballad in Final Fantasy XIII-2
- Mamiya Chida in Revolutionary Girl Utena
- Nightcrawler and Angel/Archangel in Wolverine and the X-Men
Tropes relating to Liam O'Brien[]
- Ax Crazy: what a lot of his characters have in common. If the character is a good guy, the character is most likely a Sociopathic Hero, those with Dark and Troubled Past, Blood Knight, an Anti-Hero, or a former villain turned good guy/antihero[1]. If the character is a bad guy, the character he voices is most likely going to be a Smug Snake, Manipulative Bastard, Mad Scientist, Psychotic Man Child, Villain Protagonist, Depraved Bisexual, evil nobles, or those without any redeeming qualities.
- Evil Sounds Deep: if the character he voices happens to be very deep, then they are most likely are going to be villains. If the villain has a higher pitched voice, then the said villain is going to be psychotic.
- Kinda funny when you realize his natural voice is higher than what most of the characters he voiced.
- Evil Laugh: he's very found with this. That, along with borderlining with Evil Is Hammy.
- Mad Scientist: what Lloyd, Dr. Clive, and Dist have in common. Although the only the last one is the flatout villain.
- Man of a Thousand Voices: sure we have Gaara, Lloyd, and Dr. Clive for starters, but he's really capable of others. Also, his official resume lists British, Cockney, Spanish, Russian, Irish, German, Brooklyn, and New Jersey as his dialect specialties (the first one happens to be the most common one).
- Mean Character, Nice Actor
- Unions in Hollywood
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: most of his characters tend to be mentally unstable villains.
- Playing Against Type: Dr. Tenma from Monster, a Nice Guy Technical Pacifist doctor. [2].
- Also BOTH Ky Kiske and Tokugawa Ieyasu, Reasonable Authority Figure type characters (quite a stark contrast to most of his characters).
- And Master Big Star.
- Akihiko Sanada isn't exactly villain material either. Asura is also another whole lot different story.
- And for a short time, he voiced Stahn Aileron, who's... Tales (series)' poster boy for Wide-Eyed Idealist Idiot Hero.
- Also a subversion: Kain Highwind isn't truly a villain, but he's often pointed with the label 'traitor' (and he did betray Cecil several times, albeit via possession) so it kinda fits... Also one of his times he instead uses a Guttural Growler type of voice unusual for his other roles (but went back to normal style for Dissidia)
- Playing Against Type: Dr. Tenma from Monster, a Nice Guy Technical Pacifist doctor. [2].
- Villains: the roles what he's best well-known for. As with a Youtube comment comparing the evil laughs of English and Japanese voice acting in Eternal Sonata: "best evil voice actor ever". He's getting there to become the definitive English counterpart of Norio Wakamoto.
- ↑ Like the case with Gaara
- ↑ The titular character villain went to Keith Silverstein instead, which was his Star-Making Role for that voice actor