Matthew Mercer is an American voice actor, and his best-known roles include Kagaya Ubuyashiki in “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba”, Levi Ackerman in “Attack on Titan”, Kiritsugu Emiya in “Fate/Zero”, and Aikuro Mikisugi in “Kill la Kill”.
Mercer has likely voiced characters on your favourite animes as his credits run into triple figures. He also lent his voice to the second voice of Yamato and Pain in the “Naruto” series, Trafalgar Law in the Funimation re-dub of “One Piece”, Hit in “Dragon Ball Super”, and Leorio in “Hunter x Hunter”.
Mercer was born Matthew Miller, but he changed his name to one he believed would be unique. Asides from changing his name for a more dramatic one, there are several other intriguing facts about this actor. We will look at them in detail here, but first, let us see a summary of the biggest facts about him.
Top 10 facts about Matthew Mercer
- Matthew Mercer was born on 29 June 1982, which means that he is 39 years old in 2021.
- Mercer is married to fellow voice actress and “Critical Role” co-star Marisha Ray.
- The actor also has a brother who writes and performs songs under the name Dave Heatwave.
- Mercer stated that he had a stutter when he was young but worked with a speech therapist to minimise its effect.
- The actor has also revealed that he suffers from body dysmorphic disorder, and he has always been critical of his physical appearance.
- He started his career by performing English walla, a sound effect imitating the murmur of a crowd in the background, alongside appearances in Japanese anime.
- Mercer was a DC comics fan while growing up.
- He started his career in voice acting when he was in high school.
- Matthew Mercer was born Matthew Miller but chose a new last name as it was not common.
- Mercer is also the Dungeon Master in the web series “Critical Role”.
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Early life
Matthew Mercer was born Matthew Miller on 29 June 1982 in West Palm Beach, Florida, in the United States of America.
The identity of his parents is unknown as the actor likes to keep several parts of his life away from fans. One thing that we do know is that this talented voice actor has a brother who writes and performs music under the alias Dave Heatwave.
Matthew changed his last name to ‘Mercer’, a name that several of his family members have also used in the past, because he thought that it was less common than Miller, and thus, less likely to cause confusion.
Although he lived a pretty regular life for most of his childhood, he became a part of the theatre at Agoura High School when his family moved to California.
He launched his voice acting career in high school, starting with English Walla. For those who don’t know, Walla is the sound effect that imitates a group of people murmuring in the background. During this time, he also voiced characters in several Japanese anime.
After Mercer graduated from high school, he joined the Educational Theater Organization and performed at the California Thespian Convention in 199 and 2000. He has received lots of training for the work that he now does. For example, to improve his acting skills and bring himself up to a professional level, he attended the AIA Prime Time Workshop and the Bobby Chance Acting Studio.
He improved his improv skills at the L.A. Connection Dramatic and Comedic Improv. Since he left high school, he has appeared in several anime, cartoons, video games, and more.
Matthew Mercer movies and TV shows
Matthew Mercer’s voice has featured in so many animes, cartoons, and video games, that if you are an avid anime lover or gamer, it is likely that you have come across a character he has played more than once.
After starting his work as a voice-over actor in high school, he got some training in the profession and simply dove in.
His most notable work includes characters in the anime films, “Dragon Ball Super”, “Kill la Kill”, “One Piece”, “Sailor Moon”, “Attack on the Titan: Junior High”, “Hunter x Hunter”, “Boruto: Naruto Next Generations”, “Ultraman”, and “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”.
Mercer has also contributed to over 70 video games, with the most notable being his work in “Batman: Arkham Knight”, “Arkham Origins and The Enemy Within”, “Fire Emblem: Fates”, “Heroes”, “Awakening”, “Persona 4 and 5”, and “Xenoblade Chronicles X”.
He has also contributed his talents to the following cartoons, “Beware the Batman”, “DC Super Friends”, “Wabbit”, “Regular Show”, “Justice Society: World War II”, “Avengers Assemble”, “Marvel’s Spider-Man”, “Zak Storm”, and “Blood of Zeus”.
Mercer has been a huge fan of DC from childhood. He got the chance to play Hourman in “Justice Society: World War II” and described how proud he is of being able to voice the character, saying,
“I am always proud to be a part of the D.C. Animated Universe. I grew up with it. It’s always carried this legacy of high-quality storytelling and animation so even to be a part of it was a huge honour but also, to your point earlier, to establish a character that really hasn’t been brought to the forefront before in a lot of media.
“I’m excited for people to get to learn about and get to know Hourman and hopefully give them a reason to be invested in his story amongst all these more recognizable and established characters.”
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Mercer has also featured as a voice artist in movies such as “Resident Evil 6”, “Resident Evil Damnation”, “Promare”, “Iron Man: Rise of Technovore”, “One Piece: Stampede”, “Justice League: War”, “Tiger and Bunny: The Rising”, “Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts”, “Batman: Bad Blood” and “K: Missing Kings”.
Not only has Mercer contributed his talent to movies, animes, and video games, he has also done many radio commercials.
Matthew Mercer also produces shows, with two under his belt, “There Will be Brawl” and “Fear News With the Last Girl”.
He famously plays dungeon master on “Critical Role: D&D” in association with Geek & Sundry, a web series launched in 2015. His interest in the role began when his friends introduced him to the Dungeons & Dragons game. He loved the game so much that he started campaigning his own game within four months.
The web series was incredibly successful, attracting over 100,000 live views and over 100 million weekly views. It also inspired two books, “Critical Role: Tal’Dorei Campaign Setting” and “Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount”. Mercer has mentioned that the second book is an improvised version of the first book, which includes the parts that were missing in the first.
During an interview with Forbes, Mercer said about the books, “Ever since I finished [the Tal’Dorei guide], my world-building and note-taking had taken more of a formal approach.
“So, thankfully when this [the Wildemount guide] came around, I had more thorough notes and ideas that didn’t completely need an overhaul. Of course, I only developed enough to touch on the campaign that I was running…”
The official Dungeons & Dragons game included Mercer’s made-up world, Exandria, which featured in the books, as an official campaign setting.
Mercer has also been the Dungeon Master for two more web series, “Master for Force Grey: Giant Hunters” and “CelebriD&D”, in which celebrities are the show players and are paired in mini-campaigns with show players.
Matthew Mercer has bagged several awards for his roles in these productions. He won the award for Best Male Supporting Vocal Performance in the Anime Dub Movie/Special category at the 2012 Behind The Voice Acting (BTVA) Voice Acting Awards for his role in “Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos”.
At the same awards show, he took home the award for Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in Television Series – Action/Drama category for his role in the 2011 movie “ThunderCats”.
In 2014, he won the 2014 BTVA Anime Dub Awards in two categories, Voice Actor of the Year and Best Male Vocal Performance in a Video Game in a Supporting Role. In 2016, he again took home the awards for the same categories.
In 2017, Mercer won the Best Male Lead Vocal Performance in an Anime Movie/Special category for “K: Missing Kings” at the BTVA Anime Dub Awards.
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Personal life
Matthew Mercer married his fellow voice actor, Marisha Ray, who also starred in the film “Critical Role” alongside him. The two tied the knot on 21 October 2017, and they currently live in Los Angeles with their pet Corgi, Omar.
Mercer has spoken about the stutter that he had as a child. He revealed this during a “Critical Role” interview on YouTube. His father also had a stutter, he said, and this is the person who got him a speech therapist to help him reduce the effect so much that now, only certain words trigger it.
Mercer also suffers from body dysmorphic disorder and has always struggled with his body—how it looks, wanting to undergo some excessive action to correct the perceived imperfection.
Net worth
Matthew Mercer has worked on a very large number of voice productions, publishing two successful books and getting his made-up world into the official Dungeons & Dragons game.
All of these financial exploits have earned Matthew Mercer a sizeable nest egg of one million dollars ($1 million), according to Wealthy Persons.
Matthew Mercer social media
Matthew Mercer is quite active on Twitter and Instagram, where he shares content about his work, his personal life, and about causes he cares about. Fans can follow Matthew Mercer on Instagram at matthewmercervo, where he has 411 thousand followers and on Twitter at matthewmercer.
Conclusion
Matthew Mercer is an incredibly talented voice over artist who has found much success in the entertainment industry.
He has also branched out of his regular voice acting roles and took on the role of Dungeon Master, showing how flexible he can be. It has definitely paid off as he has now acquired a comfortable net worth.
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