Billy West

Billy West is best known for his voice acting work on Futurama. He provides voices for multiple characters on the show which include Phillip J. Fry, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, Zapp Brannigan, and many other additional voices on the show.

Billy West was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1952. While growing up he would often come up with different character voices and speak in them around the house. He moved to Boston in 1963 with his family and began learning how to play the trumpet and guitar and would continue to play in numerous bands for the next 17 years of his life.

While on stage he would continue to do acts and sing in different voices which lead him to try out stand-up comedy. During this time West began going to MIT’s college radio station WMBR and began to write, voice and record his own advertisements on air. This eventually landed West a job at a local radio station.

After doing voices for a while West left to go work for the Howard Stern Show in 1985. While on the show Billy West would do character voices for the show.

Later on West was hired by Nickelodeon to lend his voice for two shows. He voiced the main characters on the shows “Doug” and “Ren and Stimpy.” After working on these shows he moved to Hollywood and began working on Futurama.

I was fortunate enough to get a chance to meet and talk to Billy West in July of this year. Of course I continuously asked him questions about his field of work and just about every type of “fanboy” question anyone could possibly think of.

Billy West was kind enough to answer all of my questions, even the ones when I would start to walk away and come back to where he was to ask “one last question” multiple times.

West was very honest and outspoken providing me with more than enough information about the voice acting industry and what a day of doing voice work usually consists of. He was quick to speak in character voices when talking about his favorite characters and how he was inspired to find the right voice for each of them.

West has lent his voice for other characters such as Bugs Bunny, Elmer Fudd, the Honey Nut Cheerios Bee, The Red M&M, and has voiced shows including Family Guy, King of The Hill, Dilbert and many more.