Interview with Troy Baker
Thursday / October 1, 2026
About Troy Baker
Actor and musician known for voicing Joel in The Last of Us, Booker DeWitt in BioShock Infinite, the Joker in Batman: Arkham Origins and Indiana Jones in The Great Circle.
Source: Source Elements on YouTube
These answers are taken from An Inside Look with Voice Actor Troy Baker: From L.A. to The Last of Us on Source Elements's YouTube channel. You! Backstage did not conduct this interview.
What was your very first experience with voice acting?
I started off in music. That was the way I was going to make my way in the world. And then fate was like, no. So I ended up doing what I could to put a roof over my head and continue my passions. Oddly enough, that led to, hey, I can use my voice. We were cutting our album at this studio in Dallas that also did car commercials. I went down the hall and just happened to be in the right place at the right time, and they gave me a shot. I started doing all these car spots, and then I did industrial reads.
Then a friend of mine was like, "Hey, we're doing this game and we need a guy to be our guy. You're a guy. Can you come be our guy?" So I went on the weekend to Gearbox Software, and they threw a mic cable over the ceiling tiles, from my buddy who was also the audio director and the composer and did everything. We dropped an AKG 414 or something into this computer room, turned off the AC, and sweated it out in the dark and recorded all of Brothers in Arms. That was the first game that I did, and they paid me money for it. I was like, "No way." That's 2001, 2002.
What do you enjoy most about voice over?
That's one of the reasons why I love games so much: it's not just, here, we're going to put a camera on you. If everyone's operating at optimal, that's when the thing is truly great. If it's all on one person, that's when it's typically like, great performance maybe, but I didn't really get the story. It takes a village to make a game.
I call it the economy of resources and trust. On the set of The Last of Us for HBO, out in Calgary, I'm standing there in the snow, it's minus 18, there's millions of dollars of cameras surrounding me and a crew of a thousand people, and I've got my wardrobe and my props. They have given me all those resources, and they're trusting me that I will deliver what the scene needs from me. Versus I go over here to my booth, and I've got a mic, a pre, a script, and someone on Zoom. The same goal is there. I still need to make you feel something as the viewer, but they've now taken those resources from me. So I'm trusting that what I'm giving them is going to accomplish the same result.
What was a great moment for you as a voice actor?
When it first came out, if you have the first printing of The Last of Us, you'll see in white letters on a yellow background, "From the makers of Uncharted." And that's Sony marketing going, "Please, please look at us. Promise you'll like it." Because they weren't even sure. This is such a big shift for the studio that brought you Uncharted, fun pulpy adventure, a wink and a smirk kind of game, to all of a sudden, no, this is a gritty, heartbreaking, grounded zombie game.
I almost walked out of the audition for The Last of Us, because I thought that I was wrong for the part. I thought I'm going to embarrass myself by auditioning for this role. I didn't think I was good enough. Joker I turned down twice, and they said, "Get over your ego. We're going to make sure that it's good, and we really think you can do this." Jones, Joel, Joker. Those are the three that I said no to.
How did your voice over career unfold?
Next thing you know, I'm getting an agent, and she sends me down to Houston, because I'm living in Dallas at the time, to go audition for this pilot for CBS. That led to me doing this indie film, and then that led to me doing this big miniseries on CBS called Comanche Moon. And that led to me meeting people that were out in LA, including, oddly enough, the late, great Val Kilmer, who really took me under his wing. I stayed with Val for the first month that I lived in LA.
The first night I got there, the sun had just gone down, and we're sitting out overlooking the ocean. I said, "There's some opportunities that are popping up in LA. I'm just not sure if I want to make the move to be out here." And he goes, "You know, man, there's just some doors that when they open, to not walk through them is disrespectful." That was really the push that I needed to give this a shot. He said, "You'll know within a year if you should be here." And that was almost 19 years ago.
There wasn't a singular moment where I was like, well, this is what I want to do. It's literally just been tripping backwards and stumbling forwards the entire time.
What advice do you have for new voice actors?
Don't do it for the money. There's this false equating and conflation of success being tied to money. If what I'm trying to get out of this is a job, that's all you will ever have. I haven't had a job in 15 years, and I refuse to take a job. I will, on the other hand, look for opportunities. It seems like a semantic, pedantic argument, but it's really a mind shift that I had. I'll never forget, I was on my balcony in North Hollywood, and I went, "Oh, I don't have a job. I have a career, and nobody calls in sick to their career."
It's so cliche, but it's so true. It's not what you get, it's what you give. It can't be about what you're going to get out of this, because it will never be enough. My appetite for artistry is insatiable. My hunger for storytelling is ravenous. It will never be able to feed me enough. But I can feed it enough.
It's your story to tell, but you're here to tell a story. You're not here to build your following.
What has been your greatest accomplishment as a voice actor?
There's a game that I did where I'm super proud of my performance. I think it's some of my finest work, and no one's ever heard of the game. I did this game with Roger Clark. It was called Fort Solace. He and I spent a week in London shooting on a stage together, doing some real character work. We did our own choreographed fight. I got in shape for the role. Nobody played it.
I look at The Last of Us, and they're like, "Well, it's not what it would be without you." I'm like, sure, but it's also not what it is because of me. I'm a part of it, and I've been coasting on the coattails of that tremendous story for over a decade now. I would say that I'm fortunate, which is different from lucky. Lucky means I don't know how it happened, and I know how it happened. It happened because I showed up every day ready to work, ready to give everything that I have, and someone was willing to give me a shot.
How do you take direction and keep communication clear in a remote session?
My first introduction to Source-Connect was my buddy Rob King at Green Street Studios. At this time I was doing Age of Conan with Funcom, and I was like, "Well, where's the director?" The director's name was Kate Saxon. "She's going to be on Source-Connect." I was like, "What is Source-Connect?" He pushes a button and there's Kate Saxon in London listening to me in Sherman Oaks, without a loss of quality. I've been with Source-Connect for 16, 17 years. After the pandemic, I never stopped working, and I knew enough about audio that I could engineer myself. It didn't matter where anybody else was.
My classic go-to is a U87 that goes into a Manley Slam into my UAD. They'll always be like, "Hey, you might need to adjust your gain." I'm like, "No, bro. I'm good." I can go from whispering to screaming with that mic pre and you never hear it. But the main thing I would swear by is whatever gear you can control. If they don't know it and don't feel comfortable with it, it's going to be the worst piece of gear to put them on. I know exactly where I can ride it, and I know how I feel with this chain. I can fly.
Describe your voice and your style.
I don't have a process. If I say, this is the way that I work, that to me negates the fact that the project may have its own bespoke way of doing things. So if there is a process, it's: how can I be of service? What are the ways that you're trying to tell your story? How can I best help you do your thing? And more than anything, I just ask a ton of questions. I used to automatically think that everything else needed to change, and now I understand maybe it's my understanding of the story that needs to change.
You'll never see me do something I can't do. If I'm doing it, it's because I can do it. Tom Keegan, our performance director on Indiana Jones, said, "I believe that where your voice naturally sits can just be more like Harrison Ford." And he was right. I never knew that. With a little bit of guidance, there were some technicalities that took it away from my Texas-meets-California accent and put it more in that Midwest where Harrison Ford is from.
Tell me about a read or a character that was hard to get right. What was the job and why was it challenging?
Joel was one of the most emotionally challenging. My experience was I learned more about Joel when I became a dad. Once I became a dad, I was like, oh yeah, absolutely. Everybody in that surgery room, their lives are forfeit.
Technically, Indy was a big challenge, because there's striking this balance of not doing an impersonation but just being a character. The opening of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a shot-for-shot, frame-for-frame remake of Raiders. We took two weeks to shoot that. It was insane. It's literally like, "Troy, drop your hand down now, now look up." We had to do it exactly like that, in frame, in camera. That technically was one of the biggest challenges we've ever had to do, and I learned so much about the character. I was so eaten up with Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones, I knew more about those characters than I knew about myself at a certain time. I was watching mannerisms and learning how to do certain things that weren't natural to me.
What is the biggest audience your voice has reached?
I think 20 million people have bought The Last of Us, maybe 25 million. I could be wrong on those numbers. But what's most important is you look at the show, and it is a vastly superior audience in numbers than the people that have actually played the game. There's 100 million people that watched season 1, and 80% of them had never heard of the game. It's insane to me to think that we can have something that has been such a cultural event, that has continued to stay in the cycle somehow over the last decade.
Then you have the sequel, where it's this dividing thing. Some people loved it or hated it. And I look at all of that and go, that's still a success. It's still people engaging with the material.
Tell me something I may not know from reading your demo list.
Drums were my first instrument. I played from the time I was 10, 12 years old. I played in church, and I would just listen to an album. Robert Sweet from Stryper was my first one. I played everything by ear. My mom worked at the church, so I would go to the church and sit and play the piano. I taught myself how to play piano, very Elton John, Billy Joel style. Once I started playing in a band, being a singer was my thing, but I would get frustrated because I couldn't tell my guitarist what I was hearing. So, well, teach me a G chord. Guitar became the instrument of convenience. I've only recently taken any lessons, because my son decided he wanted to play drums.
I travel extensively. I spent a lot of time in Stockholm when we were doing Indiana Jones. But I've reached the point in my life where I don't want to see it by myself anymore. We named our son Traveler, and being able to travel the world with them is my favorite place to be.
What are some of your professional goals for the future?
This is no slight to Charlie Cox, because I think what he did was great with Daredevil. I just love the character so much. If someone ever gave me a chance to play the Man Without Fear, that would be my superhero. That'd be a rock that I'd love to turn over, just to see if I could give it a crack.
If Neil Druckmann decides that he has a story that he wants to tell in that world and he has a place for me, I will answer that call any day of the week and twice on Sunday. Our friendship is what brings me to working with him. I've learned more from him as a storyteller, as a leader, as a director. He's earned my respect, and he's earned my loyalty.
Troy Baker's Full Biography
Troy Baker is an icon in today's gaming landscape. He is a prolific, prestigious multi-hyphenate talent best known for his standout leading performances as Joel in The Last of Us Parts I & II, Booker Dewitt in Bioshock Infinite among many others in franchises known and loved around the world. His performances have earned Troy multiple industry commendations including The Game Awards, DICE Awards and an unprecedented five BAFTA nominations for Best Performance. Troy has starred alongside Norman Reedus and Mads Mikkelsen in Hideo Kojima's auteristic endeavor Death Stranding as well as brought characters to life for iconic properties including Batman (Batman, The Joker, Jason Todd and Two Face) and The Lord of the Rings (Talion) and many more. His collaborations with David Fincher in the Emmy award winning series "Love, Death & Robots" along with Craig Maizin & Neil Druckmann for the also Emmy award winning HBO series "The Last of Us" earned him the appreciation of new audiences in the on-screen acting world, as well. When not creating venerable characters in gaming, Troy can be found writing and performing music. He has released two solo albums as well as multiple collaborations with Grammy nominated composer Austin Wintory.