Actor and Dungeons and Dragons phenom Matt Mercer’s lifelong love of fantasy started when his mother and grandmother gave him classic fantasy books when he was little. He read above his reading level and soon began sketching the creatures he read about and quickly became consumed with all things monster and fantasy.
“I loved monsters and demons and creatures,” Mercer said. “My whole sketch book was just full of beasts.”
His introduction to Dungeons and Dragons came later in his first year of high school. After having read several D&D books like the Monster Manual, some older students invited him to play in a campaign with them, but their style of play didn’t mesh well with his expectations.
“I was really invested in the story, the character and the narrative,” he said, “and they were more like ‘the bar wench, I take her change,’ which is fine, but it wasn’t what I expected.”
Mercer left the campaign after only two sessions and became the dungeon master of his own campaign with a small group of friends.
He is now perhaps the most famous dungeon master in the world with the highly successful D&D livestream “Critical Role” along with a talented cast of voice actors. The livestream was so successful it spawned an animated series on Prime Video called “The Legend of Vox Machina,” which Mercer said is almost done with production for its third season.
Mercer, 41, visited Oxford on Oct. 6 to speak about creating rich stories and his experiences as a voice actor and media star.
During his lecture, Mercer said that for as long as he could remember, he’s spoken to himself in different voices. This was the basis for his passion for voice acting, he said. He started his voice acting career in his early teenage years. His father worked as a voice actor in minor roles in children’s cartoons and movies.
As a teenager, his father brought him to the recording booth near where the family lived in Los Angeles with the promise of a $50 check from the recording company. During his lecture on Monday, Mercer said he did so well he replaced his own father in those background roles.
Mercer’s love for voice acting kept him in Los Angeles after high school where he struggled working odd jobs at a temp agency to afford rent at his tiny apartment. He said he did some work he wasn’t proud of during this time.
At dinner Monday night, Mercer said he voiced a character in what he called a “psuedo-hentai” about penguins with “tails in the front.” Mercer said the main lesson he learned from that experience was he never wanted to do something like that again and soon moved on to more professional roles.
His first major breaks came in the early 2000s in English dubs for anime shows and Japanese video games through characters like Zartu in “Pryzm, Chapter 1: the Dark Unicorn,” which he has continued throughout his career. More recently, Mercer voiced Yamato in “Naruto: Shippuden,” Levi Ackerman in “Attack on Titan” and Leorio in “Hunter x Hunter.”
Beyond anime dubbing, Mercer has voiced dozens of video game characters over the years. Again, starting with background characters, he worked his way into the voice of some of the most iconic characters in video games. Some of his recent work includes Cole Cassidy in “Overwatch,” Goro Majima in “Yakuza: Like a Dragon” and the Great King of Evil Ganondorf in “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.”
Mercer said his role as Ganondorf in “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” was career-defining. At dinner Monday, Mercer recounted dressing up as Link, the main protagonist throughout “The Legend of Zelda” series, for Halloween as a kid. He said he played all the games growing up, but his favorite of the series is “The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.”
Growing up a fan of the series, he never thought he would be a part of what some consider to be the most widely anticipated game of the series and a serious contender for game of the year.
Mercer’s love for fantasy doesn’t begin or end with any specific medium. He said crafting fantasy worlds and making art through storytelling is who he is at his very core, and he brings his passion to all the work he does.
“My love language is creating these experiences for my friends to enjoy,” Mercer said.
