D. C. Douglas

D. C. Douglas
DC Douglas in London, UK, recording studio
Born	Berkeley, California, U.S.
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1977–present
Notable work	Mass Effect as Legion Star Wars Jedi: Survivor as Rayvis Transformers: Rescue Bots as Chase Resident Evil as Albert Wesker JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable as Yoshikage Kira
Website	www.dcdouglas.com

D. C. Douglas^[1] is an American actor and voice actor. He played Pa Kettle on Syfy's Z Nation, Zepht on Star Trek: Enterprise, and has appeared in several soap operas, including Days of Our Lives and The Young and the Restless. He voiced Albert Wesker in ten Resident Evil games, Legion in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, and Yoshikage Kira in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable (2016).

Early life

Douglas was born in Berkeley, California. His father worked in sales and his mother is an artist, writer, and spiritual advisor.^[2] His maternal grandparents were vaudeville performers.^[3] His grandmother, Grace Hathaway, later performed in burlesque and his grandfather, Joe Miller, became known in San Francisco for his talks at the Theosophy Lodge and weekly group walks through Golden Gate Park.^[4][5][6]

After his parents divorced when he was five, Douglas was raised primarily by his mother in the San Francisco Bay Area from the 1970s to early 1980s. At seven, he decided to become an actor after watching an episode of Hollywood and the Stars. He performed in community theatre in San Jose and Walnut Creek, and his Ygnacio Valley High School drama teacher encouraged him to pursue his dream.

At sixteen, Douglas traveled alone to New York to audition for Royal Academy of Dramatic Art but was not accepted. Though his back-up plan was to live in New York, his visit dissuaded him from that idea. Instead, he moved to Los Angeles in 1985.

Career

Live action

Theatre

Douglas graduated from the Estelle Harman Actors Workshop,^[7] the only accredited acting trade school in Los Angeles at the time.^[8] He co-founded the improvisation troupe Section Eight and was a member of Theatre of NOTE for several years. He produced Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends (A Final Evening with the Illuminati) at the Hollywood United Methodist Church, performing as Brother Lawrence opposite Theatre of NOTE co-founder Kevin Carr in a benefit for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. The production was well received and became an LA Weekly "Pick-of-the-Week." Douglas performed in many other Equity Waiver 99-seat Theatre productions throughout the 1990s.^[9]

Television

Douglas' first network TV role was on the ABC sitcom Coach, but his three lines were cut in the final broadcast. In 1996, he landed a small role in Boston Common, an NBC pilot. When the show was picked up, he returned in a recurring role as DC, the antagonist to Hedy Burress's character.^[10] Douglas' television career involved primarily conservative or antagonist roles. Notable appearances include 24, Star Trek: Enterprise, NYPD Blue, ER, Charmed, Without a Trace, NCIS, Criminal Minds, Castle, and The Encounter.

In 2015, while pitching a film project to The Asylum that would pay homage to Resident Evil 5, a video game Douglas had worked on and gained fan appreciation for, the producers were inspired to cast him as Pa Kettle in Z Nation, a Syfy zombie series, for a three-episode arc.

Though never considered for a lead contract role on the Los Angeles-based soap operas, Douglas guest starred on all of them numerous times.^[11] Notable appearances include the manipulative Bellman in a 1991 Days of Our Lives honeymoon arc and two different characters on The Young and The Restless - Chad Atherton in a 1996 arc and Kurz, a crime boss taunting Tristan Rogers's character, in 2014. In 2017, Douglas made his 26th appearance on The Bold and The Beautiful over 20 years, playing his 6th role on the show.

In 2021, Douglas announced he was rebooting his acting career with a focus on independent cinema.^[12]

Film

Douglas' first film was 1989's Future Force with David Carradine. Though all his scenes were with Carradine, Douglas never met him as their characters only spoke through a futuristic video conference system.

Notable film roles include a possessed ghost hunter in Black Ops with Lance Henriksen, a disturbing turn as "Dad" in Smartass with Joey King, a deranged cop in Helen Alone with Priscilla Barnes, and a harried producer in Labor Pains with Lindsay Lohan.

In 2013, Douglas was cast as a serial killer in Apocalypse Kiss and altered his appearance to resemble Resident Evil villain Albert Wesker, as the producers were fans of his work in the video game franchise.^[13]

Douglas has worked with The Asylum since 2002, appearing in ten of their films. In 2015, while working on Alpha House, he bonded with the film's writers, Jacob Cooney and Brandon Trenz. Together, they developed the idea for Isle of the Dead, which Douglas pitched to The Asylum producers David Michael Latt, David Rimawi, and Paul Bales.^[14] The film was completed in 2016 with Douglas as Aiden Wexler opposite Joey Lawrence and Maryse Mizanin.^[15] It aired on the SyFy network.

Other notable The Asylum films include Titanic II as the ship captain, Sharknado 2^[16] as Bud, one of the few characters to die by an alligator in a shark movie, and Aquarium of the Dead as the clueless aquarium tour guide. In 2021, Douglas was cast in three unrelated Lifetime Network films: The Killer in My Backyard, Killer Stepmom, and Drowning In Secrets.

Producer, writer, director

In 1996, Douglas wrote, produced, and starred in his first festival film short, Falling Words. He later wrote, produced, and directed The Eighth Plane, an anti-Scientology short, and Freud and Darwin Sitting in a Tree, about Lewis Henry Morgan. In 2001, he resurrected the character 'Lance Baxter' from Falling Words and created a cabaret act covering sad love songs that illustrated his dysfunctional relationships. It was performed at The Lava Lounge in Hollywood.^[17]

In 2006, inspired by turning forty, Douglas expanded the idea into Lance Baxter: Halfway Through My Life If I'm Lucky.^[18] The show featured original songs (lyrics by Douglas, music by Lily Popova) and comedic monologues. It was produced at The M Bar in Hollywood and ran for several nights as a fundraiser for More Than Shelter for Seniors.

Also in 2006, his film short Duck, Duck, Goose! played at film festivals worldwide and received Best Short awards from the Seattle's True Independent Film Festival (STIFF) and Trenton Film Festival.

His 2009 CGI short The Crooked Eye, starring Fay Masterson and narrated by Linda Hunt, played at festivals and won awards for Best Narration (STIFF), Best Screenplay (HDFest), and Best Animated Short (Red Rock Film Festival).

In 2016, he wrote, edited, and directed the Halloween animated short Ginger & Snapper with Rachael Leone, featuring voice actors Lacey Chabert, Steve Blum, Liam O'Brien, Laura Bailey, and Roger Craig Smith.

From 2007 to 2019, Douglas voiced Resident Evil villain Albert Wesker. As his fan following grew, he began producing fan service videos, with popular entries including anOld Spice spoof,^[19] 12 Days of Evil,^[20] and Covid-19: Albert F. Wesker Tips.^[21]

In 2017, Douglas created and launched MSM Breaking News!: Fake Trump Cartoons, an animated web series satirizing the Donald Trump presidency and the Robert Mueller investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. A typical episode was written by Douglas and produced by his animator, Rachael Leone. Guest voice actors have included Steve Blum, Maurice LaMarche, Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Todd Haberkorn and Mark Meer, among others.^[22]

Voiceover

Early Voiceover career

Douglas began his voice acting career in the early 1990s by providing walla for low budget action and erotic films that were usually aired late night on Showtime.^[23] By the 21st century he had stopped doing general walla work altogether, but occasionally took on unique ADR jobs, including voice matching Guy Pearce in Factory Girl and Kevin Spacey in Fred Clause,^[24] as well as voicing a TV reporter in 50/50^[25] and Brad Pitt's SpaceCom computer therapist in Ad Astra.^[26]

Video games

Douglas has voiced a variety of characters in video games, often being cast as low-voiced villains. Notable roles include The Master in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game, Albert Wesker in the Resident Evil series as well as Marvel vs. Capcom (9 games in total from 2007 - 2019), Raven in Tekken 6, AWACS Ghost Eye in Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, Commandant Alexei in Tales of Vesperia, Legion in Mass Effect 2/Mass Effect 3/Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Grimoire Noir and Pod 042 in the Nier franchise, Azrael in BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma, Coburn in Ubisoft's The Crew and Hector Birtwhistle (H.B.) in Xenoblade Chronicles X.

Commercials and promos

Douglas was a CBS Daytime promo announcer for the summer of 2003. He has cited that job as the turning point in his voiceover career, as he used the money from that contract to build his home studio, which was uncommon for voice artists at the time. Having a home studio allowed him to leave his editing job and work solely as an actor.^[27]

Douglas has lent his voice to several national ad campaigns, including the GEICO Celebrity campaign from 2006 to 2008, the McDonald's Be the Sizzle campaign from 2009 to 2010, Radio Shack's Holiday Hero campaign in 2010 and several Experian spots featuring Douglas and Tom Kenny as computers in 2014.^[28]

He has been one of the promo voices for Sony Pix since 2018.^[29]

Animation

Douglas' work in animation includes the role of Chase in Hub Network's Transformers: Rescue Bots (the longest-running Transformers series),^[30] Colonel Rawls (and many others) in Cartoon Network's Regular Show, Sylvus (the Elder) and Aikor (the Villain) in Monchichi Tribe, Newton in The Rocketeer, and a cameo in Family Guy as Superman.

Anime

Douglas initially avoided anime work in the early 2000s due to the low pay rates at the time.^[31] However, during his first convention appearance in 2010, he saw the growing interest from anime fans in meeting voice actors. Douglas has said the opportunity to travel while getting paid inspired him to seek out work at the Los Angeles production houses that recorded anime.^[27] This led to fan favorite roles such as Yoshikage Kira in the Diamond Is Unbreakable arc of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Wooden Sword Ryu in Netflix's Shaman King, Edo in Netflix's Ultraman, Praetorian in Netflix's Super Crooks, and X Drake in One Piece.

Politics

In April 2010, Douglas faced criticism from the Tea Party movement for a phone call he made to Freedomworks in which he left an inflammatory voice mail. A day later, GEICO removed him from a series of internet commercials that were in post-production.^[32] This led to some debate in the voice-over community about whether announcers were public figures.^[33] Douglas responded by producing a satirical Tea Party PSA for YouTube that was subsequently broadcast on both Joy Behar's HLN show and Geraldo Rivera's Geraldo at Large with Douglas as a guest.^[34][35]

The experience inspired Douglas to continue creating short, satirical political videos.^[36] Two of his most viewed videos were his Burn a Koran Day video (posted by The Huffington Post^[37]) and his Why #OccupyWallStreet? video (aired on MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell).^[38]

In November 2011, Douglas tweeted a quote from Brett Ratner at a Tower Heist Q&A that included a disparaging remark about homosexuals. The Hollywood Reporter subsequently reported Douglas' tweet as the beginning of a controversy which led to Ratner resigning from his role as producer of the 2012 Academy Awards.^[39] (In January 2021, Douglas was permanently banned from Twitter for mocking Q Anon accounts.)^[40]

Douglas has also lent his voice to several liberal political organizations, including American Bridge 21st Century PAC and the progressive research and information center Media Matters for America.

Filmography

Live action

Voiceover

See also

• Gilbert Gottfried — actor fired as voice of Aflac Duck in 2011 for jokes about the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami^[60]

References

Further reading

• Power, Richard (1993). The Life and Teachings of Joe Miller, 1993. Maypop. ISBN 0-9618916-8-8.

External links

• Official website
• Instagram
• Verified Profile on IGDB.com
• Tea Party PSA
• D.C. Douglas at IMDb
• D.C. Douglas convention appearances on AnimeCons.com