Voice Actor Vridays: Tom Kenny

This week, May 1 to be exact, Spongebob Squarepants celebrated his 12th year on the air. In honor of this anniversary I decided on today's Voice Actor Vridays to salute the voice of Sponegbob Squarepants: Tom Kenny.

Tom Kenny is the closest thing we have today working today to a Mel Blanc or Daws Butler. I personally think that Tom is the best voice actor working today. If you listen to Tom as Spongebob and Tom as the Ice King on Adventure Time and Tom as Heffer on Rocko's Modern Life you absolutely cannot even tell it's the same guy. He is tremendously versatile and talented. I remember back when I was a freshman in college, I was working at Nickelodeon, and he came in to a promo for Spongebob. I met him and told him that I wanted to be a voice actor. He invited me to lunch and answered questions and offered advice.

Tom has been a sketch performer, and had a memorable stint on the cult sketch show Mr. Show. He also had a successful career as a stand-up comedian, but he actually started out as a musician, and continues to be musically prolific. In fact, the song "The Best Day Ever" on Spongebob was written by Tom.

Since my first meeting with him as a college kid, I have had the chance to hang out with Tom many times, and not only is he extremely talented, he is also a really nice guy. So here's to this week's spotlight voice actor: Tom Kenny.



CG