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Listen up, you puny (real) human! Information in this article is about real-life people, companies and objects, and might not relate inside the Invader Zim universe. |
| Billy West | |
|---|---|
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| Born | April 16, 1952 |
| Positions | Voice actor |
| Voice of | Zim (Pilot Only) |
| Websites | Main Site |
Billy West is an American voice actor. He was the original voice of Zim in the Pilot episode of Invader Zim. He ultimately was replaced by Richard Horvitz due to Jhonen Vasquez's feelings that Billy's voice was too common and recognizable as one from shows such as The Ren and Stimpy Show (where he voiced Stimpy, and after John Kricfalusi was fired by Nickelodeon, Ren), Doug (where he originally voiced Doug and Roger before the show was sold to Disney), CatDog, where he voiced Rancid Rabbit and Randolph Grant, and Futurama (where he voices Philip J. Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg, and Zapp Brannigan). He was one of two known people besides Richard Horvitz who had been considered for the role, the other being Mark Hamill. Vasquez ultimately chose Horvitz specifically because he wanted Zim to have an unusual and unique voice, and was familiar with Horvitz's work on Angry Beavers. When Horvitz was cast for the role, he was asked to do a test voice-over the video of the pilot, which had already been animated to match Billy West's track extant in the final product.