By Maliq Simon
I’m a huge gaming fan like a HUGE gaming fan.
From playing my first Mario game to traversing the huge continent of Erebonia while uncovering huge schemes that will tear down the government and the only thing stopping that from happening is a group of students who use magical weapons…. I promise you it’s a lot better than it sounds. Anyway, I like to think I’ve seen it all, but there’s this one video game that’s close to my heart and luckily enough I was able to talk to one of the voices behind one of my all time favorite games, and he’s a professor at Seneca College.
Richard Waugh is a professional Canadian actor/voice-actor. He attended the Ryerson School of Theater and over the years has had long and successful career he has been a part of many successful films and video games and is considered one of the best voice actors in Canadian advertising. But one of his most recognizable voices comes from the famous video game series Resident Evil.
OK let’s go through some quick background on the game Resident Evil, known in Japan as Bio-hazard. It’s a Japanese horror media franchise created by Shinji Mikami and Tokuro Fujiwara, and owned by the video game company Capcom. The story follows outbreaks of zombies and other monsters created mainly by the sinister Umbrella Corporation.
It’s up to the main heroes to find out what’s causing the zombie apocalypse and stop it before the rest of humanity are turned into the undead. It’s a lot more complicated than that though and I fear you’d be reading this all day if I went into all the minute details.
Richard Waugh takes the role of the Iconic Resident Evil Antagonist Albert Wesker. Waugh told me about the process of getting into the famous video game franchise, “It was an audition. They contacted my voice agent and they asked is your client willing to audition for this and I got it.”
Waugh also mentioned that at the time voice acting for the video game industry was new and he didn’t feel it was going to be such a big deal. It’s funny how things work out because it turns out it’s what he’s most known for today. But the famous video game series isn’t the only successful project Mr. Waugh’s been a part of just to name a few are Robocop, Murdoch Mysteries, Designated Survivor and much more.
Mr. Waugh is dedicated and passionate about his craft and you can tell by the way he speaks about teaching the next generation of voice actors, “I did have experience enough to give back to the art form that I really love and I love telling stories especially in front of a mic”.
The Resident Evil series is making a major comeback right now. Remakes of the old games are selling like hotcakes and the long running video game series is reaching the hearts of new fans everywhere. Now we just have to wait and see if we’ll hear the nostalgic baritone voice of the conniving Albert Wesker once again.
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