Daran Norris
The prolific voice-acting career of Daran Norris is notable not only by its longevity, but also by the remarkably diverse nature of the vocalizations themselves. He has performed as peripheral announcers in such films as the absurd, CGI-laden adaptation of Dr. Seuss's "The Cat in the Hat" and the somber, volatile, and award-winning family drama "In the Bedroom." His true bread and butter, however, has been providing vocal effects for a slew of anime projects throughout the 1980s, '90s, and 2000s, including the ninja-rites saga "Naruto" and the tech-noir bounty-hunter adventure "Cowboy Bebop." At the same time, he's branched out into characters for video games with such classics as the "Dynasty Warriors" franchise. Norris's dexterity in nailing the outré sounds of genre animation helped garner him a role as the voice of Cosmo, a puerile fairy godfather to a young boy on the Nickelodeon cartoon series "The Fairly OddParents." In that mold, the performer carved out a bit of a niche on further childhood-fantasy programs such as "The Powerpuff Girls," a series about pre-adolescent girls with superpowers, and "Jimmy Neutron," concerning a genius inventor that travels through space and time despite only being in fifth grade. Norris has helped many fans put a face to the voice with live-action appearances on the high-school-hipster sleuth series "Veronica Mars" and the zany pre-teen comedy "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide." He is the husband of fellow voice actor Mary Elizabeth McGlynn.