Will Arnett
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw television comedy grow increasingly reliant on ensemble casts and serialized storytelling, giving individual performers space to build characters of unusual depth and absurdity. Will Arnett, born in Toronto on May 4, 1970, emerged from that environment as an actor, voice actor, comedian, and podcaster holding both Canadian and American citizenship.
Arnett attended Lakefield College School and Leaside High School before pursuing studies at Concordia University and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. That formal training in technique and performance laid the groundwork for a career spanning live-action television, animated film, and audio. He became widely recognized for his portrayal of Gob Bluth in the Fox and Netflix sitcom Arrested Development, a role that drew on broad physical comedy and a precise command of self-delusion as character. He later voiced the titular character in the Netflix animated series BoJack Horseman, which ran from 2014 to 2020, a project that asked considerably more tonal range of him than straightforward comedy.
His voice work extended into animated film as well. Arnett contributed to The Nut Job, appeared in The LEGO Movie, and was also associated with Show Dogs. These projects placed his distinctive vocal presence within the animated feature landscape alongside his ongoing television work. His podcasting activity added another dimension to his professional output, reflecting the way performers of his generation moved across media formats as those formats multiplied.
The body of work accumulated over these years brought Arnett considerable formal recognition. He received the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement for Voice Acting in an Animated Television or Broadcast Production, an honor specific to the animation field that acknowledged the craft he brought to his voice performances. Beyond that, he received nominations for seven Primetime Emmy Awards and three Screen Actors Guild Awards, a record that attests to the sustained quality his peers and industry observers found in his contributions across both animated and live-action work. Those nominations, spread across multiple projects and years, mark the breadth of a career that moved between comedy, drama, and voice performance without settling into a single register.
Quotes by Will Arnett
Will Arnett's insights on:
The thing I always try to hold onto with 'BoJack' and with 'Flaked' is that maybe there is a sliver of hope that they are going to turn it around. They are just having a tough time getting there. And that's the thing with 'BoJack' - he is obviously depressed.
Any kind of run-of-the-mill flaws that are easily solved, to me, are boring. Situational flaws, for example. I like flaws that are rooted in a deep distrust in people because of a lack of love.
I spent a lot of time quasi-fascinated with characters who were super-dumb and super-cocky. I always liked that combination.
People have this preconceived notion of me. I'm 'Gob' to them: this thoughtless sociopath who lives this bizarre, ego-driven life. That would be insanity.
You meet lots of people in your life, and sometimes you think that people are a certain way, and then they reveal themselves to be a different way.
When David Cross and I made 'Todd Margaret,' we spent time there. We were shocked and happy with the reaction that we got with fans over there. It was pretty awesome.
What came out of 'The LEGO Movie' was the idea of 'Batman's the Dark Knight', so why is he so moody? What's going on? Why is he so banged up? And wouldn't it be fun to get in there and explore that?
If you have a character that doesn't have anything wrong with him, there's nothing funny about it. The idea of the straight man is very important. But I'd rather it be somebody else, because it's not as fun.
My definition of family is just unconditional love. The people who rely on you and who love you, they are there, too.