Ryan Drummond

Ryan Drummond is an American actor, voice actor, singer and comedian, who voiced Sonic the Hedgehog from Sonic Adventure to Sonic Advance 3.

History[]

In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment acquired the US dubbing rights for the anime series Sonic X. In the Japanese version of Sonic X, nearly all the video game voice actors reprised their roles. Instead of using the established US video game voice actors, 4Kids hired their own in-house actors to provide the voice over for Sonic X. After unprofessional and questionable lack of communication, Ryan was then contacted by 4Kids employee Michael Haigney who was the producer of Sonic X. He claimed 4Kids could not use Ryan and the other video game voice actors, because they did not live in New York where 4Kids is headquartered. Ryan replied that he would have gladly relocated to New York at his own expense.Instead, Ryan was replaced by Jason Griffith who voiced Sonic in Sonic X. Despite this, Drummond continued to provide the voice of Sonic in the Sonic the Hedgehog series until 2004, when Sega replaced all their Sonic voice actors with their 4Kids counterparts, in order to keep Sonic's voice the same in all media forms.

Sega never made an official announcement about the replacement. Instead, Drummond had to contact Sega to inquire about the voiceover work for Shadow the Hedgehog. After hearing about his firing, Ryan informed fans via e-mail. His e-mail states that Sega of Japan hired the 4Kids voice actors in secret.Former Sega of America (SOA) president Simon Jeffery confirms Sega of Japan controls all voice actors including those in the US.

Adding to the controversy, Griffith's replacement in 2010, Roger Craig Smith, was simply offered the job by Sega while Ryan and Jason auditioned and earned the role of Sonic the Hedgehog.

In an interview, Drummond states that Sega gave him another chance to re-audition as a third Sonic, a version from the Dreamcast era, during the development of Sonic Generations, but he rejected the role because he wouldn't leave his talent union and thus ended the third Sonic as well.