05/30/2025
Sometimes the best man for the job is a dog. And dogs can be a lot more than just a pretty face - Hollywood and video game companies have been employing dogs for motion capture and voice acting roles. Most of these dogs are nepo babies who land their roles through industry connections…aka their owners, who work on set in some capacity.
In the animated Lilo & Stitch, Theodore supplied Stitch’s panting voice, which came naturally to him. The rest of Stitch’s voice was brought to life by a human voice actor, Chris Sanders.
Ollie the Plummer Terrier provided sound effects for a giraffe that Ellie encounters in the video game The Last of Us. He didn’t even have to wake up for the role - the sound effects were taken in his sleep! Unfortunately, he did not reprise his role in the live action HBO adaptation.
An unknown whippet was initially cast as a xenomorph in Alien 3. However, he was fired for being too cute for the role, as footage showed he retained an unmistakably whippet-like trot down the hallway.
An unknown pack of dachshunds played the role of killer rats in the schlocky ‘80s horror movie Deadly Eyes. These rats (conveniently described as being the size of small dogs) terrorize a city. They retain a very canine quality to their movements, but apparently that bothered the director less!
Gyoza produces sound effects for the Covenant aliens in Halo Infinite. He’s not the only pug employed by the studio. Later, 343 Industries announced that they had hired another pug, Buddy, to produce alien noises for future games.
In Hades, Cerberus’ voice is supplied by four dogs: Solo, Marzipan, Higgins, and Regis. All four dogs belonged to the developers working on the game.
