Who Are The Voice Actors In The Fudge Brownie M&Ms Commercial?
Every so often Mars releases a new variety of M&M, and whether it's plain, peanut, peanut butter, pretzel, crispy, mint, or caramel, you're almost always bound to see the classic M&M duo of Red and Yellow in a new commercial getting acquainted with the fledgling flavor.
The newest flavor to join the bag of Mars, Inc.'s flagship product is Fudge Brownie, and as expected, in the latest commercial we see Yellow, Red, and Ms. Brown sitting together eating and enjoying the fresh varietal. While Ms. Brown calls putting a fudge brownie center inside an M&M "genius," Yellow calls it "hard" and proceeds to try and fail several times (he eventually cries) at putting the fudge brownie inside the shell himself.
The commercial makes the personalities of each M&M pretty distinct. Yellow is funny, Red is the straight man, and Ms. Brown is preoccupied. But who are the voice actors behind these candy-coated personas? Hint: one of them is an Oscar winner.
J.K. Simmons and Billy West have been voicing the M&Ms for a long time
It's ironic that the goofiest character in the commercial, Yellow, is actually played by J.K. Simmons, the talented actor who won an Oscar for playing Miles Teller's ruthless teacher in Whiplash. Simmons began voicing the character in 1996, after Golden Globe winner John Goodman departed from the role.
One of the most prolific voice actors in television history voices Red. Billy West, who voiced Ren and Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show, Doug from Doug, and Fry from Futurama, has been playing Red since 1996. He replaced Saturday Night Live alum Jon Lovitz.
Ms. Brown, who was first introduced into commercials in 2012, is played by Vanessa Williams. Williams told HuffPo in 2012 that the character of Ms. Brown was inspired by Wilhelmina Slater, the villainous Editor-in-Chief of Mode Magazine from Ugly Betty, and arguably Williams' most famous role. Williams said that Ms. Brown was the smartest of the candy colors, that she was "the brains behind it all. She's the one who introduced all of the other colored candies — it was her idea."
In addition to Simmons, West, and Williams, the M&Ms commercials have seen a fair share of voice actors come and go throughout the years. Comedian David Cross voiced the self-assured caramel for the caramel M&Ms' launch, prolific voice-over actress Cree Summer from A Different World played the flirtatious green M&M, and Phil Hartman originally voiced the blue M&M.