Gary Anthony Williams, a Fayetteville native who spent many years living in Atlanta, is now a voice-over king.
He has provided voices on dozens of shows and movies such as “The Boondocks,” “Harley Quinn,” “Doc McStuffin,” “American Dad” and “Rick & Morty.”
He is now voicing an artificial intelligence robot Beta that looks like a cute teddy bear in a new Disney+ children’s animated series “Hailey’s On It.”
“He thinks he’s too intelligent to look so cute,” said 57-year-old Williams in an interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in his distinctly deep voice that helps him pay the bills. “The show overall is very self-aware. It’s targeted for tweens but older kids can enjoy it.”
In “Hailey’s On It,” a 13-year-old girl Hailey (Auli’i Cravalho, the voice of Moana in the 2016 animated Disney film) finds out from a woman from the future that a list she has been compiling for years of things she needs to do will somehow save the universe. So each episode features her fulfilling items on her list such as riding all the rides at a country fair, taking a photo with a special owl and winning a sandcastle building contest. (She assiduously avoids one involving kissing her best friend.)
The series also features guest voice appearances by the likes of “Weird Al” Yankovic, “Modern Family” star Julie Bowen and fellow Georgia native Jack McBrayer of “30 Rock” fame.
Since the pandemic, Williams now has a “big metal freezer box” in his Los Angeles home so he can record all his voice-over work there instead of going to studios. “It could last an earthquake,” he said. “It’s a tank!”
The downside: he has never met his cast on “Hailey’s On It.” But he said he can be more productive working from home.
Williams, who left Atlanta more than 20 years ago for the bright lights of Hollywood, still visits his siblings at least once a year in Atlanta. “I’m the black sheep of the family,” he said. “I’m the only one who left town.”
He also regularly does on-screen work. His credits range from “Malcolm in the Middle” and “Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle” to “The Neighborhood” and a recurring judge role on the recent reboot of NBC’s “Night Court.” He was also a regular on the short-lived 2021 Kevin James NASCAR comedy on Netflix “The Crew.”
But he has changed visually over the years, having lost more than 160 pounds over the past decade and is now at about 200 pounds.
“I stopped eating white stuff,” Williams said, dubbing his diet “White is Evil.” He cut out all breads and pastas with very few grains, focusing mostly on fruit and vegetables.
He said you can watch the progression of his weight loss during his years doing improv on the CW’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”
“I was at my heaviest at the start of the new version of the show,” he said. He has continued to work with “Whose Line” via a live show tour, including a stop last year in Atlanta at the Buckhead Theatre.
IF YOU WATCH
“Hailey’s On It,” available on Disney+
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