Film & TV / Press & broadcasting
Billy West
born 1952 · voice actor, musician
Detroit-born voice of Futurama's Fry, Farnsworth and Zoidberg, Ren & Stimpy and the red M&M, who grew up in Boston and New Jersey.
- Born
Detroit, Michigan
age 74- Birth name
- William Richard Werstine
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Billy West was born William Richard Werstine in Detroit around 1952 and grew up mostly in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood and in New Jersey, so his Detroit link is his birth rather than his upbringing. After a semester at Berklee College of Music he played guitar in Boston bands and became a regular on WBCN radio in the 1980s with a gallery of impressions and characters. That radio work led to cartoons: he voiced both Ren and Stimpy after the show's creator left, the title character of Doug, and Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Space Jam (1996). His best-known work is Futurama, where he plays the delivery boy Philip J. Fry, the ancient Professor Farnsworth, Dr. Zoidberg and Captain Zapp Brannigan. In commercials he has long been the voice of the red M&M.
Highlights
- Fry, Professor Farnsworth, Zoidberg and Zapp Brannigan in Futurama
- Ren and Stimpy in The Ren & Stimpy Show
- Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd in Space Jam (1996)
- Voice of the red M&M in commercials