(Courtesy of Kyle McCarley)
Written by Colleen Bement, Editor
McCarley feels a strong connection with his character ‘NieR: Automata’
Fans love this super-talented voice actor, Kyle McCarley, for his long list of roles that include anime Mikazuki Augus in ‘Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans,’ Shigeo “Mob” Kageyama in ‘Mob Psycho 100,’ and Narancia Ghirga in ‘Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.’ Then there is the myriad of video game voices like Android 9S in ‘NieR: Automata,’ and Alm in ‘Fire Emblem Echoes.’ Love the game ‘Harry Potter: Wizards Unite?’ Yes, that’s McCarley as Harry himself. His IMDB page is amazingly long with credits also in cartoons, audiobooks, live-action dubs, TV and radio commercials. His USC college years not only consisted of getting a theater degree, but he also co-wrote, co-directed, and voiced several characters in a fan-made online radio play based on World of Warcraft. Yes, fellow nerds, he is definitely one of us! Along with some exciting projects under wraps, he was able to chat about his Binary Haze Interactive project and a cool new DLC for ‘Fallout 76.’ Nerd Alert News was lucky to catch up McCarley at Colorado Anime Fest which was held Mar. 10-12, 2023, and hear the stories. Dive in!
Colleen Bement: We’ve started pretty early in the morning here at Colorado Anime Fest, so my first question is, what is your caffeine of choice? Mine is matcha.
Kyle McCarley: I am not a coffee guy, and I don’t really drink soda much, so my caffeine of choice is a little powdered thing you mix in with water called Zipfizz. It’s supposed to be sort of, kind of healthy, or a natural energy. It’s probably not, but it works for me.
CB: My next question is, you left Kansas at just 18 years old to start off on your dream. I want to know, were your parents supportive?
KM: My parents were very supportive. I’m very, very lucky. Coincidentally, when I was a freshman in high school my dad got laid off from a company he had been working for, and about a year later, he got a job for a company out in Orange County, California. For my junior year and senior years, as I was looking at what schools I wanted to apply to, I’d settled on the only place that I wanted to go–USC, which was really stupid. I didn’t get in. I had to transfer in from a community college, but anyways, I knew I was going to Los Angeles. My dad got offered a promotion while I was going through what whole formative journey, and the promotion required that we relocate to Orange County. He sat down and talked to me, son, do you mind if we follow you? So, they were really close by, which was helpful. They supported me financially, put me through college, and then the recession hit. They told me they were going to give me a year after school to keep on supporting me, and then said you need to figure out a way to pay your own way. And a year came and went, and I wasn’t really doing anything, and they continued while I was scrambling trying to find some of a day job to pay the bills. They were like, son, we spent all this money on you to get acting training. Don’t stop. You don’t need to go work in a candy store or a movie theater. We’ll keep supporting you. Just go work on the things you want to work on. They were very supportive.
CB: That’s so wonderful. I don’t always hear that. Do you have any projects in the works that you’re allowed to tell us about?
KM: Never. Never anything that I can talk about, really. It’s all under an NDA. All of my best stuff. All of my new and exciting stuff is coming soon, and I can’t talk about it yet. I CAN talk about a couple things that recently were released. There’s a game called ‘Redemption Reapers’ that just came out three weeks ago, or something like that. It’s for all the platforms. It’s a new IP from Binary Haze Interactive. It’s a turn-based tactics game along the lines of a ‘Fire Emblem.’ It’s a very dark story. Really, really cool. I play a character called Lugh, but I also directed the English voiceover in the game. It’s a cool little story to dip my toes into for a short amount of time. Then I also just had some new DLC for ‘Fallout 76.’ I am the voice of Rip Daring, who’s an expert cryptid hunter in a series, I think it’s for radio play that you can listen to within the game engine, and that was a lot of fun.
CB: Was it fun directing and being in charge?
KM: Boy, that’s a loaded question. I feel like every time I take a directing project, I instantly fall into that this is too much and what have I done to myself. I hate every minute of this. But then at the end of this I’m like that was very creatively fulfilling. You get your fingers in every aspect of it, and then it comes out, and I’m proud of how it turns out. Time passes and I forget how much stress there was during the process. And then I say yes to something else and I go through the who cycle again.
CB: Is there a character that you’ve played that you felt a genuine connection to?
KM: Absolutely. There have been several. The first one that comes to mind 9S from ‘NieR: Automata.’ That game is just so well done. Yoko Taro came up with a story that was beautiful and hits at all the right moments throughout; like all the twists and turns and the reveals that you come across throughout that story. The localization team did a spectacular job of translating it into English. It was really easy from a creative standpoint to just jump right into it. That character goes through such a roller coaster of emotions. It was great. I love that game. I love that whole franchise now.
CB: Playing off that was it that role or was there another role that made you think to yourself, damn I love being an actor?
KM: I would say the most recent session that gave me that sensation was the one that I was talking about earlier, ‘Fallout 76.’ Playing Rip Daring. I think it was a three-hour session. Just getting to be basically a Zapp Brannigan-type of character. Every moment of that session was so much fun. There was a time earlier in my career when every session instilled me with this feeling of like oh my god, I can’t believe I get to do this. Over the years as it has become more familiar, it all starts to kind of level out. It’s a little bit less play and a little bit more work the more you do it. But every now and then you get one of those that just finds the child in you again. That was absolutely one of them.
CB: Do you play any of the video games that you’ve worked on?
KM: I haven’t done it in a little while but I’m also a Twitch streamer. I got into that because of Nero actually. When it came out, I was like I’m going to play a little bit of it for an audience, and it went well enough that I was like I’m going to play all of it for the audience. I’m going to make that my whole shtick, and just play games that I’m in. Some of them are not my type of game to play as a gamer. I’m much more casual in my gaming habits when I’m not streaming for an audience. I’m much more likely to play stuff that is a quick in-and-out 20 minutes here and there. Maybe I’ll play for four hours, but it’s a 20-minute round and I can check out mentally, rather than the stuff that’s immersive that really want to do as an artist. That’s not the kind of stuff I want to play as a gamer at this stage in life. But some of them I really fell in love with.
CB: Back in the day, you played World of Warcraft.
KM: I did. I think it had been out for about a year when I got into it, and it was my sophomore year of college.
CB: What was your character?
KM: I played a nome maige named Ticklebur. Which was the basis of many, many characters in the radio play that I talk about when I talk about how I got into voiceover. He was one of them. As was another character that I used as a reference for Rip Daring in Fallout 76. Absolutely the same archetype.
CB: Now, let’s do a Speed Round!
- Favorite gas station snack: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
- Latest TV show that you binged: ‘The Expanse.’ I love it. I watched the whole show and I read all the books and now I’m going through watching the whole show again. I love it. So much! There are three more books that go past where the show ended. I was like, I want to know where the show goes from there. I read all of it. I love that whole universe.
- Cats or Dogs: I have two dogs, and a cat. I’ve always been a dog person, but I have a cat too, so I can’t pick.
- Night Owl or Early Riser: Definitely Night Owl.
- Introvert or Extrovert: Probably more introvert than extrovert. I do enjoy the company of others, but it is a drain on the social battery. It doesn’t recharge me. I need my me time.
- Marvel or DC: Marvel, just because of the movies. I’m not a comic book guy.
- Favorite country that you have visited: It’s a toss-up between Ireland and Canada.
- What country have you not visited yet that you want to: I’m starting to get curious to go see Japan. I’ve never been and I’m hearing so many good things about it from all the people that I know that have been. I think I might make that a priority.
- Cake or pie: Probably pie, although I count cheesecake as a pie. It should be called cheesepie! I doesn’t resemble a cake at all.
- Who inspires you to this day: He’ll probably hate me for saying this, but the person within my industry that is a peer and I consider a friend that I look up to in every aspect is Ben Diskin. He is such a genuinely good person, and, also comes up with phenomenal performances. Out of nowhere, little nothing characters that have like one line and I’ll hear him in my ears when I’m recording in the booth, and I go where did that come from? How did you make that so compelling, when it’s just a one-off, nothing character that nobody cares about? You made that resonate with me, and I love it. He’s a very generous, giving person with his time, and his support of other actors. He’s a great guy.
Be sure to follow him on Twitter or Twitch.
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