Voice Actors Behind Tails The Fox
If you have ever tried to trace every voice actor who has played Tails across the Sonic franchise, you know it is not a straightforward list. The character has been voiced by at least a dozen people across Japanese, English, and various regional dubs, with some actors overlapping across decades and others replacing each other mid-franchise. This guide attempts to organize the information into something usable. Ryan Drummond was the first English voice for Tails, taking over the role in the late 1990s after the original Sonic voice actor retired from the franchise. He voiced Tails in Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2, and while his performance is competent, he did not return for later entries. This is the voice most people from that era remember. Christopher Rowe has been the primary English voice of Tails since 2004, starting with Sonic X and then moving into the games with Sonic Unleashed through Sonic Lost World. He also handled the role for Sonic Boom and the Sonic Prime series. Rowe is still the default English voice for Tails in most modern media. His performance is generally considered solid, though he has acknowledged in interviews that he adjusts his approach depending on whether the show or game calls for a more childlike delivery or a more mature one.
Justin Long voiced Tails in the 2006 live-action/CGI movie Sonic Underground, but that show actually used different voice actors than the mainline games. Long's performance was specific to that particular animated series, which ran for three seasons and had its own continuity separate from Sega's games. On the Japanese side, Kenji Nojima took over as Tails' voice actor in the early 2000s, before Ryo Hirohashi became the long-running Japanese voice, starting around 2004 and continuing through most modern releases including the Sonic movies. Hirohashi's voice is significantly higher-pitched and more youthful than the English dubs, which reflects a different cultural approach to how a young fox character should sound. Colleen O'Shaughnessy is worth mentioning here as well, though she primarily voices other characters in the Sonic franchise. She did provide some additional voices in early Sonic media and has worked closely with Christopher Rowe on multiple projects, which is why their performances sometimes have a similar tonal quality.
I ran into a specific problem when trying to verify which actor voiced Tails in Sonic Generations and the subsequent titles. The credits list multiple voice performers, and different sources attribute different names depending on whether they are tracking the English dub, the Japanese original, or regional variations like the European Portuguese dub. I eventually found that checking the Sonic Wiki (sonicpedia.com) cross-referenced with official Sega press releases gave the most accurate breakdown, but even that required checking individual game manual PDFs rather than relying on a single consolidated source. The common mistake people make is assuming there is one canonical voice for Tails. There is not. Each franchise branch — games, TV shows, movies — has its own voice actor, and even within the games, the voice changed depending on the developer at the time. Team Ninja's handling of Tails in Sonic Forces used different vocal recording techniques than Arzest's work on Sonic Mania, which affected how Christopher Rowe's performance was directed and ultimately mixed into the final product. Another thing that catches people off guard: several Tails voice actors also voice other characters in the same project. Christopher Rowe does additional voices in Sonic X and the games, and Ryo Hirohashi similarly provides background character voices alongside his Tails work. This means if you hear a Tails-alike voice in a minor role, it is often the same actor and not a second voice cast member.
Get the Full Details
Here is a breakdown of the major English voice actors and when they were active: Ryan Drummond: 1998–2002, primarily Sonic Adventure and Sonic Adventure 2. Also appeared in the early promotional material and the Sonic Channels website content. Christopher Rowe: 2003–present, covering Sonic X, most mainline games from Sonic Unleashed onward, Sonic Boom: The Animation, Sonic Prime, and various crossovers including Super Smash Bros. Ultimate where he reprised the role.
Daman Mills: Took over briefly for some Sonic Boom media in the mid-2010s before Rowe returned to the role. Martin Farno: Voiced Tails in certain European dubs and specific regional releases, particularly the Czech and Slovak versions, but also contributed to some English-language promotional content. For the Japanese voice actors, the primary names are Megumi Ogata (very early appearances, brief), Kenji Nojima (early 2000s), and Ryo Hirohashi (2004 to present). Hirohashi is now the most recognized Japanese Tails voice, and his performance carries across the movies directed by Jeff Fowler as well as the games released during that period.
If you are compiling this information for a wiki entry, a video essay, or just personal reference, the best approach is to check each individual game or show's official credits page rather than relying on aggregated lists. Aggregated lists tend to have errors because they pull from secondary sources that themselves contain errors. The primary source is always the production credits or the official website for that specific entry. One edge case that is easy to miss: in Sonic Frontiers, Tails has very little dialogue compared to other entries, and some of the vocalizations are sound effects rather than fully recorded lines. This means Christopher Rowe's contribution to that game is minimal, and it may not appear prominently in voice credit lists. If you are doing a complete accounting, you need to check the full staff credits, not just the main voice cast list. Similarly, in the upcoming Sonic movie sequels, the voice of Tails continues to be handled by Ben Schwartz, who voices Sonic, but Tails specifically is voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessy in a credited capacity that is sometimes overlooked because the movies focus heavily on the main trio. Checking the end credits of each film is the only way to confirm this with certainty.
The information in this guide is accurate as of mid-2024. Voice casting changes can happen without wide announcement, so if you are using this for a published piece, verify against the most recent project credits before publishing.
