OverBlood 2: The English Voice Cast
Back in 2017 when I first started gathering information to build this website I discovered that information on OverBlood 2’s English voice case was hard to come by. Although the actors are all listed by name on IMDB, they are not attributed to their respective character roles (at the time of writing). This is also the case in the game’s manual, and again in one of the game’s early cut scenes.
Not long after the site was launched, I was contacted by a user who very kindly shared some information they had on the subject. I thought it would be fun to take their research further, verify it and attribute some of the remaining voice actors in the process.
In early 2020 (it’s taken me a while to finally get around to publishing this) I began doing some online research, and ultimately reached out to several of the cast members directly and I’m pleased to say they were all very kind in their responses, which you can read about below.
Mark Estdale (Director and various voice roles)
Although he wasn’t the first person I spoke to about the game, Mark Estdale seems like the most logical person to start with for this post as he was in charge of overseeing OverBlood 2’s English voice acting production.
Mark is a veteran of the video game industry, having founded his company OMUK back in 1996. His portfolio of work as a voice director, sound engineer, voice actor, and casting director speaks for itself having worked on hundreds of games with titles such as “Broken Sword” and “Horizon Forbidden West” needing no introduction.
A quote from Mark during an interview with GameCulture is the only time OverBlood 2 has been talked about directly by someone who worked on the English regionalisation of the game. Although the original article has been lost to time, it’s still accessible via the Wayback Machine) and quotes Mark as stating;
“I read the script. It was awful, translated to English from Japanese by Italians so I suggested rewriting the English to match the stylized Japanese, or making it into an acted comedy or to scrap the whole thing. I was told the script was perfect and couldn’t be changed and that we must do it with seriousness. We squirmed and the actors wept.”
After a few failed attempts to reach him, Jocelyn Cammack (one of the other cast members that you can read about below) was kind enough to pass on my details and he promptly and kindly reached out, telling me; “What fun. I’ll dig through the archives to see if I can find something from the production…”
Although he was kind enough to answer some of my questions, Mark wasn’t able to recall much about his time working on OverBlood 2 but did promise that if he find anything during any of his archiving sessions he will be in touch – so I hope to hear from Mark again in the future to see if he can provide any further insights.
John Tearney (voice of Kim Hosaka)
After uncovering a video online of one of John Tearney’s various TV appearances his voice was easy to recognise as one of the game’s main characters; Hosaka.
I reached out to John through Facebook in early 2020, and he was kind enough to have a lengthy chat about his experiences working on a game he never played.
Talking about how he got the part, John said “I auditioned for Mark Estdale’s company in Yorkshire. You were typically hired as one or two characters, plus background noises and shouts etc. – I remember the sessions were quite long.” – which is understandable, considering the amount of lengthy cut scenes in the game.
Unsurprisingly, when I asked John if anyone had every been in touch with him before regarding OverBlood 2 he replied, “No. Never. You’re the first. You have inspired me to have a retrospect of my career.”
John was a lot of fun to talk to and reminisced about his work on another game, “Wormblast”, saying “I was told it was going to be huge and I could retire… Nope! Ha ha ha!”
Some of John’s other work includes; “Need for Speed 3”, “Stronghold” and “Helicopter Pilot” in addition to various TV appearances on shows such as British soap “Hollyoaks”.
John Langford (voice of Raz Karcy)
Raz Karcy was the protagonist in the first OverBlood game, and is the only character to appear in both titles – despite having an American accent in the first game, and an unmistakably Scottish one in the second.
After uncovering an online video of John Langford acting during my research, he was easily identifiable as voicing Raz due to his very distinctive voice.
After some further digging I was able to find out that (at the time) John managed a talent company in Sheffield, Yorkshire. I decided to try my luck and give him a call. When “Raz Karcy” picked up the phone, it all felt very surreal as it is his natural speaking voice.
John could not have been nicer to talk to, taking a few minutes to reminisce about OverBlood 2 and his career, telling me;“I briefly remember the name of the script, but I’ve got to be honest with you – I don’t remember much about it. I remember working with Mark Estdale of OM, but I didn’t meet any of the other voice actors.”
John also admitted he had never seen the finished game, but was nice enough to say he would check out the site to see if anything jogged his memory.
John has an extensive list of acting and voice credits on his IMDb page.
Richard Avery (voice of Navarro Jean)
Finding footage of Richard Avery online was not difficult as he has lead a busy acting career that started well before OverBlood 2 was even an idea. I reached out to him via email, and after sending him a few links to refresh his memory he was kind enough to spend some time on the phone with me to chat about voicing the character of Navarro Jean.
“It’s almost like speaking to someone about a conversation you had in a pub twenty years ago – I couldn’t remember much about it. When I watched the videos you sent across I could hardly believe I was listening to my own voice, but the more I heard, the more lines I started to remember reading.”
“Was the game popular? Did it do well?” Richard asked, as he explained that he hadn’t heard anything about the game since his time spent working on it.
“I remember having to adjust my voice – to something like this…” Richard explained, as he seamlessly mimicked Navarro’s voice, “…a bit more harsh than my normal voice.”
Richard currently works at the East Riding Theatre in Beverly, UK and has appeared is a variety of stage and screen performances over his long career.
Tanya Myers (voice of Chris Lanebecca)
Thanks to numerous videos online it wasn’t too difficult to establish that OverBlood 2’s Chris Lanebecca was voiced by Tanya Myers – a British actress credited with numerous roles in the past.
After reaching out to Tanya via social media, she was kind enough to send me her email address and we got chatting, “Well this really does feel like a blast from the past! I just looked at the links you sent over. Yes, Chris Lanebecca, indeed I did!”
Despite the project being two decades old at this point, Tanya went onto say in further emails;
“To be brutally honest – I remember very little! It was over 22 years ago! One day in a studio! I think I knew it was to be video computer game. I do remember being given pages with speaking lines and a character breakdown for Chris (she was a “cool chick” or something like that). I think it was typical when recording for computer games to have little time for preparation.
“Being without a narrative line – it was tricky to understand the journey your character might be on – or how you might effect other characters in the game. If I remember correctly I think there were directions in brackets after spoken statements – like “angry” or “suspicious” or “mocking”. The actor gets a list of their characters lines and then you stand in a booth and record them one after the other… Sometimes you just made sounds – like sigh, or laugh, or shock! I guess they were to be used as stock reactions?”
Tanya also informed me OverBlood 2 isn’t the only game she had worked on, although confessed; “I have [worked on others], but again – I am so sorry – I don’t know what they are. You don’t get given credits in the same way as with other mediums of performance work. You lend your voice for the day, get paid, say thank you and walk away.”
Reflecting on her other work, Tanya went onto tell me; “Over 30 years I’ve worked primarily as an audio book reader – under pseudonym Juanita MacMahon – a megalomaniac profession; as I get to play ALL the characters in narrative work. I’m privileged to have narrated most of Sarah Waters books including “Fingersmith”, “Tipping The Velvet” and recently “The Essex Serpent” by Sarah Perry.”
“As a TV, theatre and film actress – it’s the thrill of working as part of a team I enjoy, different of course to audio work which tends to be solitary and mostly time spent in a recording box listening to your own voice! My Favourite role is usually the one I’ve just finished – so that will be a wonderful character called Phoebe in the Film ‘A Clever Woman’ to be released later this year.”
You can check out Tanya’s website by clicking here if you’d like to see some more of her work, and I’d like to thank her for taking the time to talk with me.
Joe Simpson (unknown voice roles)
Joe was one of the first cast members I was able to get in touch with after reaching out to him on Twitter. He was kind enough to share his memories from working on OverBlood 2 over 20 years ago, saying; “All I can recall about this particular job was I was contacted by my agent to say they wanted me to go over for an audition – can’t recall exactly where it was but it was a studio in the middle of nowhere – I got there, had a chat and was asked to go into the studio and over talkback was asked to read a few different pages. I was asked to change the voice and character a few times. This was all going fine, but then kept going and going to the extent that at one point I stopped and asked them if they hadn’t already got enough of my voice for audition purposes at which they apologised and explained the audition had finished ages ago and they had been recording actual stuff for the game… i.e. I’d got the job and was already doing it. Pretty much is the only memory I have if it. It was just me in the studio during my session so didn’t meet any of the other actors – I certainly knew a few of them when I saw the list of those involved but probably didn’t even know at the time they were also involved… I don’t think I had given it another thought until you got in touch.”
Sadly – even with Joe’s help – I haven’t been able to link him to a particular role in the game, but I appreciate his time in sharing his experiences with me.
Joe has had various TV roles on series such as “Emmerdale”, “Hollyoaks” and “Shameless” and TV films such as “Harold Shipman: Dr. Death”.
Quarie Marshall (unknown voice roles)
Credited in the game’s manual as “Q”, Quarie is a Professional Actor, Voice Over Artist and Choreographer. The fact he is still working in the same profession coupled with his unique name meant reaching out to him on social media wasn’t hard – and thankfully he was kind enough to reply; “I worked on that with Mark Esdale from OMUK back around 98 or 99. Blast from the past.”
Unfortunately Quarie wasn’t able to assist with much in the way of OverBlood 2, but I appreciate his response all the same. Due to his American accent, we can rule him out as any of the main characters and it is likely he voiced some of the game’s various bosses and background characters.
During his long career as a professional actor, voice over artist and choreographer, he has worked on many TV and games series – including as Col. Jan Templar in 2009’s “Killzone 2”, which can be seen below:
Jocelyn Cammack (voice of Dr. Marius)
As a voice actor, Jocelyn has played a number of roles – which made confirming her as OverBlood 2’s Dr. Marius fairly easy by watching videos.
I was able to get in touch with Jocelyn and she was kind enough to respond, saying; “I’ll certainly take a look at your questions but I think I may be able to help more broadly in your research. Weirdly, I was on the phone earlier today to Mark Estdale who recorded OverBlood 2 (at least he recorded me). I’ll forward your email to him if that’s ok, he will have far more info than I do. Best of luck with the site!”
Although Jocelyn wasn’t able to recall much about the game, she did confirm she remembered working on it and was kind enough to introduce me Mark Estdale.
In addition to her voice acting roles, Jocelyn is credited as working in casting and as a Director on various projects including in the casing department for 1998’s hit movie, “The Full Monty”.
Graeme Hawley (voice of Acarno Brani)
At the top of this post I mentioned that OverBlood 2’s IMDB page does not (at the time of writing) attribute any of the actors to their respective roles. I lied… Sort of.
Acarno – the game’s main protagonist – is the only exception, crediting a chap named Alex Holden with the role. OverBlood 2 is the only role Alex is credited with on their IMDB page. The man charged with the game’s regionalisation (Mark Estdale) was unable to confirm any further information about this person.
With all that being said, I’m fairly sure that Alex Holden was not responsible for voicing Acarno and I’m pretty sure the role was played by British actor, Graeme Hawley.
adly I’ve not been able to get in touch with Graeme to , but I’m 99% sure we have the right person here.
Graeme is an actor who has worked primarily on TV roles – perhaps most notably as serial killer John Stape on British soap “Coronation Street”, amongst other roles. More recently, he was in “Peaky Blinders” appearing as Niall Devlin.
While I haven’t been able to get in touch with Graeme (despite several attempts) to clarify things further, I’m confident based on the number of videos I’ve seen featuring his acting performances that he is responsible for voicing the game’s lead character.
Gerry Kersey (voice of Zeno)
One of OverBlood 2’s main villains (and final boss) is Zeno. His unmistakable voice was by Gerry Kearsey. Confirming this was easy enough – I actually first recognised him in a YouTube playthrough of a PS2 game, where he featured alongside OverBlood 2 co-star Jocelyn Cammack.
Despite reaching out I have been unable to establish contact with Gerry. In August 2020 he retired from a 52 year career with BBC Radio Sheffield, most recently hosting a weekly show every Sunday. I wish Gerry all the best in his retirement, or whatever comes next for him.
And – at least for now – that is where the trail ends…
Unfortunately there are several cast members still unaccounted for, despite the help of those I’ve spoken to so far and various online research – these include; Alex Holden, Lee Chapman, Ferret, Mark Scott, Mike Katz, Miles Bentley, Norman Mills and Pete Hope. If anybody has more information on this, it would be great to hear from you.
Massive thanks to Tunedi for sending over the information he had regarding the original voice cast – without you this blog wouldn’t have happened. And of course, thank you to all of the OverBlood 2 voice cast for taking the time to reply to all of my emails and calls.
If any other information is learned, I will update this post.
Want to discuss anything OverBlood 2 related? Please, send a message.