Voicing the iconic Sonic the Hedgehog in megahit titles like Sonic Adventure 2 and Sonic Heroes, professional voice actor Ryan Drummond set the stage for the blue blur for decades to come – and to this very day!
Gamers Heroes recently spoke with Ryan Drummond at Fire & Ice RGX 2025 to talk about his trailblazing role as Sonic the Hedgehog, his love for the Sonic community, and more – learn more with our interview.
Ryan Drummond Fire & Ice RGX 2025 Interview – Voice Acting Icon Talks Sonic the Hedgehog, Community, and More
Gamers Heroes
The blue blur himself – a huge honor!
I know you just got back from Sonic Neon, and I appreciate how you love your fans.
I love your social media with all these shoutouts – and it’s from the heart too!
With the recent Sonic movie, along with all these events, what are some of your favorite fan stories?
Ryan Drummond
This is not an exaggeration: Every single city that I go to, I meet people that I will never forget and that people just get burned into my brain because they have such amazing stories!
Some of them are tragic, some of them are celebratory.
They’re always beautiful, and I’m completely and utterly blown away constantly, even 27 years later.
Of all the connections that we can make based on this one little blue hedgehog, it’s just so cool.
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely – Sonic the Hedgehog was my first game, and I was there for 9.9.99!
On that same note, congrats on The Gold Ring Agency! I know you’re working with Scott Dreier and David Humphrey – both of whom are also great!
The future’s looking bright for you all – what sparked its creation, and what’s planned for the road ahead?
Ryan Drummond
We always used to do the Sonic the Hedgehog conventions, but then we started doing comic cons, nostalgic cons, and different conventions and things.
We started seeing what we liked about the representation that we had, and what we thought we could do better.
Pretty soon, it just became obvious that if we built something Transformers-style from the ground-up, we could make an agency that we wanted it to be.
Rather than searching for the perfect fit, we could just create it ourselves.
And so that’s kind of the birth of The Gold Ring Agency!
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely! I believe you guys are going over to the UK in the fall, right?
Ryan Drummond
Yeah – Sonic Con UK! It’s in London, England on November 1.
It’ll be our first time as The Gold Ring Agency, and our first time going overseas – probably the first of many!
We’ve had some other offers come in from Australia and Finland and Japan and so forth – those aren’t in the books yet and in negotiation stages.
However, Sonic Con UK on November 1 is good to go! We are excited to go over and see all of our fans in the United Kingdom.
Gamers Heroes
And you got a lot of them!
I also saw you’ve connected with other Sonics like Ben Schwartz.
I know the Sonic 3 movie recently came out, and I heard some of your iconic lines in the movie – you set the foundation!
Were there any pointers you’ve given to those that are basically carrying the torch?
You’re the OG – you’re the one who set the gold standard!
Ryan Drummond
What’s cool about it is that everybody has their own little flavor of Sonic – it doesn’t matter who does it!
That’s what’s so absolutely cool about it – you know that they’re Sonic the Hedgehog. However, as soon as you hear them, you’re like “that’s Jason, that’s Roger, that’s Deven, that’s Ben.”
Everyone has their own little flavor to it! I think that’s very cool for a character.
Gamers Heroes
After seeing you at Sour Cherry Comics last year, I got a chance to check out Sonic and Tails R – I love how you worked with Emi Jones on that. It’s truly fantastic!
What was it like working with her and all this other incredible talent?
Ryan Drummond
Oh, that was so fun!
It was obviously during the pandemic, so we were kind of all trapped doing our own thing.
That was really fun to have something to do, since we couldn’t be out meeting the fans.
Normally, during the year, between the conventions, Cameo, and all the other things, I usually do the Sonic voice every day in some form or another.
Of course, during the pandemic, everything changed – and so it was really fun to work on something Sonic related during that time.
It was great working with Emi and Doryan – they both possess such encyclopedia-type knowledge of the canon of the franchise that it was just so fun.
There were even things in the script that I didn’t understand; I had to be like, “What is this a reference to?”
And then they would be like, “Oh, it’s back from this year in this random thing.”
And I was like, “Wow, this is just so cool!”
Gamers Heroes
On that same note, I’ve worked in a professional capacity with SEGA on a bunch of releases.
I’ve also interviewed Aaron Webber a long time ago; when he was managing Sonic’s social media, he had this kind of cheeky vibe to things.
Are there any stories in the Dreamcast days when you’re at SEGA that channel that same energy? I think you were on Rosie O’Donnell a long time ago!
Ryan Drummond
Rosie is actually a funny story!
For the longest time, no footage existed of that Rosie O’Donnell Show thing.
It came out, and all along I’ve had it on VHS – that’s how long ago this would have been. 98 or 99, I’m not quite sure – but it was a long time ago.
I had been telling the story for a long time, just because, at the time, it was kind of scary and frustrating.
But then, after that, it became a really amusing story. Who flies across the country to be on national television, and then it just doesn’t go right? That’s just fun!
So I’ve been telling the story forever, and always I would get the comment that it didn’t happen. You know, we need some footage, or it didn’t happen.
I’d be like, “I have it on VHS at my mother’s house!”
It exists, but I didn’t have the technological know-how to transfer it from VHS to digital and upload it to all those things.
Luckily, I don’t know who, but somebody did it for me.
Now it’s on YouTube, and anybody can go look up the Sonic on Rosie O’Donnell clip!
As the story goes, they did everything correct, except they forgot to tell Rosie that Sonic was going to speak to her.
They didn’t give her a monitor so she could hear me. So when you watch the clip, it looks like Rosie’s being aloof or kind of rude towards Sonic.
This is because the studio audience could hear me, and everybody watching at home could hear me – but Rosie couldn’t.
I’m saying these things, Rosie’s kind of ignoring me – it makes for kind legendary, hilarious clip.
Gamers Heroes
And I saw your Fire and Ice RGX clip too!
Ryan Drummond
Shout out to my editor Tommy, who put that all together for me!
All I do is just film myself and then hand it over to Tommy and say: “Do what you want with it!”
He always says, “I got 1000 ideas,” and he comes up with something hilarious and fun!
Gamers Heroes
A softball question: What’s your favorite Sonic Zone?
Ryan Drummond
I’m a Green Hill guy!
Gamers Heroes
Another OG! Last question…
This isn’t Sonic related, but I’d like to know exactly what went into voicing different animatronics. My wife is huge on Halloween, she’s got a storage container full of animatronics and other things – which I’m sure feature your voice!
What went into voicing them? That’s truly impressive – I know how much work goes into that too.
There’s an art there as well!
Ryan Drummond
What a lot of people don’t realize is that it’s a year-round thing!
We don’t just work on things in the fall or around Halloween – it goes year-round when they’re creating different prototypes!
For a lot of the robots that I do voices, they make a prototype, and show it to the companies that buy those things like Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.
And they don’t want that one; they want this other one!
There are a lot of things that I work on that never even get made or built, but I still have to make one, and put something good in it to sell it to the companies.
It’s been really fun!
It sounds like your wife is the same way; Halloween is my favorite holiday of the year – maybe second behind my birthday.
It’s always been a thrill for me my entire life.
The fact that I get to be a part of the industry now and a part of the holiday in a kind of special way. Providing voices for all the talking decorations, it’s just evolved!
Gamers Heroes
All I got left is praise!
You’ve touched so many lives – I really appreciate you and your time.
Feeling social? Be sure to give Ryan Drummond a follow via his Twitter/X and Instagram social media channels, and also book him on Cameo!
Thank you to both the Sac Gamers Expo and Fire & Ice teams for arranging the interview, and Ryan Drummond for his time!
Gamers Heroes recently spoke with professional voice actor Jessica Straus about her rich line of work, from Street Fighter bad girl Juri Han to Wolf’s Rain’s Blue – learn more with our interview.
Plan for Fire & Ice RGX 2025 with the ULTIMATE Fire & Ice RGX 2025 guide – no multi-page clickthrough required!
Big Hops Interview – Luckshot Games’ Chris Wade Talks Speedrunning Community, Stellar Team, and More
Gamers Heroes recently spoke with Luckshot Games’ Chris Wade on Big Hops’ froggy adventure, talking everything from its community to its dream team to even its fantastic voice over work – learn more with our interview.
Gamers Heroes recently got a chance to ask Kitten Cup Studio about Capy Castaway, learning more about its fantastical world, the stellar work of composer Mark Sparling, and more – learn more with our interview.
Continue Reading Capy Castaway Interview: Kitten Cup Studio Talks Heart, Music, and More
Don’t know what Steam Next Fest games to play this June? Gamers Heroes has got you covered with 5 Steam Next Fest demos you must play – no multipage clickthrough required.
Continue Reading 5 Steam Next Fest June 2025 Demos You Must Play
Gamers Heroes recently got a chance to ask Treehouse Games co-founder and CEO Michael Chu some questions of Voyagers of Nera and its grand adventure – learn more with our interview.
The post Ryan Drummond Fire & Ice RGX 2025 Interview – Voice Acting Icon Talks Sonic the Hedgehog, Community, and More appeared first on GamersHeroes.