Universal Pictures and Blumhouse Productions are serving up a second slice with the worldwide theatrical release of the Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 movie December 5.
Taking on the esteemed mantle of the diabolical animatronic Toy Freddy, we recently spoke with Professional Voice Actor Kellen Goff ahead of Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 – learn more with our interview.
Kellen Goff Interview – Professional Voice Actor Talks Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 and More
Gamers Heroes
Ready Freddy?
I really appreciate your time today and all the love you’ve given us!
I loved your Blue’s Clues Halloween costume and your recent JoJo reference.
Kellen Goff
Thank you!
We were doing a bunch of different poses at the event that night, and thought it’d be funny if we did a JoJo reference.
Gamers Heroes
I see what you did with The Romantics and「TALKING IN YOUR SLEEP」– it works on so many levels!
Kellen Goff
Thank you – we love our references!
Gamers Heroes
On that note, congratulations on the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 release!
I saw your red carpet pictures, and it looks like you guys had an incredible time. Popcorn bucket, whole nine yards.
You’ve got so many different performances out there – obviously there’s Funtime Freddy, but there’s also JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind.
People are saying your performance is great there as well – they’ll watch the dub over the sub to hear your sheer anger as Diavolo!
How do you channel the energy for each of these roles? They’re so diverse!
Kellen Goff
When I was going into voice acting, the people I admired were the ones who were magicians who could take on any different mask and fool everybody into thinking:
“Wow, that is not the same person!”
That’s always what I strive to do, because the magic of voice acting is that you can’t see the face.
You never know who’s going to be behind the microphone and hear what you’re doing.
I’m also on the autism spectrum, which helps a ton because I grew up playing pretend.
That’s really all the job is at its core: Playing pretend in very, very visceral ways.
Whenever I see different characters’ art, or see something differently written, it sort of launches me into a different persona.
Sometimes we create it on the fly, sometimes we have time with it – goodness willing.
I pride myself on trying to make no two roles the same; as I reach a later part of my career, the lines become a bit more blurred.
It’s just a fun game to me to see how different I can make each character!
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely!
On that note, you’ve got your fans – there’s so many people that admire your performances and how you go above and beyond.
What are some of your favorite fan stories from GalaxyCon and places like that?
Kellen Goff
Oh man, there are so many!
I remember early on at Anime Pasadena, in the Los Angeles County neighborhood.
It was an easier sell back then, because I was pretty much only Funtime Freddy at the time, maybe Molten Freddy.
There were these two kiddos – I’m sure they’re both 25 and lawyers now!
At the time, they were just so, so tickled and hyped about Five Nights.
One of the sweetest things I’ve ever gotten was this scrapbook of all the reasons that they love Kellen Goff. It’s decorated on all pages and has pictures of my exploits at the time.
I think my dog is in there!
I remember just being so, so honored.
Gamers Heroes
Well-deserved!
Kellen Goff
This was incredible, back in 2017 or something.
Even way back then, I was floored by these people who liked what I was doing in my parents’ house!
There are a ton of stories like that.
There’s some people I’ll keep nameless out of respect for them…
They said that my Glamrock Freddy came at just the right time to save them from going down a very dark path – if you catch me – being the father figure they never had.
It’s moments like that I feel affirm what I’m doing, if not the enjoyment I derive from it.
Gamers Heroes
It’s very powerful – and I definitely see that like you’ve touched so many lives.
I believe the original Five Nights at Freddy’s grossed $300 million – I have a strong feeling that this is going to be the breakout movie of December.
So keep on keeping on, right?
Kellen Goff
The franchise is such a juggernaut, I am very confident in our chances!
Gamers Heroes
Absolutely!
One thing I saw is that you studied under Bob Bergen’s voiceover workshops.
I saw you’ve worked with fellow legends like Richard Horvitz (Invader Zim), Charlie Adler (Buster Bunny), and others.
What were some of the insights you got for your own voiceover toolkit working with these legends? What were some of the key takeaways?
Kellen Goff
Bob was my first ever voice acting teacher.
I had done theater in grade school, middle school, and high school, but I had never had like a Hollywood acting teacher – like Bob is.
He and Richard really got me out of the misconception that it was about the voice.
To this day, I keep the fact that voice acting is about creating a character that is so convincing that it can move people even without facial expressions.
The voice does factor into that, but I’ve come to describe it as the acting is the cake and the voice is the frosting.
You can eat frosting from the tub, but it’s going to be more satisfying when it’s on top of a cake, right?
A lot of that is what they taught me.
Bob taught me some of my first creature noises – how to bark, that kind of thing.
And Richard got me out of certain vocal types he knew weren’t going to serve me, putting me on the straight and narrow toward acting.
And Charlie? Charlie just beat the crud out of me!
If you’ve ever heard about Charlie, anybody will tell you he is unafraid of telling you the unabridged and unabashed truth.
Gamers Heroes
It comes from a place of love though, right?
Kellen Goff
Exactly!
He tells it to you straight, because he likes to cut through all the noise.
He knows exactly what mindset you need to get into.
He can be gentle too! Actors are emotional people, and he is emotional as well – even if I’m sure he doesn’t want to admit it.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be as good at his job!
His teaching philosophy is to diagnose, tell you what’s wrong, and keep drilling it into you until you believe it too – and it’s worked out for a ton of people.
The way I’m describing it sounds brutal, but he’s one of the sweetest people on this Earth as well.
He does it because he doesn’t want to waste our time.
Gamers Heroes
I’ll give a shoutout to D.C. Douglas too – he said on his website that you are “super friendly and truly a genuine person.”
I like to think that’s from the heart too – from Albert Wesker!
Kellen Goff
D.C. Douglas is lovely!
We’ve done some comedy improv shows together in Atlanta and here in Los Angeles.
Gamers Heroes
So one thing I’d like to talk about too is the Bloater in The Last of Us: Part II.
I’d say that’s your most terrifying role! And that’s saying a lot…
Just that sheer guttural sound – I heard somebody say it’s “like a Clicker gargling Sprite!”
And when a Bloater is on fire, you’re like:
“Oh my gosh, I have to get out of here!”
That’s truly incredible.
How did you channel that energy? Was there Sprite involved? Maybe that jug of water you have?
Kellen Goff
I love that description! I’ve never heard that.
Gamers Heroes
I wish I could take credit!
Kellen Goff
Yeah, that’s apt! Man, the Bloater…
It comes back to me embodying a different body.
When it comes to the Bloater, I don’t believe we even had art at the time.
It’s lovely when we do get art on the voice acting side, but a lot of the time we have descriptions of who they are, what they are, and what range they should be in.
This would be back around 2018 – maybe even earlier, knowing the production cycle of video game voice acting.
It was something to the effect of something low and guttural, just mucus in the throat.
I don’t think they said “Bloater” or “Clicker” or anything – I’m pretty sure they said “Zombie A,” “Zombie B,” “Zombie C.”
At the time, I gave them a showcase of stuff within that range.
I have, what’s called the manipulable epiglottis – it’s what my ENT called it. I can make shapes with my epiglottis in here, which helps air travel in and out.
I’m sure you know, I can make shapes the way people make shapes with their lips, so that helps me vibrate them and make it sound like there’s something bubbling deep in my throat – like you were saying with the jug of water.
I gave them a bunch of that, and then we went in the studio, and they showed me a pre-alpha build of what I assume is the mo-cap actor walking around as the Bloater.
Just seeing the full life model helps so much with the performance!
There’s actually a video that the Casting Director who was there took of the session, and it’s on my TikTok if any of your viewers want to see it.
Gamers Heroes
I’ll track it down! I’ve got to see this.
Kellen Goff
The physicality helps a lot with it on The Last of Us.
We recorded in a non-conventional way…
We had this beanie with two lavalier-type mics hanging down from it, whereas usually we have a microphone in front of us.
We can’t really do the full range of motion, because we don’t want to hit the $2,000 to $4,000 mic.
But with this beanie, I could do the full swipes and trunk around.
As you’ll see, it helps so much with making him this big, hulking mass of tumors!
Lots of factors that go into making the Bloater what he was.
And I’m very, very grateful that they liked it so much!
They used it at Halloween Horror Nights’ The Last of Us interactive house the year before this one.
Gamers Heroes
That is too cool!
So going back to Five Nights at Freddy’s, I do have to give a shout-out to your co-stars.
You got Josh, Elizabeth, Piper…
What are some of your favorite moments working with them?
Kellen Goff
I’ll just say that I never really directly worked with them – a lot of my stuff was done in post-production.
Gamers Heroes
That makes sense!
Kellen Goff
I’ve passed Josh and never had the pleasure of talking to him, but Piper…
Piper is such a little ball of energy and childish wonderment, if I could recapture some of my own from those days, it would be inspired by her!
She is a mega, mega, mega fan of the franchise.
At this past event that we were at, every time I saw her look at one of the things that were set up – like the carousel or the giant Toy Freddy behind the curtain – she just lit up!
It’s really hard to imagine her scared, because she’s just so wowed by everything that this franchise has to offer!
Gamers Heroes
Wrapping things up…
I’ve talked about this with other voice actors, and – like I said – you’ve inspired a lot of people that also want to get into the voice acting space themselves.
I’ve talked to people that were previously on Newgrounds – which is really dating myself – that have gone into the voice acting space professionally.
I’ve seen people at press events that want to get into the space too.
While they don’t know how to start, they want to get into voice acting too.
What advice do you have to give?
Kellen Goff
Well, it’s tougher nowadays…
I won’t gas it up – it is a different world from when I got into it.
Even though no journey into voice acting is the same, the building blocks are still there.
Whether going out to your local theater, or are going online and making a comic dub with your friends, or doing an indie video game…
Just cutting your teeth and finding your tribe – as I always say – on online, practicing with them, honing the craft best you can.
By getting to a place where when the voice acting opportunity comes along, you’ll be ready to seize that opportunity and make the best first impression.
Then, when you’re at that place where you feel confident enough in your abilities, there are a ton of amazing voice acting workshop websites I could shout out.
The Voice Actors Network is a lovely one, the Gardner Collective Casting Call Club, the Voice Acting Club – that’s where I came up, and a lot of my peers as well.
A lot of stuff we auditioned for on Newgrounds was at the Voice Acting Club. I’m sure there is still some there to this day.
The internet is an incredible resource, and there are still a lot of free options out there for one to hone their craft.
But when the time comes along for you to really take the leap – then it will cost a pretty penny or two.
It’s hard to get around that, unfortunately, but I wish all the best for those who want to make it into this industry.
It’s been worth every moment!
Gamers Heroes
I’m really looking forward to the movie next month!
It’s going to be incredible, and I’m going to try and get the popcorn bucket.
Kellen Goff
Those things are going to sell out quick!
Gamers Heroes
They always do!
I really appreciate your time.
I know this is a super-busy season, and it’s a huge honor – thank you so much!
Kellen Goff
Thank you for having me Casey – it’s a pleasure talking with you!
Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 will see a worldwide theatrical release December 5, 2025 – one can find local showtimes and purchase tickets via its official website.
Feeling social? Make sure to follow Kellen Goff via his Twitter/X, Instagram, Bluesky, and TikTok social media channels!
Thank you to PR for arranging this interview, and Kellen Goff for his time!
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