Movie-goers and video game geeks across the globe would have heard the voice of Redd Pepper at some stage, especially those who pay attention to trailers and advertisements of new games.
Many might not know, though, the origins of that deep, unforgettable voice.
Redd Pepper, real name Richardson Green was born in Barbados in 1961 and subsequently moved with family to the United Kingdom.
He was one of ten children. Green completed his secondary education at Sedgehill High School in London.
His first job was with McDonalds, then he worked as a fireman, and later started working as a tube motorist for the Underground Metro in London.
He once claimed to have gotten bored very easily during his job, and would prank passengers by stopping the train between stations, turning off the lights, and talking over the loudspeakers: “I used to say stuff like: ‘This is your driver speakin . . . or is it?’ in a really spooky voice.”
In 1996, a television executive was a passenger on a London Underground train being driven by Pepper.
Upon hearing his voice over the loudspeakers, the man gave Pepper his business card and asked Pepper to call him.
This led to numerous jobs providing voiceovers for TV channels and adverts, and he began voicing film trailers soon after, with his first being Space Jam. He also voiced Mike
LeRoi/Shadow Man in the video game Shadow Man.
Pepper came to prominence when he was mistaken for Hollywood voice artist Don LaFontaine following his voice work on the trailers for Armageddon and Independence Day.
He has also appeared onstage as an actor, havwing acted in an Edinburgh Festival production of Jeffrey Archer’s Prison Diaries.
Green initially made $3000 to $4000 for each movie trailer he did. Green subsequently made reportedly upwards of $8 000 per week for his work.
His big booming voice is so important to the movie, animation and advertising industries that he has reportedly bought insurance coverage worth $10 million for his vocal chords.
Green has done work on the X Factor and he has hosted the Nightly Show. The Bajan- Brit’s television shows include The Culture Show, Deadline and The One Show.
Among the hundreds of movie voiceovers which Green has done have been Men In Black, Jurassic Park, The Blair Witch Project, Are We Done Yet?, Mr Bean’s Holiday, Boogie Nights. Movie director Tim Burton cast Redd to voice ghouls for Mrs Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children and most recently he voiced ADR characters for Mary Poppins Returns.
He continues to regularly do voice promos for ‘Disney’, ‘Channel 4’, ‘ITV’ and the ‘BBC’. Redd has been a special guest on TV shows including the ‘BBC’s Pointless Celebrities’, ‘Eggheads’ and ‘Never Mind the Buzzcocks’ and presents his own jazz, funk and soul radio show.
His voice has also been heard in commercials for Kelloggs, Virgin Media, Tesco and Persil.
Video gamers will recognise that rich, deep voice on the likes of Blade, Gothic, Imperium Galactica II: Alliances and Vietcong, among many others.
Green has been in the business almost 28 years and is considered among the greatest, if not the greatest, voice-over artiste ever. (Adapted)
