‘Suburgatory’s’ Alan Tudyk on His Many Faces for MTV’s ‘Good Vibes’

Alan Tudyk is currently starring on ABC’s new series, Suburgatory, but fans of MTV’s Good Vibes may not know that he plays not just one, but many characters on the new animated series.

He’s billed as Lonnie, the wise, pothead on the cartoon, but the actor can rattle off a seemingly never-ending list of the other characters he’ll voice for the series, which also features the voice of Adam Brody as Woodie, and his best buddy, Mondo (voiced by Book of Mormon’s Josh Gad), as they brave the waves of their teen years together.

“It started with Lonnie, but then it evolved over time,” Tudyk tells The Hollywood Reporter. “In the read-throughs they would give us each a few roles. My list just started getting longer for the roles I read… A lot of the time, if you did the read-through well or they liked what you did in the read-through they’d give it to you. So, it started like that.”

In fact, Tudyk’s ability to perform different voices and accents has served him well. His first professional acting gig was an Off-Broadway play called Bunny, Bunny in which he played more than 20 roles. A casting director saw him in the play and the rest is pre-history.

“They just handed me pictures of characters and asked me to do voices for the pictures,” he says. “I ended up playing three roles in the first Ice Age, because of it. That really was my way in, I guess, to voiceover work.”

Tudyk says that he started experimenting with different characters in high school and looked up to one of the most versatile actors in Hollywood.

“I grew up watching Robin Williams and he would do that,” Tudyk says. “You know, in his standup he would switch from one character to one character to one character. I just thought he was brilliant.”

Later, Tudyk says he actually got to meet his idol when he landed a small role on Patch Adams. “It’s funny how careers work,” he says.

In addition to Suburgatory, his resume includes several live-action cult shows like Firefly, Dollhouse, and V, but his credits also include a lot of animated voice work. And if given the choice between the two, Tudyk says animated series would win.

“I get to play multiple characters,” he explains. “I mean other than Eddie Murphy who always acts in movies with himself, very few actors get to do that. So, when it’s voiceover you get the shot of even doing scenes with yourself and playing four and five characters within one episode. It’s fantastic. I love that.”

Watch a clip of Tudyk at work as Woodie’s father, Brock, on MTV’s Good Vibes below.

Good Vibes airs Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. on MTV.

Email: Jethro.Nededog@thr.com; Twitter: @TheRealJethro