“Haha holy shit, this involved a lot more research than I assumed it would need.”
~AffotD Editor-in-Chief, Johnny Roosevelt
Listen, we’re not new the the concept of writing very unnecessary Star Wars articles that require a lot of research that doesn’t have a real audience. Do you, the reader, really care how many Academy Award nominees have been in Star Wars movies? Of course not. But we still wrote 4,500 words on that topic.
Since that article, the Star Wars universe has expanded greatly, after Disney bought the rights for Disney for $4 billion (if you want to get a sense on how much money doesn’t matter, that is 1/10 of the price that it cost to purchase Twitter, a product that has never made money, while the movies made since the acquisition alone has grossed $5.5 billion in the box office).
Anyway, with all the TV shows and new movies that have come out, we’ve noticed something. There are multiple generations that grew up with the dream of being a part of the Star Wars universe. And there seems to be one way to increase your chances to find yourself cast in a galaxy far, far away.
You have to be a comedian.
Or at least a comedic actor. We went through all of the Star Wars properties, and compiled every actor that we’d deem “a comic actor” who has played a character in that universe. Now, the definition of a comic actor is purely subjective, so we likely missed some people who you might believe should be on this list, while including people you might not view as comic. We don’t care, there’s no ranking, we’re just listing people, and 90% of you will (rightfully) just skim through this. And you should! Spoiler alert, this is going to be longgggggg.
Anyway, here are come funny folks who can officially say they have a Wookipedia entry.
Apparently the Easiest Way to Get a Star Wars Role Is to Be a Comedy Actor
This list is as complete as we could make it, and includes live action films, television series, animated series, and even entries in the Lego Star Wars canon. As a result, this list is too long! It’s almost 6,000 words! Why do we feel the need to be this thorough? Anyway, here you go.
Adam Pally – Bike Scout Trooper #2, The Mandalorian
Adam Pally, who is delightful in Happy Endings (and if you haven’t seen that show, you are missing out) is one of two comedic actors who play bike scout trooper at the end of the first season of The Mandalorian. This is a common trick that the franchise has been doing ever since J.J. Abrams started winking at the audience by doing shit having Daniel Craig play a stormtrooper where you can’t see his face – they love taking famous people and making them unrecognizable as a way to let them say “Hey! I did a Star Wars!”
We honestly don’t mind that. Hell, if we were asked, we’d jump at the chance to do a Star Wars. But the only reason this list is so long is that everything since the prequels have managed to cram in some comic actor that the director of the particular show or movie loves, and this is an example of that.
Alan Tudyk – K-2S0, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Lego Star Wars: All Stars
Rogue One is one of those movies that did well when it came out, but as time goes on (and we get more films like The Rise of Skywalker) its legacy gets better and better. One of the surprising emotionally engaging characters in the film is the sarcastic droid K-2S0, voiced by Alan Tudyk, who you know as either Steve the Pirate from Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story or as Wash from Firefly, depending if you were a jock or a geek in college.
He also played the character in a Lego-based spin-off show, but as an actor largely known for his comedic work, you might not recognize him as the robot voice of a supposedly emotionless droid.
Amy Sedaris – Peli Motto, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett
Amy Sedaris has been in a slew of comedic roles, from Strangers with Candy to Elf to Bojack Horseman, but of all the comedians on this list, she’s one of the more noticeable roles. She’s not in the universe for a cameo, or covered in makeup, or a voice behind a stormtrooper helmet. She plays a strong comedic relief role in The Mandalorian (and appears in the good parts of The Book of Boba Fett, aka, the parts where that show became just a mini season of The Mandalorian).
She’s not only a comedic actor who got a gig in Star Wars, she’s become a character that people actually dress up as for Halloween. Not bad for a 46-year-old high school student.
Bill Burr – Migs Mayfeld, The Mandalorian
Bill Bar has made a name for himself by being one of those “edgy comics” who has jokes that make you go “you can’t say that!” and is sometimes brought up as an example of what CANCEL CULTURE is trying to take away from the comedy scene.
Never mind that he’s never been close to being cancelled, because he’s an extremely smart and experienced comedian who has built his career by telling edgy jokes that are good, and shrugging off the handful of people who don’t like that style of humor.
Anyway, all of that is to say, Bill Burr, funny. Also Bill Burr…a really good dramatic actor? He puts on a masterclass performance in The King of Staten Island, and had a surprising cameo in Reservation Dogs (he didn’t even have a Boston accent in that!)
Speaking of Boston accents, he made it a point to make it canon that Boston accents exist in a galaxy far, far away.
Burr plays a mercenary and former Imperial sharpshooter in two episodes of The Mandalorian, one as a villain and one as an ally of Din Djarin.
Bill Hader and Ben Schwartz – BB-8, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker (and Ben Schwartz as Tay-O, Star Wars: The Bad Batch and a stormtrooper in The Force Awakens)
When J.J. Abrams took over the third trilogy, he decided it would be fun to wink at the audience by putting famous or well-known actors and just make them random no-name stormtroopers. (As previously mentioned, James Bond is now officially part of the Star Wars universe.)
So it’s not super surprising that they had Jean-Ralphio himself play a stormtrooper in The Force Awakens. And it’s not even that surprising that they had him voice a racer droid in a recent episode of the animated series, The Bad Batch. But it felt newsworthy, in a silly way, when it was announced that BB-8, the cute roly-poly droid that beeps at you, was voiced by a combination of Ben Schwartz and Bill Hader.
Were they needed to provide their voices? Not really. Can you get any of their personalities from the performances? Probably not. Has someone written a fan fiction story about how BB-8 was discovered by astronauts millions of years later and his subconscious was then uploaded into the body of a hitman-turned-actor? We really hope so.
Bobby Moynihan – Geezer, Star Wars: Visions (English version), Citizen #2 and Trader, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Pintu Son-El and Young Driver, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Orka and Stormtrooper #3, Star Wars Resistance
SNL alum Bobby Moynihan has randomly done a lot of roles in the Star Wars universe (and has also voiced a character on Star Trek: Lower Decks, making him one of an increasing number of people who have crossed over between Star Wars and Star Trek.
His most substantial role was a 15 episode run in Star Wars: Resistance, an animated children’s show that aired from 2018-2019 on the Disney channel. He played a Chadra-Fan who worked for the Office of Acquisitions, partnered alongside a character portrayed by Community’s Jim Rash (we’ll get to him later).
Brian Posehn – Speeder Pilot, The Mandalorian
Brian Posehn, the well-respected and hugely influential comedian that is recognized by millions of people simply as “the mail guy from Just Shoot Me“) has built much of his brand on nerd lore, including a love of Star Wars that translated into visceral anger when the original trilogy was “mastered” and re-released.
He also got a cameo in the pilot episode of The Mandalorian, so he can forever say “yup, I am a Wookieepedia entry” which might be the highest honor a sci-fi-obsessed comic could ever achieve.
Clint Howard – Ralakili, Solo: A Star Wars Story
Clint Howard, the comedic character actor who even though you see it, it’s hard to believe that he’s Ron Howard’s brother, is probably best known for his work in the Austin Powers movies, or The Waterboy, or any one of his 252 roles that have given him “that guy” status.
He also randomly has played our different characters in four different Star Trek series, and had a small part of the leader of a droid fighting pit in Solo, the Star Wars movie that helped make Lucasfilm think, “Hmm maybe we’ll just stick with TV.”
David Pasquesi – The Majordomo, The Book of Boba Fett
Pasquesi, arguably best known as the sleezy ex-husband of Selina Meyer in Veep, plays an unnamed Twi’lek sleezy majordomo on Tatooine as Boba Fett tries to consolidate his party during the four episodes out of seven that no one cared about since they didn’t involve Din Djarin, a.k.a. Mando.
Donald Faison – Hype Fazon and TIE Pilot #1, Star Wars Resistance and Tactical Droid, Star Wars: The Bad Batch
Scrubs and Clueless star, and famous BFF of Zach Braff, has always been on record as being a huge Star Wars fan, And while he had voiced characters in various Robot Chicken Star Wars specials, he clearly was thrilled when he was tapped to play a character given a homophone of his own name, the ace Rodian pilot, Hype Fazon. He’s also done a few odd voices to nameless characters in both Resistance and other animated series, which seems pretty common for actors on this list for voice work.
Donald Glover – Lando Calrissian, Solo: A Star Wars Story
Glover actually joined Faison as a voice for the third Robot Chicken Star Wars special, but he was much more noticeable as the young Lando Calrissian in Solo. Now, including Glover in this list both makes sense, and doesn’t. He has comedic chops, started as a comedian, then wrote for 30 Rock before making a name for himself in Community. He has recorded stand-up comedy specials, but also has become a Grammy-winning musician, a director and producer, and even though his Emmy-winning work on Atlanta was awarded as a comedy, his performance largely veered everywhere, from aloof to sincerely funny, dramatic to terrifying.
He also played Lando Calrissian in the most forgettable entry into the Star Wars canon (though he doesn’t really shoulder much of the blame for that, by all accounts he was much better than say, cough, some of his co-stars).
Edgar Wright – Resistance Trooper, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
While not credited, the comedic director known best for his work on Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and Baby Driver among other films was given a brief cameo in The Last Jedi, and he didn’t even have to wear heavy makeup or a stormtrooper helmet.
Eugene Cordero – Stoke, The Mandalorian
Eugene Cordero is another one of those comedic actors who has not had a lot of starring roles, but has been in just about everything. His 125 credits include a lead role in the animated ensemble Star Trek comedy, Lower Decks, a five-episode stint on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, a featured role on Marvel’s Loki, and as Pillboi on The Good Place.
He has a pretty straightforward role as Stoke, one of the villagers that fights alongside the Din Djarin to fight off a series of raiders in the first season of The Mandalorian.
Fred Armisen – Lechee, Star Wars Resistance
Armisen joked that he was cast as the stars and planets in the third trilogy, but really he had a one-off episode in Resistance where he played a vender affiliated with the First Order.
French Stewart – N:R30, Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
Remember Third Rock from the Sun? And how French Stewart was briefly famous for his role there? Well he’s the voice of a droid that only warrants a single sentence in a knock-off Star Wars wiki.
Greg Proops – Fode, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace and Lego Star WarsL The Freemaker Adventures, Jak Sivrak, Garma, Stormtrooper #1, Star Wars Resistance, Tal Merrick, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Best known for his work on Whose Line Is it Anyway, Proops has voiced various characters in a few of the animated shows, but had his biggest part as Fode, one of the two heads of the podrace announcers in The Phantom Menace. They hired him to say things like, “Ohh that’s gotta hurt” and he probably got a lot of money for it, between the movie and the various video games Fode has appeared in.
Horatio Sanz – Mythrol, The Mandalorian
Along with Hader and Armisen, Horatio Sanz is one of the former SNL actors to appear in the Star Wars universe. It’s easy to miss it, as he’s hidden under pounds of makeup to play the alien bounty target Mando tracks in the opening scene of The Mandalorian.
Jason Sudeikis – Bike Trooper #1, The Mandalorian
Adam Pally’s squadmate in the eighth episode of the first season of The Mandalorian is Jason Sudeikis (the year before the release of Ted Lasso elevated him from Jason Sudeikis to JASON SUDEIKIS). It was a small part that falls in the “just put the actor people recognize under a helmet” genre of cameos.
Jim Rash – Flix and Pirate #3, Star Wars Resistance
As we mentioned earlier, Jim Rash also appeared along side Bobby Moynihan in over a dozen episodes of Resistance. Despite being an actual honest-to-God Academy Award winner, Rash is best known as Dean Pelton on the classic sitcom, Community. Is it fair he’s best known for his pansexual weirdo performance in a critically-acclaimed but under-watched NBC comedy, as opposed to being an Oscar winning writer? On one hand, yes, on the other hand, look at this scene.
John Ratzenberger – Major Derlin, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures
Before he was Cliff in Cheers or a voice in just about every Pixar movie you’ve ever seen, Ratzenberger was a little known actor who had spent time in London beginning his acting career and acquiring a handful of relatively small parts, including his role as one of the soldiers in the Battle of Hoth in Empire. A few years later, he established his primary legacy with Cheers (though he’s had a long, storied career since as well) but before he was someone people might recognize on the street, he was just some Rebel soldier. (Oh, and he reprised the role for that Lego Star Wars movie that keeps randomly showing up on this list that we’re sure no one reading this have seen).
Jon Favreau – Paz Vizsla, The Book of Fett and The Mandalorian, Rio Durant, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Pre Vizsla and Warrior Commando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars
If you know who Jon Favreau is (and honestly, most do, he’s had quite an impressive career) you fall into one of two camps. Either you know him for his popular acting roles in everything from Swingers to Chef to getting to hook up with the hot Aunt May in the newer Spider-Man movies but also know that he is a prolific writer and producer (who, to point, wrote both Swingers and Chef before creating The Mandalorian), or you knew the first half of this sentence and the parts that came after have you going, “NO WAY!”
Favreau has never showed his face on camera in any Star Wars production, He’s only done voice work, first as an antagonist member of the Mandalorian Vizsla clan in Clone Wars, then as the voice of a four-armed pilot in Solo, and most recently in The Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett (if you saw Season 3, Episode 4 of The Mandalorian, he got to flesh out the character a bit more, but basically he’s the beefy Mandalorian with the big gun. As far as we know, the two Mandalorian characters he has played are not directly related, they just gave the same name as a nod to his work in Clone Wars).
Favreau has become one of the top creative minds behind various Star Wars properties, and before you nerds make a big stink, yes we know the picture we used of an action figure of Favreau is inaccurate as his character isn’t allowed to take off his helmet. And also yes, we know how ironic it is for us, writing THIS article, right after writing an article ranking ALL the Batmans, to be calling anyone a nerd.
Josh Gad – Controller, Star Wars: Rebels
Josh Gad, that actor who has been in weird and mostly-bad comedies and who your kid knows as that happy snowman, was randomly in an episode of one of the animated Star Wars shows as a no-name character for a single episode.
Judah Friedlander – Bar Patron, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
IMDB lists this role as one of the four that Friedlander is “known for” which is honestly a bit of a gut-shot for Friedlander, who broke out as Frank in 30 Rock and has a fairly successful career as a standup and author. Like many on this list, this was likely an instance of someone’s manager asking J.J. Abrams if they could find a spot for their client who loves Star Wars to do a two hour quick cameo shoot, and Abrams was like, “Oh I’ve seen that show, sure.”
Kevin Smith – Inhabitant of Kijimi (uncredited), Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker
It makes sense that the writer and director who launched his career with a low-budget surprise hit that included an extended rant about the philosophy of Star Wars would get honored with an appearance in one of the Star War films, though they did take their time making him wait out until the final installment of the last trilogy before making him an arbitrary local you get a glimpse of.
(He’s the guy in the middle.)
Kumail Nanjiani – Haja Estree, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Nanjiani, the guy famous for his wide range of work in things like Silicon Valley or his Oscar-nominated The Big Sick, as well as getting shredded for Marvel, has one of the more substantial roles of the actors on this list, with a three-episode supporting arc as a con man fake-Jedi who begrudgingly develops a heart of gold.
It’s easy to forget, because Obi-Wan is arguably the most forgettable of the Star Wars television series. Not bad, just one that when you’re reminded of its existence you go, “oh right, yeah, I guess I did watch that.”
Matt Berry – 8D8, The Book of Boba Fett
Matt Berry is not the only star of The IT Crowd to voice a droid in a Star Wars TV show (more on that later), but he appears in several episodes of the similar-to-Obi-Wan-in-its-forget-ability Book of Fett as a protocol droid at Jabba’s palace (under new management). To be fair, anyone who has watched him on What We Do in the Shadows knows, deep down, there is no better voice to have for a protocol droid. Or anything really.
Paul F. Thompkins – Flanx, Star Wars Resistance, Rad, Lego Star Wars Summer Vacation
Anyone familiar with Paul F. Thompkins’ extensive and varied comedy career (Bojack Horseman, about a million other comedies, There Will Be Blood, randomly, an assortment of podcasts) see him on this list and think, eh that makes sense. Like, if Patton Oswalt was on this list, you’d be like, yeah, I get that.
(Oswalt is not on this list, though he does voice a bartender in a random short called Star Wars Cantina Karaoke from 2013).
Anyway, Thompkins joined the universe for a single episode of Resistance, which for a while seemed to be the only way for a comic actor to get into the universe before the release of The Force Awakens. He then did a random part in one of the Star Wars Lego movies that we honestly don’t know if anyone has ever watched.
