Michael Hollick (born August 5, 1973 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor, voice actor, singer and musician who has appeared in television shows such as Sex and the City and Law & Order.
He is best known for providing the voice of Niko Bellic, the main protagonist of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto IV; his voice work in GTA IV won him the Best Male Voice Actor award at the 2009 Video Game Awards; he also starred in Homefront as part of the motion capture cast.
Biography[]
Hollick attended Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.
Rockstar Games Conflict[]
When Hollick saw the success of GTA IV, he tried to negotiate for more money, saying that he had no idea that the game would be so successful. However, he was denied. Hollick was paid about $100,000 for his voice acting and motion-capture work over the course of about 15 months from 2006 to 2007. Hollick was paid about $1,050 a day for his work on the game, about 50% more than the standard Screen Actors Guild-negotiated rate for actors, although he claimed that it was still a fraction of the income he would get from a film or TV-show performance, and that he was upset about not getting residuals from game sales, putting the blame on the union for not securing such agreements.[1]
Due to this incident, Hollick did not reprise his role as Niko for GTA IV's two expansion packs (The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony). Rockstar Games simply used Hollick's pre-recorded lines from GTA IV to voice Niko anytime he appeared in the expansions[2]; Hollick was still credited as a cast member in both.
Personal Life[]
Hollick lives in Las Vegas, with his wife Angela Tsai and two children. [3]
GTA Works[]
- Grand Theft Auto IV - Niko Bellic (2008)
- The Lost and Damned - Niko Bellic (2009) (pre-recorded)
- The Ballad of Gay Tony - Niko Bellic (2009) (pre-recorded)
Trivia[]
- Hollick is the first voice actor from any GTA game to appear in Comic-Con, followed by Ned Luke, Shawn Fonteno and Steven Ogg.
- Some of Niko Bellic's "grunts" recorded by Michael Hollick were reused in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for Huang Lee.
References[]
- ↑ A Video Game Star and His Less-Than-Stellar Pay, The New York Times
- ↑ Rockstar Says "Hell No," to Niko Actor in GTA: Lost and Damned, 1up.com.
- ↑ "Life as Uncle Scar in The Lion King — and Scar’s new baby". LasVegasSun.com