Voice acting
Hamill first performed voice acting work in the early 1970s, voicing the character Corey Anders on the Saturday morning cartoon Jeannie by Hanna-Barbera Productions. He later played Sean in the Ralph Bakshi film Wizards, which was released just three months before Star Wars in 1977. The voice role he is most known for is Batman's archenemy the Joker, the success of which has led him to portray a wide variety of characters in television, film, anime, and video games (mostly similar super-villains).
Hamill was the voice of The Hobgoblin in the 1990s Spider-Man animated series. His other Marvel superhero genre roles include the Gargoyle in the animated series The Incredible Hulk, Maximus in Fantastic Four, Klaw in The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes and multiple characters in Ultimate Spider-Man. Hamill voiced Solomon Grundy and Trickster in the DC Animated Universe series Justice League and Justice League Unlimited, and played the murderous gangster Tony Zucco in The Batman, an animated series unrelated to the various series in the DC animated universe. He voiced Spectre in an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and provided the voice of archvillain Kavaxas in the fifth and final season of 2012's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Non-comic-related television roles include the deranged shock jock anchorman Dr. Jak in Phantom 2040, Principal John Smith in the Totally Spies episode "Soul Collector", Christopher "Maverick" Blair in Wing Commander Academy, the Walter Lantz character Buzz Buzzard in The New Woody Woodpecker Show, the flamboyant robot Lawrance "Larry" 3000 in Time Squad, the pirate Captain Stickybeard in Codename: Kids Next Door, Fire Lord Ozai in Avatar: The Last Airbender, the Skeleton King in Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!, multiple roles in Metalocalypse, and the groundskeeper Skips in Regular Show. He also voiced himself in two episodes of the Disney animated series Pepper Ann.
Hamill guest-starred as himself in The Simpsons episode "Mayored to the Mob". On the accompanying audio commentary, he said he was a fan of the show since its 1987 debut on The Tracey Ullman Show, and that it was a personal thrill to work with Dan Castellaneta, the voice of Homer Simpson. He has also guest-starred in Family Guy, and was a recurring voice actor on Seth Green's Robot Chicken.
In addition to television voice acting, Hamill has starred in multiple animated films such as The Captain of the Guard in Sinbad: Beyond the Veil of Mists, the biblical figure Judah in Joseph: King of Dreams, the evil wolf Niju in Balto II: Wolf Quest, and Chanukah Zombie in Futurama: Bender's Big Score. He was also the voice of Headmaster Matthew Callahan in the 1998 American adult animated superhero film Gen 13.
He also voiced Colonel Muska in the second English-language version of Castle in the Sky, and the Mayor of Pejite in the dubbed English version of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, both directed by Hayao Miyazaki and distributed by Disney. Hamill also provided the voice of the Granduncle in the English-language dub of Miyazaki's The Boy and the Heron (2023).
Hamill's video game voice roles include Detective Mosely in Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers; Assistant Director Wilson in Soldier of Fortune II: Double Helix; Adrian Ripburger in the LucasArts game Full Throttle; Wolverine in X2: Wolverine's Revenge (the game which accompanied the film X2); Goro Majima in Yakuza; Malefor The Dark Master in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon; The Watcher in Darksiders; and Master Eraqus in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts III. Tetsuya Nomura, creator of Kingdom Hearts, describes himself as a fan of Hamill's work. There is also another character, Master Xehanort, originally voiced by Leonard Nimoy of Star Trek fame. Nomura stated that they wanted both Hamill and Nimoy for the roles, as the two characters are rivals, referencing the rivalry between fans of Star Wars and Star Trek. After Nimoy died, he was replaced by Rutger Hauer for Kingdom Hearts III, who, in turn, was replaced by Christopher Lloyd following his death for the Re Mind DLC; Lloyd had also appeared in Star Trek as Commander Kruge. Hamill narrated Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, the title of which referenced the 1980 war film he starred in. He also appeared in two installments of the Crash Bandicoot series.
Hamill is credited as the narrator in Ancient Voices (1999), a docuseries on archaeology and ancient history co-produced by the BBC and The Learning Channel, and published by Time Life as a DVD series. He also narrated the Medal of Honor and Silver Star citations of Tibor Rubin, Ralph E. Pomeroy, John Finnigan and Mitchell Red Cloud Jr. for the 2013 Korean War documentary Finnigan's War (directed by Conor Timmis).
Hamill voiced the character Todd Wainio in World War Z, a critically acclaimed audiobook based on Max Brooks' novel of the same name. He provided voices for the entire cast of the 1983 audiobook version of Pinocchio, and voiced the characters of the book series The Spiderwick Chronicles Volumes I–III, by Holly Black and Tony DiTerlizzi.
In 2007, Hamill voiced Elder Orin in the film Battle for Terra. He narrated the 2017 science-fiction TV series Dimension 404. In 2019, Hamill voiced Chucky in the Child's Play film remake, as well as the Skeksis scientist skekTek in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, a ten-part Netflix prequel series to the 1982 Jim Henson film The Dark Crystal. In 2021, Hamill voiced the tailor Art Rosenbaum in the animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman's Invincible series, and Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revelation. He is also set to reprise the role for the follow-up to Revelation, Masters of the Universe: Revolution.
In-character as Luke Skywalker, Hamill voices the English versions of the Ukrainian air raid warning app. The alerts are not only performed in Skywalker's cadence but, after the alert is over, he signs off with "May the Force be with you". Hamill has raised funds for the Ukrainian war relief effort by signing Star Wars-themed posters to be raffled off.
At San Diego Comic-Con 2024, it was announced that Hamill would replace Brian Doyle-Murray as the voice of The Flying Dutchman in The SpongeBob Movie: Search for SquarePants. Hamill previously voiced The Moth in the SpongeBob SquarePants season 5 episode "Night Light". In September 2026, it was announced that Hamill would voice the title character in an upcoming revival of Darkwing Duck for Disney+, replacing original voice actor Jim Cummings.
Hamill's role as the Joker began in the 1992 series Batman: The Animated Series and continued to many later spin-off series, video games and films. In the DC Animated Universe, Hamill voiced the Joker in fourteen episodes of Batman: The Animated Series, three episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, five episodes of The New Batman Adventures, five episodes of Justice League, and an episode of Static Shock. He also voiced the Joker in the 1993 theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and the 2000 direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker.
The short-lived The WB live-action series Birds of Prey, based on the comic book of the same title, featured a flashback sequence in which the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon and paralyzes her. This sequence featured Hamill voicing Joker, dubbed over actor/stuntman Roger Stoneburner whose facial structure more resembled the character. He also voiced the character in a few segments in Robot Chicken.
Hamill voiced the Joker alongside his Batman: The Animated Series co-star Kevin Conroy as Batman and Jason Hillhouse as Dick Grayson in a feature of a storyboard scene included in the 2005 Special Edition DVD of Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. This scene depicted the origin of Robin, which was not filmed because the producers felt it was out-of-place with the rest of the film.
Hamill has said that he has voiced the Joker for toys and amusement park rides. Although these jobs did not pay particularly well, he enjoyed even these small roles and admitted being protective of the character, preferring not to let "others sleep in my sleeping bag"; he also self-identifies as a "real comic book nerd".
Hamill has portrayed the Joker in a few Batman based video games, beginning with 2001's Batman: Vengeance, the Sega CD version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin (which was later used to create a "lost" episode of the animated series) and in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Hamill again reprised the role in the Arkham sequel, Batman: Arkham City. In May 2010, Hamill declared to IGN that his role in Arkham City would be his last as the Joker. Some months later, with the announcement of Arkham City, he clarified his statements in the interview by saying, via his Twitter account, "Only said Arkham Asylum would be hard to top, not that I was quitting." On October 19, 2011, shortly after the release of the game, Hamill announced his retirement on his Twitter account, saying "Hello/Goodbye Joker! I've enjoyed every minute behind the wheel of the Clown Prince's crazy car – I'm going to miss him more than I can say!!". In June 2012, WB Games released the expansion pack titled "The Last Laugh" for the video game DC Universe Online, featuring Hamill as the Joker. In 2015, Hamill yet again returned as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight with the character recurring through the game as a hallucination.
During a 2011 Comic-Con, when asked about Heath Ledger's Oscar-winning portrayal of the character in Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight, Hamill said that it was the most original performance that he had ever seen since Anthony Hopkins' Oscar-winning portrayal of Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs.
Hamill has commented that if there would ever be an animated version of Batman: The Killing Joke, he would gladly voice the Joker again, encouraging fans to campaign for said adaptation. On July 17, 2015, Hamill tweeted that he had his fingers crossed in hopes that he would be contacted to reprise his role as the Joker in the animated adaptation. On July 27, Collider reported that Hamill would voice the Joker in the film. The film was released in theaters for a two-day limited time. It was released on Digital HD on July 27, 2016. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 2.
Hamill reprised the Joker for the animated series Justice League Action. He also reprised the Trickster for the series, as well as voicing Swamp Thing. In the animated short "Missing the Mark", Hamill voices a fictionalized version of himself, who appears alongside all three of his other characters. Hamill once again voiced Joker in Lego DC Super-Villains, replacing voice actor Christopher Corey Smith.
Hamill has been nominated for two Annie Awards for his portrayal of the character, for an Interactive Achievement Award, for a Spike Video Game Award, and has won a British Academy Games Award for Best Performer.
In January 2023, Hamill revealed in an interview that he would no longer voice the Joker following Kevin Conroy's death in 2022, stating that "Without Kevin there, there doesn't seem to be a Batman for me." Hamill's Joker appeared alongside Conroy's Batman in the crossover fighting game MultiVersus and the film Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths (both 2024).
