Steve Blum

Steve Blum (born 1960) is one of the most prolific voice actors in the world, recognized by Guinness World Records for the most video games with a single voice-over artist. His signature role is Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, and his credits span Wolverine, Amon in The Legend of Korra, Grayson Hunt in Bulletstorm, and hundreds of game and animation characters across decades.

Rejecting the AI deal

In January 2024, when SAG-AFTRA announced an agreement with the AI voice company Replica Studios to license synthetic voices for games, Blum was among the working actors who publicly rebuked it. He pointedly questioned who had actually signed off, noting that nobody in the voice community he knew had approved it and reminding the union that games are the bulk of his livelihood and have been for years. His reaction helped crystallize the anger that fed the broader video game performers’ strike later that year.

Blum’s objection is not to technology in the abstract but to consent and control: performers being enrolled in AI-voice arrangements without transparency or agreement. As one of the field’s most recognizable and hardest-working voices, his stance carried weight among peers across SAG-AFTRA, and put a familiar sound to the argument that a performer’s voice should not be replicated or replaced without their say.