New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Chris Diamantopoulos builds a hot career, on screen and off
When you see Chris Diamantopoulos on screen, you may get a sense of déjà vu. The actor regularly pops up in movies and TV shows as a variety of characters, and he’s fine if you find yourself trying to place where you’ve seen him before.
“I want people guessing,” said the actor recently over Zoom from his home in Los Angeles. “It’s one of the reasons I’m not on social media. I’d rather people when they see me go, ‘Oh, wait, that’s that guy.’ As opposed to, ‘Oh yeah, I knew this was coming because I saw him in his dressing room in the costume,’ and he sent a video of how he did the voice.’”
Diamantopoulos, 46, who began his career on stage and starred on Broadway in “Les Misérables,” “The Full Monty” and “Waitress,” is on a streak of playing villains. He’s in “True Story, “the new Kevin Hart and Wesley Snipes series on Netflix, and the streamer’s blockbuster film “Red Notice “starring Dwayne Johnson, Gal Gadot and Ryan Reynolds.
If perhaps his voice sounds familiar, Diamantopoulos is the fifth person in history to voice Mickey Mouse for Disney and has acted in more than 40 episodes of Fox’s “American Dad.”
His voice acting career is so robust, he built a professional studio at his home when his family relocated from New York to Los Angeles during the pandemic.
“I spent a good six months making it. Every time I bought new equipment or soundproofed, I thought, ‘Gosh, is this going to be worth it?’ And then, series after series after series came up and I was just fortunate enough to be able to do these records. It’s not a home studio, it’s a proper studio that happens to be in my home, which is really wonderful.”
Another bonus for keeping his voice work close is because of the proximity to his three kids with wife, actor Becki Newton.
“It’s been fun to be able to make the kids breakfast and say, ‘Guys, I’m going to run down to a quick thing and I’ll come right back.’”
Up next, he voices a character in the Disney+ film “Diary of a Wimpy Kid.” And he’s got a role in the Amazon series “Daisy Jones and the Six” starring Riley Keough and Sam Claflin and will appear in season two of “Made for Love” for HBO Max.