Nintendo's Mario voice actor Charles Martinet moving on to new role of Mario Ambassador after 30 years

Nintendo announced that Charles Martinet, the original voice actor of the beloved character Mario, will be signing off from the role. Martinet has voiced the iconic character of Mario since 1991.

The video game company informed that Martinet will be "stepping back from recording character voices for our games". The veteran artist’s job profile in the company has changed to "Mario Ambassador", said Nintendo.

Nintendo posted the news on Twitter/X as a picture message, with the text, “We have a message for fans of the Mushroom Kingdom. Please take a look.”


The message by Nintendo read: "Charles Martinet has been the original voice of Mario in Nintendo games for a long time, as far back as Super Mario 64. Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With this transition, he will be stepping back from recording character voices for our games, but he'll continue to travel the world sharing the joy of Mario and interacting with you all!”

Nintendo further said that it has been "an honor working with Charles to help bring Mario to life for so many years and we want to thank and celebrate him".

The company added that there will be a special video message soon from Shigeru Miyamoto (Game Director, Nintendo, and designer of the Mario video game) and Charles Martinet.

Check out the post by Nintendo:

Charles Martinet himself retweeted Nintendo's post with the quote, saying, "My new adventure begins! You are all Numba One in my heart! #woohoo !!!!!!!"

Back in 1991, Charles Martinet got the job of voicing Mario after he auditioned for it at a tradeshow. A friend had advised him that he had to "talk to people as a plumber" in the test.

Charles Martinet began giving the voiceover for Mario at tradeshows itself, for a 3D version of the character present for attendees and delegates.

Charles Martinet’s first video game appearance as Mario was in Mario Teaches Typing (1994). The voiceover artist became popular in Super Mario 64 (1996).

Mario characters voiced by Charles Martinet

Not many know that Charles Martinet has voiced Mario, Baby Mario, as well as his twin brother Luigi. Martinet also voiced other characters like Mario’s arch-rival Wario and Luigi's arch-rival Waluigi. Martinet also did the voiceover for Mario’s variant Metal Mario; Mario’s lookalike and villain Shadow Mario, among other characters.

In 2021, Charles Martinet expressed that he wanted to "voice Mario until I drop dead". Thirty years doing the service is a long time and he is happy to move on to being Mario Ambassador.

Check out his retweet here:

FAQs

Q1:Who is the voice of Mario?
Charles Martinet voiced the character of Nintendo’s Mario character for 30 years. He also voiced Mario’s brother Luigi, and other characters in the video game series.

Q2:When did the first Mario video game come out?
The first Mario video game was released in 1983. The arcade video game was developed and published by Nintendo.