Nolan North

Nolan Ramsey North (born October 31, 1970) is an American actor who has been described as "the nearest thing the games industry has to a bona fide leading man." His voice work includes characters such as Nathan Drake from the Uncharted series; Desmond Miles from the Assassin's Creed video game series; Penguin in Batman: Arkham City, Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Knight; Cpt. Martin Walker in Spec Ops: The Line; David in The Last of Us; Deadpool in several pieces of media, and himself in Saints Row IV. Life and career North was born in New Haven, Connecticut. He majored in journalism at the University of North Carolina with a baseball scholarship. He worked as a reporter for almost a year in New Jersey before moving to New York City to pursue stand-up comedy and acting. North eventually relocated to Hollywood and was cast in the General Hospital spin-off series Port Charles, playing Dr. Chris Ramsey during the show's run from 1997 to 2003. He married fellow Port Charles actress Jill Murray in 1999 and has two children. During Port Charles' run, he worked on a few video games as a voice actor and began to focus on voice acting following Port Charles' cancellation. One of his most notable roles came in 2007 when he voiced and motion capped the character Nathan Drake for the video game Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. Since then, he has continued to portray the character in Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (released in 2009) and Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception (released in 2011). In an interview with The Guardian, North reflects on his time as Drake as requiring "a lot of imagination. Motion capture is basically theatre in Spandex; there's minimal props, and you need a willingness to make an ass of yourself." North as Drake has been twice nominated at the Spike Video Game Awards in the "Best Performance by a Human Male" category. North will reprise his role as Drake in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, to be released in 2016. North had a role in Star Trek Into Darkness, the sequel to 2009's live-action movie Star Trek. Director J. J. Abrams cited North's performance as Drake for the casting, he and his son being fans of the Uncharted series.