The Real Reason We Don't Hear From Seth Green Anymore
Seth Green is barely into his 40s, but he's been entertaining audiences for more than 30 years. He started as a child actor in the '80s, with work on TV shows like Tales from the Darkside and The Facts of Life and movies such as Can't Buy Me Love and Woody Allen's Radio Days, but he truly became a star in the '90s, when he helped make classics out of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (playing Oz, the budding rock star/teenage werewolf), the Austin Powers movies (as Scott Evil, the temperamental slacker son of the villainous Dr. Evil), and Family Guy (providing the voice of true idiot Chris Griffin). In the late '90s and early 2000s, it seemed like Green was in every cool thing that came out...but he's been missed lately. Here's what he's been up to in recent years.
He's very occupied with Robot Chicken
Stop-motion animation is extremely grueling, detail-oriented, time-intensive work. But it's a labor of love for Green, who's been churning out episodes of Robot Chicken on Adult Swim for more than a decade. He writes, produces, directs, animates, and voice-acts on the show, for which he's won two Emmy Awards. It's basically a sketch comedy show riffing on and making fun of movies, TV, superheroes, comics, and cartoons via very short stop-motion and clay animation sketches, although Green has spearheaded episode-long theme episodes, such as ones targeting DC Comics villains and Star Wars. In 2016, the show won the award for Outstanding Short Form Animated Program for its 2015 Christmas special, beating juggernauts such as Adventure Time, SpongeBob SquarePants, and Steven Universe.
Listen closely and you just might recognize his voice
While a lot of actors supplement their career with voice work, or fall back on it when offers for onscreen roles aren't as plentiful, Green has done a ton of voice acting—starting when he was a teenager, on the syndicated cartoon Karate Kat. He of course has provided his chops to hundreds of characters on his show Robot Chicken, creating original characters and imitating celebrities, not to mention recording more than 200 episodes of Family Guy since 1999. He's got an impressive vocal résumé, in other words, and he's highly sought after. Green has taken over for Bradley Cooper as the voice of Rocket Raccoon for Marvel's animated TV properties, such as for episodes of Avengers Assemble and Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H. And that memorable Howard the Duck cameo in the post-credits sequence of Guardians of the Galaxy? That was Green. He can also be heard as Michelangelo in Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot.
He's part of an upcoming Star Wars TV series
There's an unaired Star Wars TV series for which more than three dozen episodes have already been produced. Called Star Wars: Detours, it's an animated comedy set in the Star Wars universe. Producers wisely and (probably easily) signed up Green, who's both a notable voice actor and, as the many Star Wars sketches on Robot Chicken prove, a huge fan. The problem with Detours: It's ready to go. According to Green, 39 finished episodes and 62 scripts have been written. But it was made more than five years ago, before LucasFilm was sold to Disney and the decision to make more Star Wars movies was made. Green, who plays none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi in the series, says it's "on hold," but will likely come out now that a couple new Star Wars moves have been released.
His last sitcom was a bomb
He doesn't always behind clay, action figures, and comic book characters. Green did attempt to return to regular live-action acting work in 2013, starring on Fox's three-camera sitcom Dads. Created by two writers from one of Green's other shows, Family Guy, and produced by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, Dads was largely loathed by critics. The series, about two friends who run a video game company and take in their elderly fathers, was called a "racist, sexist, unfunny disgrace" by BuzzFeed, and "the worst new comedy of the fall" by E! Online. Audiences stayed away, too—it finished the 2013-14 season at #80 in the ratings. It performed so poorly that Fox cut back its initial order of 22 episodes to 19...before canceling it entirely.
He helps make other cartoons
In addition to appearing in live-action projects, giving voice to animated characters, and controlling the Robot Chicken universe, Green also helps other people get their pet projects made—for example, he's an executive producer on SuperMansion. Sort of like a geriatric The Awesomes meets a comic Watchmen, it's a stop-motion animated series about the League of Freedom, a once-mighty superhero collective whose members are now quite old and not quite as powerful. Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad stars as the voice of the Superman-like Titanium Rex, and Keegan-Michael Key of Key & Peele is the ultra-patriotic American Ranger. Green's production company Stoopid Monkey makes the episodes, which are distributed on Sony's Crackle streaming service. Green also has a recurring role as one of the series' (and real life's) biggest bad guys: Adolf Hitler.
He created and produces a wrestling cartoon for the WWE
Green is a big pro wrestling fan, having once hosted the Slammy Awards and the 1,000th episode of WWE Raw. That, and his many years making Robot Chicken, made Green the right guy for WWE chairman Vince McMahon to approach when he had an idea for an animated series to run on the WWE Network. The concept was so bizarre, it actually worked: Camp WWE. It's set at a summer camp, where McMahon is naturally the director, and WWE stars past and present are counselors and campers alike—except they're also little kids. Green created the show and produces it, but he doesn't provide any voice work. Seasoned industry vets were hired, although the kid versions of some of the wrestlers are portrayed by the wrestlers themselves, including Sgt. Slaughter and Ric Flair.
He got married
In 2007, Green was signing autographs for an event at Golden Apple Comics in Los Angeles while Clare Grant, a filmmaker and actress who's also part of the web video collective Team Unicorn, was there to take photographs. They met again at Comic-Con and realized how much they had in common—they liked the same geeky TV shows, comic books, and toys, and put in the same elaborate order at In-N-Out Burger. Green says they really fell in love during a two-week Robot Chicken touring roadshow. They had their wedding in May 2010, followed by a reception at which each table was covered in action figures.
What's next for Seth Green
Green seems to be content, and rightfully so, cranking out Robot Chicken and Family Guy until somebody tells him not to anymore and still getting out in front of the camera on occasion. For example, he's about to be a part of one of the biggest comedy and biographical movies of the year: he's in the cast of David Wain's A Futile & Stupid Gesture, the story of the highly influential National Lampoon magazine in the '70s (particularly co-founder Doug Kenney), and the generation of comedy stars it created. Fittingly, the cast is stocked with today's generation of comedy stars, including Will Forte as Kenney, Joel McHale as Chevy Chase, and Seth Green as Christopher Guest.