Whatever Happened To The Actor Who Played Kitten Smith In Starship Troopers?
Paul Verhoeven's 1997 adaptation of the 1959 novel "Starship Troopers" is a sci-fi classic. Taking its source material and spinning it into a satire of fascism is a move that has only gained the filmmaker more recognition in the decades since. Misunderstood at the time, "Starship Troopers" has grown to be a cult classic with tons of fans who know every line like the backs of their hands. Said diehards will certainly remember Kitten Smith — of all the soldiers who meet their demise fighting the Arachnids, Smith's death is the most tragic.
Despite being a bit of a meathead, Kitten Smith has aspirations to have a career outside of the military. He never sees that day. While his end is definitive, "Starship Troopers" fans might be wondering what happened to the actor who played Kitten Smith. For this, we've got you covered.
The character of Kitten Smith is played by Matt Levin, a Los Angeles native with an impressive list of acting credits that began well before "Starship Troopers" came out in 1997. Levin's career began in TV, where he had appearances on such '80s hits as "The Wonder Years" and "Doogie Howser, M.D." He continued showing up in tiny roles on TV and movies through the '90s, but it wasn't until 1996 that he finally got cast in Verhoeven's star-studded sci-fi blockbuster.
Matt Levin played Kitten Smith in Starship Troopers
You'll likely remember Kitten Smith as an enthusiastic aspiring writer. In one especially funny sequence of "Starship Troopers," he can be found interviewing fellow cadets while they shower. But sadly, his aspirations are cut short amid an intergalactic war. RIP Kitten.
When he was cast to play Kitten Smith in "Starship Troopers," Levin assuredly knew he was stepping into the biggest role of his career thus far. This was only his third time in a theatrical film, and the sci-fi movie was on a whole other level than anything he had appeared in before. Coming off nearly half a decade of playing one-off parts in long-forgotten TV dramas, the possibilities being in a Verhoeven film opened up to the actor were massive.
What he probably didn't foresee was that the satire of "Starship Troopers" would be lost on much of the audience, resulting in the movie underperforming at the box office. There is a world where "Starship Troopers" skyrocketed the profiles of its cast and led Levin on the path to becoming a Hollywood leading man, but we don't live in it. Instead, Levin took a modest path through some of the biggest TV cartoons and video games of the 2000s in a fascinating and varied career.
That same year Levin was also in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager
Speaking of sci-fi, Levin got to play a role in one of the other big space adventures of 1997, which was made on a completely different scale. Experiencing a revival after the success of "The Next Generation," "Star Trek" was back in full force by the late '90s with film spin-offs and new TV shows getting the greenlight like there was no tomorrow. In 1995, off the back of "The Next Generation," a new series starring Kate Mulgrew, "Star Trek: Voyager," was brought into the world.
Levin made an appearance in a Season 4 episode that aired in the fall of 1997. In "Nemesis" — no relation to 2002's "Star Trek: Nemesis" – Chakotay (Robert Beltran) is captured by the Vori, a human-like race who are engaged in constant war with their nemeses, the Kradin. Levin plays a young Vori named Rafin who acts as a guide for both Chakotay and the viewer in order to set up the episode's central conflict. He isn't given too much time to shine beyond giving some heartfelt exposition, though, as the character gets slaughtered before we reach the halfway point of this episode.
Matt Levin did voice work alongside Ben Affleck and Matt Damon
After "Starship Troopers," Levin's already-active voice-acting career got a significant bump in the early 2000s. Between 2000 and 2002, he was in two star-studded animated films, where he acted alongside big names, including Boston boys Matt Damon and Ben Affleck.
"Prince of Egypt" might be an animated classic, but you very likely have not heard of its direct-to-video prequel starring Ben Affleck as Joseph in a retelling of the Book of Genesis. In "Joseph: King of Dreams," Levin plays Joseph's brother Benjamin, who plays a big role in the final act of the story. The movie also stars voice-acting legend Mark Hamill as Judah.
Two years later, Levin wound up voice-acting in a film with the other half of the dynamic duo in "Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron." Starring Matt Damon as the voice of the horse Spirit, this frontier western takes place in the late 19th century and tells a simple, but poignant, story about the American Indian Wars. In the Oscar-nominated film, Levin plays Joe, one of the antagonistic human wranglers who captures Spirit and send him to a U.S. army fort to kick off the story.
He had minor roles in 2000s Ben Stiller comedies Zoolander and Dodgeball
The decade following his involvement in "Starship Troopers" was the most active Levin ever was as an actor, both on-screen and in the voice-over booth. Levin would go on to work with comedian Ben Stiller numerous times. As far as we can tell, this relationship which began as early 2001 when Levin was cast in a small role as Archie in "Zoolander."
Throughout the decade, Levin would go on to take similar-sized roles as a casino employee in "Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story" in 2004 and a cameraperson in the mockumentary "Tropic Thunder." Clearly, by 2007, Levin had it in with the big names in comedy at the time, since he also appeared in "Blades of Glory" that very year. While certain aspects of these movies might not hold up the best today, these were undeniably some of the biggest and funniest comedies of the 2000s.
Levin was a regular video game voice actor and voiced an iconic Star Wars character
Levin has been voice-acting for video games since the '90s, appearing in such licensed games as "Goosebumps: Attack of the Mutant" in 1997 and "Animorphs: Know the Secret" in 2000. Levin's first game credit is actually not a voice-only performance — he appeared in the 1992 full-motion video dating game "Girl's Club." It wasn't until 2001 that he landed the role that broke his career path in gaming wide open.
Hardly anybody remembers the 2001 Xbox game "Star Wars: Obi-Wan." This lack of recognition is due in part to the game being an original Xbox exclusive and mostly to it just not being a very fun game according to the GameSpot review. For Levin, though, voicing Anakin Skywalker was a pretty big deal. Even if we hadn't seen the character's fall to the dark side on screen yet, we knew that guy was basically Darth Vader. So technically Levin got to play one of the most iconic villains of all time twice. That's right, he reprised his role as Anakin in the 2002 "Clone Campaigns" expansion pack for the PC game "Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds."
These games were far from hits, but this upped Levin's profile quite a bit, helping him land roles on big network cartoons and major video game franchises like "Need for Speed" and "World of Warcraft."
His voice-acting resume includes hit cartoons Scooby-Doo, Rugrats, and Teen Titans
Taking on bit parts in even the biggest-budget comedies isn't enough for any actor to make a living. So in the time after "Starship Troopers," Levin was most prolific as a voice actor. Since starting this line of work in the 1990s, he has lent his voice to dozens of cartoons and video games. Throughout the mid-2000s, he could frequently be found voicing a one-off character for one of Cartoon Network's or Nickelodeon's many animated programs.
In the decade that followed his 1997 breakout role, Levin did voices for a variety of popular children's shows. This included one-off tiny roles in episodes of "What's New, Scooby-Doo?," "Rugrats," and "Rocket Power." In the Season 9 "Rugrats" episode Levin made it into, he got to voice two roles: a student and a demonstrator. In an episode of the 2003 "Teen Titans" series, he provided the voice of Sammy, one of Cyborg's delinquent nemeses. Levin appeared in two different episodes of "Samurai Jack": once as Monk B in a Season 3 episode and another time in Season 4, Episode 8, where he voiced Prince Astor of the Lebidoptirans.
Levin's largest recurring role for a TV show of this era was in Cartoon Network's "Codename: Kids Next Door." From 2004 until 2007, he voiced Numbuh 60 in five episodes of the Carton Network show and a TV movie.
He voiced the hero in a forgotten Ghibli film
After over a decade of voice-acting, Levin finally landed himself a leading role in an animated film in 2006. In the English dub of the Studio Ghibli movie "Tales from Earthsea," Levin voiced the movie's young noble protagonist, Prince Arren. A prince on the run, Arren meets the wizard Sparrowhawk (Timothy Dalton in the English dub) and joins him on his quest to rid the land of evil. Unfortunately, the movie was a major letdown for fans and critics.
The first film directed by Hayao Miyazaki's son, Gorō, for the studio, "Tales From Earthsea" was primed for a negative backlash for that reason alone. It didn't help that it was an adaptation of an incredibly rich series of novels written by Ursula K. LeGuin that barely broaches her world, and the author herself openly expressed disdain for the Ghibli take.
While "Earthsea" might not be a fan-favorite Ghibli effort, but at least Levin can rest easy knowing he's in good company. Other Ghibli heroes in English dubs were by huge stars including Kirsten Dunst, Daisy Ridley, Michael Keaton, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Levin would go on to lend his voice to major video game franchises like The Last of Us and Mass Effect
While he's never been a leading man in the games space like Nolan North or Troy Baker, Levin has wound up in some of the highest-rated and most compelling works of multiple console generations. If you'll pardon the pun, Levin has been involved in some real game-changers. Sure, he voiced a couple of characters in "Tony Hawk's Underground" — which gamers and skaters alike will recognize as a series highlight — but we are talking about serious stories here too.
Levin voiced characters in two of gaming's biggest story-based franchises, including a number of NPCs and enemies in Bioware's 2007 space epic "Mass Effect." One of these characters was Clerk Bosker, a Citadel shopkeeper who is part of one of the early game side quests. He also provides the voice of captain Nick Keyes of the SSV Kajin and a Biotic Cultist in both the 2007 original and the 2021 remaster "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition."
In 2013, he was credited with providing additional voices for the original "The Last of Us." Knowing that Levin was likely one of the many talented artists whose piercing screams, yells, and grunts help "The Last of Us" stay as bleak as possible, even during its combat sequences, makes us appreciate him even more. Levin's most recent video game credit was as a voice actor in the 2014 free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena game "Smite."
Levin returned to his TV roots for a period in the early 2010s
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Levin returned to his roots in live-action television for a brief time. This stint included appearances on some high-profile CBS shows beginning in 2009 with a guest spot in "Without a Trace." The next year, Levin returned to the network to play a bit part in an episode of the Patrick Warburton and David Spade sitcom "Rules of Engagement."
During this period, Levin also appeared in different small roles across three different episodes of the short-lived Matthew Perry sitcom "Mr Sunshine." Three times is a lot in this context. For instance, Levin played a background character in one episode and then two episodes later was cast as a different background character. These strange production choices, and limitations, were the least of the reasons "Mr. Sunshine" was canceled after just one season.
Levin married actress Valerie Azlynn
In a general sense, Matt Levin has kept his personal life very private for an actor. In fact, the only reason we know anything about his marriage and family life is because his wife is also an actor. Thankfully for us, Valerie Azlynn is a bit more active on social media than her husband. Azlynn is a prominent TV actress who has shown up in episodes of "How I Met Your Mother," "Ballers," "Two and a Half Men," and "The Big Bang Theory."
A handful of years before getting married, the two were in "Tropic Thunder" together, where they both played small background roles. It's safe to say they could have found love on the battlefield set of this project. Given the private nature of their personal life, we can't confirm this for certain.
According to an Instagram post celebrating their 10-year anniversary in 2021, the two got married in 2011. Since then the couple has adopted at least two dogs, though one of the dogs sadly died in January 2023. Azlynn recently appeared in the Tubi film "Crushed" and in an episode of "NCIS: Los Angeles."
Levin reunited with Ben Stiller to produce The Secret Life of Walter Mitty
In recent years, Levin has taken a step back from acting. Literally, a step back behind the screen. While they may have been friends behind the scenes, it wasn't until 2013 that Levin rekindled his old working relationship with Ben Stiller and served as an associate producer on "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
Levin also played a small part in Stiller's adaptation of James Thurber's classic surrealist story, credited simply as "board meeting guy." Primarily, though, he served as a producer. And it wasn't the first time Levin worked with Stiller in a production capacity.
Levin also worked as supervising producer on the unsold pilot for a show starring Stiller and his wife Christine Taylor. Never making it beyond the title "Untitled Christine Taylor Project," Jane Lynch, Fran Krantz, and the comedian Modi starred opposite Taylor with Stiller behind the camera. Sadly, this one never made it beyond the pilot phase, and Levin's work was cut short.
His most recent credits have been as a TV producer
Levin hasn't done much film work in the last decade. His most recent IMDb credit is for the release of "Mass Effect: Legendary Edition," which is work he did years ago for a game that first came out in 2007.
In the past decade of his career, Levin has steadily settled into production. In 2014, he was a producer on the documentary series "Fatherhood." Levin's biggest project of the 2010s was on the Hank Azaria sitcom "Brockmire." From 2017 to 2020, Levin served as an associate producer on all four seasons of the live-action comedy. He even showed up in front of the camera in a fourth-season guest appearance.
The character of Brockmire (played by Azaria) was originally created for an episode of the Funny or Die web series "Gamechangers." As it turns out Levin was a co-writer alongside Azari on that episode, entitled "A Legend in the Booth," where Brockmire made his first appearance, making him one of the original creators of the character.