Carlos Alazraqui

A prolific voice-over actor, Carlos Alazraqui has been involved in a multitude of animated productions. An Argentine-American who began performing stand-up comedy in his youth, Alazraqui got his voice-acting career off the ground when he was selected to portray the title character on the animated show "Rocko's Modern Life" (Nickelodeon, 1993-96). During the late 1990s, he also snagged the commercial gig of providing the speaking voice for the Taco Bell Chihuahua, a stint that enjoyed massive popularity for a few years. This opened the voice-work floodgates, with Alazraqui contributing to dozens of animated TV series. In 2003, he finally won a regular on-screen part, appearing as one of the bumbling cops on "Reno 911!" (Comedy Central, 2003-09). His sitcom run didn't get in the way of his voice-over work, though, and he went on to play the lead on "Camp Lazlo!" (Cartoon Network, 2005-08), among a slew of other animated characters. Given Alazraqui's convincing way with almost any accent, he has remained constantly in demand in the world of animation.

Raised in California, Alazraqui started appearing on comedy stages during his college years in Sacramento, eventually moving to San Francisco and then Los Angeles to further his performing career. In 1993, he landed the plum job of voicing Rocko, the main wallaby protagonist of the Nickelodeon show "Rocko's Modern Life" and from then on, the animated world was his cartoon oyster. Dabbling in video games and commercials, Alazraqui found surprise success as the voice of the inescapable Taco Bell Chihuahua. His fast-food obligations didn't hinder his animation work, however, with recurring roles on shows such as "CatDog" (Nickelodeon, 1998-2005) and "The Fairly OddParents" (Nickelodeon, 2001- ). Only occasionally appearing in front of the camera outside of his steady part as Deputy James Garcia on "Reno 911!," Alazraqui voiced the scouting spider monkey Lazlo and other characters on "Camp Lazlo!," and typically was featured in at least a dozen cartoons during any given year. Sometimes lending his voice to shows for younger kids, including "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" (Nick Jr., 2006-2010) and "Handy Manny" (Disney Channel/Playhouse Disney/Disney Junior, 2006- ), Alazraqui later had a rare feature-film role as El Chupacabra in the Disney animated aviation tale "Planes" (2013).