Charles Martinet was born on September 17, 1955, in San Jose, California, USA, as Charles Andre Martinet. An actor and writer, he is best known for voicing numerous characters in Nintendo games, including Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi, from 1991 to 2023.
He voiced many characters in the Super Mario series, Luigi's Mansion series, WarioWare series, Yoshi's Island series, Super Smash Bros series, and more. Martinet also voiced minor characters in the Mario franchise, such as Male Piantas, Isle Delfino Commercial, Big Top, Clawgrip, Tryclyde, Mouser, and Wart. He voiced characters in Super Punch-Out!! (1994) and Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier (1995).
Before working for Nintendo, Martinet voiced characters in Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier (1995) as Pa Conshohocken, Ray Trace, PiTooie, and Coliey Joe, Big Moe, Lar-Man in the Stooge Fighter 3 Mini Game for Sierra-Online company. He later moved on to work on Super Mario 64, a Nintendo 64 game.
Charles Martinet has also made cameo film appearances in Matlock (1989),The Dead Pool (1988),Nine Months (1995),and The Game (1997). He provided character voices for Anastasia (1997) and Beauty and the Beast (1997) by Enchanted Tales.
Initially, Martinet wanted to attend law school and was not interested in voice acting due to his fear of public speaking. However, one of his friends convinced him to pursue a career in voice acting, and he eventually dropped out of law school to focus on acting and voice acting.
He voiced Mario in Mario Teaches Typing (1991) and Super Punch-Out!! (1994). Martinet then voiced characters in Space Quest 6: The Spinal Frontier (1995) and later landed the role of Super Mario in Super Mario 64 in the English version.
Since then, Martinet has voiced characters in various video games, including Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance (1999),Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds (2001),Star Wars: Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002),The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003),The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (2004),Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time (2009),The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011),Dragon Ball Legends (2018),and The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023).
On April 5th, 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) was released, in which Martinet voiced Mario's dad in many languages. He also voiced Giuseppe in nearly every language.
Charles Martinet retired as the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, Baby Mario, and Baby Luigi in the Mario games on August 21st, 2023, and became a Mario Ambassador for Nintendo the same day. His last Nintendo game he worked on before retiring was Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope (2022) as the voice of Mario and Luigi.
