Career
Harnell's professional career began in 1987.1 Among his earliest significant contributions was work for the Walt Disney Company in 1989: he provided the voices of Br'er Rabbit and numerous other characters for the Splash Mountain attraction at Disneyland Park, and became the singing voice of the father in the updated version of Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress at Walt Disney World.1 The following year, in 1990, he served as casting director on DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp.1
His breakthrough in animation came with the premiere of Animaniacs in 1993.1 Harnell voiced Wakko Warner, one of the three central Warner siblings, initially developing a John Lennon-inspired voice before adjusting it to model the character on Ringo Starr, producing a higher-pitched Scouse accent suited to Wakko's smaller stature.3 He reprised the role when the series was revived on Hulu from 2020 to 2023.1 He also voiced Walter Wolf, a recurring villain in the series.1
From 1998, Harnell became widely recognizable to mainstream American audiences as the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos, a role he has continued to hold.1 He also voiced Hunter in the animated series Road Rovers (1996), Captain Hero in Drawn Together (2004-2007), and Cedric the Sorcerer in Sofia the First (2013-2018).1
In video games, Harnell voiced the title character in the Crash Bandicoot franchise from 2005 to 2020, Spyro the Dragon in Spyro: A Hero's Tail (2004), and Wooton Bassett in the long-running Christian radio drama Adventures in Odyssey.1 He also voiced Ki-Adi Mundi and Darth Maul in several Star Wars video games, and Dr. Finkelstein in The Nightmare Before Christmas: Oogie's Revenge (2004) and the Kingdom Hearts series.1
In the Transformers live-action film series directed by Michael Bay, Harnell voiced Ironhide, the Autobot weapons specialist, across the first three films (2007, 2009, 2011).1 He was notably the only cast member in the 2007 film to voice two distinct characters, also providing the voice of the Decepticon Barricade, making him unique in portraying both an Autobot and a Decepticon within the same film.1
Harnell received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Performer in an Animated Program for his work on Pet Alien.1
Outside of voice acting, Harnell is the lead vocalist of the rock band Rock Sugar, which performs mashups combining classic heavy metal instrumentals with 1980s pop song lyrics.1
Ghostbusters
Extreme Ghostbusters
Harnell appeared as a guest voice actor on Extreme Ghostbusters, the 1997 animated continuation of the Ghostbusters franchise. He performed in the episode Casting the Runes.
Personal life
Harnell proposed to Cara Leanne on November 8, 2019, and the two married on November 19, 2019.1
References
Some content on this page was researched using the Ghostbusters Wiki on Fandom.
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"Jess Harnell," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jess_Harnell.
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"Joe Harnell," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Harnell. Joe Harnell received an Emmy nomination for the 1983 miniseries V, among other television scoring work across the 1970s to 1990s.
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"Yakko, Wakko, and Dot," Wikipedia, accessed 2026-06-13, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakko,_Wakko,_and_Dot. "He speaks with a Scouse accent that Harnell explicitly modeled after Ringo Starr (initially Harnell created a John Lennon-esque voice for Wakko until he saw that the character was short, so he just raised the pitch)."
