Rick and Morty Voice Actors: Who Voices Every Major Character?

Rick and Morty Voice Actors: Who Voices Every Major Character?

The five core Smith family voices are Ian Cardoni as Rick, Harry Belden as Morty, Chris Parnell as Jerry, Spencer Grammer as Summer, and Sarah Chalke as Beth. The split matters because everything through season 6 features Roiland voicing both Rick and Morty, while everything from season 7 forward uses two separate actors for those roles.

CharacterPerformerSeasons/EpisodesRecast?Why the Change MattersOther Recognizable Role
Rick SanchezJustin Roiland (S1-6), then Ian Cardoni (S7-present)YesFollowed Roiland’s January 2023 firingCardoni: WWE, Syfy, Apple TV+ promo work
Morty SmithJustin Roiland (S1-6), then Harry Belden (S7-present)YesSame firing, cast separately from RickBelden: Joe Pera Talks With You, Chicago Med
Jerry SmithChris Parnell (S1-present)NoUntouched by the 2023 shake-upParnell: 30 Rock, Anchorman
Summer SmithSpencer Grammer (S1-present)NoUntouched by the 2023 shake-upGrammer: Greek, Grey’s Anatomy
Beth SmithSarah Chalke (S1-present)NoUntouched by the 2023 shake-upChalke: Scrubs, Roseanne
Mr. PoopybuttholeJustin Roiland (S1-6), then Jon Allen (S7-present)YesConfirms the recast wasn’t limited to the two leadsNot confirmed in available sources

Three of the five core family actors have never been replaced, which is exactly why family dinner scenes still sound consistent even as Rick and Morty’s voices changed underneath them. If Jerry, Summer, and Beth had all shifted at once too, this table would look a lot messier, and so would the show’s tone.

Parnell, Grammer, and Chalke joined the series in its first season and have stayed in place through every subsequent one, including the production overhaul that hit Rick, Morty, and Mr. Poopybutthole. That continuity is part of why longtime fans could clock the Rick and Morty change instantly. Everything else in the room sounded exactly the way it always had.

Rick and Morty Voice Actors Who Voices Every Major Character

Why Was Justin Roiland Replaced as Rick and Morty?

Adult Swim severed ties with Justin Roiland in January 2023 following domestic battery charges against him, and he was also removed from Solar Opposites and Koala Man around the same time. This wasn’t a creative decision by the writers’ room. It was a corporate response to a real legal situation.

The domestic violence charges were later dropped due to insufficient evidence, according to Deadline’s reporting on the case. That’s a legal outcome, not a verdict on the show’s narrative, and reporting says the charges were dropped, not that the underlying allegations were proven false. Adult Swim’s decision to end the relationship happened before that legal resolution, and the studio has not walked that decision back since.

The timing left the production in an unusual spot. Season 7 was already in some stage of development when the split happened, and the studio needed replacement performers who could match Roiland’s specific cadence without turning the transition into a stunt-casting headline.

Why Was Justin Roiland Replaced as Rick and Morty

Who Are Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden? (The New Rick and Morty)

Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden were cast after a nearly six-month search through thousands of candidates, according to the Hollywood Reporter’s account of the process. Cardoni is a Boston native with prior voice credits on WWE, Syfy, and Apple TV+ promotional work. Belden trained at Chicago’s Second City and had voice roles on Joe Pera Talks With You and Chicago Med before landing Morty.

Showrunner Scott Marder has said Rick’s voice was uniquely hard to recast, because most attempts at imitating it end up sounding like Macho Man Randy Savage or a close cousin of his. That anecdote explains both the length of the search and why the production leaned toward vocal precision over stunt casting or star power.

The casting itself stayed secret until season 7 premiered on October 15, 2023, which happened to land in the middle of the SAG-AFTRA strike. Cardoni and Belden were barred from promoting struck work during that window, so the reveal was delayed well past the point where sharp-eared fans had already noticed something was different. Anyone piecing together the Rick and Morty multiverse guide around this period will notice a few heavily fragmented, multiverse-focused stretches landing right around this transition.

Who Are Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden

Which Voice Actor Changes Actually Confuse Viewers? (Real Recasts vs. Multiverse Tricks)

This is where most casting explainers stop being useful, because they never separate the two kinds of “different voice” a viewer might notice.

Real-World Recasts (Confirmed)

Only two roles have been genuinely recast for real-world reasons: Rick and Morty (now Cardoni and Belden) and Mr. Poopybutthole (now Jon Allen). Both changes trace directly to Roiland’s January 2023 departure. Neither is a story device. Both are ordinary, if high-profile, Hollywood personnel changes.

In-Universe Voice “Changes” That Are Not Recasts

Rick Prime, Evil Morty, and the various alternate-dimension Jerrys and Beths are still voiced by the current core cast. What changes is affect and dialogue choice, not the person behind the microphone. The show is intentionally making its own continuity slippery here, since a multiverse premise means infinite versions of any character can exist without ever needing a new actor.

Confirmed multiverse mechanics, like a new Rick or Morty replacing the “main” one after a death, are a different thing entirely from fan theories that try to match every vocal quirk to a specific parallel dimension. The show itself has never confirmed those granular mappings. A shift in a character’s tone within a single episode is a performance choice by the same actor, not evidence of a hidden recast, unless Adult Swim or the production team has officially named a new performer.

Viewers chasing this distinction often end up down a rabbit hole comparing specific Rick variants across seasons, trying to decide if a colder delivery means a different dimension entirely. It usually just means Cardoni is playing a meaner version of the same guy.

Which Voice Actor Changes Actually Confuse Viewers

Who Voices the Recurring and Supporting Rick and Morty Characters?

The supporting cast is stable, with veteran voice actors like Rob Paulsen and Jess Harnell handling recurring roles that have never been recast.

CharacterPerformerStatusRecast?Other Recognizable Role
Mr. GoldenfoldBrandon JohnsonRecurringNoNTSF:SD:SUV, American Dad
Principal VaginaPhil HendrieRecurringNoKing of the Hill, The Phil Hendrie Show
Snuffles/SnowballRob PaulsenRecurringNoTMNT (Raphael, Donatello), Animaniacs
Scary TerryJess HarnellRecurringNoTransformers, Cars franchise
Frank Palicky/Lighthouse KeeperRyan RidleyRecurring, S1-3 writer and VANoCommunity, Ghosted (writer)
Jessica/Cynthia/Mother GaiaKari WahlgrenRecurringNoExtensive video game and animation VO work

Roiland himself voiced most of the show’s one-off aliens and background characters through season 6. That’s the detail people miss when they call his exit a “two character” problem: it was actually a massive line count problem, spread across nearly every corner of the multiverse the show had built by that point.

Paulsen and Harnell in particular bring decades of animation experience to roles that rarely get discussed alongside the Rick and Morty recast news, but their consistency is part of why the supporting cast never became part of the 2023 story.

Were Any Other Rick and Morty Characters Recast Besides Rick and Morty?

Yes. Mr. Poopybutthole moved from Justin Roiland to Jon Allen starting in season 7, and that is the only other confirmed named-character recast tied to the 2023 change. No other publicly confirmed recast of a named recurring character has happened as of the show’s most recent season, so if you’ve seen a claim about a different character being swapped out, treat it as unverified until Adult Swim or the production says otherwise.

Were Any Other Rick and Morty Characters Recast Besides Rick and Morty

Rick and Morty Voice Actor Recast Timeline

DateEvent
2013Series premieres. Roiland voices Rick, Morty, and most side characters. Parnell, Grammer, and Chalke join as Jerry, Summer, and Beth.
January 2023Adult Swim ends its relationship with Roiland following domestic battery charges.
March 2023Charges against Roiland are dropped.
October 15, 2023Season 7 premieres. Ian Cardoni, Harry Belden, and Jon Allen are confirmed as replacements for Rick, Morty, and Mr. Poopybutthole.
2024-presentCardoni and Belden continue in the roles through subsequent seasons, with no further lead recasts confirmed.

What Other Roles Are Rick and Morty’s Voice Actors Known For?

Every core cast member besides the two newest hires built their name on other shows long before this one. That recognition factor is exactly why “wait, I know that voice” moments happen so often with this cast.

Chris Parnell built his profile through Saturday Night Live-adjacent comedy work and has a long-running role on 30 Rock, plus a memorable turn in Anchorman. Spencer Grammer led the college dramedy Greek and has appeared on Grey’s Anatomy. Sarah Chalke spent nearly a decade as Dr. Elliot Reid on Scrubs and also had a recurring role on the Roseanne revival.

Ian Cardoni’s pre-Rick resume includes voice work for WWE, Syfy, and Apple TV+ promotional campaigns. Harry Belden appeared on Joe Pera Talks With You and Chicago Med before this role. Roiland’s other notable pre-2023 credit worth knowing is the Earl of Lemongrab on Adventure Time, a role that shares more than a little DNA with Rick’s unhinged energy.

Is Justin Roiland Still Involved With Rick and Morty At All?

Roiland no longer performs any voice work on the show as of season 7, but he and his production company retain a credit, based on Wikipedia’s summary of the show’s current production credits. That dual status, removed from performing but still credited, is exactly the kind of detail that fuels confusion in search results, and it deserves to be stated plainly rather than buried in a footnote.

The distinction matters for anyone trying to figure out royalty or ownership questions too. A production credit is a business and legal arrangement. It has nothing to do with who you hear when Rick opens his mouth in a current episode.

FAQ

Rick and Morty voice actors: who voices every major character?

Ian Cardoni voices Rick, Harry Belden voices Morty, Chris Parnell voices Jerry, Spencer Grammer voices Summer, and Sarah Chalke voices Beth. Recurring characters are split among a stable group including Rob Paulsen, Jess Harnell, Phil Hendrie, Brandon Johnson, and Kari Wahlgren. Justin Roiland voiced Rick, Morty, and most side characters through season 6 before Adult Swim ended its relationship with him.

Is Justin Roiland still voicing Rick and Morty?

No. Roiland has not voiced Rick, Morty, Mr. Poopybutthole, or any other character since Adult Swim cut ties with him in January 2023. Ian Cardoni and Harry Belden took over the two lead roles starting with season 7. Roiland and his production company reportedly still hold a production credit on the show, even though he no longer performs.

Was the Rick and Morty recast real, or is that a fan theory?

It’s real. Rick, Morty, and Mr. Poopybutthole were genuinely recast starting in season 7, following Justin Roiland’s January 2023 firing over domestic battery charges that were later dropped. That’s separate from fan theories claiming that Evil Morty or Rick Prime use different actors within the show’s fiction, which is not accurate. Those in-universe characters are voiced by the same current cast, just with different performance choices.

Who plays Mr. Poopybutthole now?

Jon Allen took over Mr. Poopybutthole starting in season 7, replacing Justin Roiland after Adult Swim ended its relationship with him in January 2023. Mr. Poopybutthole is the only other named character besides Rick and Morty confirmed to have been recast during that transition. No other recurring characters have been publicly confirmed as recast since.

Why does Rick sound different between seasons?

Rick sounds different starting in season 7 because Ian Cardoni replaced Justin Roiland as his voice actor. Roiland voiced Rick through season 6, and Adult Swim ended its relationship with him in January 2023 following domestic battery charges that were later dropped. Any tonal shifts within a single season, by contrast, are performance choices from the same actor, not a hidden recast.

The Short Version

Real-world recasts on this show are rare, confirmed by name, and traceable to one event: Adult Swim cutting ties with Justin Roiland in January 2023. That single decision reshaped Rick, Morty, and Mr. Poopybutthole, while leaving Jerry, Summer, and Beth completely untouched. Everything else you might notice, a colder Rick Prime, a glitchier Evil Morty, a Jerry from some far-flung dimension, is the multiverse doing exactly what it was built to do: create infinite variation without ever touching the credits.

The one rule worth keeping in your back pocket is this: a name change confirmed by Adult Swim or the production team means a real recast, and anything short of that is just the show playing with its own premise. Once you have Cardoni, Belden, and the rest of the current lineup straight, the more interesting rabbit hole is the story itself, and a Rick and Morty watch order guide is the natural next stop for making sense of what the multiverse mechanics actually mean for these characters going forward.


Emily Sanderson
Emily Sanderson

Emily Sanderson writes about cold cases and 90s sitcom reboots for Bamfuzzle. She reads the Wikipedia talk page before the article, and she has a running list of shows that got cut for syndication and never got their scenes back.