Rosearik Rikki Simons

Rosearik Rikki Allen Simons (born September 8, 1970) is an American voice actor, writer, cartoonist, and animator. He is best known as the voice of GIR in the Nickelodeon animated series, Invader Zim. Simons has also written a number of novels and comic series, often working with his wife, Tavisha Wolfgarth-Simons. Biography Invader Zim and other voice work Simons was the color designer for the animated TV show Invader Zim, and also voiced the robot character GIR. Show creator Jhonen Vasquez wanted someone with no experience in voice acting to play GIR, to reflect how broken and messed up the character is. Vasquez was disappointed with actors who auditioned for GIR, saying they were "good actors" who just did a "stock crazy robot voice". Simons was Vasquez's friend and was working on I Feel Sick with him, and he asked him to try to audition for GIR, saying he "couldn't screw it up anymore than anyone else". Simons did a few different voices for his audition for GIR, including one where he was trying to imitate his mother-in-law, but decided it was too "shrieky". He then remembered when he used to play with hand puppets with his father as a kid and tried to do one of those voices. Vasquez said he gave Simons the part of GIR because he was "bad at it", and that fit the character. When voicing GIR, Simons' voice was edited to make it sound higher-pitched and metallic. While Simons eventually learned to perform the voice without the high-pitch editing, the metallic quality still had to be added. Unedited versions of Simons' voice-overs can be heard in voice recordings for the unfinished episodes.