This article is about the actor. For the character from a one-shot campaign, see Travis Willingham (character). For the vampire from "Critical Role One-Shot: Thursday by Night" (Sx24) and "Critical Role One-Shot: Thursday by Night – Part 2" (Sx25), see Travis Willingham (vampire).
“
I would like to RAGE!
”
Travis Willingham is a voice actor, a member of the main cast of Critical Role, and the CEO of Critical Role Productions LLC. He plays Chetney Pock O'Pea in Campaign Three.
In previous campaigns, Travis played Grog Strongjaw and Fjord. He played Bertrand Bell at the start of Campaign Three. Travis was also the Dungeon Master for "Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot" (Sx26).
Contents
- 1 Critical Role Productions
- 1.1 Pre-Stream
- 1.2 Main Campaigns
- 1.3 Chief Executive Officer
- 1.4 Player Characters
- 1.4.1 Main Campaigns
- 1.4.2 One-Shots and Miniseries
- 1.5 Games Played as Dungeon Master
- 2 Other Works
- 3 Personal Life
- 4 Trivia
- 5 External Links
- 6 References
Critical Role Productions[]
Pre-Stream[]
Matthew Mercer's Pathfinder campaign, which evolved into Critical Role, was Travis's first time playing a pen-and-paper RPG.[1] Travis chose to be a goliath barbarian because he wanted to be a big character that liked to drink and fight a lot.[2] He agreed to play for Liam O'Brien's birthday and had no idea the game would become an ongoing campaign, let alone a publicly streamed one.
Laura Bailey, Travis' wife, played Vex'ahlia in the first campaign. During a session, the party encountered a room full of traps. Travis, as Grog, slapped Trinket's behind, sending Vex's beloved companion charging through the traps and suffering significant damage. Travis didn't realize how upset Laura would be or how attached she was to her imaginary bear, and she allegedly made Travis sleep on the couch that night when they went home.[3][4][5]
Main Campaigns[]
Travis's frequent use of the phrase "I would like to rage" became an early and long-standing catchphrase for Grog and for all of Critical Role. It inspired multiple works of fan-made art and apparel. Other notable quotes include "I have an intelligence of 6; I know what I'm doing."[6] Travis often played Grog's low intelligence for comedic effect, such as when he tried haggling with a merchant in Vasselheim and ended up trading the merchant more than was asked.[7] When asked which Campaign One character he would prefer to play besides Grog, Travis jokingly said he would be Trinket.
Travis made the first roll of Campaign Two and rolled a natural 20.[8]
Travis wanted his Campaign Three character to join the party a little later in the story, but Matt wanted to have Travis at the table from the beginning. When given the option to create a new character to play during the campaign's first sessions, Travis chose to play Bertrand Bell, who he had created for "The Search For Grog" (Sx42). When they discussed the manner of Bertrand's exit from the campaign, Travis pitched a "grim end" for him, though he agreed that he wouldn't know when or how it was going to happen.[9]
Chief Executive Officer[]
Travis became the CEO of Critical Role Productions LLC when the company was incorporated in 2015 after splitting from Geek & Sundry. He often appears in State of the Role announcements alongside creative director Marisha Ray and chief creative officer Matthew Mercer.
Player Characters[]
See also: Player characters played by Travis Willingham
Main Campaigns[]
- Grog Strongjaw, goliath barbarian (Path of the Berserker)/fighter (Battle Master) (Campaign One: Vox Machina)
- Fjord, half-orc warlock (The Hexblade, Pact of the Blade)/paladin (Oath of the Open Sea) (Campaign Two: The Mighty Nein)
- Bertrand Bell, human fighter (Campaign Three: Bells Hells)
- Chetney Pock O'Pea, gnome blood hunter (Order of the Lycan)/rogue (Campaign Three: Bells Hells)
Grog Strongjaw[art 3]
Fjord[art 4]
Bertrand Bell[art 5]
Chetney Pock O'Pea[art 6]
One-Shots and Miniseries[]
- Sydney Hopkins Trivelpiece, rakshasa ("Deadlands One-Shot" (Sx11))
- Travis Willingham (character), human fighter ("Liam's Quest!" (Sx12) and "Liam's Quest: Full Circle" (Sx16))
- Tarvis, half-orc rogue ("The Screw Job" (Sx15))
- Skak Scar-Artist, goblin ("Shadow of War One-Shot: Part 1" (Sx22) and "Part 2" (Sx23))
- Travis Willingham (vampire), vampire ("Thursday by Night: Part 1" (Sx24) and "Part 2" (Sx25))
- Lokhor Windfallow, paladin ("Kobolds, Catacombs and Dragons (Oh My!)" (Sx29))
- Lawrence Lorelei, human blood hunter ("Liam's One Shot: The Song of the Lorelei" (Sx36))
- Goober, raccoon ("Crash Pandas: Too Trashed, Too Curious" (Sx37))
- Bunder, human sorcerer ("Critical Role and the Club of Misfits" (Sx38))
- Chutney Chocolatecane, Christmas elf rogue ("The Night Before Critmas" (Sx41))
- Bertrand Bell, human fighter ("The Search For Grog" (Sx42) and "The Search For Bob" (Sx45))
- Captain Bentley Badger, butler and ex-british cavalry ("Call of Cthulhu: Shadow of the Crystal Palace" (Sx46))
- Reverend Mason, ("UnDeadwood")
- Macaroni Samsonite, halfling cleric ("The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade" (Sx49))
- Cameron Garrett, gunnery sergeant ("The Nautilus Ark: A Johnson Corp Odyssey" (Sx60))
- Dewey D. Duty ("Tiny Tina's Wonderlands One-Shot" (Sx66))
- Cerrit Agrupnin (Exandria Unlimited: Calamity)
- Sprinkle, crimson weasel ("A Familiar Problem: Sprinkle's Incredible Journey" (Sx68))
- Nathaniel Trapp, journalist (Candela Obscura, Chapter 2)
- Kexon Peros ("Critical Role plays Daggerheart" (Sx83))
Travis Willingham[art 8]
Tarvis[art 9]
Vampire Travis Willingham[art 10]
Lawrence Lorelei[art 11]
Goober[art 12]
Bunder[art 13]
Chutney Chocolatecane[art 14]
Bertrand Bell[art 15]
Reverend Mason[art 16]
Macaroni Samsonite[art 17]
Cameron Garrett[art 18]
Cerrit Agrupnin[art 19]
Nathaniel Trapp[art 20]
Kexon Peros[art 21]
Games Played as Dungeon Master[]
- "Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot" (Sx26)
Other Works[]
→ See also: Travis' IMDb profile
Travis began working in voice acting in the early 2000s by providing additional voices on Dragon Ball Z. His career took off after he portrayed Roy Mustang in Fullmetal Alchemist. He has since went on to voice numerous characters in television and video games, such as Knuckles the Echidna from the Sonic franchise and Thor in multiple Marvel video games and animated projects.
Personal Life[]
Travis is a big fan of the Dallas Cowboys and played football when he was younger. He credits his love of sports to his father, who he lost to cancer in his teenage years. His younger brother is active in the american military, which led Travis to his involvement with the Operation Supply Drop charity.[10]
Travis and Laura met through commercials and television during their college years. They briefly dated, then reconnected a few years later when Laura moved to Los Angeles, where Travis had moved earlier to pursue an acting career. They got married in 2011.[11]
In "Critical Role: Grog's One-Shot" (Sx26) that aired on 30 November 2017, Travis featured a green man (Fjord) and a blue lady (Jester)[12] with a baby,[13] alluding to Ronin.[14] Hours before the livestream of "The Gates of Zadash" (2x08), Laura tweeted a D&D character sheet for "Baby Willingham", announcing her pregnancy.[15] On June 28 2018, 4 hours before the livestream of "Divergent Paths" (2x25), Laura gave birth to her and Travis's son, Ronin. [16]
Travis has a tattoo on the inside of his arm of Nordic runics meaning "for worth" or "worthy" in reference to Thor, a character he portrayed numerous times.[17]
Trivia[]
- Travis ties Liam for most player characters, with a total of 18.
- Every Halloween, the cast of Critical Role dresses up in costume for one episode. Travis has dressed up as Helga, the angry tavern wench (2015), Sylas Briarwood (2016), Joel Miller (2017), Bargain Bin Cowboy (2018), Two-Face (2019), Orly Skiffback (2020), Sam Riegel (2021), Wolverine (2022), and Aragorn (2023).
- Travis is 6'4" tall.[18]
- Travis is known for his fear of horror and other spooky things. One of the rewards for The Legend of Vox Machina kickstarter involved him walking through a haunted house, with a camera filming all of his reactions.[19]
- During Marisha and Matt's engagement event Travis played a monster that the former had to stab with a glowing knife. However, apparently there was a mishap with the game's props, and Travis almost ended up getting stabbed by a sharper than expected knife.[20]
- To help him roleplay Fjord's sailor backstory, Travis filled a binder with information like ship terminology, types of knots and sailing terms separated by alphabetical dividers. The binder is labelled "Idiot's Guide to Sailing".[21]
- Travis and Laura play "Rollies" with their son Ronin at home, and the kid won his dad handily when they played the day before "The Apogee Solstice" (3x51) was recorded.[22]
- When asked about one of his favourite moments in Critical Role Travis chose having the chance to ask his wife for a kiss while playing their characters in Campaign Two, Fjord and Jester. Laura confirmed that she had never seen her husband blush so much as he did after that moment.[23]
- Travis' chosen drink for his Between the Sheets interview was an old fashioned.
- About his role in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity, Travis said, "I'm a pretty stonewalled player. I'm not the most emotional at the table. I certainly haven't been over the past seven years but it cracked through in a way that I was not anticipating. ... I was just a wreck. It was a crazy thing being that vulnerable at the table."[24]
- Travis has explained that he tends to start his character's building with an item.[25] Examples of this are Fjord (that came from forearm bracer greaves) and Cerrit (that came from his weapons, the hawks).
- On Talks Machina, the host Brian Wayne Foster liked to "#ThankMyGuests" with names that were either mispronounced or wordplay that sounded close to the original. Here are the names for Travis Willingham:
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External Links[]
- Critical Role's Travis Willingham: I'm gonna rearrange your fa–ooh shiny! (October 8, 2015)
- Critical Role's Travis Willingham: Where you've heard him before (February 24, 2016)
- Between the Sheets: Travis Willingham (September 26, 2018)
- IMDb profile
References[]
Matthew Mercer (@matthewmercer) on Twitter: "A little look under the hood for Ep 3... #CriticalRoleSpoilers . . . . . . Sooooo that was fun! Another little bit of a glance at what led to the end if tonight’s session: (1/4)" (2021-11-05). First of a thread of four tweets. Critical Role (@CriticalRole) on Twitter: "Our #ExUCalamity chat is happening right now! 🔥 Join us:" (2022-06-22)., Twitter Spaces Q&A session held 22 June 2022. Full transcript here.
Art:
