Daniel Ross Voices Donald Duck to a ‘Christmas’ Emmy Nomination

Daniel Ross, the third official voice of Donald Duck and prolific voice actor, details his incredible journey to voicing the iconic Disney character. He discusses how his own “Mama Duck” taught him the voice and encouraged him. Additionally, he reveals what Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas means to him, particularly for the memory of his mother. Finally, he talks about his first Emmy nomination for this work. Plus, just seeing him live doing Donald Duck was just an overall thrill!

Awards Daily: I know that your mother taught you to do the Donald Duck voice and had a huge impact on you. What made her want to do the Donald Duck voice? Was he a favorite character of hers? Of yours?

Daniel Ross: Definitely a fun character that she loved. I know she learned to do the impression specifically to annoy my grandmother. When I was three she taught me how to do the voice and obviously that became its own thing. Donald was the very first voice I learned how to do through my mom. And that became our love language. No matter what was going on in life we could always quack each other up with a little Donald talk. That was something really special between us.

Awards Daily: You had this voice of Donald at a young age but what made you want to get into voice work? And was it something your mother wanted to do since she was doing it as well?

Daniel Ross: No, it wasn’t her thing. She was creative in a different medium. She was an artist, drawer, sculptor. She was incredible at that. But she was supportive of my creativity, which was the performing arts. So I got into a lot of mischief when I was younger. You know, prank phone calls and other wisecracks. But I would sit in front of the TV for Saturday morning cartoons and I would take in all the cartoons and eat a big bowl of cereal, and I would imitate all the Looney Tunes characters, basically anything that was on TV. That started to come through me but I didn’t realize that I wanted to do voice acting as a vocation until much later in life. Because quite frankly I didn’t like my voice when I was younger. I did a lot of theater and film and I wasn’t booking the roles that I wanted to. So I always felt like my voice was kind of quirky and a hindrance. Until later on when I realized it was my superpower and then I capitalized on it, moved to Los Angeles and here we are.

Awards Daily: What was it like auditioning to play such an iconic character?

Daniel Ross: That was intense to say the least. I got the audition and I was very surprised to get it because those characters are one in a million years. You rarely get that kind of opportunity and I’ve been doing the voice my entire life. So I am, like, I need to do this, and I’ve got to do it right. They were asking to get as close as you could get to the original Clarence “Ducky” Nash. So I did my best. I went back and looked over so many cartoons to try to refresh my memory and I gave it my best shot. Then about a month later I got a call back from Disney. (I think they said there were a couple thousand people who submitted.) So I got called to Disney Studios and Disney TV Animation and I’m in a room full of celebrities, voice acting royalty, and then there’s little old me. It was very intimidating. But we got into the room and we went through the script and then they started asking “Can you say this? Can you say that?” “Say ridiculous.” [Donald Duck voice] “Ridiculous.” Then I said, “Can I offer a suggestion?” They were, like, “Sure, what do you got?” Deep breath, then Donald Duck voice: “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” Then they hit the button and they said, “Can you say that again, please?” My producers later told me that was the moment they knew they were going to cast me, but we still had three traditional callbacks after that.

Awards Daily: This is your first Emmy nomination. What has that experience been like?

Daniel Ross: I still haven’t wrapped my brain around it to be quite honest. It almost doesn’t make sense to me. Like, I am an Emmy-nominated actor, okay, that’s a thing. The accolade doesn’t matter to me quite as much as the experience of the journey. I lost my mom to cancer earlier this year and what I submitted for was a special called Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas. That was the last thing I saw with my mother before she passed. So I submitted it on a whim. Okay, I will take a shot to honor my mom and the legacy and her memory. So the nomination came through and I am just so grateful that that has even transpired. That I get to honor my mom in that way. So regardless of what happens I am so happy, and I like to say tickled pink. It’s one of those things that you don’t think will happen and it has. So we will see what happens on Sunday.

Awards Daily: You kind of answered this with submitting Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas in honor of your mother. But was there anything else about the work that made you want to submit it?

Daniel Ross: From the work standpoint I loved everything that I did as Donald Duck. This in particular was very heartwarming. For any of your readers it’s available on Disney +, it’s the holidays, it’s a good time to watch Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas. Again, it was the final piece of my journey as Donald Duck. Because I voiced Donald for seven years, from “Mickey and the Roadster Racers” through that. Having my mom be a part of that journey from the very beginning, teaching me the voice, getting the phone call, and telling her that I got it, to the end of this journey was just so magical to me.

Awards Daily: I saw you did some video game voice work as well. Are you a gamer or is it just the work for you?

Daniel Ross: Primarily just voice stuff. I will occasionally play some games but I’m not a big gamer. But I have to stay apprised of what’s relevant to the industry, what sounds are playing and things like that. So I will try. I tried Red Dead Redemption 2 last year and I was so frustrated because I kept getting mauled by bears and wolves. So I was like, I’m done with this. But I am currently doing some fun voices for MultiVersus from Warner Brothers. I play Gizmo and Stripe from the Gremlin movies as well as Uncle Shagworthy from the Scooby Doo franchise. So I am playing that and I play some tournaments and sometimes I hear my voice in three other characters and that’s interesting. But it’s a lot of fun .

Awards Daily: I read in your bio that you could be heard in the movie Joker, and I was wondering who were you in that?

Daniel Ross: Nobody you would recognize. You could hear my voice for 30 seconds because they are panning in on Joaquin Phoenix as he’s doing his makeup in the mirror and you can hear on the radio different testimony from different Gothamites about the trash situation. So you hear me pop in and I said something like (in a New York accent voice) “You can’t go down no one avenue without there being nothing but garbage and rats.” So that’s my little moment in the movie Joker. It was really cool to be in it because I met Joaquin Phoenix many, many years ago on the set of Ladder 49. I was his stand-in for that movie so I got to know him and have dinner with him a couple times. So to see him in his Oscar-winning performance in Joker and to be a small part of it was very fulfilling, very satisfying.

Awards Daily: Is there anything you want to leave our readers with?

Daniel Ross: Yes, if you would like to follow me on social media please do. Follow me @ActorDanielRoss. I made it very simple. Follow me on Tik-Tok. We have a fun Tik Tok, 1.3 million followers. You get to go behind the scenes of the voice acting life. We have fun with the fans with Donald Duck. I’ll make you laugh, I’ll make you cry, you should stop on by. We have a lot of fun there. So please follow me on social media. Look for me and Mickey and Minnie Wish Upon a Christmas on Disney+. MultiVersus is out on most platforms, Diablo Immortal and Genshin Impact, lots of games this year. So thanks so much for having me and of course [In Donald Duck voice], “Happy holidays everybody, oh boy, oh boy.”