After years of anonymity, gaming's least famous but most recognisable voice has broken cover to chat PEGI 18, AI acting, and his €200 paycheque

A shot of voice actor Richard Wells' face from his TikTok account.
(Image credit: Richard Wells)

If you've ever watched a game trailer in Europe, you've almost certainly heard Richard Wells' voice. He is, in his own words, "the guy who says 'PEGI 18' on all of your video games," which is to say he's the smooth baritone that lets you know a game's age rating right before its trailer plays; the British equivalent of that ESRB guy who says "product not yet rated" before E3 trailers. He's ubiquitous but—until he became a TikTok sensation—anonymous, and it turns out he only made €200 (£170) for his work.

"I've been a professional voice actor for 40 years," explains Wells at the beginning of his first video on TikTok, "I've made at least 10,000 recordings, and spoken millions of words, but ironically, I'm best known for just two." Those two are, of course, "PEGI 18," which have been at the front of almost every game trailer I can remember for years upon years. Alas, that didn't translate to incalculable riches: In a follow-up video, Wells thanked fans for his newfound virality and answered probably the most common question he gets: "Do I get paid every time I say it? Well, I wish. I actually did get paid €200 back in September 2009, and that's all the money I've ever made [from it]."

@richardwells48

♬ original sound - Richard Wells

But Wells is pretty chipper about it anyway. "The result is I've got, y'know, two million friends, which is great," said Wells, enlisting everyone who liked his original video into a faction he's calling the "PEGIs." The thought of 2 million friends is enough to give me a panic attack, but Wells seems chuffed that his work has had such an impact on so many people over the years.

This actually isn't the first time Wells has broken cover. He released a video on his YouTube channel all the way back in 2020 about his role as the "PEGI 18" guy, but it was only his recent TikTok videos that catapulted him to internet stardom.

Wells took the time to answer a viewer question or two, as well. In particular, he touched on how he feels about the advent of AI voice acting. "For the moment, AI is pretty great, [but] it's pretty scary also… it's okay for, maybe, hack jobs, but [not] anything that needs intent, emotion, emphasis… I have no intention of selling my voice to an AI package, because if you want me, then you'll get me." So at least our PEGIs will remain artisanally human-grown for the foreseeable future.

The most recent video on Wells' TikTok consists of him showing off the original studio recordings of each PEGI rating—a kind of videogame trailer equivalent of unearthing the Dead Sea Scrolls—and it's, well, just as understated as you expect. A man in a booth running through some lines, unaware he was about to etch himself indelibly on our collective psyche for years, maybe decades to come. That's gotta be worth more than €200, surely?

Correction: This article originally said "most famous but least recognisable voice" in its headline. That is, let's be honest, the wrong way around. It's now been amended.

@richardwells48

♬ original sound - Richard Wells
Joshua Wolens
News Writer

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.

Read more
Astarion, a beautiful vampire spawn in Baldur's Gate 3, looks dubiously at the player character.
'What do you mean real actors?': Astarion's VO, who shared an awards category with Idris Elba after Baldur's Gate 3, remembers the dark ages of mocap
Commander Shepard in Mass Effect 3.
Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale, who played femshep, 'saw no line' before she recorded them for Bioware's flagship trilogy: 'It was all cold reading on the spot'
Baldur's Gate 3 Karlach concept art
'The dream of the tech industry is to sell off your company at an overinflated price and retire,' says actor behind Baldur's Gate 3's Karlach, 'And I feel that's being done with game studios right now'
The jester from Balatro, portrayed in unsettling detail in real life, wears an uncanny smile and stares at the viewer.
Balatro's LocalThunk isn't 'trying to pull a Banksy', he just 'wanted to be left alone to make his game'
Key art of Kent Paul in Grand Theft Auto Vice City.
'My own voice was driving me f***ing insane': GTA Vice City actor admits even he couldn't get past his own, notoriously difficult mission
Darkest Dungeon - the Ancestor
Wayne June, famed narrator of the Darkest Dungeon games, has died
Latest in Gaming Industry
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year
A still from a video announcement of Game Informer's return, featuring the magazine's Halo 2 issue.
Game Informer is back from the dead: 'The whole team has returned'
Typing on internet search toolbar: What am I doing?
How a Microsoft exec managed to pitch Microsoft Word through the genius tactic of being able to actually use it in a 'type-off' demanded by clients: 'I was the only one who'd actually been a secretary'
Half-Life wallpaper - Gordon Freeman
Former Valve exec says the company struggled to sell Half-Life until coming up with the ultimate 'one simple trick' of marketing manoeuvres: slapping a 'Game of the Year' sticker on the box
Gabe Newell looks into the camera, behind him is a prop of a turret from Team Fortress 2.
Gabe Newell's cult of personality is intense, but a Valve exec who worked with him says his superpower is how he 'delighted in people on the team just being really good at what they did'
The Spy from Team Fortress 2 holds up a folder with an accusatory expression.
One of Valve's original executives shares a very simple secret to its success: 'You can't use up your credibility' by trying to make bad games work
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'