On this latest edition of SNAPSHOTS, we are at the Farpoint convention at its newest location in Towson, Maryland. And Friends of the Fleet, we have one of the honored guests. He’s the man who has featured in The Walking Dead. He plays Professor X in the sensational series X-Men 97, and he’s also a Boy Scout, forever Boy Scout.
Let’s welcome Ross Marquand
Welcome to SNAPSHOTS, Ross. How are you doing today?
I like “Dean on the Scene”. I like the sound of that. That’s nice.
So how does it feel to be here at Farpoint 2026?
I’m loving it. I mean, I was at the award show last night where I got to see you accept your award. It was so much fun. And I got to say, I don’t think I’ve ever been to a convention that feels so homey like that. Everyone is genuine and they feel like family. Everywhere you look, they’re supportive. Everyone knows each other, and it just the energy of this convention is very unique, and I mean that in the best way possible.
It was just really fun to be out there last night and see just the camaraderie that everyone has. And I don’t know, I think I always say this, but I feel like nerds are the best people on the planet. I am a nerd myself. I grew up with The Next Generation, as I mentioned to you earlier, and Deep Space Nine. So, to be a part of a trek convention, after I tried for years to go to a trek convention in Colorado, where I’m from, I could never afford it. We didn’t have a lot of money growing up, and so I always wanted to go to Starcon in Denver, and I could never afford Starcon. But now I’m getting a chance to go to these things on the other side, and I’m like, “Wow, what a weird, reverse-engineered way to get into a convention.”
I want to talk a little bit more about X-Men ‘97 because for one year, I think I’ve interviewed no less than five of the stars from X-Men ’97…
Who did you interview?
Alyson (Court), Matthew (Waterston), Cal (Dodd), and Lenore (Zann). So, you are number five.
Nice. I’ll take it.
I want to talk to you about taking over Professor Xavier’s role. What was your initial reaction to playing this iconic character we’ve seen on the big screen and the small screen with the original X-Men back in 1993?
I was just mentioning earlier, X-Men: The Animated Series from 92 onwards, was literally the show that made me want to be an actor in the first place. It’s quite literally the show that Batman: The Animated Series was so profoundly inspirational to me. I felt I had a lot of connection with Logan, Batman as well, but it was really Wolverine that got me hooked on X-Men.
And as I was mentioning to you previously, I got bullied a lot as a kid. I was a nerd. I was in Boy Scouts, and had to wear my uniform the first Friday of every month. As you might imagine, that didn’t win me any points in the cool department. I just really escaped to X-Men and Star Trek as well. But X-Men was the show that really made me want to be an actor. To get to play one of the most iconic heroes on the show, obviously, the founder of the X-Men. And now in season two, I’ll be playing Apocalypse as well.
It’s just insane to be able to bring these characters that have meant so much to me to life 30 years later. The 11-year-old boy who watched that show as a kid is now freaking out. I’m 44, and I’m still freaking out that I get to play these characters. It’s amazing to see you’re younger than me.
How does one get into voiceover acting?
I think it started, honestly, in Boy Scouts. We did campfire ceremonies every month. We went on camping trips every single month except December because of Christmas. Also, just being so cold in Colorado, where I grew up, so 11 months out of the year we were on a camping trip, and every single weekend we would have a campfire ceremony where we would do skits and all kinds of things. I just learned to do different voices for these different skits. And I’m sure before I went through puberty, it wasn’t very good, I’m certain of that. But, you know, as time went on and I finally went through puberty, I was able to do more and more voices, and it just kind of snowballed from there.
And did you draw any inspiration from any of the voiceover artists you listened to?
Well, ironically, Animaniacs was one that, for me, was iconic in so many ways. I’ve had a chance to work and perform with almost the entire Animaniacs cast now, Jess Harnell, Rob Paulsen, Maurice LaMarche, I mean, it’s insane that I’ve gotten a chance to meet them, let alone work with them. That’s the craziest feeling ever, to work with your idols and work with people that inspired you so much, and they’ve been nothing but supportive and welcoming as well.
That’s sensational. In fact, I interviewed all the cast members of Animaniacs, and I had “Pinky and the Brain” give me a shout-out on our 15th anniversary, which I didn’t ask them to do the Pinky and the Brain voices; they just did it. And I said, “Oh my gosh, that’s amazing.”
How did you get into the Boy Scouts? What were some of your favorite moments, and did you make it all the way to being an Eagle Scout?
I did make it to Eagle; very few people do that because it is hard. I mean, it’s such an arduous journey to get from Tenderfoot all the way up to Eagle. It’s pretty emotionally taxing, financially taxing, in some cases. I was very lucky with my Eagle Scout project, and I was able to get a lot of donations from the community for a lot of these things. We literally just beautified a school that was kind of falling apart.
It had walls kind of covered in detritus, and it just looked pretty drab. So, we stripped all the walls, respackled them, fixed them up, painted murals all over the school, and did as much beautification as we could. It was such a fun thing to be a part of.
I didn’t really have much choice about being a Boy Scout, because my dad and his two brothers were Boy Scouts and Eagle Scouts, and my two older brothers were as well. So, there was really no choice.
You had a legacy. I was getting bullied a lot in school for having worn my uniform. There were certainly moments where I thought, “Why am I doing this, you know. All this has caused me is pain, and people are being so mean to me at school.” But then looking back, I realize how much I learned from those experiences, leadership-wise, survival skill-wise, just being able to communicate with different people. That’s super important, and that’s a lot of stuff that I learned in Boy Scouts. I would never take that experience away ever, even though it was sometimes painful at school, because bullies are bullies, and they’re gonna bully, but I’m really grateful for all of it.
One last question: if you want to give advice to anyone who wants to go into voice-over acting or acting in general, what would you tell them?
Well, I would just say, don’t listen to the naysayers. There’s going to be a million people saying you can’t do this because it’s too saturated or there are too many people trying to make this happen. Don’t listen to them; if you have drive and belief in yourself, you have to go for it. I would recommend a few different resources. Firstly, Dee Bradley Baker, a dear friend. He is a voice-over legend, and he has put together an incredible website called SoYouWantToBeAVoiceActor.com. It’s a step-by-step guide to producing your own reel, marketing yourself, and submitting yourself for different opportunities. There’s also Backstagenow.com, voices.com. A lot of these just have great free resources. I can’t recommend those enough.
See and hear Ross in the new season of X-Men ’97, coming soon to Disney+
To follow Ross, check out his social media
- Instagram @rossmarquand
- Facebook @rossmarquand
- X @rossmarquand
Until we meet again, See you….. Out there!
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