Ontario Native Eric Bauza is heading to Holywood to become the new voice of Bugs Bunny.
Bauza grew up in Scarborough, Ontario and was known for his voice imitations at his highschool. He was a natural-born comedian, but it was his passion for voice acting that was apparent at a young age, according to his family.
As a kid, Eric was able to imitate the voices of Looney Toons characters, The Simpsons, and other famous cartoons; seamlessly flipping from one character to the next.
Alan Bauza recalls coming home when Eric was in Grade 6/7. He heard voices coming from his younger bro’s room. “I’m thinking, ‘Oh, his buddies are over.’” But it was just Eric doing all the voices on The Simpsons. https://t.co/1dAlenlNXH pic.twitter.com/K7SBXc0jZj
— Douglas Quan (@dougquan) December 13, 2020
Bauza would go to the library on weekends to research his favourite characters and voice actors. He even imitated his school secretaries and parents to ‘call himself out of class’ in highschool. He would have his whole class laughing with his imitations.
“If you’ve ever seen interviews with Robin Williams, they would just have to step back and give him space. That was Eric. … All these characters would manifest out of him and he would go on a riff and just have us all in stitches.” His Drama teacher told the Toronto Star.
Now in his 40’s Bauza’s story of passion and perfectionism has a historic and happy ending. He becomes the first Filipino-Canadian to hold the role.
Since becoming the voice of Bugs Bunny, Eric has gotten a flurry of media attention, including shoutouts from many big names in entertainment, like Ken Jeong.
CONGRATS @bauzilla!!!🥕🥕🥕 https://t.co/LN13A8C4rm
— Ken Jeong (@kenjeong) December 9, 2020
