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Cesar Romero was the first widely recognized live-action Joker on screen, beginning with the television series Batman in 1966. The first listed animated voice performer is Larry Storch, who voiced the character in Filmation’s The Adventures of Batman in 1968. Since then, the Joker has been played by live-action actors, animated voice performers, motion-comic actors, alternate-universe counterparts, language-version casts, and performers in documented fan productions.
There is no completely objective list of “every” Joker actor unless the boundaries are stated first. This chronology includes live-action productions, original-language animation, motion comics, official shorts and music videos, documented deleted scenes, and fan films. It does not treat radio-only, stage, video-game-only, ordinary dubbing, uncredited background appearances, or merely Joker-inspired characters as straightforward Joker credits. Variant, precursor, fan-film, and language-version entries are labeled so they are not confused with the principal official portrayals.
How this chronology works
The year shown is the first release or public appearance of the qualifying screen production, not necessarily the year of recording. Repeat performers appear once in the master chronology, with later screen credits included in the same entry. When several performances debuted in the same year, the order is only approximate unless the production’s release sequence establishes it.
- Screen portrayal: the performer is credited as the Joker in a live-action, animated, motion-comic, short-form, or other qualifying screen production.
- Variant or precursor: the character is a Joker counterpart, alternate identity, or deliberate precursor rather than the standard Joker.
- Language version: a distinct language cast is recorded for completeness, but it should not automatically be counted as a new creative interpretation when it is simply a dub of an existing production.
- Fan production: a documented unofficial film or web series, kept separate from studio productions.
Master chronology
| First year | Performer | Production and qualification |
|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Cesar Romero | Batman television series and Batman: The Movie. Romero’s flamboyant, prankster-like criminal retained the actor’s moustache beneath the makeup, one of the most recognizable details of the 1960s interpretation. |
| 1968 | Larry Storch | Original Joker voice in Filmation’s The Adventures of Batman; he later reprised the part in crossover appearances in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. |
| 1977 | Lennie Weinrib | Voice of the Joker in Filmation’s The New Adventures of Batman. |
| 1985 | Frank Welker | Voiced the Joker in The Super Powers Team: Galactic Guardians, including the episode “The Wild Cards,” in which the character also uses the alias Ace. |
| 1989 | Jack Nicholson | Played the adult Joker, formerly Jack Napier, in Tim Burton’s Batman. The film gives this version an integrated on-screen criminal origin. |
| 1989 | Hugo Blick | Played the younger Jack Napier in flashbacks in Batman. Blick is a separate screen performer even though Nicholson plays the transformed adult version of the same character. |
| 1992 | Mark Hamill | First voiced the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series. His later screen credits include Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, Batman: The Killing Joke, Justice League Action, and other animated productions. |
| 1999 | Michael McKean | Voiced a 1950s-inspired Joker variant in The New Batman Adventures episode “Legends of the Dark Knight.” This is an in-story variant, not the principal Joker of the DCAU. |
| 2003 | Andrew Koenig | Played the Joker in the fan-made short Batman: Dead End. Although unofficial, it is a documented screen performance and predates several later commercial portrayals. |
| 2004 | Kevin Michael Richardson | Voiced the physically imposing, visually redesigned Joker in The Batman television series and The Batman vs. Dracula (2005). |
| 2008 | Heath Ledger | Played the Joker in The Dark Knight. Released after Ledger’s death, the performance won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. |
| 2008 | Jeff Bennett | Voiced the Joker in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and later reprised the role in Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold. |
| 2008 | Michael Dobson | Voiced the character in the Batman Black and White motion-comic project. This qualifies as screen-based motion-comic work rather than conventional television animation. |
| 2010 | John DiMaggio | Voiced the Joker in Batman: Under the Red Hood, followed by later LEGO/DC productions and Batman: Death in the Family. |
| 2010 | John Kassir | Voiced the Joker in the screen production DC Super Friends: The Joker’s Playhouse. |
| 2010 | James Patrick Stuart | Voiced Jester, the heroic alternate-universe Joker counterpart, in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. This belongs in the variant column rather than the strict list of standard Joker portrayals. |
| 2011 | Brent Spiner | Voiced the Joker in Young Justice. |
| 2012 | Michael Emerson | Voiced the Joker in both parts of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. |
| 2013 | Christopher Corey Smith | Voiced the Joker in LEGO Batman: The Movie – DC Super Heroes Unite. Later LEGO Batman game credits are outside this screen chronology. |
| 2013 | Grey DeLisle | Voiced Martha Wayne as the Joker in Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. This is a gender-swapped alternate-universe Joker identity. |
| 2013 | Jason Spisak | First voiced the Joker in Teen Titans Go!; later credits include LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash and Batman: Hush. |
| 2014 | Cameron Monaghan | Played Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska in Gotham. The series never formally names either character the Joker, so this is a Joker-derived precursor performance, not an unqualified Joker credit. |
| 2014 | Troy Baker | Voiced the Joker in Batman: Assault on Arkham, later returning in films including Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Batman: The Long Halloween, and Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths – Part Two. |
| 2014 | Dee Bradley Baker | Provided the Joker’s voice for a cameo in Son of Batman. |
| 2014 | Aaron Paul | Voiced the Joker in a deleted scene from the Robot Chicken DC Comics Special. It is an official animated-comedy credit, but a limited deleted-scene appearance. |
| 2014 | Giovanni Ribisi | Voiced the Joker in Robot Chicken DC Comics Special 2: Villains in Paradise and Robot Chicken DC Comics Special III: Magical Friendship. |
| 2016 | Jared Leto | Played the Joker in Suicide Squad, later appearing in Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021) and the “Purple Lamborghini” music video. |
| 2016 | Jeff Bergman | Voiced the 1960s-series-style Joker in Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders and Batman vs. Two-Face. |
| 2016 | David Howard Thornton | Fan production Played the Joker in the fan web series Nightwing: Escalation. This is not a Warner Bros. or DC studio production. |
| 2017 | Zach Galifianakis | Voiced the Joker in The LEGO Batman Movie, a deliberately comic and highly self-aware version of the character. |
| 2017 | Ken Yasuda | Voiced the Joker in DC Super Heroes vs. Eagle Talon. |
| 2018 | Wataru Takagi | Japanese-language Joker voice in Batman Ninja and later Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League. This is recorded as a language-specific production credit rather than treated as a second English-language interpretation. |
| 2018 | Tony Hale | English-language Joker voice in Batman Ninja. |
| 2019 | Joaquin Phoenix | Played Arthur Fleck/Joker in Joker and returned in Joker: Folie à Deux (2024). Phoenix won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the first film. |
| 2019 | Alan Tudyk | Voiced the Joker in the animated series Harley Quinn. |
| 2019 | Jeremiah Watkins | Voiced a teenage Joker in DC Super Hero Girls. |
| 2022 | Mick Wingert | Voiced the Joker in Batwheels. |
| 2022 | Barry Keoghan | Played the Joker in a deleted or cameo scene from The Batman. The scene was omitted from the main theatrical cut, but the character is explicitly identified as the Joker, making this a qualifying limited screen appearance. |
| 2023 | Nolan North | Voiced the Joker in Scooby-Doo! and Krypto, Too!. |
| 2023 | David Hornsby | Voiced the Joker in Merry Little Batman and later in Bat-Fam. |
| 2024 | Matthew Needham | Voiced the Joker in Batman: Caped Crusader. The voice was initially uncredited and was later associated with Needham in the production’s credits and listings. |
| 2024 | Yūichirō Umehara | Japanese-language Joker voice in Suicide Squad Isekai. |
| 2024 | Scott Gibbs | English-language Joker voice in Suicide Squad Isekai; later also voiced the English Joker in Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League. |
| 2025 | Omar Chaparro | Spanish-language voice of Yoka, the Mesoamerican Joker variant, in Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires. |
| 2025 | Raymond Cruz | English-language voice of Yoka in Aztec Batman: Clash of Empires. |
| 2025 | David Howard Thornton | Fan production Returned as the Joker in the fan film Jokers Wild. |
The live-action Joker actors
Cesar Romero: the original screen icon
Romero established the first major live-action screen Joker in the 1960s Batman series. His performance is theatrical rather than psychologically naturalistic: the Joker is a colorful showman whose crimes are built around elaborate pranks, gadgets, disguises, and public spectacle. The same interpretation carried into the 1966 feature film.
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Jack Nicholson and Hugo Blick in Batman (1989)
The 1989 film is unusual because two actors portray different ages of the same character. Blick plays the younger Jack Napier in flashbacks, while Nicholson plays the adult criminal who becomes the Joker. Counting Nicholson alone misses a genuine screen performance; counting Blick as a separate version of the Joker without explaining the flashbacks is equally misleading.
Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight
Ledger’s Joker is not given a definitive civilian identity or a single confirmed origin. Instead, the film presents a self-mythologizing terrorist whose contradictory stories about his scars reinforce the character’s instability. The performance shifted mainstream discussion of the Joker away from comic-book flamboyance and toward ideological menace, while remaining rooted in the character’s fascination with theatricality.
Jared Leto in the DC Extended Universe
Leto’s version first appeared in Suicide Squad and later returned in the additional material created for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. The “Purple Lamborghini” music video is also a qualifying official screen appearance, although a music video is not the same type of narrative production as a feature film.
Joaquin Phoenix as Arthur Fleck
Joker presents Arthur Fleck as a character whose transformation into the Joker is the central subject of the film. Phoenix’s performance is therefore different in purpose from Nicholson’s, Ledger’s, or Leto’s: it is built around an extended character study rather than an established superhero ensemble. Phoenix reprised the role in Joker: Folie à Deux in 2024.
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Keoghan’s appearance in The Batman is easy to overlook because the scene was deleted from the theatrical version. It still belongs in a broad screen chronology: the filmed scene identifies the character as the Joker, even though viewers encounter him only in released deleted-scene material rather than the main cut.
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Animated and motion-comic performances
The animated Joker has never been a single continuous performance. Filmation’s Storch and Weinrib created separate television voices before Hamill’s long-running DCAU interpretation became the reference point for many viewers. Richardson’s Joker in The Batman, Bennett’s version in The Brave and the Bold, and Galifianakis’s LEGO interpretation each belong to different visual and tonal universes.
Hamill’s screen work is especially extensive. It begins with Batman: The Animated Series and continues through productions such as Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, The Killing Joke, and Justice League Action. It is important not to inflate his total by counting every title as a new performer: this article consolidates repeat actors under their first qualifying appearance.
The animated record also includes deliberately unusual identities. Grey DeLisle voices Martha Wayne after the alternate history of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox turns her into that world’s Joker. James Patrick Stuart voices Jester, a heroic Joker counterpart in Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. These are useful to a complete adaptation history, but neither is the standard continuity Joker.
Motion comics deserve their own category. Michael Dobson’s 2008 performance in Batman Black and White is screen-based, but it should not be described as a conventional animated-film or television credit. Similarly, deleted scenes such as Aaron Paul’s Robot Chicken appearance qualify as limited screen material while remaining distinct from a full role in a released feature.
Joker precursors, alternate identities, and other borderline cases
Cameron Monaghan in Gotham
Monaghan played Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, two characters deliberately assembled from Joker mythology. Their behavior, imagery, and influence on Gotham make the connection unmistakable, but Gotham never formally names either one the Joker. The accurate description is “Joker-derived precursor” or “Joker interpretation,” not simply “Monaghan played the Joker.”
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Foreign-language credits
Umehara, Takagi, Gibbs, Hale, Chaparro, and Cruz are listed with language labels because the relevant productions have distinct language-version casts. Under a strict definition that excludes dubbing, a dubbed voice is not a new portrayal of the already-produced character. Under a broad international screen-credit list, however, omitting the language-specific performers would give readers an incomplete account of who supplied the Joker’s voice in versions they may actually watch.
The most important distinction is between an original-language production and an ordinary dub. The table preserves the credits while making the distinction visible; it does not claim that every language track represents a separate creative incarnation of the Joker.
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Fan films and web series
Andrew Koenig’s Batman: Dead End and David Howard Thornton’s appearances in Nightwing: Escalation and Jokers Wild are documented fan productions. They are valuable evidence of the character’s screen afterlife, but they should never be visually or rhetorically merged with official DC or Warner Bros. productions.
Two credits that need an editorial footnote
Nathan Dashwood is associated with a flashback-only Joker appearance in Batwoman. Because the supplied credit evidence does not establish the exact episode and first-release position firmly enough for the master table, he belongs in a clearly labeled flashback note until the production credits are checked directly.
J. P. Karliak appears in later consolidated Joker listings and is associated with contemporary DC media, but the accessible evidence does not identify a specific qualifying screen title with enough certainty. He should not be presented as a definitive screen-only credit without a title-level credit check.
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What is not included
A list of screen actors is not the same thing as a list of every performer who has ever supplied the Joker’s voice or likeness. The following categories are intentionally outside the main chronology:
- Video games only: a performer who voiced the Joker exclusively in a game is not a screen actor for this list, even if the game contains cinematic sequences.
- Radio and audio: radio-only and audio-drama performances are excluded.
- Stage shows: theatrical productions, live attractions, and stage performers are outside the screen definition.
- Ordinary dubbing: a foreign-language dub of a previously released film or series is not counted as a new screen portrayal under the strict rule, although selected language-version credits are recorded above for completeness.
- Commercials and uncredited background appearances: brief or uncredited appearances do not establish a qualifying actor credit.
- Joker-inspired characters: a character resembling the Joker but not identified as Joker is excluded unless the production deliberately presents the character as a Joker counterpart or precursor and the entry is labeled accordingly.
- Cancelled or proposed projects: casting announcements for productions that never appeared on screen do not count.
A practical viewing and collecting guide
Readers who want to follow the character’s screen history do not need to watch every production in the table. These titles show the largest changes in the Joker’s performance style and format.
- Batman (1966) and Batman: The Movie: start with Romero’s brightly comic television criminal to see the character before the darker modern film cycle.
- Batman: The Animated Series: Hamill’s foundational animated performance demonstrates how voice acting can make the Joker both funny and threatening without a live-action face.
- Batman (1989): compare Nicholson’s adult Joker with Blick’s younger Jack Napier to see how one film uses two performers to construct one biography.
- The Dark Knight: Ledger’s interpretation is the major modern example of the Joker as an anarchic, self-inventing antagonist rather than a character with a stable origin.
- Suicide Squad and Zack Snyder’s Justice League: these provide Leto’s version across two different cuts and narrative contexts.
- Joker and Joker: Folie à Deux: Phoenix’s two-film arc is the clearest screen study of Arthur Fleck as a person becoming a public Joker figure.
- Batman: The Killing Joke: a focused animated Joker story featuring Hamill, useful for readers interested in the character’s relationship with Batman rather than only in ensemble appearances.
- The LEGO Batman Movie, Batman Ninja, and Harley Quinn: these show how radically the same character can change when the surrounding production is parody, genre experimentation, or adult animated comedy.
For physical-media collectors, the Joker 4K Ultra HD edition is the most direct companion to the Phoenix section, while Joker: Folie à Deux 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray extends that two-film viewing path. Edition contents, regional availability, stock, and playback requirements can vary by country. Hamill-focused viewers can look for the Batman: The Animated Series complete-series Blu-ray, and readers wanting a Joker-centered animated feature can seek out the Batman: The Killing Joke Blu-ray.
For research rather than viewing, The Joker: A Serious Study of the Clown Prince of Crime is a useful companion reference because it examines the character across interpretations instead of treating one film performance as the complete history.
Why the list keeps changing
The Joker is unusually difficult to catalogue because each new production can alter the definition of the character. Nicholson’s film supplies an origin; Ledger’s refuses to settle on one; Phoenix makes the transformation itself the plot; animation can recast the character as a child, a woman, a hero, a LEGO figure, or a counterpart from another universe. Add motion comics, deleted scenes, language versions, and fan films, and the boundary between “every actor” and “every available screen credit” becomes editorial rather than purely factual.
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The most accurate way to use this list is therefore to read the labels alongside the names. Romero through Phoenix and Keoghan represent the major live-action record; Storch through Needham and the other voice performers show the breadth of animated production; Monaghan, DeLisle, Stuart, the language casts, and the fan productions explain why a simple unqualified list can be misleading.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who was the first actor to play the Joker on screen?
Cesar Romero was the first widely recognized live-action screen Joker, appearing in the 1966 television series Batman and its 1966 feature film. Larry Storch was the first performer listed here as an animated Joker voice, beginning in 1968.
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Why are Jack Nicholson and Hugo Blick both listed for the 1989 film?
Batman uses Blick for the younger Jack Napier in flashbacks and Nicholson for the adult character who becomes the Joker. They are two distinct screen performances of the same film character at different ages.
Did Cameron Monaghan play the Joker in Gotham?
Not literally under the show’s naming. Monaghan played Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska, characters intentionally built from Joker mythology. They are best described as Joker-derived precursors or interpretations because the series never formally identifies either as the Joker.
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Yes, under a broad screen definition. Keoghan played an explicitly identified Joker in a filmed scene from The Batman. The scene was deleted from the theatrical cut, so his credit should be labeled as a deleted or limited appearance.
Are foreign-language dub performers separate Joker actors?
Under a strict definition, no: a dub replaces the voice in an already-produced screen work rather than creating a new portrayal. This article records selected language-version credits separately for international completeness and labels them so they are not mistaken for wholly separate Joker incarnations.
The Bottom Line
The screen history begins with Cesar Romero in 1966, expands through several generations of animated voices—including Mark Hamill, Kevin Michael Richardson, Troy Baker, and many others—and keeps reinventing the live-action character through Nicholson, Ledger, Leto, Phoenix, and Keoghan. The definitive answer depends on the boundary: official productions, variants, language versions, deleted scenes, and fan films should be listed, but clearly separated rather than blended into one misleading count.
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