This is when a crewmember, executive or even the creator for a show makes an appearance in a part that would ordinarily be cast with a professional actor — or the crewmember is also an actor. This may start out as a Creator Cameo, with their original "extra" part becoming an Ascended Extra.
It is extremely common for productions to have the same people do multiple jobs to cut costs, particularly if the production has No Budget:
Foreign-language dubs to have voice actors who are also the dub's producer, ADR director or scriptwriters. This is both because their skill sets feed into each other (it's easier to write dialogue that matches lip flaps if you're used to reading it, and vice-versa) and as a cost-saving measure — most dubs are non-union and relatively low-budget, so it pays to keep staffing small.
In Western animation the production pipeline requires voice acting to be done before any actual animation can be created. This can result in the possibility of a crewmember becoming a Permanent Placeholder should everyone become attached to the "scratch track" or the intended voice actor is a no-show.
In the early era of voice acting in video games, the much smaller budgets of the time often made this trope the only option.
Descended Creator has been suggested to play 1 roles. Click below to see other actors suggested for each role, and vote for who you think would play the role best.
