Eight years ago on this day, Casey Kasem tragically passed away. To honor one of the most iconic voice actors this franchise has ever seen, today I will be doing my rankings of Shaggy's portrayals over the years. 8. Nick Palatas Although Nick is ranked last, I really have nothing objectively wrong with his portrayal of Shaggy. Looking at it from a memorability standpoint, it was a cute portrayal, but it didn't scream "Shaggy" as much as some of his other actors did. Don't get me wrong, I do like how Nick portrayed Shaggy, but there wasn't as much personality here as some other portrayals. It's a shame Nick's acting career never really took off, as he seems like a good actor. 7. Scott Menville I like Scott's portrayal of Shaggy as well, but this is kind of a similar case to Kate Micucci and Velma for me. I thought he fit Shaggy's characterization in Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue really well, but I don't think his voice would fit quite as well in other series. 6. Iain Armitage If I haven't shared it on here already, I'm a big fan of Young Sheldon, which Iain Armitage stars in. I thought he did a great job playing young Shaggy; the best out of any of the actors in my opinion. I can't wait to see more of his Shaggy voice in Scoob! Holiday Haunt. I'm still wondering what the heck happened to his cameo in Scooby-Doo! Where Are You Now? It's really weird they would just not include him when they announced he had a cameo three weeks before it aired, and then just not say anything about it. 5. Will Forte Will's Shaggy voice was my second favorite of the SCOOB! voices. While he did a good job with the voice, I definitely wouldn't put him up there with the more iconic versions of Shaggy. I liked his voice in that particular iteration, but I don't think I'd want him to be all Scooby shows and media. There were more iconic "one-time wonders" who voiced Shaggy, namely... 4. Billy West Thus far, all of the Shaggy voices ranked have only portrayed him for a single film or season (at least at the time of writing this). Out of all of them, Billy West is the only one where I feel like "yes, this is Shaggy." I like his more nasally Shaggy voice, and while he could never replace Casey Kasem, I felt like he was an amazing substitute for Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. He channels a voice that's really similar to Casey's in my opinion, and does a great job with this role. If for some reason Matthew Lillard ever stepped down, I wouldn't mind at all if Billy returned to voice Shaggy. 3. Matthew Lillard In comparison to the other live-action actor we've had for Shaggy, Nick Palatas, Matthew always felt more like Shaggy to me. While Nick does a good job with the role, I didn't have that same "yes, he fits the role of Shaggy perfectly" like I did with Matthew Lillard. When they announced Casey Kasem was retiring and would be replaced by Matthew Lillard, I honestly was not worried at all. While it was sad Casey had to step down, Matthew Lillard did such a good job as Shaggy in the first two live-action films that he seemed like a logical choice for the role. 2. Scott Innes Although he only has voiced Shaggy in three DTVs (and some commercials), something about Scott's voice just has more of the original Casey Kasem charm than Matthew's does. If Matthew Lillard ever has to step down, I can confidently say I'd be really happy if Scott Innes stepped up to voice Shaggy again, because he does an amazing job. When I saw the movies when I was a kid, I honestly couldn't really tell that Shaggy had changed voice actors (although maybe I just didn't think about that sort of thing as much either haha) because he and Billy sound pretty similar to me. However, I would say now as an adult, I prefer Scott's voice to Billy's, although both are good. 1. Casey Kasem Honestly, I probably only would have need to put "Casey Kasem" here and that would have been enough explanation lol. The man is an icon, and he made Shaggy into the character he is today.
I hope you enjoyed these rankings! Feel free to post your rankings of Shaggy's voice actors in the comments.
35 Comments
Jacob Berger
6/15/2022 09:29:53 am
My rankings
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John Locke
6/15/2022 11:23:15 am
I respect Casey Kasem and love him for staying with the character for so long, but I actually think Matthew Lillard would be my no. 1 pick, since casey he's the only one I've heard that makes me go "this is shaggy, this is who this character IS"
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6/15/2022 02:44:12 pm
Oh wow, interesting! I've always felt Casey was more iconic as the character, but I think Matthew fits the character quite well too.
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John locke
6/15/2022 03:42:07 pm
I would agree but I think casey has also had more lows than lillard but that's also probably just cause casey had the role for so long. 6/16/2022 08:54:56 am
Not sure what you mean by more lows for Casey, do you just mean performances that you feel he could have done better on?
John Locke
6/16/2022 09:55:58 am
trying to keep myself from being jumped on for maybe unpopular opinions, but like... ok well while I liked what's new scooby doo and totally understand why he had this stipulation, I found Shaggy suddenly being vegetarian to be rather forced. 6/16/2022 10:32:26 am
Fair enough, I know some of people didn't like Casey's voice as Shaggy as he got older. I agree the voice sounded a bit different as he aged and not quite as good as it used to, but he was still amazing. That's just my opinion though.
Becker
6/16/2022 01:00:00 pm
Honestly, Kasem's Shaggy voice in the 2000s never bothered me at all. There's some actors that I like a fair bit less during their years in a role, but not Casey personally. I mean yeah, it was a bit different and not as youthful-sounding, but it was still incredibly Shaggy-like and he put as much passion into the performance as ever. Still awesome. 6/16/2022 02:02:16 pm
I can't say I ever felt Casey was un-Shaggy-like either at any point, even in the 2000s when the voice sounded much older. You could tell he still put a lot of passion into the role, which was awesome given how many health issues he was going through at the time. Granted, I can totally understand why someone might not like the voice as much.
Becker
6/16/2022 03:51:32 pm
2000s Casey sounds kinda like a strange in-between of classic Casey and Matthew Lillard. Or maybe not, I might just be speaking nonsense lol. 6/16/2022 05:48:50 pm
I hadn't thought about that before, but I can kind of see how you'd feel that way. It is sort of similarly nasally, if that makes sense haha.
James Dixon
6/15/2022 12:48:19 pm
Scott Innes is hoping Matthew Lillard will step down too.
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Becker
6/15/2022 01:23:43 pm
Huh, interesting, we have the exact same ranking here! Nice. I agree there's no bad Shaggy actor, but there is quite a clear divide between the top 4 and the bottom 4.
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6/15/2022 02:54:27 pm
That's awesome we have the same rankings! I completely agree there's a huge divide between 1-4 and 5-8.
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Becker
6/15/2022 03:08:00 pm
I'd be more than fine with any of Lillard, Innes or West playing Shaggy right now, they're all great in their own different ways.
The cop
6/15/2022 02:47:36 pm
I agree but for the top 3 I would put
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6/15/2022 02:56:27 pm
Thanks for sharing your rankings! That totally makes sense that you'd like Matthew better since you grew up with him. It's possible that's why I like Casey best too, since I grew up with his voice as Shaggy.
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Jacob Staggs
6/15/2022 06:14:58 pm
My Top 5
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6/16/2022 08:54:00 am
Really interesting perspective to see Matthew Lillard at the bottom while Scott Menville is #2. I really liked Scott's vocal inflection as well. Even if the voice didn't quite sound like Shaggy in any other series, his delivery was excellent IMO. I'll be interested to find out who you the other performer you don't like is, but I think I have a guess. Thanks for sharing your rankings!
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Becker
6/16/2022 01:01:39 pm
Yeah, Menville's actual acting is definitely what saves his portrayal
Jakob123
6/15/2022 09:42:29 pm
Here are my rankings
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Matt
6/15/2022 10:48:42 pm
I can’t rate Nick Palatas as I haven’t watched in who knows how long so
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6/16/2022 08:51:14 am
Cool we have the same rankings (besides you not ranking Nick)! Yeah, I agree Billy only being in a singular film probably brought it down a bit where it could have been; it's possible I would have enjoyed his voice more if I'd gotten to hear it on more than one occasion.
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Becker
6/16/2022 01:27:22 pm
Not quite the same, Lillard and Innes are switched!
Jacob Staggs
6/16/2022 11:31:58 am
I did not care for Casey Kasem's Shaggy voice much when he got older but he is still my favorite Shaggy performer. I am not going to let the fact that Kasem had uncontrollable health problems blind me from the fact that he had nearly 3 decades of excellent and solid performances as the character.
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6/16/2022 01:56:27 pm
I feel similarly, although I did like all of Kasem's performances. The ones at the end just weren't quite as good as they used to be in my opinion, but they were still excellent.
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Lamont
6/25/2022 09:42:21 pm
8. Scott Menville: I have nothing against him, I just haven’t watched Get a Clue in a long time. So this actually is encouraging me to watch it again. But I do think he suited this version of Shaggy.
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6/27/2022 10:20:33 pm
8. I thought he fit really well with that version of Shaggy!
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