Ross Marquand

Marquand was born in Fort Collins, Colorado. His initial foray into acting began at the age of nine when he played a small part in a church play. Soon thereafter, he joined the Boy Scouts of America (where he attained the rank of Eagle Scout) and began impersonating celebrities at campfire ceremonies.^[2]

According to Marquand, he suffered from bullying in his youth due to being part of "all nerdy things" such as the Boy Scouts, the student government and the chess club. When he was 11 years old, Marquand watched X-Men: The Animated Series and "fell in love" with the show, taking a particular liking for Wolverine due to all the pain and pathos within his character.^[3] Wolverine's line "There's no peace for me here. There's no peace for me anywhere" marked Marquand's life, making him feel like if he could convey a shred of what Cal Dodd could do with Wolverine, that's what he wanted to do in life, deciding to pursue acting.^[4]

While in attendance at the University of Colorado at Boulder,^[2] Marquand starred in several productions including To Kill a Mockingbird, The Passion of Dracula, and The Cherry Orchard. He graduated with a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) in Theatre Performance.^[5]

After college he moved to Los Angeles in 2006 and quickly garnered attention in several film and television projects. He played a crooked cop with entertaining gusto in The Sabi Company's Down and Dangerous (2013).^[6] Marquand portrayed screen legend Paul Newman on AMC's Mad Men.^[7] Marquand is best known for the recurring role of Aaron on The Walking Dead,^[8][9] the popular TV series' first gay male character.^[10][11]

Since 2018, he has portrayed and voiced two characters in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Red Skull in the films Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Avengers: Endgame (2019), as well as Ultron in the virtual reality experience Avengers: Damage Control (2019) and as an alternate version of the character in the film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), replacing Hugo Weaving and James Spader.^[12] Marquand voiced both characters in the television series What If...? (2021).^[13] He voiced Professor X in the X-Men ‘97 cartoon.^[14]

An accomplished voiceover actor, Ross has lent his talents to productions such as Phineas and Ferb,^[15] Conan, and video games like Battlefield Hardline. He is also known for impersonating a plethora of celebrities including Michael Caine, Sylvester Stallone, Justin Timberlake, Matthew McConaughey and over 50 others.^[16][17] This expertise led to a starring and producing role on Pop TV's Impress Me, helmed by Ben Shelton and Rainn Wilson.^[15] He also voiced the titular character of Wreck-It Ralph in Disney Speedstorm, replacing both John C. Reilly and Brian T. Delaney.