Adam Howden
Adam Howden is an English actor who has worked in video games, television, theatre, film, and audiobooks.
With video games, his most notable roles are as Anders in Dragon Age II, as Shulk in Xenoblade Chronicles and the Super Smash Bros. series, as Tintin for the video game based on the film, The Adventures of Tintin, as Pipin in the Final Fantasy XIV expansion pack ', and as Fenton Paddock in the point-and-click adventure game Lost Horizon. On television, Adam has done guest star acting on the BBC One soap opera Doctors as Martin Rivers, Ben Hardwick, and DC Gerrard Norcroft, performances as Steven Lilwall on the BBC One series New Tricks, and two roles, as Fred and Jack Parsons, for the TV series documentary ' on Science Channel. In theatre, Adam has worked on various plays, most notably during 2015 in the role of Stu for a revival of Anthony Neilson's play Stitching at the House of Wolf, and also the role of Dickie Greenleaf for the play adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley at New Diorama Theatre, for which Adam received a Best Supporting Male nomination at the Offies 2016.
Regarding film, Adam has done main roles on short films like Towers by the filmmaker Azhur Saleem, but also small parts on films like Delicious and as Rupert Drummond on the horror film Scar Tissue. For his work in audiobooks, Adam has also performed narration for Wicked Beloved, a novel by the novelist Susanne Saville.
Acting bug and education
Fond of acting since his early school years, Adam chose the subject for his GCSE studies, then his A Levels at the Strode College in 1999. Inside that school, Adam studied Drama, Film Studies, and English Literature until his 2001 graduation; moment where, as Adam left the school, he then knew that acting was his vocation.Wanting the proper training and skills for his future job, Adam then auditioned at Drama schools. Eventually, he got accepted at the Drama Centre, location he much appreciated for its welcoming atmosphere from both the students and the teachers, but also for its rich actors pedigree. Alongside other alumni like Ryan Gage, Rolan Bell, Gwendoline Christie, Jodie McNee, and Joseph MacNab, Adam studied important acting techniques, including some involving his voice for, as he explains, "working on your voice is very important in all areas of acting, not just voice-overs."
Voice-over beginnings
Following his 2005 graduation, Adam's first TV role was as a student during "Slow Bomb", the finale of the action series Ultimate Force starring Ross Kemp. For that work, Adam took his breaks inside a trailer with Simon Lenagan, another guest-star. In that caravan, Adam discussed with his colleague how he wanted to do voice-over. And as the dialogue progressed, Simon encouraged Adam to present his voice reel at Just Voices, a voice-over agency he had co-founded.Which Adam did and since then, the actor started his career in voice-overs; first doing commercials and corporate voice-overs. Soon came video games, with additional voices in Dragon Age Origins and , then as Fenton Paddock in Lost Horizon, a main role which Adam has, as he explains, "a soft spot for".
Notable video game roles
BioWare games
For his first dive into the video game industry and BioWare's franchise, Adam auditioned for ' at the voice studio Side UK, reading and obtaining there a couple of roles. Directed by Caroline Livingstone, Dragon Age's voice director, he recorded various voices such as the Ostagar prisoner, which Adam has said he was "quite fond of" and "the first time I'd ever seen myself as a computer sprite." Alongside that performance, he worked as two Ostagar army minions and, for the ' add-on, as the Constable Aidan.Then for Dragon Age 2, released in 2011, came Adam's breakthrough as Anders. Originally played by Greg Ellis in Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening, BioWare offered Adam the part when Greg couldn't perform it due to unspecified reasons that reduced his involvement in the second part only to apparitions as Cullen. With that new role, Adam returned in Dragon Age
About those two projects, Adam is very proud to be involved in them, praising their diverse storytelling opportunities, with rich narration branches that allowed players to play again and uncover new secrets about its universe, unlike others which gamers complete once and then abandon. He also added that thanks to Anders, his popularity rose immensely as he noticed more supporters following his Twitter account since that role, and that it was the most frequent character fans ask him to pull out when meeting him. Concerning the controversy over Anders's actions in the game, Adam expressed his entire support for him, explaining that he was his actor and, as he learned at his acting lessons, actors must not judge their characters and must deal with their actions. He also, on episode 21 of the MCMBuzz Podcast, denounced and condemned the homophobia some YouTube and Twitter users have exhibited over a gay romance storyline between his character and Garrett Hawke, the hero of the game. During that podcast episode, Adam defended that romance storyline and also said — in reply to all the prejudiced Twitter users who believe that it must have been difficult for Adam to play the role since he's heterosexual — that he has acted other gay characters before, that performing a gay romance never bothers him, that it was a pleasant kissing session between his lips and his hand, and that his performance for this love storyline even got him praises from a friend who played the game and told him: "You do come on quite strong, now Adam."
Tintin (''The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn'')
Among his childhood reads, Adam always loved The Adventures of Tintin, created by the Belgian comic book artist Herge. So when Side UK passed video game auditions for the hero's voice, Adam was excited at the idea of performing as Tintin. Although one audition employee expressed doubts that Adam would obtain the role — as the character is sixteen years old and Howden in his late twenties — the actor refuted the man with an excellent Tintin voice audition. Therefore, Adam obtained the coveted role for this secretive project and also got to work thrice with Phil Evans, who had voice-directed him on Lost Horizon and .Regarding its content, Adam described the game as a platformer inspired by Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson's production where, as he says, "they've taken two of the Tintin books and combined them for the film, and the game sort of follow that story of the film, but will also go on other adventures as well, so that you can do other things."
But unlike Xenoblade Chronicles and Dragon Ages which he recorded alone in the booth, Adam performed alongside other actors this time. Among them was Lewis MacLeod , who voiced Captain Haddock and whose talent impressed Adam who described him as "just so confident and he can just do it. He just turns it on, he can change his voice, turn on a sixpence, and it's brilliant."
In sum, Adam really enjoyed his Tintin experience and was impatient to play the game when it would come out in October 2011.
Shulk (''Xenoblade Chronicles'' and ''Super Smash Bros.'')
After a successful November 2010 audition for an unidentified Nintendo RPG, Adam was offered the role of Shulk, main hero of the video game Xenoblade Chronicles directed by Tetsuya Takahashi through his company, Monolith Soft. Already released in Japan for the Wii on 10 June 2010 and set in Europe for 19 August 2011, Adam's job was to participate in XenobladeLike at his audition where he read the game's opening, Adam's performance had to correspond to the character's design and the casting director's desires. In sum, a bold and intelligent young adult who slowly becomes more mature during his quest; with, as Adam was told, "a neutral English voice, not posh sounding, but should sound educated." So Adam applied a tone which, as he says, "is not completely different from my own voice, it's a variation of my own voice. How I was when I was 19, probably!" And to ensure his acting corresponded well to Tetsuya Takahashi's intentions, he also listened to the Japanese voice track, which allowed him to find the proper emotion for his scenes.
As the recording team's mission was a faithful and expert localization of Xenoblade's storyline, they also — along with a translator and a Nintendo producer — had to adjust their translation according to whatever problems in the booth. For instance, if the duration of the character's mouth animation didn't correspond with the voice actor's performance, the crew would either shorten or lengthen the dialogue while keeping fidelity with the original's intent. And if the crew had questions over certain lines or terms, the translator would help them.
Of the RPG, Adam described it as "a philosophical game. It explores our place in the universe, do we really exist, God, do we make our own fate or are we on a set course, as well as love, revenge, and friendship." On a personal note, he was proud of Xenoblade and wished the game had gotten more recognition for its merits. About his performance, the actor's work was applauded as he and the entire voice crew got a "Best Vocal Ensemble in a Video Game" nomination in 2013 at the BTVA Video Game Voice Acting Award. Also, as the original Wii game was re-released in 2015 for the New Nintendo 3DS XL, Adam performed as Shulk again for the English version of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U which came out on October 2014 and November 2014.
Howden returned for Xenoblade Chronicles X in 2015, where he plays the "Classic" male avatar voice among other voice styles by other voice actors available in the game's built-in character creator. Howden also returned for Xenoblade Chronicles 2 in 2017 as the voice of the Architect, and also reprised his previous role as Shulk, made available as a recruitable crossover character in the game's Challenge Battle Mode DLC. Howden reprised Shulk once again for "Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected, a new storyline added to the 2020 Definitive Edition'' port of the original game.
Writing interests
Apart from acting, Adam loves to pen down stories; which is, for him, "a good way to stay sharp when I'm not acting." Among those projects came "Bin Men" and "Dogging", two 2011 comedic shorts he shot with Jamie Baughan — his Drama Centre colleague — and the director Sankar Jayaraman, who filmed him in 2010 on "Bubble Burst".Among Adam's other wishes would be to make a biopic about his mother's family life in 1960s East Africa and play his grandfather. As he explains, "I've been told so many amazing stories of their time there and having visited there myself I want others to see what a beautiful place it is. It's all in my head, I just need to write the bugger."