David Hayter

He also co-wrote The Scorpion King (2002), X-Mens first sequel, X2 (2003), and Watchmen (2009), and was a writer and producer on the streaming television series Warrior Nun. His other roles include Sean Barker/The Guyver in Guyver: Dark Hero (1994), and King Shark on The Flash (2016-19), and voiceover work in various video games. In 2014, he made his directorial debut with the action horror film Wolves.

• Name — David Hayter • Birth Name — David Bryan Hayter • Born — 6 February 1969 • Birthplace — Santa Monica, California, U.S. • Children — Natasha Hayter • Occupation — * Actor • screenwriter • producer • director • Years Active — 1993–present • Education — Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Toronto Metropolitan University

David Hayter started acting at the age of nine. His father, Stephen, worked in the pharmaceutical industry. He spent most of his childhood living around the world, and moved to Kobe at the age of 15. He once worked as a print model in Osaka. He later graduated from its international Canadian Academy in 1987. After this, he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for two years until transferring to the Toronto Metropolitan University in Toronto.

Hayter did some live acting in the early 1990s, most notably in an episode of the sitcom Major Dad, but soon became more interested in voice acting and later landed the role of Captain America in the popular 1994 Spider-Man animated series. He also provided the voice of Arsène Lupin III in the English version of the anime film The Castle of Cagliostro and the voice of Tamahome in the English version of the anime series Fushigi Yūgi. He also starred in the 1994, straight-to-video movie, Guyver: Dark Hero, as the protagonist, Sean Barker (a main role he took over from the previous actor, Jack Armstrong); Hayter has since gone-on to use the character's name as an alias in various work credits.

Hayter began providing the English voice of Metal Gear series protagonist Solid Snake in the 1998 video game Metal Gear Solid, which also served as the series's transition from 2D to 3D. Hayter would go on to play Solid Snake and his progenitor Naked Snake throughout all the succeeding installments (including spinoffs, re-releases and adaptations) up to and including Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (2010). Hayter also has an extended live-action cameo as himself in one of the fictional TV programs prior to the start of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (2008); where he wears the "Solid Eye", the technologically advanced eye patch that the main character wears throughout the game. Outside the Metal Gear series, Hayter also voiced the character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008). His work with the Metal Gear series has also led Hayter to do voice work in other video game projects such as Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem and Star Wars: The Old Republic. He cited the series as an influence on his screenwriting, stating that "Kojima and I have different styles," "but I've certainly learned things from him, especially about ambiguity and telling a story without giving all the answers." Hayter is one of the few Metal Gear actors to have played and completed the games he's voiced in. According to Paul Eiding, Hayter gave up half of his own paycheck in order to bring back the cast of the original Metal Gear Solid for the 2004 remake Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes. Following the announcement of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain in the 2013 Game Developers Conference, Hayter announced that he was not asked to reprise as the main character for this entry. This was later confirmed when Konami announced that Kiefer Sutherland would be the character's voice during E3 the same year. Hayter has since revealed in an interview that he had to re-audition for the role suggesting that the series' creator Hideo Kojima was already considering recasting the part much earlier, with Kurt Russell (Snake Plissken in Escape from New York and Escape from L.A.) having been allegedly offered the role during the development of Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004). After Kojima's departure from Konami, Hayter would reprise the role in a Metal Gear Solid-themed advertisement for the 2016 Ford Focus SE aired in 2016. In 2018, Hayter provided the character's voice in two video games: Super Bomberman R (which added two playable characters based on both Solid Snake and Naked Snake in an update) and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (which simply reused his performance from Brawl). He reprised his role as Naked Snake for the 2025 remake, Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater, which also includes newly recorded lines.

On August 7, 2013, it was announced Hayter was developing a television show on Fox tentatively titled World War III, about a fiction global conflict that chronicles "a perfect storm of world events places us in the center of a global battle which may bring the world as we know it to an end." Hayter will be writing the series' story bible and pilot episode, as well as producing and serving as showrunner. On January 31, 2022, it was announced that Hayter would be writing and producing a television adaptation of the 2000 video game American McGee's Alice. On March 11, 2025, Deadline Hollywood reported that TDE Films would produce along with Rob Friedman, the upcoming 20th Century Studios acquired action horror film The Zone, directed by Dallas Johnson, from an original script by Hayter. On June 5, 2026, it was announced that Hayter would serve as co-writer (credited as "World Building Supervisor") on the video game Virtua Fighter Crossroads, his first writing role for a video game.

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1994 — Moldiver — Hiroshi Ozora • 1996 — Rakusho! Hyper Doll — Reporter — as Sean Barker • | They Were Eleven — Doricas Soldam IV • 1997 — Street Fighter II V — Additional Voices — as Sean Barker (Animaze dub) • | Black Jack — Leslie Harris — as Sean Barker • 1998–2000 — Fushigi Yûgi — Tamahome / Taka Sukunami / Yoshui • 1998 — Giant Robo: The Animation — Shoji Gen • | Yu Yu Hakusho: The Movie — Kurama • 1999 — Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket — Bernard Wiseman — as Sean Barker • 2000 — data-sort-value="Castle of Cagliostro, The" | The Castle of Cagliostro — Arsène Lupin III — as Sean Barker (Manga dub) • 2000–01 — Dual! Parallel Trouble Adventure — Additional Voices • 2025 — Record of Ragnarok — Leonidas — 4 episodes

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1996–97 — Spider-Man: The Animated Series — Captain America — TV series; 8 episodes • 2006 — Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel — Solid Snake • 2013 — Metal Gear Solid 2: Digital Graphic Novel — Solid Snake — Motion comic adaptation of the Metal Gear Solid 2 graphic novel included as extra content in Metal Gear Solid: The Legacy Collection

• Year — Title — Role — Notes • 1998 — Metal Gear Solid — Solid Snake — English dub • 2001 — Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty — Solid Snake / Iroquois Pliskin • 2002 — Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem — Roman Legionnaire 1 / Roman Legionnaire 2 / Angkor Thom Guard • 2004 — Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes — Solid Snake • Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater — Naked Snake — English dub • 2005 — Metal Gear Acid 2 — Snake • 2006 — Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops — Naked Snake • 2008 — Super Smash Bros. Brawl — Solid Snake • Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots — Old Snake — English dub; Also has a live-action cameo playing himself. • 2010 — Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker — Naked Snake — English dub • 2011– — Star Wars: The Old Republic — Jedi Knight Male • 2013 — Marvel Heroes — Winter Soldier • 2013–15 — République — Daniel Zager • 2014 — Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty! — Mudokons • 2015 — Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Descent — Lieutenant Renn • 2016 — data-sort-value="Long Dark, The" | The Long Dark — Jeremiah • Deponia Doomsday — Old Rufus • 2018 — Super Bomberman R — Solid Snake Bomber / Naked Snake Bomber — English dub; Characters added in the Ver. 2.1 update patch, released on June 27, 2018 • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — Solid Snake — English dub; re-uses voice work recorded for Super Smash Bros. Brawl • 2019 — Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — Zangetsu, Narrator • 2020 — Phantom: Covert Ops — General Nikolai Zhurov • 2020 — Yakuza: Like a Dragon — Osamu Kashiwagi ("The Bartender") — English dub • 2020 — Super Bomberman R Online — Solid Snake Bomber / Naked Snake Bomber / Old Snake Bomber — English dub; Old Snake Bomber was added on May 27, 2021 • 2021 — Retroninjacyberassassin — Doc Ninja — David recorded a few voice lines for Doc Ninja, the healer character, they were added in an update to the early access version. • 2022 — The Long Dark: WINTERMUTE — Jeremiah — David recorded lines for Jeremiah in Episode 2 of The Long Dark: WINTERMUTE • 2023 — Synapse — Colonel Peter Conrad • 2024 — Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth — Osamu Kashiwagi ("The Bartender"), additional voices — English dub • 2025 — Yakuza 0 Director's Cut — Osamu Kashiwagi • Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater — Naked Snake — English dub; re-uses voice work recorded for Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater although a handful of lines have been re-recorded with slightly altered dialogue. • 2026 — Yakuza Kiwami 3 & Dark Ties — Osamu Kashiwagi, additional voices — English dub • Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege X — Solid Snake — English dub • 2027 — Virtua Fighter Crossroads — Writer (World Building Supervisor) — Non-acting role

• Year — Film — Director — Writer — Producer — Notes • 1998 — Burn — Unreleased on home media. Uploaded on David Hayter's YouTube channel on May 2, 2019. • 2000 — X-Men • 2002 — Lost in Oz — TV movie • data-sort-value="Scorpion King, The" | The Scorpion King • 2003 — X2 • 2009 — Watchmen • 2010 — Chasm — Short film • 2014 — Wolves — Directorial debut • 2015 — data-sort-value="Christmas Horror Story, A" | A Christmas Horror Story — Executive • 2020 — Warrior Nun — Supervising — 2 episodes • TBA — Untitled Voltron live-action film

• Year — Film — Role — Notes • 1993 — Major Dad — Misha Sarotsky — Episode: "From Russia with Like" • 1994 — Guyver: Dark Hero — Sean Barker • Long Shadows — Ed's secretary — TV movie • 1996 — data-sort-value="Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century, The" | The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century — Voice — Episodes: "Stalemate" and "Total War" • 1997 — Drive — Cop #1 • 1998 — Burn — Tom Rice • 2000 — Wild on the Set — Narrator — TV series • X-Men — Museum Cop • 2014 — Devil's Mile — Toby McTeague • 2016–2019 — data-sort-value="Flash, The" | The Flash — King Shark — 4 episodes Voice only • 2022 — Turning Red — Additional Voices

• Year — Webshow — Role — Notes • 2009 — Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin'? — Episode: "The Sons of Big Boss" Voice only • 2017 — data-sort-value="Jimquisition, The" | The Jimquisition — Episode: "Slay to Pay" Voice only • 2018 — Boundary Break — Solid Snake — Episode: "Metal Gear Solid" • 2019 — Khonjin House — Episode: "Infiltrator 2" Voice only • 2022 — Did You Know Gaming? — Narrator — Episode: "Metal Gear Solid's Cut Content" Episode: "Metal Gear Solid's Insane Cut Content" Voice only

David Hayter is recorded as actor, screenwriter and film director. Recorded with the occupation television actor. Recorded with the occupation film director. Identity and origins. Recorded at birth as David Bryan Hayter. He also worked under the name Sean Barker. His recorded language was English.