Craig Burnatowski: The Polymath in a Leather Jacket (Voice Included)
Some actors arrive with a single specialty and a tidy row of credits. Craig Burnatowski tends to stroll in with a microphone, a motion-capture suit, a devilish grin, and a rock vocalist’s lungs. Based in Toronto by way of Quebec and Oakville, he has danced across stages, crept through sci-fi corridors, and—most famously to gamers—slipped on the sleek shades of Albert Wesker in Capcom’s Resident Evil 4 (2023). If you’ve ever wondered what happens when a theatre kid grows up to terrorize international espionage agents, space traders, demons, and preschool animation—often in the same year—Craig is your answer. (IMDb)
Prologue: A Mic, a Mask, and a Map
Burnatowski’s career is the working actor’s atlas: theatre, television, games, commercials, and the odd documentary reenactment where he must look extremely official while explaining why very large machines decided to disobey physics. He trained in acting, sang lead in multiple bands, and learned the unglamorous, gymnastic truth of performance capture—where the costume is dots, the set is a grid, and imagination does the rest. That breadth shows up everywhere in his credits: from live-action sci-fi to kids’ TV and from AAA blockbusters to experimental gigs that keep his instrument (voice and body) sharp.
The Shades Fit: Becoming Albert Wesker
Let’s get to the headline: Craig provides the voice—and performance capture—for the iconic antagonist Albert Wesker in the 2023 remake of Resident Evil 4 and returns in the DLC Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways. Yes, that Wesker—the calculating architect of bio-terror bad decisions. Burnatowski’s take threads the needle: cool without caricature, menacing without shouting, and charismatic enough that you worry you might actually join his dubious utopia if invited. It’s not simply a cameo; it’s a franchise handoff that acknowledges the character’s long legacy while giving him a fresh, modern snap.
Wesker’s presence in RE4 (2023) is a delicious seasoning—appearing in all the right places to influence the plot and tilt the chessboard. Burnatowski’s performance capture helps, grounding the character’s physicality in a crisp, predatory stillness that pairs perfectly with that velvety, amused delivery. It’s the sort of work that makes fans say, “Ah, we’re safe in dangerous hands.”
The DLC Encore: Separate Ways
When Ada’s storyline demanded its own center stage, Craig returned as Wesker in Resident Evil 4: Separate Ways (2023), adding extra layers of cat-and-mouse intrigue. DLC appearances can sometimes feel like bonus content; here, Wesker’s presence feels essential—an elegant thread stitching the remake’s tapestry to the wider saga, with Burnatowski’s controlled menace keeping it taut.
Back to the Beginning: From Outbreak to Overhaul
Long before the remake, Burnatowski’s connection to the series included motion capture work on Resident Evil: Outbreak File #2—the early days of Capcom exploring more dynamic physical performances. Consider it a foreshadowing: a young performer literally learning the grammar of mocap before returning two decades later to help redefine a franchise villain in the modern, performance-driven era. Nice symmetry, that.
Galactic Side Quests: The Galaxy Far, Far Away (and Ubisoft’s Neighborhood)
If you prefer your mayhem with starships and smugglers, Burnatowski contributed extensive voice work to Star Wars Outlaws (2024), Ubisoft’s open-world foray into the scum-and-villainy side of the galaxy. Characters in a game like this need to sound lived-in—cocksure thugs, smooth fixers, hard-bitten mercs—and Craig’s vocal range hits those registers with ease. The result is an audio world that feels like it’s been wheeling and dealing for years before you arrived.
This isn’t his first Ubisoft rodeo, either. He’s credited in Watch_Dogs 2 and—most substantially—in The Division 2 and The Division 2: Warlords of New York as James Dragov, the kind of name you pronounce while reloading. Dragov is one of those antagonists who sound like they’d sneer through a respirator, and Burnatowski’s delivery gives him presence even when your crosshairs suggest otherwise.
Arena Shooter & Other Explosions
On the competitive side, Craig appears in Ubisoft’s XDefiant (2024) among the performers who lend rhythm and personality to a game that lives or dies on instant vibe. Multiplayer shooters need voice prints that cut through chaos—clean, distinct, confident. He supplies exactly that, like a whistle you can hear above a stadium roar.
Live-Action: Demons, Buyers, Cops, and the Silent One
On television, Burnatowski has a habit of showing up in genre favorites. He portrays Trigon—yes, that Trigon—in DC’s Titans, giving the demon a basso rumble fit for bad dreams and father-daughter therapy sessions from the abyss. In The Expanse, he appears in the Season 3 episode “Delta-V” as the Pixie Dust Buyer, a minor but vividly sketched character in a universe where even background deals feel consequential. He pops up in The Boys as a street cop—no small feat given that show’s habit of turning law enforcement into dramatic punctuation—and puts on cult-cool makeup in What We Do in the Shadows as “The Silent One,” which is either irony or truth in advertising depending on how much he got to hiss.
The man also does “serious face” with aplomb: multiple turns in Air Crash Investigation (a.k.a. Mayday), where he has played figures like Tor Arne Johannesen and NTSB investigator Don Eick. These docudrama credits require a totally different muscle: surgical clarity, steadiness, and the dignity of real-world stakes. He brings it, then returns to supervillains and star systems without missing a beat.
Kid-Friendly Frequencies
Versatility check: can the guy who voices ruthless bio-engineered masterminds also do warm, rhythmic children’s television? Indeed. On PBS Kids’ Let’s Go Luna! he voices Arun in an episode built around cultural curiosity and gentle humor. Range isn’t just about octaves; it’s about worldview. Burnatowski can pivot from “global catastrophe” to “global empathy” and sound perfectly at home in both.
Behind the Mic: Casting & Voice Direction
Some performers simply show up and deliver; others also know how to build the room. In 2008, Craig stepped into casting and voice-direction for Xaviant’s Lichdom: Battlemage, shaping sessions from the other side of the glass. It’s a quiet line on a résumé that says something loud: he understands not just how to perform, but how to engineer performances out of a team—timing, texture, intention. Actors who direct actors often listen differently. You can hear that in his later game work, where ensemble energy feels calibrated, not chaotic.
Rock Frontman Energy
Because an honest day’s hustle sometimes includes a stage monitor, Burnatowski has also fronted bands. The “vocalist” part of his bio isn’t a novelty—it’s a clue to why his game and animation reads feel musical. He phrases lines like melodies, places consonants like cymbal hits, and keeps breath control that belongs in a studio booth as much as on a club stage. When you hear Wesker lean into a sentence like he’s dropping a chorus, that’s the singer’s muscle memory at work.
Working Actor’s Ethos
What unites this eclectic slate—AAA villainy, sci-fi cameos, documentary stoicism, preschool warmth, multiplayer swagger—is a working actor’s ethos: show up prepared, serve the story, and leave a distinct imprint even if you’re on screen (or in headset) for sixty seconds. Craig’s career reads like proof that versatility isn’t the opposite of identity; it’s how you build one. In every medium, he tends to sound exactly like the most interesting version of the role requires.
The Present Tense
Recent years have been particularly busy: Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Separate Ways (2023) put him under a global microscope; Star Wars Outlaws (2024) let him roam a galaxy of scoundrels; XDefiant (2024) plugged him into a competitive chorus; and ongoing TV work continues to sprinkle his face across shows you’ve probably binged at 2 a.m. He’s the surprise square on your “Hey, I know that voice” bingo card.
Why Casting Directors Call Him (Again)
For games, you get a performer who understands combat barks, narrative beats, and the unnatural grace of mocap. For television, you get a presence that reads instantly as “real person in a real world,” even when the world involves eldritch dads or vampire councils. For kids’ content, you get warmth without syrup. And for any medium, you get a musician’s ear for rhythm: lines that land, pauses that mean something, and villainy that never needs to shout to be terrifying.
Final Note, Sung on a Low E
If you’re hunting for a tidy label, call Craig Burnatowski a multi-tool: built for hard use, elegant in motion, unexpectedly musical, and very good at opening stubborn plotlines. Whether he’s orchestrating doom as Wesker, trading credits in the Belt, or soothing PBS viewers with an educational adventure, he treats every role like a song worth singing properly. And in a business where many shout to be heard, he’s mastered the hush that makes a room lean in.
