From "Phineas and Ferb" to Haunted Mansion: Vincent Martella on Disney, Fandom, and Finding His Voice

After more than a decade away, Phineas and Ferb returns this summer with all-new episodes, bringing back the inventive spirit, musical genius, and beloved characters that made the original series a Disney Channel classic. Ahead of the Season 5 premiere on June 5th on Disney Channel and June 6th on Disney+, I caught up with Vincent Martella, who has voiced Phineas Flynn since the very beginning. We talked about his long-standing connection to the role, his favorite memories in the Disney Parks, how he’s branching out in the booth this season, and what it means to revisit not one but two fan-favorite shows from his childhood.

Alex: You're not just voicing Phineas this time around. What’s it like to voice other characters in the new season? And do you idolize voice actors on projects like The Simpsons who are known to speak for multiple characters?

Vincent Martella: I absolutely do. I mean, as a voice actor, that's one of the most fun times to go into a booth and the most fun challenges is when you get there and they go, "Hey, you're going to do like four or five voices today and they're all going to be very different." I love making them really different. I want to make them as different as possible when I'm going in for a day. And so I'm either giving them very distinct dialects or very different fluctuations in my pitch and my voice, trying to age them differently. It's very fun.

Mmy favorite voice actor of all time is Seth MacFarlane, who does not only many, many lead characters on Family Guy but also does so many other side characters and additional voices. My dream career is to be able to be one of these voice actors who can just be a Swiss Army knife for people. And so I'm glad I get to showcase that a lot more in Phineas and Ferb now, but that's also what I did on Everybody Still Hates Chris, I'm playing like six characters on that show. It's been nice to have the opportunity to do that as my career progresses and I improve as a voice actor.

Alex: I see a Haunted Mansion attraction poster behind you, so I'm assuming you’re a Disney fan beyond the work you do for the company.

Vincent: I'm a huge Disney fan. Yeah.

Alex: I've heard Dan [Povenmire, co-creator of Phineas and Ferb] talk about one of his most surreal moments from the original series was being at Disney California Adventure one day and forgetting that they were doing the street party over by the waterfront, and how emotional that was for him. Did you ever have any moments like that in a park, even if it was like walking by the Disney’s Hollywood Studios meet-and-greet?

Vincent: Yeah. I love going to Disneyland. I've been an annual passholder kind of on and off 'cause I lived in New York for a few years, and now it switched to the Magic Key, so it's a little different. But I mean, I was an annual passholder for like five or six years, and I would go all the time, and it never, ever got normal to me seeing the Phineas and Ferb walk-around characters. I mean, that is such an unbelievably special thing—to have played a character for 20 years for Disney that means so much to so many people, that we are in the parks and kids are waiting to meet our characters.

I went to a Disney Channel Nite a year ago, and they had a Phineas and Ferb dance party. I went and saw the characters, and people were loving it. And the part that really got me choked up is I was hearing music that I sang. You know, it's my voice, playing Phineas, singing music that is playing in Disneyland. It's playing on Main Street. It's playing in front of the castle. It's playing in Tomorrowland. And I was like, "This is unbelievable." That type of stuff means so much to me. Even the Disney pins. I've got, you know, a Phineas and Ferb Disney pin on my bookshelf. And even the smaller stuff blows my mind. Let alone, there are Phineas and Ferb Mickey ears that they sell and MagicBands. Like, that's incredible.

During the interview, Vincent Martella brought a custom piece of artwork depicting, Phineas, Ferb, and Perry the Platypus as the Hitchhiking Ghosts from Haunted Mansion.

Alex: The Muppets got to do a Haunted Mansion special, Phineas and Ferb has done Marvel and Star Wars crossovers, but I feel like you need to get the ball rolling on Phineas and Ferb get trapped for a night in the Haunted Mansion.

Vincent: I completely agree. We had an episode where we built a haunted house to try and scare Isabella’s hiccups away, and I think it's too close. Because I've brought up how much I love the art of Haunted Mansion. I love holiday-themed episodes of anything. They're so nostalgic to me, and I love them. I love that people watch some of our Christmas episodes every year with their kids. I want to do more Halloween episodes, I want to do more Christmas episodes. Those are some of my favorites. And Phineas and Ferb come out at Christmastime at Walt Disney World. Like, they come out in their hats and everything like that.

Alex: It's the longest line at Jollywood Nights. I t's a four-hour event, and people will spend two and a half hours of the event in line for Phineas and Ferb, trying to meet Phineas and Ferb.

Vincent: I hope that shows the powers that be that people really care about these characters as much as we do. 'Cause we really do. I have been playing Phineas for 20 years, and it is my favorite job and my favorite character, and I would love to keep voice acting for the rest of my life. It’s really a pleasure working for Disney.

Alex: Interestingly, this new season of Phineas and Ferb and Everybody Still Hates Chris are continuations of projects you started as a kid. Are you surprised that both shows still resonate with audiences, and does returning to these roles help you reconnect with your younger self?

Vincent: I had a very surreal moment because I've been working on Phineas and Ferb every week since we got picked up—I believe it was just over two years ago. And so I've been working on it for about a year and a half. And then kind of out of the blue, they were like, "Hey, this Everybody Still Hates Chris cartoon is happening. Do you want to be part of that?" And so I had a day where I had a session of Phineas and Ferb in the morning and then Everybody Still Hates Chris in the afternoon. And I was like, you know, I used to do this when I was on Everybody Hates Chris— the live-action series. I had first started on Phineas and Ferb, where I would go in and I would shoot all day on Everybody Hates Chris, and then I would leave that studio and go over to Disney and then do an episode of Phineas and Ferb. And so it was a very surreal moment, and full circle moment, being like, whoa, I'm working on both of these things again at a second point in my life. That was very, very odd in a good way. I mean, it means people like the work that we've done, so that's nice.

Alex: Speaking of liking the work that you've done, you’ve stayed connected to fans through social media and appearances at fan events, but being at D23 Brasil last November was on a whole other level. Had you experienced something like that before?

Vincent: Not at all. When I was at D23 Brasil, they only let me go on the convention floor once, and it was for about 10 to 15 minutes, and then security shut it down. They said I was not allowed to do that anymore. D23 always has really cool exclusive merchandise, and I was like, I want to get like a t-shirt or a sweatshirt or something. So I was like, "Hey, I just want to get to the store. Can I go to the store and look at stuff?" And they were like, "We will try to get you there." And they couldn't get me to the store. There were too many people trying to get pictures with me and stop me, and they were like, this is a security issue, and there is no way we can get you in the store with no one else. Because D23 is obviously very packed. And they're like, we can't clear the store out. And I was like, oh no, I don't want to make you clear the store out so that I can go in there by myself, these fans have been waiting in line, I don't want to do that. But they did not let me walk around the convention floor any longer than that. I saw very little of the D23 convention floor, which was too bad because I love D23.

Alex: You mentioned music. I know you've dabbled in music outside of the show as well. Have you continued with that personally, or is this like a way to get back into it?

Vincent: Music to me is such a hobby. I play piano and I sing for fun all the time. I love music. My brother is a professional blues musician in Las Vegas who gigs four times a week. And I'm technically a professional musician because I've been doing music that's on Spotify. It's so funny to me because whenever I go in and I record with these professional musicians, I'm like, "Oh, I thought I had every note exactly right." They can hear every flat or sharp note the moment that I do it. And we have to do so many genres. Like, the amount of genres of music that Phineas gets to sing and we get to do on the show is a real curveball, where it's like, "Oh, am I rapping now? That's not in my repertoire. Like, that's not what I'm normally doing." It's really cool that I get to work with such talented musicians. I mean, Danny Jacob, who does all of our music, along with our great writers, who write all the music, I just feel incredibly lucky that they let me sing really cool songs. Like, I get to sing “Gitchee Gitchee Goo," I get to sing “Summer Belongs to You." I'm the luckiest dude in the world. Like, this is great.

Alex: Yeah. And now you can probably do the lower register.

Vincent: I know! I can do the other parts too. Yeah. The harmonies.

Alex: Is your normal singing voice much different from Phineas’s now that you're older? Have you thought about duetting with Phineas?

Vincent: Phineas talks completely differently than I talk. I mean, it's a complete character voice. It's not at all close to my voice. And even myself, when I hear Phineas’s voice or I watch the show, I am separated from it. I'm like, that is Phineas’s voice. That's who he is. Anytime I see him and I hear him, that's who he sounds like. It's really a matter of Disney wanting to let us use our regular voices when it comes to singing because even all the other character work I'm doing on Phineas and Ferb, that's all character work. I'm never just speaking in my normal voice. I'm doing characters. So maybe someday they'll let me. I can't say what, but I have sung as other characters in the season. But they are not my normal voice.

With new episodes just days away, Vincent Martella’s deep affection for Phineas and Ferb is unmistakable—from his joy in voicing multiple characters to the emotional impact of hearing his own songs playing in the parks. Whether he’s lending his voice to a musical number, dreaming up Haunted Mansion crossovers, or being mobbed by fans at D23 Brasil, it’s clear this role remains close to his heart. For longtime fans and a new generation of viewers, Phineas and Ferb promises to deliver all the fun, music, and mayhem of summer—plus a few surprises that even Vincent can’t tease just yet.