GTA 6 Actor Beats Rockstar to the Punch with Surprise Reveal

Stephen Root is having quite the 2026

Fans have met a few Grand Theft Auto 6 characters in trailers and the extended look on Netflix, but as is common in video games, Rockstar Games has been quiet about who exactly is voicing those characters. One actor got ahead of Rockstar's marketing plans and just let slip that he's in the game — but you've probably already recognized his voice in the trailers.

At the BAFTA TV Tea Party, AP asked Stephen Root about the speculation that he's in GTA 6. "Yeah, you’re going to see me in there," he said. "I think from the first rollout of GTA [6] that they were doing almost a year ago they had my character in there, and there were too many people who knew me from King of the Hill and my voice." Stephen Root has been a part of King of the Hill since the very beginning, voicing Hank Hill's neighbor Bill Dauterive and Hank's boss Buck Strickland. "So, I think that secret kind of got divulged then."

Root is nominated for an Emmy for his role as Wyck Crawford in Widow's Bay. Aside from his King of the Hill roles, he's perhaps best known for his '90s performances in the TV series NewsRadio and the film Office Space.

Root is playing Brian Heder in GTA 6. He's described as a "classic drug runner from the golden age of smuggling" in the Florida Keys, according to Rockstar's official character descriptions. Brian is letting Jason, one of the game's protagonists, live rent-free at one of his properties, but there are strings attached, of course. Jason has to help with "local shakedowns" for Brian.

Grand Theft Auto 6 is almost here, 13 years after GTA 5 was released in 2013. GTA 6 will be out Nov. 19 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but only digitally. It will take over Miami IRL, feature a nudist camp, and get its own special PS5 controller, which scalpers are already ruining.