An Actor Avatar is a real-world actor, model, or other personality used on the TwikI as a visual representation of a character in the TI universe. Of course, since this is a game and not a movie or TV series, no one is actually playing our characters except our storyteller/editor and writer/players, but having an "actor who would play them in the movie version" greatly helps the reader (and authors) visualize a scene, hear the characters speak in our heads, and so forth.
It also makes watching movies and TV series a lot more fun when we can get giggles over seeing our beloved TI characters in bizarre situations.
Note that there is no restrictions on budget, or date of filming, so there is no problem having, say, Christopher Plummer circa 1965 playing Karl Von Shrakenberg in a scene in Season 4.2 opposite Jurgen Prochnow circa 1999 playing his nephew Erich. However, once an actor is used for one character, they really shouldn't be used for another, regardless of any difference in ages or film roles. Which is why we went back to Patrick Stewart for Samuel Wall instead of having an older version of Bruce Willis, who plays his son, Andrea Treschi. When possible, Actor Avatars should be just that: actors or other celebrities. However, if you find a really good picture, that really fits the character, go ahead and use someone from a generic stock photo, an historical figure, the real-world person you named the character after or based the character partially upon, or just some goofy image macro you found online somewhere. Pictures should, if possible, be in color, and show the person in appropriately sci-fi-ish settings, clothing, and makeup. That helps greatly with setting the mood. But, again, if you find a really good pic, go ahead and use it.
If you're really artistic, feel free to draw your character as well. That's even better, but most of us can't draw a face to save our lives.
Assigned Celebrity Actor Avatars
- Amos, Tori: Priscilla Savant
- Anderson, Gillian: Diana Reid
- Argento, Asia: Irene York
- Arquette, Lewis: George Smits
- Baker, Tom: Zebulon Carter
- Bettany, Paul: Terry Smith
- Bloodgood, Moon: Frances Xavier
- Bogosian, Eric: Windspeaker Durward
- Burr, Raymond: Robert Mason
- Carter, Terry: Terry Carter
- Crowe, Russell: Alistar Dimiye
- Cusack, John: Herbert Gergenstein
- Cushing, Peter: John Tyler
- Duncan, Michael Clarke: Cornelius
- Fairbrass, Craig: Wilbur "Zinger" St. James
- Flockhart, Callista: Elizabeth
- Goss, Luke: Magnus
- Green, Seth: Jason Regis
- Greene, Graham: William "Baleful Bill" Balogh
- Harris, Ed: Icarus Hicks
- Harris, Neil Patrick: Scyr
- Harmon, Mark: Marko Vitek
- Hauer, Rutger: Luther Petridis
- Haysbert, Dennis: Nasrudin Carson
- Hillerman, John: Fred Houseman
- Humphreys, Chris: Joseph Smythe
- Jones, Vinnie: Irfan Malik
- Kurkova, Karolina: Reichenspurger Tess
- Lundgren, Dolph: Damien Richter
- Macy, William H.: Kash
- McClanahan, Rue: Melissa Bertram
- McClory, Belinda: Bree Colby
- McGill, Everett: Titus Vardan
- McGraw, Dr. Phil: David Tibbetts
- Moore, Ramsey: Edmund Filks
- Morales, Esai: Nathan Lopez
- Moreno, Rita: Gabriella Munoz
- Morrison, Temuera: Lwan Eddington
- Nielsen, Leslie: J.J. Adams
- Nichols, Rachel: Josie Davis
- Nicholson, Jack: Arthur Clarke
- Nighy, Bill: Santino
- O'Brien, Richard: Marcel Deveraux
- Paxton, Bill: Adam Selene
- Phoenix, Joaquin: Malachi Spyder
- Postelthwaite, Pete: Douglas Munro
- Powers, Stephanie: Stephanie Harrington
- Prochnow, Jurgen: Erich Von Shrakenberg
- Rayment, Adrian or Neil: Hugh Montgomery
- Reeves, Keanu: Zechariah McNeilly
- Rollins, Henry: Corric Lightfoot
- Schwarzenegger, Arnold: Chris Snyder
- Serkis, Andy: A.C. Eddington
- Singer, Marc: Andrew Tremont
- Spiner, Brent: Argus McCall
- Steen, Jessica: Stacey Johannes/Maegwin Harrington
- Steiger, Rod: Jason Horner
- Stewart, Lori: Elly Ragdowski
- Stewart, Patrick: Samuel Wall
- Sutherland, Kiefer: David Marcus
- Tatum, Channing: Ryan Sandburg
- Ticotin, Rachel: Michelle Fisher
- Tolkan, James S.: Richard Knowles
- Traue, Antje: Carmen Mosby
- Ulrich, Skeet: Damien Nikolai
- Ventura, Jesse: Bernard Dent
- Ward, Lalla: Deety Burroughs
- Washington, Denzel: Abdul Johnson
- Watanabe, Ken: Yasuyama Akira the Elder
- Wayons, Marlon: Sean Dunston
- Weatherly, Michael: James Welthammer
- Willis, Bruce: Andrea Treschi
- Wilton, Penelope: Roberta O'Brien
- Wong, Victor: Xinjao O'Reilly
- Wood, Elijah: Hex
- Yelchin, Anton: Nebojsa Radovic
- Young, Lee Thompson: Larry Kabila
Non-Celebrity Actor Avatars
These are pics we found somewhere that are not of an identifiable celebrity, but which illustrated the character better than any celebrity we could think of. Original artwork goes here as well.
- Brother Bob: Niel Cappetta (in costume as Brother Bob in student film Pandora's Box)
- Izzy D'Argent: Original Artwork by Myriel Bienvenu.
- Tomas Delarosa: Unknown soldier with the right nameplate on his uniform.
- Sarah Dunmeyer: Unknown US Army general with almost the right name badge, found in online image search.
- Pyramus Grey: Unknown steampunk cosplayer found in online image search.
- Gurrmew K'Laek K'Soth: Origional Artwork by Tara "TaraFly" Teach
- Maeve Harrington: Unknown Honor Harrington cosplayer.
- Johanna Ingolfsson: Unknown Royal Navy officer found in online image search.
- Altair Juarez: Real-Life Altair Juarez we named the character after.
- Lilith: Original Artwork by Myriel Bienvenu.
- Pablo Losada: Unknown hispanic lab worker in stock photo found in online image search.
- Abbot Angus MacAries: Bernardo Olivera, Abbot-General of Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Azul, Argentina (found via online image search)
- Narrah: Origional artwork by J0llyR0ger at Worth1000.com
- Nicolai Malakov: Unknown Soviet or Russian general officer found in online image search.
- Miranda Mayfield: Unknown parade beauty queen.
- Rachel O'Reilly: Unknown asian child in a yarmulke, found in online image search.
- Nirav Patel: Unknown Indian admiral found in online image search.
- Adelisa Soti: Unknown babe in Romanian Military garb.
- Phil Shon: Real-life Phil Shon we named the character after.
- Pirr Varrless: Origional Artwork by Paul Baker
- Kristen Vorheis: Unknown female soldier found in online image search.
Unknown Actor Avatars
These are character illustrations added by people who did not add the name of the source to this list, and whom the rest of us can't immediately recognize. If you added the image for this character, and can remember where you found it or who it is a pic of, please move their name to the appropriate above category and list the source, if possible.
- Eric Bishop
- Rebecca Blacklidge
- Calihye Chembryl
- Melissa Cortona
- Vin Dane
- Joel Fabin
- David Farrell
- Hadrian Gartvo
- Claudius Giovanni
- Kim Ji-yoon
- Kim Wen
- Rashid King
- Darius Longbow III
- Deirdre Macoure
- Lung Man-wen
- Malikait
- Victor McManus
- Demar Palancia
- Xavier Pollos/Mark Smith
- Aisha Ramirez
- Aaron Roquefort
- Wakamatsu Shinsuke
- Kazimir Vitek
- Yasuyama Akihiko
- Yasuyama Akihiro
- Yasuyama Akiko
- Yasuyama Akira the Younger
- Yasuyama Hikari
- Yasuyama Hikaru
- Yasuyama Takamitsu
Behind the Scenes
Starting in Season 4.3, we passed around via email an ever-expanding list of members of the TI "Dream Cast". Some, but not all of the choices from that list, were used in Frank's epically hilarious "Behind the Roleplaying" parody script. Another, much smaller Dream Cast list was circulated for Season Eight. But way back in Season One, Martin and Marcus picked actors to use as the mind's-eye appearance of their characters.