Highly regarded New York comic Marty Grabstein has the distinct honor of being the voice behind the hit animated series Courage the Cowardly Dog. Grabstein has appeared in films, television series, live sketch comedy, theatre, and advertisements throughout his career, with Bury The Evidence and Apartment #5C being among his film credits. He has appeared in three Law & Order series, as well as Third Watch and Conviction, on television.
Grabstein co-wrote and co-starred with Rick Mowat in their sketch comedy act Lab Rats, which performed to glowing reviews in comedy clubs across New York City, in addition to parts in various theatre shows. They were regular performers in Joel Selmeier’s One Minute Play Contest as The Lab Rats, for example, of which John Heilpern stated in a review in the New York Observer “I was on the floor laughing at one fantastic sketch […] We must watch out for the comedy team of Mr. Grabstein and Mr. Mowat.” They consistently arrived with fresh content during the years they appeared in the show.
Grabstein is best known for providing the voice of Courage the Cowardly Dog in the Cartoon Network animated series. Grabstein created an authentic voice for Courage by combining paranoia and panic. He genuinely said numerous spoken words as Courage in the first season of the programme. Because the show’s producers felt Courage “spoke too much” and wanted the dog to be more laconic, Grabstein did practically all of the character’s lines in gibberish and mumbling for the rest of the series. For the 2014 TV special The Fog of Courage and the crossover film Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo!, Grabstein resumed his role as Courage.
