Nicolas Cantu

Nicolas Cantu (born September 8, 2003), known by his internet pseudonyms Junky Janker and TheCAN2Network, is an American actor, voice actor and YouTuber.

Cantu is best known for being the third voice of Gumball Watterson in the Cartoon Network animated television series The Amazing World of Gumball (2017–2019) and the voice of Leonardo in the animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) and its Nickelodeon television adaptation Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2024). Cantu is also well known for starring as Elton Ortiz in the AMC television series The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020–2021) and as Hark in the film The Fabelmans (2022).

His YouTube channel has over 425,000 subscribers.

Early life

Nicolas Cantu was born in Austin, Texas on September 8, 2003. He is of Mexican descent; both of his parents are from Mexico City. His father is a lawyer, whereas his mother is a social worker. Cantu is the second of three sons, having two brothers, Sebastian and Matias. He grew up in San Antonio, Texas and attended Stone Oak Elementary School. He moved to Los Angeles, California when he was 10 years old in order to pursue his acting career. Cantu eventually moved back to San Antonio in 2022.

Career

Television

He began his acting career at the age of twelve with a guest voice role as Diego Márquez in a 2016 episode of the Nickelodeon series Dora and Friends: Into the City!. He then began voice acting in main roles in the same year. His first main voice role was as Rowan Freemaker in the Disney XD television series Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures. He also starred as Paco on the TV animated show Future-Worm!, voiced Prince James for the Disney Junior show Sofia the First, replacing Tyler Merna, and provided additional voices for the Cartoon Network reboot series The Powerpuff Girls. From 2017 to 2019, he voiced the title character on the Cartoon Network series The Amazing World of Gumball, replacing Jacob Hopkins during the fifth season. In The Gumball Chronicles, an eight-episode miniseries based on the show, which premiered on the said network in 2020, he was replaced by Duke Cutler due to puberty. He then made his live-action debut in the former's year with a guest role in an episode of Teachers as Quinn and played Travis on an episode of Disney Channel's Raven's Home. In 2018, Cantu appeared as Raymond on The Good Place. In 2019, he made one-episode appearances on the TV series Bizaardvark, Sydney to the Max and DuckTales. He voiced Winston on Middle School Moguls and appeared as Andrew on the CBS sitcom The Unicorn. He also voiced Dak on the Netflix series DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders. In 2020, he voiced Rhys on an episode of Where's Waldo?, played Elton Ortiz on AMC's The Walking Dead: World Beyond and provided the voice of Teia on the animated series Puppy Dog Pals. In 2021, he played Dennis Kern on an episode of The Rookie, appeared as JJ on two episodes of 9-1-1: Lone Star and voiced Ensign Mainstay on the Netflix series Kid Cosmic. In 2022, he voiced Smooth Jason and Wrinkly on the Netflix show Oddballs. His most recent 2023 roles include Barry in the Disney+ series American Born Chinese, Otto in the Disney Channel animated TV series Hailey's On It! and Charlie in the Netflix animated TV series Skull Island. He is set to voice Leonardo in the 2024 Nickelodeon animated television series Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Film

Cantu began his film career at the age of fourteen with a voice role as Curly on the 2017 Nickelodeon TV film Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie. He then starred in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans as Hark in 2022. He provided the voice of Leonardo on the 2023 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.

Personal life

Cantu is a gamer. He is close friends with the American singer, Brennley Brown. On November 8, 2018, Cantu hosted a fundraiser for the Children's Hospital Los Angeles at Bob's Big Boy in Burbank, California.

Cantu came out as pansexual on Twitter in December 2022.

According to the second video ever posted on his YouTube channel, which is linked in his Twitter Account, He has a Girlfriend.

Filmography

Film

Television

Nominations

References

Notes

External links

• Nicolas Cantu at IMDb
• Nicolas Cantu at Behind The Voice Actors