Voice actor Greg Baldwin attends Calgary Expo 2025
By Ansharah Shakil, April 30, 2025—
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Avatar: The Last Airbender, a show that remains influential and beloved today. It’s appropriate, then, that several of the original animated show’s voice actors attended Calgary Expo from April 24-27, including Zach Tyler Eisen (Aang), Jack De Sena (Sokka), Dante Basco (Zuko) and Greg Baldwin (Iroh).
Baldwin attended all four days of the convention, appearing twice at two cast panels for the 20th anniversary of Avatar: The Last Airbender. On Sunday, he dressed in an orange Airbender-inspired suit and cheerfully greeted the many fans that lined up at the table to see him.
“I’ve always loved voice acting but I love these fan conventions even more. I love talking to fans and it means so much to us that after twenty years, this thing that we did twenty years ago still resonates with people,” he told the Gauntlet. “It’s becoming this multigenerational thing where entire families watch it together. People that watched it as a child are grown-up now, and are introducing their own children to the show, and that’s amazing. It’s miraculous.”
Baldwin succeeded Mako Iwamatsu as the voice actor of Uncle Iroh following the latter’s death due to their vocal similarities. He also succeeded Iwamatsu as Aku for the fifth season of Samurai Jack. After Avatar: The Last Airbender, he voiced Iroh in The Legend of Korra. He has worked in the theater as characters like Sidney Lipton in God’s Favorite, Mushnik in Little Shop of Horrors and Count Otto Von Bruno as well as being the voice of many other characters such as Frank Fontaine in BioShock.
“Apart from my wife and my children, being the second voice of Uncle Iroh has been the third biggest blessing of my life,” Baldwin said.
During the panel, Baldwin talked about how important it is to him that Iroh means so much to many fans. In particular, he addressed how Iroh often either reminds fans of their father, or of the father they wished they had. The cast also discussed how Iroh’s supportive, loving and complex relationship with Zuko is his redemption, and such an essential part of his character. As Iroh once says, he considers Zuko to be like a son to him after his own son’s death, and Zuko views Iroh as more of a father than his real father.
Also important for Iroh’s character is “The Tale of Iroh” during “Tales of Ba Sing Se”, which was dedicated to Iwamatsu. “Tales of Ba Sing Se” is Baldwin’s favourite episode of the show. He refers to Iroh singing “Leaves From The Vine” as an iconic scene, but as Iwamatsu’s song, so in order to keep that memory intact he doesn’t sing the song in public, though he has sung it in the shower.
“This is only my second visit to Canada, and honestly, it’s so nice. Canadians are famously nice and I can now say having first-hand experienced it, Canadians are the nicest people on Earth,” Baldwin said. “And I’ve also discovered this thing called ketchup potato chips you have here.”
At this point, Baldwin pulled a bag of ketchup chips from beneath the table.
“Clearly I’ve become a fan,” he said. “I keep them nearby. I was Googling to see how many of these I can get over the border when I go home tomorrow.”
In addition to his love for tea, Iroh’s words of advice are a memorable part of the show. As Baldwin put it, everyone has an Iroh line that is their touchstone, that grounds them when they’re having a bad day. For me, it’s a hard choice between “Life happens wherever you are, whether you make it or not” or “Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see the light at the end, but if you just keep moving you will come to a better place.”
Baldwin shared that his favourite line is one from Legend of Korra: “If you look for the light, you will often find it. If you look for the dark, that is all you will ever see.”
“I love it because the way Iroh phrases it, it involves active choice, to actually look for the light.,” he said. “Once you make that choice […] you go, oh, wow, there’s light all around us, we’re enveloped by light.”
Baldwin discussed how incredible it has been to discuss the show and see that it’s as big as it has ever been, and to know how the work of the cast and crew mattered. 20 years later, the show remains important to so many fans.