Niko Bellic is voiced by Michael Hollick. A New York stage actor at the time, Hollick recorded approximately 80 hours of dialogue for Niko across roughly 18 months in 2006 and 2007, ahead of GTA IV's April 2008 release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
- Actor
- Michael Hollick
- Recording window
- 2006–2007
- Dialogue captured
- ~80 hours
- Release year
- 2008 (PS3 / Xbox 360)
Hollick is American, born in Hawaii. The Serbian accent he developed for Niko was coached against recordings of Serbian-American immigrants in the New York area, and is widely considered one of the most consistent accent performances in a Rockstar game. Niko remains Hollick's most-recognized credit.
In a much-quoted 2008 New York Times interview, Hollick spoke openly about the lack of residuals or royalty structure for voice work on a game that ultimately sold more than 25 million copies. The conversation became a touchstone in the broader debate about fair compensation for game voice acting that contributed to the 2016–17 SAG-AFTRA strike.