SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — He began his professional career on KELO Radio in Sioux Falls around 40 years ago.
Today, Wally Wingert may be the most successful South Dakota actor in Hollywood that you might not be familiar with. Wingert has been entertaining people around the world with his voice. Wingert may be best known as the voice of the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
“It’s the tonight show with Jay Leno!” And it was live every day, said Wingert.
He auditioned for the job on a whim and says the the gig was one of his favorites. He calls Jay Leno a great person to work with and a nice guy.
“I’m the announcer of the tonight show? Yeah if you want to do it. I’m like I would love to do it. So I ended up being only the 7th full time announcer in tonight show history to do it, and so far the only guy to do the announcing as a strictly as a voice over guy where you never see them, said Wingert.
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“I loved the tonight show but I also loved the Garfield show. For six or seven seasons on Cartoon Network we did a Garfield show. And I got cast as John Arbuckle. ‘Hey Garfield where’s Odie, It’s time for lasagna. Garfield you ate all the lasagna!’ So I did that for seven years and I loved that character because he’s such a dork like me.”