Bill Hader

"It’s very sweet that J.J. Abrams put my name on it, but I came in and did voice stuff for it that didn’t work. Then, he brought me in later and said, 'Hey, do you want to do this.' It was like a… talk box thing and then I did that. And the reason he hasn't had me come back is because anybody can do that. It's like a machine that you can operate."

―Bill Hader on voicing BB-8^[1]

William Thomas Hader Jr. (born June 7, 1978) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and director who provided the voice for BB-8 in Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens along with Ben Schwartz. In a 2023 interview, however, Hader mused that he likely did not deserve credit for the performance. He claimed that he initially "did some voice stuff that just didn't work" and was later invited back by director J.J. Abrams to operate a talk box for the character's voice. He called Abrams "very sweet" for putting his name on the final product, as he felt that operating the talk box was something that anybody could have done.^[1]

Hader was also a production assistant on the 2004 documentary Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, for which he went to Mark Hamill's house to pick up some pictures of the actor from his wife.^[2]

In 2011, he appeared in the video "Stand Up To Cancer - Star Wars," with other celebrities like Samuel L. Jackson, Jaime King, and Emma Stone, recreating classic Star Wars scenes to raise awareness for cancer research.^[3]

In 2017, Hader interviewed Mark Hamill ahead of the release of Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi release, for the magazine Interview.^[2]