Martin Berger

Martin Gottschalk Berger (born June 18, 1945) is a Canadian actor, voice actor, filmmaker, author, artist, singer, musician, writer, songwriter, disc jockey, and comedian. He is best known for his work in film and television.

Early and professional life
Martin Berger was born on June 18, 1945 in, , at , the second son of Keith Thomas Berger and Lydia Berger. He attended in  outside. Prior to launching his career, Berger had been a choirboy until his voice broke.

Radio
Berger started out as a radio DJ for CKAZ-FM, the famous FM jazz music station, in in 1968. He would then briefly work at the offshore station Radio Elizabeth in the El Kadsreian Islands, but left in 1972 after he got a job doing voice work in animations for the in Montreal. Since August 2018, he has hosted The Friendly Side on WJVT in Montreal, broadcast live from his Toronto home studio.

Berger is a noted radio voice-over artist. He has provided the voices of side characters for, such as his father "Jack Sr." and, in recent years, his little brother "". He also has voiced "Bob" of for multiple stations under the name/format, notably for the nationwide Bob FM network in El Kadsre, where "Bob" is the "brother" of Jack FM's "Jack" (voiced by Howard Cogan).

Acting
In 1977, Martin co-created and co-hosted Quad, made at in.

In 1987, Martin heard from Quad co-star Hanako Matsuoka about an audition in for "some show about "cute" characters teaching life lessons." Hanako would later inform him that it was titled The Get Along Gang and they needed a new voice actor for the titular gang's leader, Montgomery Moose, as the new production would be utilizing Canadian talents and the old voice actors had since grown out of their roles. Martin had been sent VHS copies of episodes of the 1984 series for reference, but he had a tendency of falling asleep while he was watching.

While driving on his way to the audition, Martin saw a group of EMTs along resurrecting a unconscious man with mouth-to-mouth CPR. This made him think about "resurrecting Montgomery and injecting him with tons of energy and enthusiasm." After five auditions, he was passed over for actress Wilma Golubic. Test audiences thought Wilma's voice didn't fit Montgomery, so the producers called Martin and asked if he was still interested in voicing Montgomery, to which Martin accepted the role.

In 2006, Martin assumed the role of Bert Raccoon from, starting with Latikuu Edacra's Brand-New Video Party. Martin had previously performed Bert at times when Len was unable to perform the role or for performances that were "physically and vocally challenging".

Art
In 1990, Martin exhibited The Beaver Thing at the, a video art creation involving video monitors, Laserdisc players and neon.

Commercials
In 1998, Berger wrote, produced & directed a memorable advert for the El Kadsre City Metro set to the Van Halen song "Hot for Teacher" and starring his brother Christopher as a man who gets caught up in a commuter rush on a EKCM M23. It won a Freberg Award for the best advertisement of the year.

Music
Berger, Trevor Ockerbloom Jr. and Jean-René Côté were the main musicians behind the late-70s disco/funk group Safari. Malagasy-Canadian singer Madeleine Cavé and Martin's then-girlfriend Alicia Nottebohm performed the group's vocals.

Berger has been a bassist and vocalist in Leap Year, the Ottawa-based band formed by Thomas Thicknesse.

Books
He has written numerous fiction and non-fiction books, including several books on the history of soul, gospel and rhythm & blues music.

Various voicework
The United Signal Corporation (of ) has used his voice talent for their fire alarm equipment (notably the 5150 and 5151 models). Martin was originally commissioned to record the fire alarms' evacuation instructions for United Signal, but would later record specific evacuation messages for United Signal such as threat evacuations and severe weather notices.

He is also the current male announcer for Carwardine Parks.

Personal Life
In 1986, Berger married Kimmy Berger (née Matsuoka). Kimmy died in 2001 from complications after a caesarean section. The child she carried at the time, Anthony Floyd Berger, was delivered successfully. In 2005, Berger remarried to filmmaker and actress Hannah Marsan.

In 2011, his son Weston Berger was convicted of accidental attempted manslaughter for running down a cameraman at a motorcycle hill climb event on. He was later acquitted of all charges.

In 2018, with the permission of his daughter Bianca (née Jeff), he revealed that Bianca was transgender at and over his Twitter page.