Who voiced the Genie in Disney's 1992 Aladdin?

Robin Williams voiced the Genie in Disney’s 1992 animated film Aladdin.

The filmmakers wrote the role with Williams in mind and built the Genie around his rapid-fire comedy, impressions, musical timing, and improvisation. Williams recorded roughly 30 hours of material, giving animators an unusually large performance to shape into the film’s visual gags and constantly changing personalities.

The Genie became the film’s main comic force, performing songs such as “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali” while helping Aladdin navigate his deception as the fictional Prince Ali. Williams’s performance helped establish the modern Hollywood practice of using major film stars as animated voice actors rather than relying exclusively on traditional voice specialists.

A common mix-up comes from later Aladdin productions. Dan Castellaneta voiced the Genie in The Return of Jafar and the television series after a dispute between Williams and Disney. Williams returned for Aladdin and the King of Thieves in 1996. Will Smith later played a live-action version in Disney’s 2019 adaptation, but Robin Williams is the canonical voice of the original 1992 Genie.