Michel Elias is a French actor and singer, born on February 18, 1948, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, who has built a prolific career primarily as a voice actor. He is renowned for his vocal versatility, often described as a "vocal transformer" for his ability to perform a wide range of voices, accents, and animal sounds across animation, dubbing, and advertising. His work spans several decades, beginning in the 1970s, and includes thousands of voice-over performances for French television commercials, many of which have become iconic.

In the realm of animation and dubbing, Elias is most famous for being the regular French voice of Pumbaa the warthog, starting with the 1994 Disney film The Lion King and reprising the role in its sequels, the Timon & Pumbaa television series, and related media. His extensive voice filmography also includes characters in numerous other animated features and series. He provided voices for Disney productions such as the Cave of Wonders, Gazeem, and Prince Achmed in Aladdin, Zangief in Wreck-It Ralph, Jafar in Mickey's House of Villains, and various Muppets characters in The Muppet Movie and The Muppet Christmas Carol. His work extends to other studios as well, with roles like Jacquimo in Thumbelina, Mr. Hyde and Behemoth in The Nightmare Before Christmas, Doc in Rango, and Brent Mustangburger in Cars 2 and Planes.

Elias has a significant history of recurring collaborations with French director Michel Ocelot, contributing vocal work to several of his films. This partnership includes providing voices and animal sounds for Kirikou and the Sorceress and Kirikou and the Wild Beasts, as well as voicing characters in Azur & Asmar and Tales of the Night. He has also frequently collaborated with voice actors such as Georges Atlas, Michel Modo, and Jacques Balutin on various dubbing projects in the 1970s and 1980s.

Beyond animation, his dubbing work is extensive, lending his French voice to live-action actors and characters in a wide array of films. Notable examples include the Narrator and the Guide in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Scalpel in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Hot Rod in Transformers: The Last Knight, and the Cave of Wonders again in the 2019 live-action Aladdin. He has also provided voices for video games, such as the character Jano in Rayman 2 and Inspector Chelmey in the Professor Layton series.

His voice work in anime and Japanese animation includes the French dub of the 2018 Netflix series Sirius the Jaeger, in which he voiced the character Willard. This performance is part of his broader contribution to bringing international animation to French-speaking audiences.