With which accent does the GEICO gecko speak?

McGruff

It’s been a while coming, but the news is now out that the new voice of Geico Gecko, in a hybrid Cockney London style, is Jake Wood, English comedian and actor. That’s according to Ed Brice at the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, April 10. Now for the record, the Geico Gecko has been voiced by Kelsey Grammar (the stiff English accent), Richard Steven Horvitz (the voice in the Kung Fu Fighting spot), and Dave Kelly (the relaxed British-Aussie accent). http://www.duncans.tv/2006/geico-gecko-voiced-by-jake-wood The company's ads sometimes focus on its reptilian mascot, the GEICO gecko, a talking Day Gecko created by The Martin Agency and most recently a CGI creature generated by Framestore CFC. The gecko first appeared in 1999 during the Screen Actors Guild strike that prevented the use of live actors. In the original commercial, where the gecko pleads for people to stop calling him in error, mistaking gecko for geico, he was voiced by Kelsey Grammer. In the subsequent commercials, the gecko speaks with a Cockney accent, because it would be unexpected, according to Martin Agency's Steve Bassett. Jake Wood, a British actor and comedian, is the current voice of the GEICO gecko. In current commercials the gecko's accent is more working-class, perhaps in an effort to further "humanize" him. "As computer animation got better and as we got to know the character better, we did a few things," says Steve Bassett, creative director at The Martin Agency. "We wanted to make him a little more guy-next-door. And he looks a lot more real than he's looked before." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEICO Jan 28 08, 10:52 PM