Biography
Canadian born American actor, voice talent and New Yorker by adoption, Philippe Hartmann was born on December 18, 1970 in Montréal, Québec. His parents are originally from Europe. His French mother is Françoise Hartmann (née Hanssens-Eischen) an animator and film director at the National Film Board of Canada and his Belgian born Hungarian father, István Hartmann is a window dresser, display artist and decorator for many well-known Canadian department stores.
Philippe attended John Abbott College and trained for three years in professional theatre then studied at Concordia University majoring in English & French literature, before leaving for New York City to study film & TV acting with George Loros and Irma Sandrey at The Lee Strasberg Theatre Institute from 1992-95, which he is a graduate. He also studied acting at The 42nd Street Collective and performed his first off-Broadway play at Playwrights Horizons.
In the summer of '95, directly after finishing Strasberg, he started working at Kaufman Astoria Studios as a driver for several actors, directors and producers of films & television shows at the Queens sound stages. While at the studio, a chance meeting with Bill Cosby gave Philippe his first break on a major TV sitcom appropriately named "Cosby". He later appeared in TV series such as: Soul Man, Lateline, Whoopi, Sesame Street and later on in films like A Cat In Paris, The Walk, Stonewall, X-Men: Apocalypse and Mother!. In 1997, he performed an excerpt from his one man show called "Pipo Bertani: The Schmuck from Venise" in the Lower Est Side at The New York International Fringe Festival. While living in Greenwich Village, he acted in several plays at The 13th Street Repertory Company, under Artistic Director Edith O'Hara. He also took several clowning and physical comedy workshops with David Shiner and Philippe Gaulier then studied mime under Marcel Marceau.
Known for his smooth yet strong voice in both English and French, Philippe has worked primarily in the voice over industry for over 20 years, first in Toronto, then extensively in New York City and Stamford, Connecticut. He is better known for being the Euro-French speaking Co-Host / Announcer and Color Commentator voice of the WWF "Les Superstars du Catch" during "The Attitude Era" from the latter half of the 1990s to February 2002 that was broadcast in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Sénégal and Northern Africa. During this historic time in American professional wrestling, he co-hosted with fellow Quebecer Raymond Rougeau several classic pay-per-view specials including: Royal Rumble, No Way Out, King of the Ring, SummerSlam and the best of them all Survivor Series and No Mercy. Philippe returned to the WWE Network with Quebec City native Jean Brassard to host "WrestleMania 32" that took place on April 3, 2016 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. WrestleMania 32 breaks a record that night with an attendance of 101,763 screaming fans!. He has also worked in several major films, television sitcoms, specials and TV Mini-Series. He divides his time between Canada and the United States. Philippe has continued polishing his voice over talent as an ACTRA actor by taking workshop classes and recording demos with Kim Handysides. Recently, he returned playing piano and keyboards by taking one-to-one coaching & mentoring sessions with Mike Lindup of LEVEL 42.
