Sam Riegel


 * This page is about the actor.  For the character from the "Liam's Quest" special episodes, see Sam Riegel (character).

Sam Riegel (@SamReigel) is a voice actor who plays Veth Brenatto, a halfling (formerly goblin) rogue, on Critical Role. He played Scanlan Shorthalt, a gnome bard, and Taryon Darrington, a human artificer, in the first campaign. He has also been the Dungeon Master for several special episodes.

The Roots of Critical Role
Before Critical Role began, Sam and his best friend Liam O'Brien created a podcast called allworknoplay, with the purpose of trying to get more fun into their busy schedules. Towards the end of episode 2 of the podcast, the two of them talked about getting ready for the upcoming "one-time" D&D game. Sam asked Liam what was the "worst character" to play as, and Liam suggested a gnome. Sam talked about being a bard in the podcast, which would suit him due to his background in music both from college and his help in writing show ideas for The Voice.

Pre-Stream
Sam recorded a few short clips of the pre-stream Critical Role game from when they were running Pathfinder. These clips can be found on his vine page, here.

Critical Role
As Scanlan the bard, he was known for improvising songs on the fly. Examples include: "I think you're really handsome and nice! You're going to have inspiration dice!" He often pulled songs from pop culture and modified their lyrics, as in, "Here's a little song I wrote! It's filled with inspiration, note for note. Don't fuck up. Or I'll kill you."

Sam became the first player in the Critical Role canon to introduce a second player character when Scanlan Shorthalt left Vox Machina, to be replaced by Taryon Darrington in. He would later reprise his role as Scanlan in, leaving Tary behind in.

Main Storyline

 * Scanlan Shorthalt, gnome bard (The Campaign of Vox Machina)
 * Taryon Darrington, human artificer (The Campaign of Vox Machina)
 * Nott, goblin rogue (Campaign 2)

One-Shots and Special Episodes

 * Sam Riegel (character), human ranger ( and )
 * Obby "the Rat", dwarf rogue
 * Ur-Eden Goodthink ( and )
 * Sam Riegel (vampire) ( and )
 * Peddy Tuxpin, a bear
 * Claire,
 * Bundlestien Sprucenberg
 * The Archvile,

Trivia

 * On September 11, 2001, Sam and his wife Quyen witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Center . Sam captured video footage that was featured in several documentaries.
 * On Talks Machina, the host Brian Wayne Foster likes to "#ThankMyGuests" with names that are either mispronounced or wordplay that sounds close to their names. Here are the names for Sam Riegel so far:
 * Sam Rie-Gel
 * Sam Seagull
 * Spam Peehole
 * Jean Claude Van Sam Fecal
 * Slam Creedskull
 * Sham Beagle
 * Stan Smeagol
 * A Tad Evil
 * Uncle Sam's Eagle
 * Scram People
 * Scammin' Green Girl
 * Scamming Isn't Legal
 * Playing Small People
 * Flask Refill
 * Good Goblin is Nott Evil
 * Boomstick Non-Lethal
 * Sam Riegel created "The Meta Gaming Pigeon" concept in
 * In 2018, Riegel received the Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing in an Animated Program for his work on Danger & Eggs.
 * Sam's chosen drink for his Between the Sheets interview was a sidecar.
 * As of Uthodurn(August 2nd, 2019) Sam lost the election of 69th President of D&D Beyond to campaign rival, Liam O'Brien. However, in a twist ending, he accepted Liam's "proposal" to become the the first ever co-presidents of D&D Beyond.