Greg Cipes In Early Stages of Parkinson's Disease

[ZariusTwo]

https://bsky.app/profile/cartoonempire.bsky.social/post/3ljs2vmwkuc2s

Greg Cipes, voice of Mikey in the 2012 TMNT series, has revealed that he is now in the early stages of Parkinson' disease.

Best wishes to him, and his friends, family, and fans.

[neatoman]

That sucks.

[IMJ]

I remember him from interviews around the era of the show and always sort of perceived him as being much younger than me. Hard to wrap your head around that, but that's purely me - I had a great Uncle who had Parkinson's and I just associate it with "aging", even though I guess it's not true.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Oh, no. Poor guy. May God be with him.

[CyberCubed]

Shame, I love his Mikey and Beast Boy voice on Teen Titans.

[IndigoErth]

Oof and only 45, what a terrible thing to find out. Hope maybe there have been advances in it over the years that might at least help slow it and let him enjoy middle age reasonably okay?

[ToTheNines]

Damn, this sucks to hear. Greg is the man, I hope he fights this as long as he can.

[ZariusTwo]

Warner Bros reportedly fired Greg from Teen Titans Go! shortly before he went public with this. Sources have also said he was manipulated into accepting a demotion on the show, stepping back from Beast Boy and voicing a different character who will appear in the upcoming tenth season.

https://deadline.com/2025/09/teen-titans-go-beast-boy-fired-warner-bros-parkinsons-diagnosis-1236511063/

[Andrew NDB]

Yeah, the claims from Cipes seemed dubious right away to me. "They're firing me because of Parkinson's! Right after I announced it!" Except they didn't? And why would they fire him for having Parkinson's? It'd have to be other reasons we aren't privy to.

[IMJ]

Yeah, the claims from Cipes seemed dubious right away to me. "They're firing me because of Parkinson's! Right after I announced it!" Except they didn't? And why would they fire him for having Parkinson's? It'd have to be other reasons we aren't privy to.

He might've told the showrunners about his problem before he made it widely "public". Additionally, it's possible that his condition was interfering with his ability to deliver lines or to show up or some other factor.

I agree with you there in spirit, but the "before" or "after" distinction isn't entirely reliable.

Maybe his attitude took an absolute nosedive after his diagnosis. Started showing up to deliver lines but was sullen and arguing with people, then had to explain the Parkinson's thing to the showrunners who said "we are super sorry but no one can work with you in your current state of attitude". He says "f you" and he's fired.

I'm not saying that's true, but just illustrating the possibilities.

[Andrew NDB]

I just can't imagine a company as large as WB firing someone for having Parkinson's. That's obviously opening themselves up for a huge lawsuit.

But it DOES sound like a nice shield to suddenly shoot up if you know you're getting canned, if you've got that in your ammo pouch.

[TigerClaw]

He was fired over performance issues as Beast Buy, WB tried to create another character for him to work with.

[Coola Yagami]

I heard the real reason was Greg was posting all sorts of anti-vax stuff on his socials. And you know what most of these left-leaning companies do to people with the wrong opinion....

[neatoman]

Beast Buy

If I didn't know the context, I'd be confused if you meant to write Beast Boy, Best Buy or the name of a pet store.

[IMJ]

He was fired over performance issues as Beast Buy, WB tried to create another character for him to work with.


Right, that's sort of what I was getting at. They aren't going to fire him "for having" Parkinson's.

Which leaves that either his Parkinson's somehow made voicing Beast Boy difficult for him. OR any other number of reasons.

Either way hopefully he can continue to work in his field. Honestly, I would love to be a voice actor that got regular work. I think it'd be great.

[Andrew NDB]

I mean, it sucks. But if you're a voice actor and you can't really do the voice thing anymore... what are you going to do? Similarly, if you're a court stenographer and one day you go deaf. Probably you can't do court stenography anymore, but maybe you can sort some files in the back room or something. It's certainly nobody's fault at the court.

[Coola Yagami]

Um... I just said the actual reason was his social media posts....

[sdp]

Yeah I think there's something missing from the story from both ends. It might be he might've demanded more money or wanted to do less I don't know. I don't think WB is particularly clean on this either.
I mean it's a shame to lose him and Teen Titans Go makes buckets of money for WB for them to get rid of him, if we see marge struggling to keep Marge's voice why can't he stay instead of a replacement?

If we ever get a movie of 2012 I'd want Greg Cipes in the role.

[Andrew NDB]

Um... I just said the actual reason was his social media posts....

That may be closer to the truth.

[CyberCubed]

Teen Titans Go is still making new eps? Really weird they won't just end it now if Greg Cripes can't play Beast Boy anymore.

[neatoman]

Teen Titans Go is still making new eps? Really weird they won't just end it now if Greg Cripes can't play Beast Boy anymore.

Yup, the official four hundredth episode was essentially all about the Titans bragging how their show is the single longest DC cartoon ever made. Not sure how they counted though, it is the longest DC cartoon but the "four hundredth" episode is actually the four hundredth and sixth episode. If they counted multi-parters as single episodes, then by that logic it would have been shorter than four hundred episodes.

Anyway, if the show were to end on the current season then it would be about 460 episodes long. It is and will probably remain the single longest DC cartoon for a very long time. Even if we disregard the official episode count on the basis that the individual episodes are only about half as long as most other DC cartoons and pretend two episodes make one episode, then you'd still end up with 230 episodes, there really isn't a contender and even all the seasons of Super Friends is shorter by total runtime of the episodes. I think it's only some of the live-action shows that compare in either episode count or total runtime.

So for better or worse, Teen Titans Go is one of the single most successful things ever based on a DC property and I doubt one actor leaving will make them stop.

[ToTheNines]

First they canceled Biggs, now Cipes!

Yup, the official four hundredth episode was essentially all about the Titans bragging how their show is the single longest DC cartoon ever made. Not sure how they counted though, it is the longest DC cartoon but the "four hundredth" episode is actually the four hundredth and sixth episode. If they counted multi-parters as single episodes, then by that logic it would have been shorter than four hundred episodes.

Anyway, if the show were to end on the current season then it would be about 460 episodes long. It is and will probably remain the single longest DC cartoon for a very long time. Even if we disregard the official episode count on the basis that the individual episodes are only about half as long as most other DC cartoons and pretend two episodes make one episode, then you'd still end up with 230 episodes, there really isn't a contender and even all the seasons of Super Friends is shorter by total runtime of the episodes. I think it's only some of the live-action shows that compare in either episode count or total runtime.

So for better or worse, Teen Titans Go is one of the single most successful things ever based on a DC property and I doubt one actor leaving will make them stop.

That is nuts. The various ages of kids I know, between my kid’s classmates, my nieces/nephews, all my friends’ kids… I don’t know a single child who gives two ***** about TTG.

[sdp]

That is nuts. The various ages of kids I know, between my kid’s classmates, my nieces/nephews, all my friends’ kids… I don’t know a single child who gives two ***** about TTG.

Anecdotal evidence

[Andrew NDB]

Teen Titans Go is still making new eps?

That's kind of where I'm at. My daughter outgrew that show like 10 years ago. More, maybe.

[ToTheNines]

Seems like a messy situation: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/teen-titans-go-actor-greg-cipes-fired-claims-parkinsons-was-reason/

I don’t know that Cipes has spoken out against the Covid vax, but he has blamed his Parkinson’s symptoms on Covid and has also recently called chem trails “geoengineering” and claimed that it’s a slow population control. Also pinned it all on Bill Gates lol.

But he was saying these things online 15 years ago too. They made him audition for the upcoming season of TTG, but not the other cast members. So maybe it is something to do with his performance. Why else audition him instead of simply showing him the door?

[Coola Yagami]

Seems like a messy situation: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/teen-titans-go-actor-greg-cipes-fired-claims-parkinsons-was-reason/

I don’t know that Cipes has spoken out against the Covid vax, but he has blamed his Parkinson’s symptoms on Covid and has also recently called chem trails “geoengineering” and claimed that it’s a slow population control. Also pinned it all on Bill Gates lol.



Gotta love the echo in here.

But yeah, that's whats going on. I do remember during the CoVid era, Gates has been saying things that implies certain degrees of depopulation would help the world.

[oldmanwinters]

For some reason, I just assume there's always more drama behind the scenes when something like this happens removing a long-time and popular cast member from a long-running series. Maybe the contract negotiations were too far apart on money, benefits, or perks? Maybe there were internal complains about hostile work environment or something? But who knows?

When it comes to someone holding a political/social opinion that isn't popular in a certain social context, I wish business-minded people could let that stuff go when it comes to creative projects. If someone goes on public record to wish harm or ill on other people, I can understand cutting ties with them. But if Cipes has strong opinions on personal medical preferences, I think that ought to be his business.

Did he supposedly leverage his Beast Boy persona to promote something unauthorized by the copyright holders? Stuff like that can get murky, I'll admit.

[Andrew NDB]

Or maybe he's been getting increasingly more difficult and cantankerous to work with and the complaints have been piling up.

[Roseangelo]

Or maybe he's been getting increasingly more difficult and cantankerous to work with and the complaints have been piling up.

I'm a fan of Greg for sure, but he is definitely a character.

[IMJ]

Or maybe he's been getting increasingly more difficult and cantankerous to work with and the complaints have been piling up.

That was sort of my point regarding the Parkinson's thing as well. Intersection of "diagnosis" and the "emotion from the diagnosis".

[Jester]

I scrubbed through the latest episode of TTG I could find and I have to admit Cipes' Beast Boy performance sounded a little off to me. Though to be fair most of my experience with TTG is my youngest watching episodes here and there and TTG Watch Space Jam.

[oldmanwinters]

and TTG Watch Space Jam.

A modern classic!