My Story of Five Nights at Freddy's
My story of Five Nights at Freddy’s
By Andy Field
If you’re not a super-fan, the bottom line of this whole story is that I’m a voice actor in the Five Nights at Freddy’s games. I play the guide character “HandUnit”, among other roles, so my voice is prolific in the last handful of games. How did I get here?
I was middle school teacher in early 2016, working a side hustle as a voice actor. I’d been doing voiceover for a little over 2 years at that point. My students knew what I did; they’d heard a couple of commercials and narrations, and even some lesser-known video games.
One day I had a very slow class, where maybe 5 students were present due to some athletic function or field trip. They were busy with some easy assignment, while I checked my personal email. Because I knew they were somewhat interested, I said “I just booked a role in a video game! Do you guys want to hear the script?”
It was a computer voice for a horror video game. I rattled off some of the lines without much to-do, but when I said “Due to the unfortunate closing of Fazbear Pizza…” One of the students shot his head straight up and shouted “That’s a Five Nights at Freddy’s game!”
I didn’t know what that meant, but I knew enough to stop reading! I immediately emailed the client, a guy named Scott Cawthon, and told him what had happened. Scott told me that it was OK to tell people I was in a Five Nights at Freddy’s game, since it was in the script, but not to tell them ANYTHING about the game at all!
“Since it was in the script.”
This guy wasn’t even telling most of the voice actors what game they were in! Hush hush stuff!
The spring semester came and went, and a new batch of students arrived in the fall, and they were excited to hear I was in the new game! They even knew the name of it: Sister Location. The first four games were set in Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza restaurant; this fifth game was set elsewhere, hence the name “Sister Location”.
Astute fans had already seen my name, and those of other voice actors, on the casting website (which has since removed such information), and speculations arose about my character, “HandUnit.” Some thought it might be a puppet; others thought it might be a computer. YouTubers had theories galore, and it was fun to comment and enjoy a small bit of fame.
The game arrived in October 2016, and with it a whole new aspect of my voiceover career. My character, HandUnit, was a glitchy handheld device who always said “It seems you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and I will auto-correct it for you.” At which point, he autocorrected it to something zany that was not at all what the player intended. This joke was funny for 12-year-olds, and all-too-familiar for adults!
On the 5th night, after this ongoing trope of poor autocorrects, HandUnit informs the player that they’ve received a one-week bonus – a gift basket! “We have gift baskets containing fruit, nuts, flowers, and of course the ever-popular cash basket. Using the keypad below, please enter the first few letters of the gift basket you would like. It seems that you had some trouble with the keypad. I see what you were trying to type and I will autocorrect it for you. Thank you for selecting Exotic Butters.”
This phrase, “Exotic Butters”, was a fun one, and it appeared later in the game with a basket full of butter. When you clicked on it, you could repeatedly hear my voice say “Exotic Butters.”
While repeatedly clicking on it, a YouTuber named Markiplier asked his tens of millions of subscribers: “How long before someone makes a remix of this?”
The Answer: Hours. Within a day, hundreds of Exotic Butters remixes, featuring my voice, were all over YouTube. My favorite one still resides on my YouTube channel!
Soon, there was a plushy exotic butters from Funko, sold at Hot Topic stores nationwide!
I appeared at numerous comic conventions (I’m at well over 30 so far!) and signed autographs for FNAF fans from all over the place! I even sometimes bring sticks of fake butter and autograph them!
In the years that followed, I reprised the role of HandUnit and his variants, Tutorial Unit, Dread Unit, and more, in more games:
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Sister Location (2016)
Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria Simulator (2017)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted (2019)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Special Delivery (2019)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach (2021)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted 2 (2023)
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Secret of the Mimic (2025)
These games have gotten bigger and bigger, with the later titles all released on Playstation, among other platforms.
The first Five Nights at Freddy’s movie was released in late 2023, and the second is set for late 2025. It’s huge! And I’m thrilled to be a part of the FNAF family.