Ken

Ritesh Rajan has been playing Ken for years. He's in Barbie Vlogs, Dreamhouse Adventures, Princess Adventure, and Big City, Big Dreams.

Here is a cool interview I found where Ritesh Rajan talks about playing Ken:

https://thebrowngeeks.com/brown-geek-spotlight-ritesh-rajan/

"Specifically with voice acting for animation it took awhile [to book gigs]. I was working on Stitchers for Freeform and the showrunner said that his friend was doing a show for Barbie and told me to look into it. My voice over agent helped me get an audition. I actually initially played a Forest Prince in my first foray in the Barbie universe. I was not Ken. It was a one-off movie but that’s how they got to know me. After that they asked me if I wanted to audition for Ken and I got the part."

@Barbie | Meet Ken! | Barbie Dreamhouse AdventuresYouTube

"When I think about it, it’s pretty special. When I was growing up, I didn’t see many brown people on the television screen and when I did it didn’t really have a profound effect on me because 99% of the time those characters were very stereotypical or weren’t really fleshed out. The first time I saw The Night Of on HBO, I was like holy [bleep!] this kid could be me. It was a very visceral watching experience. I’m from New York and I grew up in the post 9-11 era. For the first time ever this is what representation feels like. This is what white people feel like when they watch all these movies. For the first time, I was like wow this is a big deal."

"For me, getting the opportunity to play Ken it kind of just feels like we are taking the right steps to represent what America actually looks like. We had a movie come out at the end of the summer and it was weird watching my dad watch me play Ken, would he ever have imagined his son would be playing the most famous white boy in animation history? It’s a milestone, it’s a game changer. I hope I can open more doors for other people of color that are trying to break into animation. I just want to give hope."

@Barbie | Barbie vs. Ken Dance Off | Barbie VlogsYouTube

"When people hear, “oh an Indian guy is playing Ken”, it doesn’t feel as farfetched. I want people to know that Ken is Indian so I can hopefully inspire another generation of kids to take up voice acting or acting or anything artistic or anything that goes against the grain. It starts really young. We did a video where Ken teaches Barbie Bhangra and that doesn’t happen if I’m not playing Ken. Mattel has done a really great job of allowing me to bring personal flavor to this character."

An instagram post he made about that vlog:

Also here's part 2 of the dance-off!

@Barbie | Barbie vs. Ken Dance Battle REMATCH! | Barbie VlogsYouTube