Dead by Daylight, a popular zombie game that features survivors trying to escape being hunted to death by a monster, is under fire from a transgender actor hired to voice a beastly character. Zoey Alexandria, a trans-identified male voice actor, claims he was “tricked” into voicing a character he did not know the full description of, later claiming it included a “transphobic” skin.
Enjoyed by millions of gamers worldwide and praised for its multiplayer capability, Dead by Daylight released its ‘All Things Wicked’ expansion last week, featuring a new killer players must survive against. The new killer in the update is called The Unknown, which is described on the fandom site as an “inhuman entity that adapts its appearance as needed” and has no specific gender.
The Unknown, which appears as a lumbering creature with a twisted body, can disguise itself and use both male and female voices. As such, the producer of the game hired trans-identified voice actor Zoey Alexandria, who performed the entire voice role for the character.
However, a screenshot of the creature went viral on X after players discovered that one of the in-game cosmetic options for The Unknown resulted in it looking like “a deformed freak in a skirt,” according to one user of the site.
The mockery prompted Alexandria to write a post on Facebook, confirming that the development team told him there would be “no model design” before the lines were recorded, and that his assumption was that the design team deliberately created a trans-adjacent skin to “capitalize on catering to the transphobic community.”
Alexandria claimed he was “tricked into voicing a stereotype,” adding that “many folks in the trans community are up in arms over this and rightfully so. I feel that reparations from the team that deliberately tricked me is the only logical next choice of action. I am so upset, so infuriated that people are comparing trans-people to these clearly TRANSPHOBIC character skins. If I had any idea of the fallout that would happen after simply voicing a character, I never would have in the first place.”
He argued that the design of one of the skins had ruined his reputation and put him “physically at risk for being attacked in public if anybody recognises my face or voice.” He concluded by criticising the lack of “diversity consultants” on the project, and argued the entire thing was a marketing “ploy” to bring attention to the game.
But Dead by Daylight has a history of working with diversity consultants, and excitedly announced the introduction of its first LGBT character last year.
As noted by Reduxx’s Anna Slatz, the Dead by Daylight development team asserted their commitment to “diversity” in a 2021 interview with Eurogamer.
“Everyone should get to see themselves as the hero, everyone should get to have that experience where they see themselves and they feel empowered by it,” said Tara Brannigan, director of the player experience team at the time. “And, you know, games are fun, they should be fun for everyone. Everybody should have that opportunity.”
Dead by Daylight has also received consulting from GaymerX, a diversity consultation group that focuses on ensuring LGBT representation in video games.
In a later post to X, Alexandria attempted to clarify his earlier statement, by claiming that “the skins were never the issue,” but that “lack of communication was.” He called on fans of the game to “stop boycotting Behavior,” the development company, adding that they were not transphobic.
