Ned Luke

Ned Armstrong Luke (born October 4, 1958) is an American actor and YouTuber. He is known for portraying Michael De Santa in the 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V, a role he reprised in 2025 for Grand Theft Auto Online.^[1][2] Throughout his acting career, he has appeared in 29 films and television shows, in addition to performing in over 100 commercials.

Ned Luke is also known for livestreaming video games, most prominently Grand Theft Auto V on YouTube, where he has 400 thousand subscribers.

Early life

Ned Luke was born on October 4, 1958^[3][4] in Danville, Illinois, to Cindy (née Smith) and Fred Luke.^{[citation needed]}

Career

Luke's first major voice role was in Rover Dangerfield, where he played a sheepdog named Raffles opposite Rodney Dangerfield. He was cast as a guest star in several TV shows throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and has appeared in about 100 television commercials featuring products such as Budweiser and Burger King.

In 2007, having grown disenchanted with show business and desiring that his son experience where he grew up, Luke decided to take a break from acting and moved his family from Los Angeles to his hometown of Danville, where he opened a restaurant with his brother. After two years, he decided to return to acting and he and his family moved to Ossining, New York. His agent suggested he audition for the role of Michael Townley, one of the three protagonists of Rockstar Games' 2013 video game Grand Theft Auto V. Luke initially scoffed at the idea of being in a video game, but after reading the script he decided to proceed with the audition and, alongside Shawn Fonteno and Steven Ogg, was eventually cast.^[5] Grand Theft Auto V went on to set several sales records and has become the 2nd highest grossing video game in history.^[6]

Luke continued his working relationship with Rockstar Games after the release of Grand Theft Auto V. Upon learning that Red Dead Redemption 2 was in development, he expressed interest in joining the Western-themed project. Thanks to his positive rapport with the company, Rockstar allowed him to portray a non-playable character using both voice and motion capture. However, Luke later revealed that his voice had been dubbed over by another actor. He attributed this change to "creative differences" and speculated that Rockstar may have wanted to avoid drawing player attention to his character.^[7]

Luke also guest starred on Boardwalk Empire ^[8] and served as host of the Future Games Show at Gamescom 2024.^[9] In 2025, Luke reprised his role as Michael De Santa in Grand Theft Auto Online, after 12 years.^[10]

Personal life

Luke has been married to his wife Amy Sax, since 1997.^[11] Together, they have a son.^[1]

On November 23, 2023, Luke was swatted during a Thanksgiving livestream of Grand Theft Auto Online on his YouTube channel. While some fans accused Rockstar Games of failing to protect players' IP addresses, Luke refuted these claims and attributed the incident to his personal information being previously leaked online.^[12][13] In December 2025, on a livestream with actor Rob Wiethoff, Luke was swatted again. His conversation with the police was cordial, with both recognizing the frequency of the swatting incidents. That same week, Luke shared a letter on his Instagram from the Department of Justice, which invited him to attend a sentence hearing for a swatter related to his case.^[14]

Filmography

Accolades

References

External links

• Ned Luke on Facebook
• Ned Luke at IMDb