Nate Torrence gives comic supporting parts a cheerful eagerness, and Clawhauser makes good use of it. He is a welcome presence, though Zootopia 2 leaves that familiar delight with too little new to do.
Fi1m perspective
Clawhauser is delighted by everything, and Nate Torrence sounds thoroughly suited to the assignment. The cheetah officer in Zootopia (2016) gives him a place for the peppy delivery that recurs through his comic supporting work. We like him here: enthusiasm can become wearing, but Torrence makes it agreeable company. In Byron Howard and Rich Moore's funny, thoughtful police comedy, that is a useful contribution. It is also a small one, and our affection for the film should not be mistaken for a claim that it belongs to him.
His work moved from commercials and improvisation into television, then into more visible film supporting parts. Get Smart (2008) paired his Lloyd with Masi Oka, giving Torrence's comic timing a partner to work against. Devon in She's Out of My League (2010) and the awkward best friend Wade Bailey in Hello Ladies (2013) kept him in supporting company. The pairing with Oka makes particular use of the timing and rapport that serve him in supporting comedy. Clawhauser carried that cheerful manner into a sustained voice role.
Zootopia remains the stronger place to hear him, although its attempt to explain human prejudice through predators and prey deserves reservations. The sequel is still worth an evening for those who enjoy this busy comic world, but it gives the returning cast little that is new. We were pleased to hear Torrence again in Zootopia 2 (2025), because Clawhauser's unchanged delight is funny in its own right. Yet being delighted by everything can only take a part so far. Torrence supplies the familiar pleasure; the film does not ask him to develop it.
His strengths are clear enough: comic timing, an eager delivery and an ability to work agreeably alongside another performer. The reservation is how often those strengths seem to lead back to the same sort of cheerful supporting figure. We would welcome a part that made that optimism harder to maintain. There is no need to promote him to leading man merely to give him something less familiar to do. Start with Zootopia, and do not expect the sequel to tell us much more about what Torrence can do.
Biography
Nate Torrence is an American actor. Born Nathan Torrence on 1 December 1977 in Canton, Ohio, he attended Hiland High School in Berlin, Ohio, and Kent State University’s Stark Campus. He trained in improv at Second City in Cleveland and Los Angeles, as well as at The Groundlings and Comedy Sportz in Los Angeles.
Torrence is known for voice work as Officer Benjamin Clawhauser in the animated films Zootopia (2016) and Zootopia 2 (2025). His other credits include Lloyd in Get Smart (2008) and its spin-off, Devon in She's Out of My League (2010), and guest roles in series such as Malcolm in the Middle, How I Met Your Mother, House, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Supernatural. He has also appeared in television advertisements, notably the Capital One “What’s in Your Wallet?” campaign.
