Baldur’s Gate 3 actor Neil Newbon’s win at The Game Awards 2023 has the community crying a lot of happy tears

Baldur’s Gate 3 actor Neil Newbon has won the award for Best Performance at The Game Awards 2023, and the community is celebrating with him.

Yesterday, on December 7, we had the annual The Game Awards celebrations, which saw several exciting reveals, awards, and performances. A highlight, at least for the Baldur’s Gate 3 community, was Astarion actor Neil Newbon accepting the award for Best Performance – not too long after winning the Best Supporting Performer award at Golden Joysticks 2023.

Newbon was nominated alongside other actors, including Final Fantasy 16’s Ben Starr, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’s Cameron Monaghan, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s Idris Elba, Alan Wake 2’s Melanie Liburd, and Marvel’s Spider-Man 2’s Yuri Lowenthal, and ended up going home with the award.

After thanking everyone who voted, Baldur’s Gate 3’s director Swen Vincke, his fellow actors, Larian Studios, his family, and more in his speech; Newbon then took a moment to talk about the Baldur’s Gate 3 community.

“One thing I will say,” Newbon said, clearly full of emotion, “the community has reached out to so many of us at Larian and said they were seen and they were represented by this game when they lost hope, they felt isolated, they felt alone, and this game brought them together and gave them something to push through, to help them all – and to you, I want to say thank you so much for seeing us. I appreciate it.”

The actor’s win, as well as his speech, pleased several members of the Baldur’s Gate 3 Reddit, with many users sharing screenshots of the actor at the event and clips of his speech. “So emotional, watching this after reading that interview where he almost gave up on voice acting got me,” one fan replied to the video above – referencing the news that the Astarion actor was “very close to quitting” acting before landing a role in the RPG.

Several other members of the community had wholesome things to say about the actor’s win, with many admitting that Newbon’s speech had them tearing up: “I cried when his eyes welled up during his speech,” one user reveals. “I didn’t expect to tear up tonight but here we are. Neil so deserves it,” another shares. “That made me tear up a little bit,” says a different user – honestly, same.

“What a great acceptance speech. That bit at the end was so touching. Larian and the writers really did such a great job.”

“He has been acting for so long and for now to finally be recognized for his talent… so deserved.”

“He’s such an amazing voice actor and I couldn’t be happier for him!!”

“Cried when I heard the emotion in his voice, well-deserved win.”

Congratulations, Neil!

Find out what else happened at the event: Everything announced at The Game Awards 2023.