Chad Michael Collins stars in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot as Alex, aka CIA Special Activities Division operative Echo 3-1. He's not just a voice actor, though—he's also an avid gamer. And he's recently taken to indulging his passion for videogames, and surprising fans of the series, by playing as his character in Call of Duty: Warzone.
Like many avid gamers, Collins streams his sessions on Twitch, and he clearly enjoys interacting with his fans. "A lot of the feedback I kept hearing was, 'This is so cool, I’ve been playing games for 15 years and I’ve never known a video game actor to engage with fans'," he said in the latest episode of Totally Game, a video series created by our publisher, Future.
"It's been a wide range of emotions, some people start crying, some people start laughing, some start screaming hysterically. Some are like, 'Can I record this? My friends are never going to believe me'."
Collins said he became a more active Warzone player as a way of passing time during the COVID-19 outbreak, which led him to discover a "real passion" for the game. It wasn't long after that he struck upon the idea of using the game to interact with fans. He now streams multiple times every week, attracting players from around the world hoping for a chance to fight alongside the "real" Alex.
"Actors don't get to do what they love to do without people watching their stuff or buying their movie or buying the videogame they're starring in, so I've always tried to do my best to take the time to acknowledge that," Collins said.
"I love that I get to do that in a more interactive way through streaming. The gaming has been such a fun part because it’s a natural extension of me and who I am, I've always gamed. I plan on doing this more in bigger and better ways for the foreseeable future."
You can follow along with Collins' gaming sessions on Twitch. He also maintains a very hunky Instagram account.
The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals
Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team.
The collective PC Gamer editorial team worked together to write this article. PC Gamer is the global authority on PC games—starting in 1993 with the magazine, and then in 2010 with this website you're currently reading. We have writers across the US, UK and Australia, who you can read about here.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 developers say the avalanche of weird skins is to 'maximize fun for players', whatever that means
Call of Duty Black Ops 6 is getting a gun that is also a bong, resulting in a backlash from players who are upset they got banned for toxic voice chat in a game that is 'promoting using drugs'