Artt Butler started working in the voice-over industry in 1991 as the lead booth director of a talent agency, providing instruction and direction to voice actors during their recordings. Among the places he worked were VoiceTrax West, a recording studio in the Studio City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where he worked with hundreds of actors on such projects as television and radio commercials, animation and interactive CD-ROM titles. After 15 years in this profession, Butler began to start working in voice acting himself.
In 2008, Butler provided the voice of Sabato Kuroi in the animated adaptation of the Japanese manga series Blade of the Immortal. The next year, he voiced a cross-promotional commercial campaign between the restaurant chain McDonalds and the science fiction film Avatar (2009). That same year he voiced television and radio commercials for the Chrysler automaker. In 2010 he performed in the Adult Swim animated series The Boondocks as Jack Flowers, an anti-terrorism government agent inspired by Jack Bauer of the television drama 24.
In 2011, Butler responded to a casting call by Star Wars: The Clone Wars director Dave Filoni to portray the Mon Calamari Captain Ackbar on the series. While Butler auditioned for the role mimicking the voice of Ackbar from Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi (1983), most of the other actors seeking the part used their normal voices in auditions. Butler was cast and appeared in the first three episodes of the show's fourth season: "Water War," "Gungan Attack" and "Prisoners." In a review of "Water War", Eric Geller of TheForce.net said Butler's voice was a "great match" to that of Ackbar in Return of the Jedi.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Water War"
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Gungan Attack"
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars — "Prisoners"