Commercial and voice actor, wanted in Colorado, arrested in Granville County

A voice actor with experience working with companies like Disney, McDonald's and Pringles was arrested in Granville County, NC on Monday for charges out of Colorado.

Eric Leopardi, who acted in commercials for Pringles and Tide as a child and who lent his voice to ads for Disney, McDonalds, Jim Beam and other brands, failed to answer the door when deputies came knocking. He was part of a 5-hour stand-off with Granville County deputies.

The standoff, which began on Enon Road in Oxford around 7 a.m., ended peacefully.

He was in court on Tuesday morning, where he waived extradition back to Colorado. The actor was wanted on fugitive warrants near Denver for two charges, including assault.

"We would prefer to get him gone, because the attention is being paid to who he was, not who he is," said Sheriff Robert Fountain Jr.

The sheriff says his deputies and SBI went to serve fugitive warrants Monday, but he wouldn’t come to the door.

"He knew he had warrants; he knew we were coming; he knew we were there," he said.

Leopardi was renting the home. Court documents show that he was served an ejection notice for those outstanding warrants and for not paying rent.

WRAL News also found that Leopardi was sued in North Carolina earlier this year for not completing a business deal. The lawsuit says Leopardi formed a new agency with another company. Their objective was to grow the agency and AI software. Leopardi was paid $750,000 for his services, according to the lawsuit. Instead, it says Leopardi purposely misrepresented himself and his business, and the plaintiff ‘received nothing in return.’ The judge ultimately ordered Leopardi to pay the money back plus interest.

Leopardi is being held with no bond. Fountain says his office is working closely with Douglas County, Colorado law enforcement to get him back there to face his charges.