Erik de Zwart (born in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 16 June 1957) is a Dutch television, former DJ, and radio personality who provided his voice for the Dutch version of Thomas & Friends from 1998 until 2010. He narrated the Dutch dub from the first until the eleventh series, plus all specials until Misty Island Rescue.
The role of the narrator later went to Kas van Iersel for the thirteenth series only and Michiel de Jong from the fourteenth series onwards and Day of the Diesels onwards for the specials.
Trivia
- Alongside Stefan Knothe, Michael Brandon, Kim Seung-jun, Tīmur Çayir and Aku Laitinen, Erik de Zwart is the second-longest serving narrator for the series; Michael Angelis is the first.
- Erik de Zwart owns the video rights for the Dutch dubs of the series he narrated, meaning Mattel cannot distribute these dubs on home video or streaming without written permission from Erik[1].
- Erik de Zwart owns a framed Thomas & Friends poster given to him by Bridge Pictures for his cooperation on the licensing for their first Thomas DVDs. The poster features an image from Thomas and Trevor and has the discs and covers of ...Gets Tricked! and The Great Race! embedded in the frame[2].
- Erik de Zwart is the founder of a Dutch, English and German streaming service specifically for videos and magazines about engines and railways, 24Trains.tv. This website streams the Dutch dub of series 18 of Thomas & Friends[3]. There were plans to put older series narrated by Erik on the streaming service, but they ultimately never got licensed those by Mattel.