Sony’s PlayStation 3 console had a bit of a rough start when it first launched in North America in 2006. From its high price point to having especially tough competitors in the Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii, the PS3 needed to take some big swings in order to gain a foothold in the video game console market. Enter Kevin Butler. Portrayed by actor Jerry Lambert, Kevin was the hilarious fictional vice president of PlayStation who starred in a series of memorable commercials for the PS3 that helped turn things around for the struggling console. 

When Sony launched its portable gaming device PlayStation Portable — or PSP for short — it was marketed not only by Butler, but another fictional spokesperson. Owing to it being something of a kid brother to the PS3, the PSP’s primarily commercial pitchman was a child named Marcus Rivers, played by Bobb’e J. Thompson. In the world of the ads, Marcus gets hired by Kevin after proving to be an expert in all things PSP and goes on to dish out cool but sagely advice to the grown-ups around him. “I think the Marcus campaign, and the PSP campaign in general, showed positive sales effects,” Scott McCarthy, a PlayStation senior brand manager, told IndustryGamers (via VG247). “When the consumers vote, they do so with their dollars, and we saw positive movement on the hardware side.”

When their ad campaigns end, we’re often left wondering what happened to the actors from various commercials. In the case of Thompson, he went on to appear in a number of films and television shows throughout the 2010s and into the 2020s — though he was actually already an established actor when he took on the role of Marcus.

Despite still being a child when he did his PSP campaign, Bobb’e J. Thompson actually isn’t an actor that started in commercials. When his first PSP commercial came out in 2010, he had already appeared in the movies “Land of the Lost,” “Role Models,” “Fred Claus,” and “Idlewild.” Thompson was also a series regular on “The Tracy Morgan Show” and he played a recurring character on “That’s So Raven,” so he was already a full-fledged child actor before he even appeared in his first PSP ad. After his stint as Marcus, Thompson went on to play a role in the critically acclaimed film “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” and he also had recurring roles in “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” and “Tyler Perry’s For Better or Worse.”

On the rare occasion that MTV takes a break from its near-endless “Ridiculousness” marathons, one of the shows you’re likely to see in its stead is “Wild ‘N Out.” Thompson was a recurring cast member on the improv comedy/rap battle competition hybrid show between 2018 and 2023. As it goes for most of the people who appear on “Wild ‘N Out,” Thompson isn’t just an actor but is also a stand-up comedian and a rapper, putting out music under the name King Bobbe J. In fact, nowadays he seems to lean more heavily on those two gigs. He’s still serious about acting, however, and he has a few films in the pipeline at the time of this writing, including a sci-fi thriller titled “A Family’s Fury” and a drama about music and drug addiction named “Generation Angst.”