Quick answer
No single actor owns the Joker. Since 1966, the role has passed through at least a dozen performers across film, television, animation and video games. If you are asking about live-action movies, the short list is Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, Joaquin Phoenix and Barry Keoghan. If you mean the voice you hear in your head when you read a Batman comic, that is probably Mark Hamill.
Here is the breakdown by era and by medium, so you can match the face to the film.
Live-action film Jokers
Cesar Romero (1966)
Romero played the Joker in the Batman TV series and the 1966 feature film alongside Adam West. He refused to shave his mustache for the part, so the makeup team simply painted white over it. Watch closely and you can still see it.
Jack Nicholson (1989)
Tim Burton cast Nicholson in Batman, and the performance leaned hard into the clown-as-gangster idea. His Jack Napier becomes the Joker after a chemical dip, and the film made the character a genuine box-office draw for a new generation.
Heath Ledger (2008)
Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight gave the role its most quoted modern take. Ledger won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the first acting Oscar ever awarded for a comic book film.
Jared Leto (2016 and 2021)
Leto appeared in Suicide Squad and again in Zack Snyder's Justice League. His version is the most divisive of the modern run, with tattoos and a grill that split fans immediately.
Joaquin Phoenix (2019 and 2024)
Phoenix played Arthur Fleck in Joker, a standalone story outside the main continuity, and returned for Joker: Folie a Deux. He won Best Actor at the 2020 Oscars for the first film.
Barry Keoghan (2022)
Keoghan shows up briefly in The Batman as an Arkham inmate credited only as the Unseen Prisoner. A deleted scene confirmed the character as this universe's Joker.
Television Jokers
Beyond Romero's series, the biggest small-screen take came from Cameron Monaghan in Gotham. He played Jerome Valeska and later his twin Jeremiah, two proto-Joker figures the show never quite named outright. It is a strange, entertaining detour if you like watching the character get built from scratch.
Voice Jokers
Animation is where the Joker has logged the most hours. Mark Hamill voiced him in Batman: The Animated Series starting in 1992, then in Mask of the Phantasm, Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker and the Arkham games. Many fans consider that laugh the definitive one.
Others worth knowing: Kevin Michael Richardson in The Batman (2004), Troy Baker in Batman: Arkham Origins, Alan Tudyk in the Harley Quinn animated series, and Zach Galifianakis in The Lego Batman Movie.
Quick reference list
- Cesar Romero, 1966 series and film
- Jack Nicholson, Batman (1989)
- Mark Hamill, animated series and games from 1992 onward
- Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight (2008)
- Jared Leto, Suicide Squad (2016) and Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
- Joaquin Phoenix, Joker (2019) and Folie a Deux (2024)
- Barry Keoghan, The Batman (2022)
- Cameron Monaghan, Gotham (2014 to 2019)
If someone asks you the question cold, the safest answer is to name the era. Say Romero for the sixties, Nicholson for 1989, Ledger for 2008, Phoenix for the standalone films, and Hamill if they mean the cartoons. That covers roughly nine out of ten conversations about the role.