Rist has worked as a voice actor, such as in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film series (as Michelangelo); from 1984 to 1986, he starred in the Saturday morning cartoon Kidd Video, playing the character Whiz both in live-action music videos and animated sequences. He was the voice of Star, a Siberian husky, in the 1995 Universal Studios film Balto.

Rist also voices characters Choji Akimichi from Naruto, Itsuki "Iggy" Takeuchi from Initial D and Bud Bison from Megaman Starforce.

Recently, he voiced Griffin in Terminator Salvation, he also recently provided additional voices in Final Fantasy XIII.

Rist is also a musician and producer. He has performed as the lead singer/guitarist for several Los Angeles rock bands, including Wonderboy, the Andersons, Cockeyed Ghost, Nice Guy Eddie, and Steve Barton and the Oblivion Click. The list of west coast pop bands Rist has performed with numbers in the hundreds. He divides his time between film and music production, performing with Los Angeles alt-country band KingsizeMaybe and rock band Jeff Caudill & The Goodtimes Band (with Jeff Caudill of Orange County punk band Gameface and Michael "Popeye" Vogelsang of Orange County punk band Farside).