山寺宏一

He is known for his roles in Cowboy Bebop (as Spike Spiegel), the Yakuza videogame series (as Shun Akiyama), Shōwa Genroku Rakugo Shinjū (as Sukeroku), Ghost in the Shell (as Togusa), Neon Genesis Evangelion (as Ryoji Kaji), Gintama (as Shoyo Yoshida / Utsuro), Ninja Scroll (as Jūbei Kibagami), Dragon Ball Super (as Beerus), Anpanman (as Cheese), Ranma ½ (as Ryōga Hibiki/P-chan and the Jusenkyō Guide), Space Battleship Yamato 2199 (as Aberdt Desler), Pretty Cure All Stars DX 3 (as Black Hole) and Lupin III (as the official voice of Koichi Zenigata since 2011). He's been in every Pokémon film to date, though always in different roles, the exception being movie 22, in which he reprised his role as Mew from the first movie, of which movie 22 is a remake.

He also voiced Mew in some collateral projects. For Disney, he is the official dubbed voice of Donald Duck, Genie and Sebastian (among others) in Japanese.

In the live action field, he is the official dub-over artist of Will Smith (Yamadera met Smith several times), Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey. He is also known for voicing Chris Tucker, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robin Williams, Mike Myers, Stephen Chow, Brad Pitt, Charlie Sheen, Michael Keaton, Michael J. Fox, Will Ferrell, Chris Pratt and Jon Hamm in the Japanese language releases of their respective films.

History:

Yamadera was the manager of the Tagajō Senior High School basketball team before he made a name for himself. His voice acting debut was the OVA Megazone 23 as the motorcycle-riding Shinji Nakagawa, while his television debut was the anime Bosco Adventure as the cowardly Otter. Yamadera's break-out role as a voice actor was the anime Ranma ½, in which he played the dual role of Hibiki Ryōga and the Jusenkyō Guide.

In 1991, Yamadera joined forces with Toshihiko Seki and Noriko Hidaka to form the acting unit Banana Fritters (バナナフリッターズ, Banana Furittāzu). In October 1997, Yamadera became a host on the TV Tokyo children's variety show Oha Suta. In March 2016, after almost two decades, he announced his retirement from it.

In 2011, Yamadera took over the role of Koichi Zenigata in Lupin III media from Gorō Naya.

In a 2012 article by Japan Times, it was mentioned that he didn't consider doing voice acting at first, and was interested in going into sales or being an onscreen actor.

Yamadera's also known for his versatile range, as shown in the video game Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony where he voiced all five Monokuma Kubs, including Monophanie (female). According to the Danganronpa V3 official blog, Yamadera is the first person who came to mind as "the same person voicing multiple characters at the same time". No one has as much "multiple characters" experience as him. He was able to take the individual quirks of each of the Monokuma Kubs and make all of them unique.

Other notable examples of multiple voice acting include the Kingdom Hearts series where he voiced Donald Duck, Genie (from Aladdin), Sebastian (from The Little Mermaid), Beast (from Beauty and the Beast), Mushu (from Mulan), and Jaq (from Cinderella) and the Japan Animator Expo series of 35 short films where Yamadera and Megumi Hayashibara voiced all characters.

Yamadera is known as "the man with the seven-colored voice". During casting he is also said to be called "When in doubt, Yamadera".

In 2011 and 2017, TV Asahi conducted a poll among Japanese voice actors and actresses on "who they thought was really the most amazing person in their profession". Yamadera ranked first both times. In 2017, Niconico conducted a survey on popular anime voice actors and actresses. Yamadera ranked first overall, third among female voters and first among male voters.

In 2018, he joined the cast of the American animated web series Gen:Lock starring Michael B. Jordan. According to the series showrunner Gray Haddock, "Yamadera-san gives Kazu a fantastic balance of attitude and strength, and as anime fans we're doing our best not to geek out that he's joined the cast".

In 2019, Will Smith came to Japan for a solo interview, and at Smith's request, Yamadera performed a live voiceover, which was highly praised by Smith. This was aired on NTV's "news every" and "Oha!4 NEWS LIVE" on June 5 and 11, respectively.

Yamadera has been married three times; first, on May 23, 1993, to fellow voice actress Mika Kanai. They divorced in 2006, although it wasn't publicized until 2007.

His second wife was voice actress Rie Tanaka, then 33-years-old, and he was 51. They married on June 17, 2012, with a ceremony held in Hawaii on January 3, 2013.

In August 2018, they announced that they had filed for divorce.

On June 14, 2021, at age 60, he announced his marriage to radio personality Robin Shoko Okada, who is 31 years younger than him.