Billy P. Kametz (March 22, 1987 – June 9, 2022) was an American voice actor. He was best known for his work

dubbing Dubbing (re-recording and mixing) is a post-production process used in filmmaking and video production, often in concert with sound design, in which additional or supplementary recordings are lip-synced and "mixed" with original production sou ...

anime and video games. Born in

Lancaster, Pennsylvania Lancaster, ( ; pdc, Lengeschder) is a city in and the county seat of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It is one of the oldest inland cities in the United States. With a population at the 2020 census of 58,039, it ranks 11th in population amon ...

, Kametz began his voice acting career in 2016 when he moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and debuted as Aladdin in a Broadway-styled musical. He had been providing the English voices for Josuke Higashikata in '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable'',

Naofumi Iwatani is a fictional character from the light novel ''The Rising of the Shield Hero'' written by Aneko Yusagi and illustrated by Seria Minami. Naofumi is a young man summoned into a parallel world along with three other young men to become the world's ...

in ''

The Rising of the Shield Hero is a Japanese dark fantasy ''isekai'' light novel series written by Aneko Yusagi. Originally published as a web novel in the user-generated novel site Shōsetsuka ni Narō, the series has since been published by Media Factory with an ...

'', and Ferdinand von Aegir in '' Fire Emblem: Three Houses.'' Kametz's work was praised by his peers and he had won the Best Voice Actor Award at the

4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards The 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards were held on February 15, 2020, honoring excellence in anime from 2019. Crunchyroll announced the categories and the list of judges for the 2020 awards on December 17, while also noting that the list was still not ...

for his role as Naofumi. He was diagnosed with stage IV

colon cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel mo ...

in February 2022, which he publicly announced ten weeks later on April 26, 2022, and died less than 2 months after announcing his diagnosis at the age of 35 on June 9, 2022.

Early life

Kametz was born on March 22, 1987, in

, and was raised in

Hershey, Pennsylvania Hershey is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Derry Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is home to The Hershey Company, which was founded by candy magnate Milton S. Hershey. The community is lo ...

. He had a sister. He attended

West Chester University West Chester University (also known as West Chester, WCU, or WCUPA, and officially as West Chester University of Pennsylvania) is a public research university in and around West Chester, Pennsylvania. The university is accredited by the Middle ...

Career

In 2016, Kametz moved to

Sherman Oaks Sherman Oaks is a neighborhood in the city of Los Angeles, California located in the San Fernando Valley, founded in 1927. The neighborhood includes a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains, which gives Sherman Oaks a lower population density than ...

to play Aladdin in the final performance of '' Disney's Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular''. While living in California, Kametz began working as a voice actor. He achieved one of his first major roles when he was cast as Josuke Higashikata in the

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

dub of '' JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond is Unbreakable''. He went on to voice other prominent roles, including Colt in ''

Brawl Stars ''Brawl Stars'' is a multiplayer online battle arena and third-person hero shooter video game developed and published by the Finnish video game company Supercell. It was released worldwide on December 12, 2018, on iOS and Android. The game feat ...

'', Takuto Maruki in ''

Persona 5 Royal is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by Atlus. It takes place in modern-day Tokyo and follows a high school student known by the pseudonym Joker who transfers to a new school after being falsely accused of assault and put on probation. ...

'', Galo Thymos in ''

Promare is a 2019 Japanese animated film co-produced by Trigger and XFLAG. It was directed by Hiroyuki Imaishi and written by Kazuki Nakashima. It features character and mecha designs by Shigeto Koyama, 3DCG animation by Sanzigen, and music by H ...

'', and Ren in ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures (company), Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of ...

''. In 2020, for his performance as

in ''

'', Kametz won the Best VA Performance (EN) award at the

. Apart from animations, he also provided his voice for many characters in various related video games.

Personal life

Kametz dated voice actress

Erica Lindbeck Erica Lindbeck (born May 29, 1992) is an American voice actress known for her work with Bang Zoom!, Studiopolis, and NYAV Post in voicing characters in English-dubbed anime and video games. She was the voice of the Barbie dolls and merchandis ...

until his death in 2022.

Illness and death

On April 26, 2022, Kametz revealed that he had been diagnosed with stage IV

ten weeks prior, which had

metastasized Metastasis is a pathogenic agent's spread from an initial or primary site to a different or secondary site within the host's body; the term is typically used when referring to metastasis by a cancerous tumor. The newly pathological sites, then, ...

to his liver, lungs and spine, and that he had begun

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated to chemo and sometimes CTX or CTx) is a type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) as part of a standardized chemotherapy regimen. Chemotherap ...

and

radiation therapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy, often abbreviated RT, RTx, or XRT, is a therapy using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer treatment to control or kill malignant cells and normally delivered by a linear accelerator. Radia ...

. He also announced that he would be taking a hiatus from voice acting and moving back to Hershey, Pennsylvania. A

GoFundMe GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...

page was posted on May 1, 2022, to help cover travel, insurance costs, medical bills not covered by insurance, and everyday life necessities; these online fundraising efforts yielded more than US$184,000. Within several weeks after announcing his cancer diagnosis, Kametz succumbed to it at the age of 35 in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on June 9, 2022. Following his untimely death, his ongoing roles were recast to other voice actors.

Filmography

Animation

Anime

Video games

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kametz, Billy 1987 births 2022 deaths American male video game actors American male voice actors Crunchyroll Anime Awards winners Deaths from cancer in Pennsylvania Deaths from colorectal cancer Male actors from Pennsylvania People from Hershey, Pennsylvania People from Lancaster, Pennsylvania 21st-century American male actors