Sean Schemmel (born November 21, 1968) is an American voice actor, ADR director and screenwriter known chiefly for his work in cartoons, anime and video games. His most notable voice role has been the adult version of Son Goku in the

Funimation Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

dub of the ''

Dragon Ball is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The Dragon Ball (manga), initial manga, written and illustrated by Toriyama, was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from 1984 to 1995, with the 519 individual chapters colle ...

'' franchise. He has worked for Funimation, OkraTron 5000,

NYAV Post NYAV Post is an American recording studio located in New York City. It was founded by Michael Sinterniklaas in 2000, with a West Coast branch located in Los Angeles, California. The studio is prolific in recording anime dubs, original animatio ...

Central Park Media Central Park Media, often abbreviated as CPM, was an American multimedia entertainment company based in New York City, New York and was headquartered in the 250 West 57th Street building in Midtown Manhattan (on the corner of Central Park, hence ...

, 4K Media Inc. and DuArt Film & Video.

Career

Initially, Schemmel never planned on becoming a voice actor; he trained to be a classical French

horn player This list of horn players and pedagogues includes notable players of French horn, German horn, natural horn, Vienna horn, tenor (alto) horn, and alphorn. B *Radek Baborák, former Principal horn Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Munich Phil. Orch ...

. When a friend persuaded him to audition for ''

Dragon Ball Z ''Dragon Ball Z'' is a Japanese anime television series produced by Toei Animation. Part of the ''Dragon Ball'' media franchise, it is the sequel to the 1986 '' Dragon Ball'' anime series and adapts the latter 325 chapters of the original ...

'', he tried out for a minor character who was going to be killed in the first season of the show. He had been recording for two weeks before he was told that he was going to be the lead. Since being cast as Son Goku by Funimation in 1999, he has been the most consistent English voice actor for the main

protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a st ...

of the ''Dragon Ball'' franchise, having voiced the character's older teen and adult incarnations in every anime series produced to date (''

'', '' Z'', '' GT'', '' Kai'' and ''

Super Super may refer to: Computing * SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player * Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages * Super key (keyboard butt ...

'') and most ''Dragon Ball''

animated movies Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...

and

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

, as well as other characters such as

King Kai '' Dragon Ball'' is a Japanese media franchise created by Akira Toriyama in 1984. The franchise features an ensemble cast of characters and takes place in the same fictional universe as Toriyama's other work, ''Dr. Slump''. While many of the c ...

and

Goku Black , spelled Zamas in Viz Media's English localization of the ''Dragon Ball Super'' manga, is a fictional character in the '' Dragon Ball'' series. He is introduced as in the forty-seventh episode of Toei Animation's ''Dragon Ball Super'' anime ...

. Besides voicing Goku, Schemmel has lent his voice to several other anime characters including Conrad in '' Berserk'',

Amidamaru The manga and anime series ''Shaman King'' features several characters created by Hiroyuki Takei. As a result of being focused on shamanism the series' cast is divided between humans and spirits, the latter not being able to go the afterlife due t ...

in ''

Shaman King is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hiroyuki Takei. It follows the adventures of Yoh Asakura as he attempts to hone his shaman skills to become the Shaman King by winning the Shaman Fight. Takei chose shamanism as the ma ...

(2001)'',

Lucario is a Pokémon species in Nintendo and Game Freak's ''Pokémon'' franchise. Created by Ken Sugimori, Lucario first appeared as a central character in the film '' Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew'', then a cameo in '' Pokémon Mystery Dun ...

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 ...

'' and Elliot Grant in ''

Mew Mew Power is a Japanese manga series created and written by Reiko Yoshida and illustrated by Mia Ikumi. It was originally serialized in Kodansha's ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Nakayoshi'' from September 2000 to February 2003, with its chapters ...

''. His other roles in animation include

Firefly The Lampyridae are a family of elateroid beetles with more than 2,000 described species, many of which are light-emitting. They are soft-bodied beetles commonly called fireflies, lightning bugs, or glowworms for their conspicuous production ...

in '' G.I. Joe: Sigma 6'', Gonard in ''

Kappa Mikey ''Kappa Mikey'' is an American animated television series created by Larry Schwarz. The show was created by Schwarz's studio Animation Collective. The series premiered on February 25, 2006 and ended on September 20, 2008. 52 episodes were produced ...

'' and

Hawkman Hawkman is the name of several superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. Created by writer Gardner Fox and artist Dennis Neville, the original Hawkman first appeared in ''Flash Comics'' #1, published by All-American ...

in ''

DC Super Friends The Imaginext System is a brand of role-playing, adventure toys designed for kids 3 or older made by Mattel, as part of their Fisher-Price brand. History At the time of its introduction at the 2002 Toy Fair,

''. In video games, Schemmel has provided his voice to Makuta in ''

Bionicle Bionicle was a line of Lego construction toys, marketed primarily towards 8-to-16-year-olds. The line originally launched in 2001 as a subsidiary of Lego's Technic series. Over the following decade, it became one of Lego's biggest-selling prop ...

'', Black Doom in ''

Shadow the Hedgehog is a fictional character appearing in Sega's ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Shadow was created by Takashi Iizuka and Shiro Maekawa, and first made his debut in ''Sonic Adventure 2'' (2001). Although this was intended to be his only appearan ...

'', Maxwell in ''

Bullet Witch is a third-person shooter developed by Cavia for the Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows. It was released in Japan in 2006, and in Western regions in 2007; AQ Interactive published the game in Japan, while Atari Europe was the publisher for other r ...

'', Horace in ''

Skullgirls ''Skullgirls'' is a 2D fighting game developed by Reverge Labs and published by Autumn Games. In ''Skullgirls'', players fight each other with teams of one, two, or three characters, attempting to knock out their opponents or have the most cumul ...

'',

Batman Batman is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger, and debuted in Detective Comics 27, the 27th issue of the comic book ''Detective Comics'' on ...

in ''The Dark Knight Rises'',

Sun Wukong The Monkey King, also known as Sun Wukong ( zh, t=孫悟空, s=孙悟空, first=t) in Mandarin Chinese, is a legendary mythical figure best known as one of the main characters in the 16th-century Chinese novel ''Journey to the West'' ( zh, ...

(whom Goku was originally based on) in ''

Smite ''Smite'' is a 2014 free-to-play, third-person multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Hi-Rez Studios for Microsoft Windows, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Nintendo Switch, and Amazon Luna.Fallout 4 ''Fallout 4'' is a 2015 action role-playing game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. It is the fourth main game in the Fallout (series), ''Fallout'' series and was released worldwide on November 10, 2015, for P ...

''. In addition to his voice acting career, Schemmel was also an ADR Director and scriptwriter for

, where he had directed and adapted for English dubs of several Japanese anime series. In the field of narration, he has won two awards for his audiobook recordings.

Personal life

In 1993, Schemmel married Melissa Cox. The couple got separated in 1998. He married actress Melodee Lenz the same year. They divorced after three years of being together in 2001.

Filmography

Anime

Animation

Video games

Awards

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schemmel, Sean Living people American male screenwriters American male television writers American male video game actors American male voice actors American television writers American voice directors Funimation Male actors from Los Angeles Screenwriters from California University of North Texas alumni 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American male actors 1968 births