J. Michael Tatum is an American voice actor, ADR director and script writer who provides voices for a number of English versions of Japanese

anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, , in Japan and in Ja ...

series and video games.

Biography

In 2005, Tatum ran into

Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video on-demand Over-the-top media service, over-the-top Streaming media, streaming service. Launched in 2016, the service was one of the leading distributors of anime ...

ADR director

Christopher Bevins Christopher Bevins is an American voice actor, ADR director and scriptwriter who has worked on English language adaptations of Japanese anime shows. He dubbed roles in anime including Yasuhiro Hagakure from the '' Danganronpa'' series, Kenji fr ...

, who cast him as Rikichi in '' Samurai 7''. Tatum has been cast in several notable roles, including Kyoya Ootori in '' Ouran High School Host Club'', Sebastian Michaelis in '' Black Butler'', Tomoe in '' Kamisama Kiss'', France in '' Hetalia: Axis Powers'', Erwin Smith in ''

Attack on Titan is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Hajime Isayama. It is set in a world where humanity is forced to live in cities surrounded by three enormous walls that protect them from gigantic man-eating humanoids referred to a ...

'', Okabe Rintaro in ''

Steins;Gate ''Steins;Gate'' is a 2009 science fiction visual novel game developed by 5pb. and Nitroplus. It is the second game in the ''Science Adventure'' series, following ''Chaos;Head''. The story follows a group of students as they discover and develop ...

'', Eneru in ''

One Piece ''One Piece'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda. It follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy and his crew, the Straw Hat Pirates, as he explores the Grand Line in search of the myt ...

'', Tenya Iida in ''

My Hero Academia is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kōhei Horikoshi. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from July 2014 to August 2024, with its chapters collected in 42 volumes. Set in a wor ...

'' and Rei Ryuugazaki in '' Free! – Eternal Summer''. From January 2010 to January 2014, he hosted ''That Anime Show'' podcasts with friend and co-worker

Terri Doty Terri Doty is an American voice actress, voice director, and ADR writer known for her voice work in English dubs of Japanese anime shows produced by Funimation Funimation was an American Video on demand#Subscription models, subscription video ...

and ADR Engineer Stephen Hoff. At the Florida Supercon 2015 panel, when he was asked what was his inspiration to go into voice acting, Tatum said that when he was young he had a speech impediment and his speech coach had him get involved in theater. As he was reciting and memorizing scripts, they noticed that his stuttering started to gradually disappear. He then got into drama and theater acting, and that voice acting is great in that it enables him to play more characters than on camera. In 2017, Tatum was cast for the English voice of Hideki Akasaka in '' Shin Godzilla''. Since October 2018, he and

Jamie Marchi Jamie Lynn Marchi (; born October 8, 1977) is an American voice actress, ADR director and script writer. She has provided a number of voices for English-language versions of anime and video games. She is known for her role as Masane Amaha in ' ...

co-host the ghost story podcast ''Ghoul Intentions''.

Personal life

Tatum is openly gay. During a panel at Ichibancon 2014, he had said that he came out to his family during his college years, with his father having already known about his sexuality for some time. On October 16, 2018, he became engaged to his long-time partner and fellow voice actor

Brandon McInnis Brandon McInnis is an American voice actor and translator. He previously worked as a software engineer before pursuing a career as an actor after being convinced by his brother to do so. Some of his noteworthy roles include Finral in ''Black Clo ...

in Paris. He resides in Los Angeles, California as of 2020.

Filmography

Anime

Animation

Films

Video games

References

J. Michael Tatum and Terri Doty on ANN Cast

External links

* * * *
J. Michael Tatum
at CrystalAcids Voice Actor Database * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tatum, J. Michael 21st-century American male actors American gay actors American male video game actors American male voice actors American voice directors LGBTQ people from Texas Living people Male actors from Texas People from McKinney, Texas Place of birth missing (living people) Year of birth missing (living people)