Billy Kametz

Billy P. Kametz (/ˌkəˈmɛts/; March 22, 1987 – June 9, 2022) was an American voice and stage actor. He was best known for his work dubbing anime and video games. Kametz began his voice acting career in 2016. He provided the English voices for Josuke Higashikata in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable, Takuto Maruki in Persona 5 Royal, Naofumi Iwatani in The Rising of the Shield Hero, Colt in Brawl Stars, and Ferdinand von Aegir in the Fire Emblem series. Kametz died from colorectal cancer at the age of 35.

Early life

Kametz was born on March 22, 1987, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and was raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania. He had a sister. He attended West Chester University. Kametz started out acting by doing theatres in university for years.

Career

In 2016, Kametz moved to Sherman Oaks in Los Angeles 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 dub of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Unbreakable. He went on to voice other prominent roles, including Colt in Brawl Stars, Takuto Maruki in Persona 5 Royal, Galo Thymos in Promare, Ren in Pokémon, and Ferdinand von Aegir in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, among many other roles in animation and video games.

Kametz was able to posthumously reprise his role as Ferdinand in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes and Rui in Demon Slayer games "Sweep the Board!" and "The Hinokami Chronicles 2".

In 2020, for his performance as Naofumi Iwatani in The Rising of the Shield Hero, Kametz won the Best VA Performance (EN) award at the 4th Crunchyroll Anime Awards.

Personal life

Kametz dated voice actress Erica Lindbeck.

Cancer and death

On April 26, 2022, Kametz revealed that he had been diagnosed with colorectal cancer ten weeks prior, which had metastasized to his liver, lungs, and spine, and that he had begun chemotherapy and radiation therapy. He also announced that he would be taking a hiatus from voice acting and moving back to Hershey, Pennsylvania. A GoFundMe 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.

Five weeks after the fundraiser was launched, Kametz died on June 9, 2022, in Hershey, Pennsylvania at the age of 35. He was cremated.

Filmography

Animation

Anime

Video games

Awards and nominations

External links

• at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• at IMDb
• at Behind The Voice Actors