Joel McDonald

Joel McDonald is an American voice actor, voice director, and scriptwriter who worked on English versions of anime series at Funimation. He is currently a voiceover producer and director with Gearbox Entertainment and author of Getting In: An Actor's Guide to the Greatest Gig There Is.

Biography

Since McDonald was 7, he had a love for acting. He acted in plays at school and church, participating in community theater, secondary school theater and in speech competitions. Later, he acquired a BFA in Acting and Directing from Sam Houston State College. From that point onwards, McDonald took up acting professionally, taking parts in a national kids' theater tour, landing different roles in a couple dozen stage shows.

In 2006, after years of stage work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, McDonald became involved in voice acting and also got into ADR directing and adaptive scriptwriting.

Career

McDonald has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films and television shows, and video games. He is best known as the voice of Takumi Fujiwara from the Initial D series, Meow from Space Dandy, and Minato Sahashi from the Sekirei series, as well as the ADR director for the Funimation dub of One Piece, in addition to Sgt Frog, Deadman Wonderland, Space Dandy and Initial D.

In the 2010s, McDonald has been cast in more lead/major roles, such as Akane from Divine Gate, Mikage from the Kamisama Kiss series, Bartholomew Kuma from One Piece, Zeref Dragneel from Fairy Tail, Brief from Panty and Stocking, Hien from Chaos Dragon, Koki Mimura from Assassination Classroom, Azusa Hanai from Big Windup!, Toshimitsu Kubo from the Baka and Test series, Hayato Ike from the second season of Shakugan no Shana onwards, Jacuzzi Splot from Baccano, Motoharu Kaido from Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, Ikta Solok from Alderamin on the Sky, and Dilandau Albatou from the Funimation redub of The Vision of Escaflowne.

On February 15, 2018, he resigned from Funimation as a director.

In 2018, he joined Gearbox Entertainment as a voiceover producer, director, and actor working on such titles as Borderlands 3, New Tales from the Borderlands, and the upcoming Borderlands 4.

Personal life

On March 18, 2016, Joel announced the birth of his son, Beck Austin McDonald, born on March 16. His second son, Finn McDonald, was born on June 15, 2018.

Filmography

Anime

Films

Video games

External links

• at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
• at IMDb