Tesshō Genda

Tesshō Genda (玄田 哲章, Genda Tesshō) (sometimes credited as Tessyou Genda, Tetsuaki Genda, or Tetsusyo Genda) is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator. He is employed by the talent management firm 81 Produce. When he debuted, he used his real name, Mitsuo Yokoi (横居 光雄, Yokoi Mitsuo) as artist name. Because he had experience with ballet, he was known by the nickname "Pirouette Genda." Genda is one of Japan's most prolific voice actors, with 234 roles credited to his name as of September 25, 2007. Genda has performed the roles of Masami Iwaki (Dokaben), Suppaman (Dr. Slump), Gō Reietsu (High School! Kimengumi), Optimus Prime (A.K.A. Convoy) (The Transformers), Umibouzu (City Hunter), Ichimi Araiwa (Cooking Papa), and Action Kamen (Crayon Shin-chan) and is the current Japanese voice of Tigger in Winnie the Pooh media. He is also known for voicing Kurama in Naruto, and Kaido in One Piece. Like his Canadian counterpart Peter Cullen, Genda reprised the role of Optimus Prime (Convoy) in the Japanese dub of the 2007 Transformers movie. He is best known as the Japanese voice of Batman in numerous animated television series and animated films. Like his American counterpart Kevin Conroy, Genda reprised the role of Batman in the Japanese dub of Batman: Gotham Knight. He voices Kratos in the Japanese versions of the God of War video game series. In February 2010, Genda received a Merit Award from the 4th Seiyu Awards. He is the official dub-over artist of Arnold Schwarzenegger and has met with Schwarzenegger several times. He is a standard choice for Japanese dubbing of the voices of such English-speaking actors as Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Dan Aykroyd, Laurence Fishburne, and Gérard Depardieu. He was the first dubbing actor for Sylvester Stallone and Steven Seagal in their early days.