Ryūsei Nakao

Born Tomoharu Takeo in Tokyo in 1951, Ryūsei Nakao built a career playing sadistic, high-pitched villains long before Dragon Ball, but Frieza is the role that made him a legend. When the Namek saga introduced the galactic tyrant in his sneering, wheelchair-bound first form, Nakao gave him a voice that was soft, feminine, almost affectionate, and that contrast with the character's monstrous actions is a huge part of why Frieza still unsettles audiences decades later. He purrs through threats, laughs as he murders children, and never once raises his voice above polite conversation until he absolutely has to.

Nakao voices every form of Frieza, from the porcelain first form through the muscular second and third, the sleek white-and-purple final form, Mecha Frieza, Golden Frieza, and Black Frieza. He also plays Frieza's brother Cooler in the theatrical films, Piccolo's demonic offspring Tambourine in the original Dragon Ball, the ancestor Chilled in Episode of Bardock, Frost in Dragon Ball Super, and the EX-Fusion Coolieza in Dragon Ball Fusions. If a member of the Frieza clan is on screen, odds are he is the one speaking.

Nakao is attached to 81 Produce and has been working in anime since the 1970s, often credited in earlier years under the name Tomoharu Minamiya. His voice tends to land him roles with unsettling, high-pitched personalities, and he has built a gallery of iconic villains across multiple franchises: Mayuri Kurotsuchi in Bleach, Caesar Clown in One Piece, and the eternally cackling Baikinman in Soreike! Anpanman, a role he has held for generations of Japanese children. There is a through line in all of these performances, a kind of glee in cruelty that almost no other voice actor can match.

In a 2015 interview around Dragon Ball Z: Resurrection F, Nakao admitted the recording sessions for Golden Frieza were brutal even for a veteran. The fight choreography moved so quickly that he and Masako Nozawa, who voices Goku, struggled to track whose attack was whose in real time. After decades in the booth, Frieza was still capable of humbling him.

Frieza's resurrection in Dragon Ball Super brought Nakao back to the role in force, and his performance in Resurrection F, the Universe Survival arc, and Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero proved that the character had lost none of its venom. When Frieza casually destroyed Gohan on the tournament stage or turned Golden during the climax of the Tournament of Power, it was Nakao's voice, still arched and playful, still terrifying, that sold every moment.

For fans of the Japanese dub, there is simply no other Frieza. Nakao's performance is as foundational to the character as Toriyama's original design, and it is the reason so many viewers consider Frieza the greatest villain in the franchise.