Sean Schemmel

For a whole generation of Western Dragon Ball fans, Sean Schemmel is Goku. He first stepped into the role for the Funimation dub in 1999 and has never stepped out, carrying adult Son Goku through Dragon Ball Z, Z Kai, GT, Super, Daima, and the full run of theatrical films including Battle of Gods, Resurrection F, Broly, and Super Hero. Along the way he has voiced more corners of Goku's world than any other English actor, lending his pipes to King Kai's reedy cackle, the stoic Namekian Nail, the sinister Goku Black, and sharing the fused voices of Vegito and Gogeta with longtime scene partner Christopher Sabat.

His scream is practically a rite of passage. Schemmel has openly confirmed that he has actually passed out mid-session while pushing his voice through Goku's most explosive transformations, once during a Super Saiyan 4 moment in GT and again during the climactic Super Saiyan 3 and Super Saiyan 4 sequence in Dragon Ball Daima.

Schemmel came up through the New York anime dub circuit, working with Funimation, NYAV Post, and 4Kids on a long list of shows that runs well past Dragon Ball. He has voiced Amidamaru in Shaman King, Lucario in Pokemon and Super Smash Bros., Strong in Fallout 4, Ryze in League of Legends, and Sun Wukong in Smite, which he has noted is the only time he has gotten to voice the Journey to the West trickster who inspired Goku in the first place. At NYAV Post he also built a second career as an ADR director and scriptwriter, adapting Japanese series into English and learning the dub process from both sides of the glass.

He originally auditioned for Captain Ginyu, not Goku, and for a while did not even realize he had landed the main protagonist. The irony is on record: Ginyu and Goku swap bodies on Namek, so Schemmel's voice did end up in Ginyu's mouth anyway.

More than two decades in, Schemmel remains one of the most recognizable and beloved figures on the Dragon Ball convention circuit, a regular guest at Animazement and Taiyou Con where fans line up for the inevitable Kamehameha shout. He has said in interviews that Piccolo is secretly his favorite character as a viewer, and that his personal favorite scene in the series is the Instant Kamehameha moment during the Cell Games, with Chi-Chi forcing Goku to get a driver's license running a close second.

Whether he is guiding a session as ADR director or screaming his way through another transformation, Schemmel has become the steady English heartbeat of the franchise, the voice that tells American audiences when Goku is pushing past his limit one more time.