Dragon Ball 25 Interesting Facts About The Cast

Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z and Dragon Ball Super are full of some wild, memorable characters and the Japanese and English Voice actors behind them are just as interesting!

The Dragon Ball franchise has been going on for quite some time, and the voice actors have been with it for most of its long, long run. Though some of the cast has shifted around, and there have been multiple VA's behind some of our favorite characters, the fact remains that the Dragon Ball franchise has had a long list of fantastic voice actors behind the characters we've come to now and love. The characters of Dragon Ball drive the series, each one just as interesting as the last, but the voices behind them, both amongst the original Japanese cast and the English dub voice actors, are just as interesting as the characters they play, especially when you look at these 25 interesting facts about the men and women behind our favorite Dragon Ball characters.

Everything from Masako Nozawa's nickname to the other dub roles of Krillin and Trunks, we've got some neat trivia about the people who have given these character's their signature voices for years. Wanna know about Sean Schemmel's many talents? What about Chris Sabat's plans for his gravestone? Did you know that Krillin's voice actor is a comic book artist? Or that the Kai version of Dragon Ball Z features cameos from Team Four Star? The voices of Dragon Ball are full of interesting history, talents and facts, making them just as fascinating and lovable as the characters they portray. Without further ado, here are 25 interesting facts about the voice actors, both Japanese and English, behind the characters of Dragon Ball.

25 SEAN SCHEMMEL HAD A TAIL?

It seems that Goku's signature English voice actor was destined to play the character, at least according to his grandmother. Schemmel has told stories of being a kid and his grandma calling him "Monkey-Boy," which is perfectly fitting to the character he would go on to portray.

Even crazier, his grandmother also claimed that Schemmel used to have a tail, and that it had been cut off near the base of his spine, which also lines up with Goku's character. Next thing you know, he's gonna say that he also fought a bunch of space monsters in his 20s!

24 THE VOICE OF GOKU AND HIS FAMILY

Since the very first episode of Dragon Ball, Masako Nozawa has been the voice of Goku, continuing to portray the character to this day. Fans of the dub might not know that Nozawa also voices every single male relative of Goku's family, save for his brother, Raditz.

Nozawa provides the voice of Goku, Gohan, Goten and Bardock, meaning she's portrayed every three different generations of Goku, four if you count Goku Jr. from Dragon Ball GT's timeline. Additionally, Nozawa has also voiced both of Goku's evil lookalikes, Turles and Goku Black.

23 SON (OF A SHEPARD) GOKU

Though he eventually became known as the voice of Goku, Sean Schemmel wasn't the first person to dub the character in English. One of the voice actors that portrayed Goku before Schemmel was Peter Kelamis, who's other notable voice roles include Rolf from Ed, Edd n' Eddy.

Yes, that's right, the weird farmer kid from Ed, Edd n' Eddy was played by one of Goku's voice actors, a fact that has been poked fun at with countless memes, including videos where fans have dubbed Rolf over Goku's voice, adding Ed, Edd n' Eddy's infamous sound effects into the fights.

22 THE MANY VOICES OF CHRIS SABAT

Most fans might know about this fact, but it's still impressive to note that Vegeta's english voice actor, Chris Sabat, voices a ton of characters in the dub of Dragon Ball Z. In fact, he voices the most characters out of any dub actor.

On top of voicing the prince of all Saiyans, Sabat also provides the English dub for Piccolo, Yamcha, Mr. Popo, Kami, all of the Dragons, Zarbon and three members of the Ginyu force, Recoome, Jeice and Burter. Now that's a lot of characters!

21 CAPTAIN VEGETA

Speaking of Vegeta voice actors, the character's original Japanese voice actor, Ryō Horikawa, has another role that people might know him for, Captain Falcon. Specifically, Horikawa voices Captain Falcon in the original Japanese audio for the Super Smash Bros. game series.

Meaning, Dragon Ball fans in Japan can hear Vegeta's voice scream "Falcon Punch!" while playing Smash with their friends, a fun experience that must make DBZ fans want to play as Goku and Vegeta in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate more than ever.

20 THE KRILLIN/ONE PIECE CONNECTION

This fact crosses over between the Japanese and English voice casts, making for an interesting connection between Dragon Ball and One Piece. The English voice actor for Krillin, Sonny Strait, is known for other voice roles in dubbed anime such as Maes Hughes in Fullmetal Alchemist and the titular protagonist of Lupin the Third.

However, Strait's most interesting role is that of Usoppin in One Piece. Why is that so interesting? Because the Japanese voice of Krillin, Mayumi Tanaka, also voices a character in One Piece, the main character himself, Monkey D. Luffy.

19 ERIC VALE'S OTHER ROLES

Speaking of other roles, there happens to be another connection between One Piece and Dragon Ball Z in the voice acting department by way of Eric Vale. Vale is known for voicing Future Trunks in Dragon Ball Z, but he also provides the voice of Solf J. Kimblee in Fullmetal Alchemist and Sanji in One Piece.

Not only does this make another connection to One Piece, it also connects Strait and Vale in their Fullmetal Alchemist roles. Other Dragon Ball dub VA's in Fullmetal Alchemist include Chris Sabat as Major Armstrong and Monica Rial (Bulma's current voice) as Mei Chang.

18 NEXT TIME ON DRAGON BALL Z...

As Gohan was growing up, he was voiced by the same actress as young Goku in Dragon Ball's dub, Stephanie Nadolny. However, when the Buu saga started to gear up and Gohan was now a teenager in high school, he was voiced by Kyle Herbert, who has voiced the character since.

However, teen Gohan was not Herbert's first role on Dragon Ball Z, as he was first cast as the narrator for the English dub. That's right, the voice behind Gohan is the same voice you'd hear say "Next time on Dragon Ball Z..." at the end of each episode.

17 FRIEZA'S BROTHER FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION

In the Universe 7 tournament arc of Dragon Ball Super, we were introduced to Frost, a version of Frieza from an alternate dimension who eventually came face to face with his counterpart in the Universal Survival Saga. What's so interesting about Frost's voice actor, you ask?

Well, he happens to be Greg Ayers, the brother of Christopher Ayers, the current voice actor for Frieza who took over the role starting with Resurrection F. Meaning, the character that is more or less Frieza's brother from another dimension is actually played by his voice actor's brother.

16 GOKU THE COMEDIAN (AND PUPPETEER)

Here's a funny fact, did you know that Goku's voice actor, Sean Schemmel dabbled in stand up comedy and improv early in his career? Yes, that's right, the voice of everyone's favorite dim-witted Saiyan was a stand-up comedian for a brief time.

Just as interesting, Schemmel also revealed in an episode of Talkin' Toons (veteran voice actor Rob Paulsen's talk-show) that he spent some time as a marionette puppeteer, a job he was offered based on his acting and music background and one that he did until he started voice acting.

15 "THE ETERNAL BOY"

Goku is basically still the same little kid he was at the beginning of Dragon Ball, and has remained a goofy kid well into his 40s, even keeping his same little kid voice in the Japanese dub. You could easily call Goku an "eternal boy," which fits perfectly, since this is also the nickname of Masako Nozawa.

Nozawa was given the nickname "The Eternal Boy" by fans both in response to her voicing Goku for so long and because she has voiced a number of young boy characters in other anime.

14 VEGETA THE VOICE DIRECTOR

This is another fact that most fans might know about Vegeta's voice actor, Chris Sabat, but it's still awesome that he has gone on to be a big part of the dub's production. On top of his many voice roles in the Dragon Ball franchise, Sabat also takes on a number of production roles, including ADR director, producer and line producer.

Even more impressive, Sabat also started an audio production company called OkraTron 5000, which dubs video games and has become a major part in Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball media, helping to dub Dragon Ball FighterZ.

13 THE ANDROID CONNECTION

Future Trunks comes from the future of an alternate timeline in which androids destroyed the planet and continued to exterminate humanity without mercy. Why do we bring this up? Because the English voice actor for Trunks, Eric Vale, also played the main role of Casshern in Casshern Sins.

What makes this interesting is that Casshern Sins is a series about an android that destroys his world, meaning that Vale played a character from a future destroyed by androids and an android that destroyed the future, a very ironic twist for the voice actor.

12 GOKU FUNNIE

Amongst Masako "The Eternal Boy" Nozawa's many young boy voice roles is one that we did not see coming, the role of Doug Funnie's Japanese voice. When the classic Nickelodeon series, Doug was brought over to Japan, the dubbed voice of the main character was none other than Nozawa herself.

Yes, the Japanese voice of Doug Funnie is the same person who has voiced Goku for over 30 years. We don't know about you, but now we wish there was an episode of Doug where the titular character fantasized about being an alien martial artist akin to Goku.

11 FRIEZA IS TIEN'S MOM???

We know that entry title might be incredibly confusing, but let us explain. Prior to Chris Ayers taking over the role of Frieza in Dragon Ball media, many knew Linda Young as the voice of the intergalactic tyrant.

What's so interesting about this? Well, Ling Young's son happens to be John Burgmeier, another voice actor with Funimation who provides the English dub voice for Tien Shinhan. How crazy is that? Though Frieza and Tien have never met, they are voice by mother and son!

10 SONNY STRAIT'S COMIC CAREER

Sonny Strait is more than just the voice of Krillin and Usopp, he's also a talented comic book artist and writer. If you follow Strait on twitter, you've probably seen some of his drawings, but it's much more than simple doodles, Strait has had a few runs as artist and colorist on ElfQuest.

Some of Strait's other comics credits include The Atomic Punk, Goth Metal Gods and Mr. Average. Additionally, one of Strait's original comic series, We Shadows was nominated for an award by The American Library Association.

9 GOHAN ON RADIO DISNEY

This is perhaps one of the strangest and most interesting entries on this list; did you know that Kyle Herbert got his start as a DJ for Radio Disney? The voice of Gohan's first voice over job was as "Squeege," a host for the kids' radio station, a role that he had up until 2005.

It's a strange connection to say the least, especially considering the very real chance that there were kids who grew up listening to Radio Disney and watching Dragon Ball Z. Maybe those kids made the connection between Squeege and the narrator of DBZ.

8 CAPTAIN SCHEMMEL

When Funimation went forward with the production of the rest of Dragon Ball Z's English dub, they decided to go with an in-house cast. This meant that they had to audition a few new voice actors to replace some of the Ocean dub actors that they could no longer use.

This was when Sean Schemmel went in for auditions, trying out for Goku and Captain Ginyu. The interesting part of this story is that Schemmel thought that Captain Ginyu was the more important character, and was unaware that Goku was the main protagonist, even after getting the part.

7 THE OTHER MONKEY KING

Goku's adventures started in Dragon Ball, which itself started as a variation/adaptation of Journey to the West, a classic Chinese tale about Sun Wukong, the monkey king. In fact, "Son Goku" is the Japanese version of the Monkey King's name, which is where the character's name came from.

Though the series ventured very far from its Journey to the West setup, there is still a connection to Sun Wukong in the form of Masako Nozawa. One of Nozawa's many roles is that of the Japanese voice of Wukong, a character based on the Monkey King from League of Legends.

6 CHIS SABAT: UNDER 9,000

Chris Sabat has stated a number of times how much he loves working on Dragon Ball and interacting with the fans who care for the franchise so much. Sabat fully embraces what the series means to people and himself, since he's been a part of it for over 20 years.

In fact, Sabat loves the franchise and Vegeta so much that he wants to put a Dragon Ball Z reference on his gravestone. Specifically, Sabat wants to put <9000, to show that, even in the end, he was under Goku's power level.

5 VEGETA ON DR. SLUMP?

On top of being the voice of Captain Falcon, Vegeta's Japanese voice, Ryō Horikawa, also has another notable role that fans of Akira Toriyama may recognize. Before becoming the voice of Vegeta, Horikawa's first voice role was on Toriyama's other notable work, Dr. Slump.

Horikawa portrayed Charmy Yamada in Dr. Slump, an overly serious police officer who is afraid of germs. If we had to figure out what the polar opposite of Vegeta would be, Charmy Yamada would definitely be in the top five, which is why it's so amazing that they're voiced by the same person.

4 FRIEZA'S LIFE-SAVING SURGERY

Last year, the current voice of Frieza, Chris Ayers, was unfortunately diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and would require a full lung transplant in order to survive. Though this news is heavy and devastating for Ayers, his friends, family and fans, there is a silver lining.

Soon after Ayers was diagnosed, a donation campaign was started to help him pay for the transplant and medical costs related to it, and thanks in part to the support of fans, the $25,000 goal was reached and then some, ensuring that Ayers will get the medical care he needs.

3 GOKU PLAYS FRENCH HORN

Amongst Sean Schemmel's many talents and past jobs, the voice actor is also skilled French horn player. In fact, Schemmel studied music in college, going on to play the French horn and teaching music professionally for a time.

Fans of Schemmel may know about his French horn skills from the twitter feud leading up to his and Chris Sabat's Dragon Ball FighterZ match, which included a video of Schemmel accepting Sabat's challenge and ringing the "battle horn." All we need is some fan art of Goku (most likely poorly) playing the French horn.

2 FROM YAMCHA TO VEGETA

As Dragon Ball turned to Dragon Ball Z, Yamcha became less and less present in the story and was soon cast aside as a background character at best. On top of losing the main cast status that he had in Dragon Ball to the likes of Vegeta, Yamcha also lost his girlfriend to the Saiyan prince.

What makes this interesting is that Yamcha and Vegeta are both voiceed by Chris Sabat. However, while many fans know Sabat best as Vegeta, his first role was actually as Yamcha, making the connection between the two all the more interesting.

1 TEAM FOUR STAR IN KAI

One of the biggest things to come out of DBZ's English-language broadcast was Dragon Ball Z: The Abridged Series, a parody that dubbed over the show with different, much more comedic dialogue. Funny enough, the creators behind the series, Team Four Star, actually ended up making their way into the Kai dub of DBZ, though this version wasn't allowed to be broadcast on TV, unfortunately.

In the Cell Games reenactment shown before the beginning of the World Martial Arts Tournament during the Buu Saga, the actors in costumes portraying Goku and friends are all voiced by Team Four Star members.

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