Crispin Freeman

Crispin Freeman (born February 9, 1972) is an American actor who has provided voice-overs in numerous English-language versions of Japanese anime, cartoons, and video games. In anime, some of his prominent roles include Zelgadis Greywords in Slayers, Alucard in Hellsing, Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, and Kirei Kotomine in Fate/Zero, Itachi Uchiha in Naruto, and Shizuo Heiwajima in Durarara!!.

His roles have included, Hideki Motosuwa in Chobits Togusa from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Holland Novak from Eureka Seven, Touga Kiryuu in Revolutionary Girl Utena & Adolescence of Utena,Straight Cougar from S-CRY-ed, Tsume from Wolf's Rain, Alex Rowe in Last Exile, Guan Yu from Dynasty Warriors, Jeremiah Gottwald from Code Geass, Rude from Final Fantasy VII, Albel Nox from Star Ocean: Till the End of Time, Balmung of the Azure Sky in the .hack series and three different versions of Roy Harper in Young Justice.

Early life and education
Born in Chicago, Illinois, Crispin Freeman is the oldest of three children. He attended the Latin School of Chicago, where he graduated in 1990. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Williams College, majoring in Theater and minoring in Computer Science. Afterward, he earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University in Acting, and performed on Broadway (New York City), at the American Repertory Theater in (Cambridge), at the Mark Taper Forum in (Los Angeles), at Cincinnati's Playhouse in the Park, and at the Williamstown Theater Festival. As a child, Freeman was greatly influenced by anime shows such as Speed Racer and Battle of the Planets. Casey Kasem voiced the role of his favorite character, Mark of Battle of the Planets (he actually wanted to change his name to Mark at one point). Later, he discovered Voltron, Star Blazers, and Robotech, being quoted in the January 1999 issue of America Interview saying, "That show really blew me away." Freeman has also stated that the reason he got into the industry was because of the anime television show The Vision of Escaflowne. Freeman initially got involved in the anime voice-over industry when a friend of his landed a role in Peacock King.

Career
Knowing Freeman was a big anime fan, a friend suggested he call up Central Park Media (CPM) and apply for a job doing English dubs. When originally approached about dubbing, he initially declined. It was not until he remembered all of the anime shows he watched as a child that he realized that many people are introduced to anime through the English dubbed versions. In 1997, Freeman landed the role of Zelgadis Greywords in Slayers along with Lisa Ortiz, Eric Stuart and Veronica Taylor. He was the second and final voice actor to get the job, after Zelgadis' original voice actor, Daniel Cronin, lost contact with CPM after a year-long halt in the dubbing. Years later he turned to the American animation voice acting grounds. He been best known for his work in Marvel Comics based productions such as The Spectacular Spider-Man, Wolverine and the X-Men and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He then starred as several versions of Roy Harper in Young Justice for DC Comics and Warner Bros. Since then, Freeman has had various roles throughout his career. He has appeared in many video game titles as memorable characters, such as Albedo from Namco's Xenosaga series, the god of the sun Helios in God of War III, Haji, Joel the 6th and Van Argeno in Blood+, the main protagonist Baldur in Silicon Knights's Too Human, Breakdown in Transformers: War for Cybertron, the Winter Soldier in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, and Iron Man in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.

Freeman teaches classes, workshops, and performance lectures in the Los Angeles area. In addition to classes, Freeman has a website called Voice Acting Mastery which includes podcasts and other resources regarding voice acting.

Personal life
On August 11, 2007, he married Izobel Carol on the island of Hawaii at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. In October 2009, Crispin hosted two virtual town halls on Vokle.com. He took questions from fans, did character voices and read his favorite scary story.

Freeman is the oldest of three children. His sister, Cassidy is an actress played Tess Mercer in the Smallville and Cady Longmire in Longmire. Their brother Clark is an actor and musician; they are involved in a band called The Real D'Coys.