Crispin McDougal Freeman (born February 9, 1972) is an American voice actor. His roles have included Alucard from Hellsing, Kyon from The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Shizuo Heiwajima from Durarara!!, Karasu from Noein, Togusa from Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, as Holland Novak from Eureka Seven, Touga Kiryuu in Revolutionary Girl Utena & Adolescence of Utena, Zelgadis Greywords from Slayers, Straight Cougar from S-CRY-ed, Tsume from Wolf's Rain, Guan Yu from Dynasty Warriors, Siegfried Schtauffen from Soul Calibur III, Jeremiah Gottwald from Code Geass, Itachi Uchiha in Naruto, 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 has a younger brother; actor, producer, director, and musician Clark Freeman, and a sister; actress and musician Cassidy Freeman. All three siblings 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 declined because he deemed dubs inferior to the original Japanese voiceover. It was not until he remembered all of the anime shows he watched as a child that he realized that some 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 as Electro from The Spectacular Spider-Man, and Multiple Man in Wolverine and the X-Men. He then starred as Red Arrow 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 the sequel Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2.
Freeman is also an educator, giving classes, workshops, and performance lectures in Los Angeles, California, for which information can be found on his official website under "classes". In addition to classes, Freeman releases a new voice acting podcast at the Voice Acting Mastery website every two weeks.
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.
His sister, Cassidy, played Tess Mercer in the Smallville and Cady Longmire in Longmire. Cassidy and their brother Clark are involved in a band called The Real D'Coys.
Filmography
Anime
Live action
- Adventures in Voice Acting - Himself
- Anime: Drawing a Revolution - Himself
- Important Things with Demetri Martin - Bystander
Live-action dubbing
- Oldboy - Lee Woo-jin (English dub, uncredited)
- The Porpeen - Xevious (Voice only)
- Versus - Ponytail, One-handed Sidekick (English dub, credited as Mark Percy)
- XX: Beautiful Beast - Yoichi Fujinami (English dub, credited as Mark Percy)
Animation
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes - Scott Lang
- Ice Age: The Meltdown - Additional Voices
- Important Things with Demetri Martin - Bystander
- Resident Evil: Degeneration - Frederic Downing
- Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays - Fabian Menkle
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated - Howard E. Robertson, Rhino
- The Spectacular Spider-Man - Electro
- Steven Universe - Mr. Maheswaran, Male Nurse (Ep. "Fusion Cuisine")
- W.I.T.C.H. - Raphael Sylla
- Wolverine and the X-Men - Multiple Man, Maverick
- Young Justice - Speedy/Red Arrow, Speedy/Arsenal, Guardian, Galet Dasim, WayneTech Guard, Museum Curator
Video games
ADR Staff Credits
Voice Director
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
- Scrapped Princess
- Space Travelers
- Strawberry Eggs
Script Writer
- Assemble Insert
- Boogiepop Phantom
- Gungrave
- His and Her Circumstances
- Night on the Galactic Railroad
- Photon: The Idiot Adventures
- Pokémon
- Scrapped Princess
- Shamanic Princess
- Space Travelers
- Strawberry Eggs
- Witch Hunter Robin
References
External links
- Official website
- Crispin Freeman at the Internet Movie Database
- Crispin Freeman at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
- Crispin Freeman convention appearances on AnimeCons.com
- Voice Acting Mastery - Crispin Freeman's voice acting podcast blog
- Mythology and Meaning - Crispin Freeman's website for his lectures on anime
- Interviews
- Crispin Freeman Interview at RPGSite
- Crispin Freeman: Q and A at The Anime Lodge
- "A Very Different Place" - A Crispin Freeman Interview part one
- "A Very Different Place" - A Crispin Freeman Interview part two including audio
- "Anime Today Episode 31" - Crispin Freeman Interview
- 'Kana's Korner' Interview on 91.8 The Fan
