Hiroaki Hirata

Hiroaki Hirata (平田 広明) is a Japanese actor, voice actor and narrator.

He is the founder of Hirata Production Japan.

He is best known for voicing Vinsmoke Sanji in One Piece.

His other known roles include Sha Gojyo in Saiyuki, Kotetsu T. Kaburagi in Tiger & Bunny, Klein in Sword Art Online, Vergil in the Devil May Cry series, Mutta Nanba in Space Brothers, Leomon in Digimon Adventure, George Kodama in Kaze no Yojimbo and Mr. Kondo in After the Rain.

He is also the official Japanese dub-over artist for Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, Noah Wyle and Matt LeBlanc.

In addition, he dubbed many roles of Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, and Josh Hartnett.

After graduating from Toshima High School, Hirata attended the Subaru Theater School and then joined Theatre Company Subaru.

His first stage performance was in A Midsummer Night's Dream in 1986.

While he was working as a stage actor, his manager at the time asked him if he was interested in becoming a voice actor, and he auditioned.

Since then, he has dubbed for many Western movies and has worked in animation.

In 2011, he played the main character Kotetsu T. Kaburagi in the anime Tiger & Bunny and won the 11th Tokyo Anime Award for Best Voice Actor and the 6th Seiyu Awards for Best Actor in leading role.

In the same year, he left Theater Company Subaru, where he had worked for 27 years, and started a new company, Hirata Production Japan.

On January 9, 2017, Hirata was chosen 25th in the 3-hour voice actor general election special that broadcast on TV Asahi, where 200 popular voice actors were ranked.

Unknown date

-->