Hiroaki Hirata

The actor who didn't want to use the microphone

Hiroaki Hirata joined the Bungaku-za theater company in 1983 with a firm goal of becoming a stage actor. He had no interest in recording studios or dubbing booths. But the need to pay the bills pushed him toward voice acting in the early nineties.

His voice has a natural roughness that casting directors quickly recognized. That's because Hirata doesn't sound like an over-excited teenager. His tone is that of a man who has smoked too much and slept too little.

In 1999, he took on the role of Sanji in the series One Piece. He had no idea that the blond cook would keep him busy for the rest of his life.

The role changed everything.

And that's how his career permanently split in two. While he kept chasing the purity of gesture on stage, in anime he became the go-to voice for roguish, seductive characters. But he never left the stage, because that's where he learned to control the breath he would later release in front of the microphone.

The Japanese Voice of Hollywood Stars

The Japanese dubbing industry runs on a rigid hierarchy. Hirata broke through when he became the official Japanese voice of Johnny Depp for the Japanese market. In 2003, he recorded the dialogue for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and his take on Jack Sparrow won over even the most skeptical fans.

His ability to replicate Depp's erratic mumbling opened the door to other major studios. He has dubbed Matt Damon, Ewan McGregor and Jude Law in dozens of international productions. He has over 500 credits across TV series and foreign feature films.

The king of charming losers.

He made the most of his imperfect-hero image in 2011 with Tiger & Bunny. His role as Kotetsu T. Kaburagi earned him the Best Actor award at the Seiyu Awards in 2012. Audiences connected with this veteran superhero who no longer fits into a world of TV ratings and aggressive marketing.

Managing Silence and Running His Own Business

In 2012, he decided it was time to stop relying on outside agencies. He founded Hirata Office to manage his contracts and keep full control over his professional schedule. This independence allowed him to choose projects with much heavier dramatic weight.

That's because Hirata prefers scripts where silence weighs as much as words. In 2012, he starred in Space Brothers, voicing Mutta Nanba, an engineer chasing his space dream after being laid off. The series avoided the genre's usual tropes and focused on the frustration of an adult who fails.

And the gamble paid off.

In 2022, he took part in the box-office hit The First Slam Dunk, playing Yohei Mito. It was a return to the roots of the sports genre, but with a far more cinematic and less exaggerated recording style. The film's success confirmed that his voice remains a safe bet for major studios.

In 2024, his work centered on the Egghead arc of One Piece and on developing new talent within his own office. The company keeps a small staff of fewer than ten permanent employees to avoid the bureaucracy of large talent agencies in Tokyo.