John Michael Tatum (born May 25, 1976 in McKinney, Texas) is an American voice actor, ADR director, and script writer at Funimation/OkraTron 5000 who provides voices for a number of English versions of Japanese anime series, and video games.

Biography

At the Florida Supercon 2015 panel, when he was asked what was his inspiration to go into voice acting, Tatum said that when he was young he had a speech impediment and his speech coach had him get involved in theater; in reciting and memorizing, they noticed that his stuttering would disappear. He then got into drama and theater acting, and that voice acting is great in that it enables him to play more characters than on camera.

In 2005, Tatum was discovered by Funimation ADR director Christopher Bevins, who cast him as Rikichi in Samurai 7. Tatum has been cast in several notable roles, including Kyoya Ootori in Ouran High School Host Club, Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler, France in Hetalia: Axis Powers, Erwin Smith in Attack on Titan, and Eneru in One Piece. Recently, he was cast as the voice of Rei Ryuugazaki in the English dub of Free! – Eternal Summer.

From January 2010 to January 2014, John hosted That Anime Show with friend and co-worker Terri Doty and ADR Engineer Stephen Hoff. Numerous times, he has expressed his deep love for anime, Doctor Who, Vincent Price, and William Shakespeare.



Tatum has stated that he is openly gay.