J. Michael Tatum

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J. Michael Tatum is one of the newer American voice actors and ADR directors working for FUNimation. Notably breaking out with Kyoya of Ouran High School Host Club, his roles seem to have an academic, calm, cool, and collected theme...though that can break every once in a while. He's also one of the co-hosts of That Anime Show with Terri Doty.

Is known to be a huge nerd who is particularly enamored with classy things like Literature with a capital L. Namely, really thick books and Shakespeare. He once read Beowolf in Old English. This works to his advantage whenever they need a script writer for a show with tons of intellectual content or sophisticated grammar (Hero Tales, Ouran High School Host Club). However, he is also a fan of many other considerably less intellectual things, such as Doctor Who.

Not entirely unlike a Texas equivalent of Crispin Freeman; both actors have a very similar vocal range, both play similar characters, both are anime fans themselves, both share a similar academic/intellectual bent off-the-job, and both have dubbed roles originally voiced by Koichi Yamadera.

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Notable roles from J. Michael Tatum:

• Toma in Aquarion
• France (Francis Bonnefoy) in Axis Powers Hetalia
• Isaac Dian in Baccano
• Jiro Mochizuki in Black Blood Brothers
• Sebastian Michaelis in Black Butler
• Magwald Xargin in Blassreiter
• Komui Lee in D.Gray-man
• Zarbon in Dragon Ball Kai
• Kazuomi Hirasawa in Eden of the East
• Simon in Fairy Tail
• Scar in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood (as well as the Chibi Party OVA)
• Lin Koujo in Ghost Hunt
• Hilshire in Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-
• Age in Heroic Age
• Ryosuke Takahashi in Initial D
• Lunar's Papa in My Bride Is a Mermaid
• Raikou Shizumu in Nabari no Ou
• Tenten in Oh! Edo Rocket
• Pearl, Dalton, and Eneru in One Piece
• Kyoya Ohtori in Ouran High School Host Club
• Tobias (Takuto) and Damon (Dread Grangil) in Pokémon
• William in Romeo X Juliet
• Ryoji Kaji in Rebuild of Evangelion
• Rikichi in Samurai 7 (debut role)
• Dororo in Sgt Frog
• Keisei Tagami in Shikabane Hime
• Giriko in Soul Eater
• Kraft Lawrence in Spice and Wolf
• Wabisuke Jinnouchi in Summer Wars
• Seishiro Sakurazaka in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle
• Shizuka Doumeki in xxxHolic

Tropes concerning Michael and his roles:

• Adorkable: In real life. However, he tends not to play these characters very often in fiction because of the lower register of his voice.
• Cluster F-Bomb: On That Anime Show, though it's a bit less noticeable with Terri as the cohost.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Kyoya and Tobias. Sebastian falls more under Affably Evil.
• Large Ham: Eneru, William, Isaac, France.
• Mean Character, Nice Actor: Sebastian, while Affably Evil, is still Evil with a capital E, and somewhat terrifying (unless you're an obsessive fangirl). However, Mr. Tatum is one of the friendliest, sweetest, funniest men you could ever hope to meet.
• The Nicknamer: He gives all his guest-stars a nickname on That Anime Show.
• One of Us: Pretty big Doctor Who fanboy to say the least, and he did not turn down the chance to be on Pokemon even if it meant flying to New York. He has quoted Family Guy on a few occasions.
• Pigeonholed Voice Actor: either The Stoic or the Villains. However...
  • Man of a Thousand Voices: fans will argue that his voice work as France in Hetalia (which requires him to pull off a French accent) helped his vocal range greatly. The director of the dub said Tatum was the only cast member who could actually do an authentic accent of his character, even though he wanted him to go with an exaggerated, Straw Man, funny one.
    • Compare his roles as Age and Kraft Lawrence and see if you can tell that's the same man.
    • He had a speech impediment as a child and was trained to talk properly under a woman from the UK. Explains a lot.
• Relationship Voice Actor: With Brina Palencia, who constantly plays pranks on him.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Or, in layman's terms, "knows dur big wordz!" He is able to spout versatile diatribes if he wants.
• The Stoic: some of his characters are like this, particularly Kyoya
• Stoic Spectacles: Kyoya and Scar, not to mention his own.
• Straight Gay: Oh yes. He is gay. He's been living with his boyfriend for at least 10 years. It never gets in the way of his career because he believes that it's a non-issue.
• Villains: If he's not voicing a stoic, then he's most likely to voice a villain. Some of the well known villains he voiced included an anti-villain turned anti-hero, an Ax Crazy villain, and recently a villain protagonist. According to him, this is one of his favorite tropes he like to voice with.