Yuri Lowenthal
Yuri Lowenthal is a VA from California that is probably one of the most prolific in the industry right now. In fact, his work is getting so common in the North American industry that he may as well be his own trope. He is usually cast as the Kid Hero of the series, some examples being Simon and young Superman. Despite all those roles, he is probably best known as the voice of Anti-Hero Sasuke Uchiha in Naruto.
He has provided the voice of Luke fon Fabre in Tales of the Abyss, Kamal in the Halo tie-in Alternate Reality Game I Love Bees, and Cecil Harvey in the Nintendo DS remake of Final Fantasy IV and Dissidia Final Fantasy. Ironically, he doesn't voice Yuri Lowell in Tales of Vesperia; that role went to Troy Baker instead (Lowenthal, for once, did not have a role).
His range tends to be rather limited, with most of his roles demanding nothing more than "normal American accent", which is close to his normal voice anyway (although this is probably due to him being typecast quite a lot). Saying that, he can also pull off a pretty good Creepy Child voice and has a wide range of regional accents for when the role calls for them.
Currently married to fellow VA Tara Platt, who voice Mitsuru in Persona 3 where he voiced the MC. He and Tara also co-authored a book called Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic, which gives their personal experiences in voice acting and advices to newcomers. This book is often referenced and recommended by many veteran voice actors at conventions like Steve Blum, Crispin Freeman, Sam Riegel, Kyle Hebert, and Vic Mignogna.
Yes, his first name is Yuri. We're sure he's heard every joke you have in mind.
And did we mention that he is good friends with Doug Erholtz?
Animated VA Roles
- Afro Samurai: Jinnosuke/"Kuma"
- Batman the Brave And The Bold: Tuftan and Mr. Miracle.
- Ben 10 Alien Force/Ben 10 Ultimate Alien: Ben Tennyson/Alien X, JT (in "Ben 10 Returns: Part 1") and Albedo.
- Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo: Rice, Megafan
- Bleach: Keigo Asano, Young Renji Abarai, Young Byakuya Kuchiki, Additional voices
- Blue Dragon: Shu
- Buso Renkin: Victor Powered.
- Code Geass: Suzaku Kururugi
- Digimon Tamers: Kai Urazoe [movie]
- Digimon Data Squad: Neon [ep. 8]
- Durarara!!: Shinra Kishitani
- El Chavo: Junior
- Ergo Proxy: Daedalus Yumeno
- Eyeshield 21: Sena Kobayakawa
- Gankutsuou: Raoul de Chateau Renard
- Girls Bravo: Yukinari Sasaki
- Gods Eater Burst: Soma
- Gun X Sword: Joshua Lundgren
- Gundam Unicorn: Riddhe Marcenas
- Hellsing Ultimate: Pip Bernadotte
- Huntik: Secrets & Seekers: Lok Lambert--because appearing in every California-recorded show wasn't enough.
- Hare+Guu: In an amazing case of playing against type, Waji, the kid who never stops laughing.
- Kyo Kara Maoh: Yuuri Shibuya
- Legion of Super-Heroes: Superman, Superman X
- Moribito Guardian of the Spirit: Touya
- Monster: Karl Neumann
- Naruto: Sasuke Uchiha
- Noein: Yuu, Makoto Shinohara
- Paprika: Dr. Tokita
- The Prince of Tennis: Katsuo Mizuno, Keigo Atobe
- Rave Master: Haru Glory
- Robotech: The Shadow Chronicles: Marcus Rush
- RWBY: Mercury Black (Volume 3 onward)
- Saiyuki Reload: Son Goku
- Scrapped Princess: Leopold Scorpus
- SD Gundam Force: Bakunetsumaru
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Simon
- Ultra Maniac: Hiroki Tsujiai
- Wolverine and the X-Men: Iceman
- Zatch Bell!: Danny; Donpocho; Kory
Video Game Roles
- .hack//G.U.: Haseo, Additional voices
- SKEEEEEIIIIIITTTHHH!
- Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War: Larry 'Pixy' Foulke (voice segments only)
- Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation: Toscha Mijasik
- Ace Combat: Assault Horizon: Major Sergei Illich
- Armored Core For Answer: Cube, additional voices
- Assassin's Creed II: Vieri De Pazzi
- Baten Kaitos Origins: Giacomo
- Bayonetta: Luka
- BioShock (series): The spider splicers in the sequel.
- Call of Duty: Black Ops: Additional voice for several missions, most notably "Rebirth". "Nova 6! Hazmat suits, NOW!"
- Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion: Ben Tennyson, Flapjack, Nigel Uno/Numbah 1
- Castlevania Judgment: Alucard
- Also portrayed him in the updated Symphony of the Night on the Dracula X Chronicles game for the PSP.
- Cross Edge: Raze (Mana-Khemia 2: Fall of Alchemy), Zelos (Spectral Souls)
- Catherine: Toby and the mysterious voice/Astaroth
- Dead Or Alive: Dimensions: Hayate
- Digital Devil Saga: Serph
- Dragon Age: Origins: Sandal (ENCHANTMENT?!), Fenarel, Finn, additional voices
- Dynasty Warriors (and related spinoffs): Sun Ce, Zhang He
- Fallout: New Vegas: Ringo, Oliver Swanick, Henry Jamison, Nolan McNamara, Lucius, Aurelius of Phoenix, a large amount of additional voices and the male Courier.
- Seriously, he voices fucking everybody. Just watch the Basterd Brother's Let's Play, they sure don't let him go unnoticed.
- Final Fantasy IV (DS remake): Cecil
- Reprised the role for ~Dissidia: Final Fantasy~.
- Final Fantasy XII: Reks
- Grim Grimoire: Hiram Menthe and Advocat
- Guilty Gear 2 Overture: Sin and That Man
- Luminous Arc: Sir Heath
- Lunar: Silver Star Harmony: Alex
- Mass Effect 2: Additional voices, all of whom seem to get the short end of the stick in some way.
- Mordin's assistant, Daniel, who's held hostage by batarians. Also, the Stock Boy, who's either going to get a) punched in the gut, b) believe a ridiculous lie, or c) have the situation explained to him in a heartwarming way. Feron, who gets tortured by the Shadow Broker for a couple years. Some of the salarian mercs you gun down many, many times.
- Medal of Honor (2010): Tech Sergeant Ybarra
- Medal of Honor Rising Sun: Ichiro "Harry" Tanaka
- Medal of Honor Vanguard: Frank Keagan
- Metro 2033: Lots of Mooks, most of them Nazis with strangely similar voices.
- NieR Gestalt: Gideon
- No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle: Desperate Struggle: Charlie MacDonald and Jasper Batt Jr.
- Odin Sphere: Cornelius
- Operation Darkness: Edward Kyle
- Prinny: Turmeric of the Phoenix Clan, Morgan
- Prince of Persia: The Prince in The Sands of Time, The Two Thrones and The Forgotten Sands
- Professor Layton: Future Luke who is actually Klaus/Clive in Unwound Future.
- Persona 3: Protagonist (Main Character), Ryoji, Pharos, unnamed nurse
- Persona 4: Yosuke Hanamura
- Phantasy Star Zero: Kai, uncredited
- Radiata Stories: Daniel
- Red Faction: Guerilla: Nameless guerillas
- Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45 2: Heroes of Stalingrad: Nameless German soldiers
- Resident Evil Umbrella Chronicles: Richard Aiken
- Retro Game Challenge: Young Arino
- Riviera: The Promised Land: Ein
- Rogue Galaxy: Steve
- Saints Row 2: Shogo Akuji, generic voices
- Saints Row: The Third: Matt Miller
- Shadow of Destiny (PSP Version): Eike. Nostalgia Filter built a lot of criticism about him not sounding like the old voice actor, but his performance is very solid.
- Shadows of the Damned: Elliot (FUUUUUUCK YOOOOUUUU!)
- Silent Hill: Shattered Memories: John
- Siren: Howard Wright
- Soul Calibur IV: Arcturus, Custom Male Voice 1
- Soul Calibur V: Patroklos
- Soul Nomad: Gig and Male Protagonist
- Spectrobes: Rallen
- Star Ocean 1: Roddick
- Suikoden V: Kyle and Shula Valya
- Tales of the Abyss: Luke fon Fabre and Asch
- Trauma Center: Derek Stiles
- Trauma Team: Little Guy and Derek Stiles
- Tron: Evolution - Battle Grids: Player-controlled ISO character
- Valkyria Chronicles: Johann (in Selvaria DLC)
- Wild ARMs 4: Arnaud G. Vasquez
- Wild ARMs 5: Dean Stark (Seriously who forgot him after writing WA 4)
- Xenosaga Episode III: Also sprach Zarathustra: Kevin Winnicot (replacing Chris Smith)
Yuri Lowenthal provides examples of the following tropes:
- Adorkable: A few of his roles could well qualify for this.
- Angst: Quite a few.
- Emo: Surprisingly, this is how most of the fandom describes his voice acting, even though he normally isn't typecasted into these characters.
- Sasuke Uchiha is probably the biggest offender. The fandom describes Yuri's English VO of this character as "emo." Ironically, Sasuke Uchiha is one of the least emotional characters in Naruto, so saying that Yuri's voice acting is emo is probably inappropriate.
- He did a very interesting emo impression at one panel, while that impression obviously does not sound like Sasuke, he can emo imitations when asked about it.
- Evil Laugh: He is fantastic at these. It shows when he's voicing characters such as Shadow Yosuke from Persona 4 or Advocat. Also overlaps with Large Ham.
- Hot-Blooded: He voiced Simon. Not much more needs to be said here.
- Idiot Hero: At least a couple of his roles have him rushing into battle.
- Kid Hero: Many anime, video games, and cartoons dubbed in California will have him in this role.
- Large Ham: More particularly his large scream with Haseo.
- Come on.. Come on... I'm right here.... SKEEEEIIIIIIIIIIITTTHHHH!!
- Man of a Thousand Voices: Not as prolific when compared to Steve Blum or James Arnold Taylor, but getting him out of his Kid Hero typecasting into anything involving an accent would fit this trope.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Averted, he's managed to pull off a faux Persian accent for the Prince and Shula Valya, a British/English accent for Cornelius, Advocat, Future!Luke, and a few bit parts in Dragon Age: Origins, a French accent for Pip Bernadotte from Hellsing Ultimate, and (along with everyone else on the cast) was coached by Italian voice actors for Assassin's Creed 2.
- He's also good with a Russian accent, as indicated with Major Illich from Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.
- Omniglot: He is fluent in Japanese, German, and French. Lampshaded that according to him, the only Spanish he knows involves ordering Mexican food. This can easily explain why he averts the Not Even Bothering with the Accent trope above.
- Pigeonholed Voice Actor: Normally the Kid Hero
- Playing Against Type: Suzaku Kururugi is a Knight Templar, Sasuke Uchiha is an Anti-Hero, and Yosuke Hanamura is the Sidekick.
- Also: Wadji from Haré+Guu, C3PO Expy Steve from Rogue Galaxy and complex not-exactly-a-villain Kevin Winnicot from Xenosaga.
- Also subverted with his character in Final Fantasy XII, Reks, who is a Decoy Protagonist killed off during the game's prologue.
- Playing Against Type: Suzaku Kururugi is a Knight Templar, Sasuke Uchiha is an Anti-Hero, and Yosuke Hanamura is the Sidekick.
- Relationship Voice Actor: Normally works with Johnny Yong Bosch in many anime and video games. They'll usually either be the Red Oni, Blue Oni duo (Lowenthal's Yosuke and Bosch's MC/Souji in Persona 4) Or one of them will be The Rival to the other (Lowenthal's Suzuaku to Bosch's Lelouch in Code Geass)
- Shipper on Deck
- The Other Renton Thurston: Surprisingly, Yuri Lowenthal was originally supposed to voice the Kid Hero Renton Thurston in the Eureka Seven dub. However, according to Word of God, the ADR Director felt that Yuri's voice acting was "too low," so they had Johnny Yong Bosch voice Renton instead. Looks like typecasting didn't went as well as they expected.
- Unions in Hollywood: In addition to be part of SAG and AFTRA, he also thoroughly discussed this issue in his book as well.
- Interestingly enough, he indirectly suggests newcomers in his book not to join the union until "that time is right." It makes sense since most unions have high membership requirements and joining a union quickly leaves the newcomer in a situation without an agent, an impressive resume, a demo, sponsors, and contacts.
- Skyward Scream: His secondary forte. He better be drinking a lot of water after all of that screaming to the top of his lungs.