Eric Kelso (born December 22) is an American voice actor, director, presenter and producer currently based in Tokyo, Japan.
He is best known as the voice of Paul Phoenix in the video game series, Tekken, as well as Guizhang Chen, Masayuki Fukuhara, and Ren of Heavens in the Shenmue series, Captain Falcon, and Blood Falcon in F-Zero GX, and Jacky Bryant in the Virtua Fighter series. Outside of video games, he has also provided voices for many Japanese TV shows, films, radio programs.
Early life Eric Kelso attended high school in Santa Cruz, California and went to the University at Santa Barbara where he majored in Film Studies. While at UCSB he received a Corwin Metropolitan Film Award for writing and directing the short film, "an echo en route".
After graduating in 1986, he set out to travel the world in search of documentary film subjects. He eventually made his way to his current long-time residence of Japan.
Career Narration Kelso has been active in Japan doing English-language and Japanese-language voiceovers for movies, television shows, children's programs and educational broadcasting. In 1995, Kelso provided live interactive voiceover and CG movement work for Mr. Mike, a sarcastic talking microphone character, around the world. Notable events include TELECOM 95 in Geneva, Switzerland, as well as at ASIA TELECOM 97 in Singapore.
He voiced the Japanese movie trailer for Disney's Mulan, as well as the part of River Guide in the Wild River Splash VR Simulator ride for DreamWorks at SEGA's Joypolis in Tokyo. In 2006, shortly after the merger of Tomy and Takara, Kelso provided the voice for the Omnibot 2007: i-SOBOT, which has been certified by Guinness World Records as "the world's smallest humanoid robot in production".
Kelso has been a director and producer for corporate video recordings for companies such as Prologis Inc. and Medtronic.
Voice acting Kelso began voice acting for the video game industry in 1996. In 2001, he voiced the character Paul Phoenix in the fighting video game, Tekken 4. In 2004, Kelso reprised this role in 5 and continued to voice the character in Dark Resurrection and 6.
In 2000, Kelso provided voices for the English dub of the Sega Dreamcast game, Shenmue. Playing the roles of Masayuki Fukuhara and Guizhang Chen, Kelso noted how expansive the project was, having a more developed storyline and more dialogue than other games at the time. In 2001, Kelso became the voice for another fighting game character in Virtua Fighter 3 called Jacky Bryant. He also reprised the role in Virtua Fighter 5, as well as side projects featuring the character, such as, Sega Superstars, Virtua Quest, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, and Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate In 2002, Kelso also worked on the sequel to Shenmue, Shenmue II, voicing a new character in the franchise, Wuying Ren "of Heavens". The English dub of the game appeared in the re-released version on the Microsoft Xbox console as well as the high-definition ports for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Filmography Television Year Title Role NotesRef.DoraemonunknownGakken English dub1993–1998Iron ChefMasaharu Morimoto; Yoshiro MoriLive-action English dub2001Zoids: Century NeoAdditional voicesAlternate English dub; pilot2015Air BoundAce, Owen, Buck ToothInternational English dubSakura Quest Mayor Naumann Japanese dub (Ep. 25)The Marginal ServiceCharacter Naration
Film Year TitleRoleNotesRef.2016Under the DogSoldier
Video games Year Title RoleNotesRef. 1996 Virtua Fighter 3 Jacky Bryant 1997Soul EdgeEnglish dub2000 SlashoutSlashGungriffon Blaze VariousShenmue Masayuki Fukuhara, Guizhang ChenEnglish dub2001Virtua Fighter 4Jacky BryantTekken 4 Paul PhoenixSelect voice samples re-used in 5 and 6Planet of the Apes VariousUniversal Studios Theme Parks AdventureWoody Woodpecker, Biff Tannen2002Shenmue II Wuying Ren2003Dino Crisis 3 Jacob RanshawMotion captureF-Zero GXCaptain Falcon, Blood FalconGlass Rose Takashi Kagetani, KazuyaEnglish dubBloody Roar 4 Reiji TakigawaEnglish dub2004Firefighter F.D.18 Dean McGregorCredited as Erick KelsoGradius V Pilot, BossTaiko: Drum Master VariousBoktai 2: Solar Boy Django Dainn, Kid, Coffin Shopkeeper, EnnioEnglish dubSega Superstars Jacky BryantTekken 5 Paul PhoenixBaten Kaitos KalasEnglish dubMetal Wolf Chaos Additional voices2005Virtua Quest Jacky BryantEnglish dubShining Force Neo KleinEnglish dubTekken 5: Dark Resurrection Paul Phoenix2006Virtua Fighter 5 Jacky BryantElebits Ed (Dad)English dubDance Dance Revolution: Disney Mix Various2007Lunar Knights Duke Dumas, KayEnglish dubDynasty Warriors: Gundam VariousMega Max ZX Advent AeolusEnglish dubTekken 6 Paul Phoenix2010Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing Jacky BryantAce Combat: Joint Assault Michael ArenaEnglish dub2013Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate Jacky Bryant2015Dead or Alive 5 Last Round Jacky BryantTransformers PachinkoOptimus PrimeTime Crisis 5 Marc GodartEnglish dubDevil’s Third Online Various2016NightCry Harry, Newscaster, HQEnglish dubPokémon Tretta Announcer
Radio YearTitleRoleNotesRef.1991New York and Boston with EricHost1991–1992Radio EikawaHost1992Florida with EricHost
Narration YearTitleMediumNotesRef.1998MulanFilm trailerJapanese version
Other voice work YearTitleRoleNotesRef.1995Mr. MikeVoice, motion capture; Interactive CG2001Universal Studios JapanWoody WoodpeckerTheme Park2007i-SOBOTEnglish voice; Robot2019Ultra Galaxy Fight: New Generation HeroesUltra Dark-KillerYouTube web series; English dub2020Ultra Galaxy Fight: The Absolute ConspiracyUltraman Zero, Ultraman GreatYouTube web series; English dub
References
External links Official website