Kōichi Yamadera

I genuinely don't think the word "voice actor" is big enough for this guy. Kōichi Yamadera is the human Swiss Army knife of Japanese dubbing — he's the Japanese Donald Duck, the Genie in Aladdin, Stitch, Jim Carrey's go-to dub voice, and somehow none of those sound remotely like each other. They call him the "seven-colored voice," but honestly that undersells it; I've heard him flip from a cackling cartoon duck to a tender dramatic lead in the span of one scene. What gets me is the warmth underneath all that range. Pop on a morning kids' show and there he is, grinning like everyone's favorite big brother. Making people laugh and cry with nothing but your voice? Almost nobody pulls that off. He's a national treasure and I'm only half joking.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Kōichi Yamadera is a Japanese voice actor, actor, singer, and radio personality born on June 17, 1961, in Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture. He graduated from Tohoku Gakuin University and has built a prolific career spanning acting, narration, and entertainment. He is widely recognized for his exceptional vocal range, earning him the nickname "Seven-Colored Voice." In 2009 he received the Tomiyama Kei Award, and in 2020 he won the Voice Actor Award for Best Foreign Film and Drama Performance.

Name (English)

Kōichi Yamadera

Name (Japanese)

山寺宏一

Reading

やまでら こういち

Born

June 17, 1961 (age 65)

Origin

Shiogama, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan

Height

176 cm

Weight

67 kg

Occupation

Actor / Singer / Talent / Narrator / Radio Personality

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Gemini / Ox

Blood type

A

Agency

Across Entertainment

University

Tohoku Gakuin University

Awards & achievements

• 2020 — Voice Actor Award, Best Foreign Film and Drama
• 2009 — Tomiyama Kei Award

Works summary

Appearances

1734

By year (titles with a known year)

1986: 4, 1987: 4, 1988: 3, 1989: 5, 1990: 21, 1991: 13, 1992: 7, 1993: 13, 1994: 10, 1995: 10, 1996: 3, 1997: 4, 1998: 9, 1999: 11, 2000: 16, 2001: 6, 2002: 9, 2003: 5, 2004: 8, 2005: 3, 2006: 9, 2007: 3, 2008: 9, 2009: 12, 2010: 9, 2011: 16, 2012: 11, 2013: 9, 2014: 12, 2015: 7, 2016: 8, 2017: 8, 2018: 6, 2019: 11, 2020: 9, 2021: 9, 2022: 13, 2023: 8, 2024: 5, 2025: 10, 2026: 1, year unknown: 1385

Filmography / notable works

• Xhttps://x.com/yamachanoha
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B1%B1%E5%AF%BA%E5%AE%8F%E4%B8%80
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q333194

Tags

• From Miyagi Prefecture
• Actor
• Singer
• Talent

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.