June 11, 2009

Voice actor Crispin Freeman to appear at Otakon

Has Played Variety of Roles in Anime, Video Games

Baltimore, MD (June 11, 2009) – American voice actor and Chicago native Crispin Freeman, known for a wide range of roles in animation, anime and video games, will be a guest at Otakon 2009.

Freeman got his start in anime playing Zelgadis Graywords in The Slayers. Since then he's played such famous roles as: Alucard in Hellsing and Hellsing Ultimate, Itachi in Naruto, Rude in Final Fantasy: Advent Children, Prince Turnip in Howl's Moving Castle, Tsume in Wolf's Rain, Kyon in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Alan Gabriel in The Big O, Duskmon/Koichi in Digimon, Holland in Eureka 7, Haji and Van Argeno in Blood+, Amon in Witch Hunter Robin, Alex Rowe in Last Exile, and Togusa in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Innocence and Solid State Society.

He's currently portraying Jeremiah Gottwald in Code Geass, Reishin in Kurokami and the cross-dressing Shinto priest, Genbatsu Edo, in Ghost Slayers Ayashi. He's also directed and starred in Scrapped Princess, Space Travelers and I, My, Me, Strawberry Eggs. He has worked as a script adaptor on the shows he's directed, as well as for Pokemon, Witch Hunter Robin, Shamanic Princess, Night on the Galactic Railroad, Assemble Insert, Weather Report Girl and Boogie Pop Phantom.

In American animation, he stars as Electro in the new Spectacular Spider-Man series, Multiple Man in Wolverine and the X-men and also played Sylla and Mr. Riddle in the Disney show W.I.T.C.H.

In video games he's played the voice of Doctor Manhattan in Watchmen, Superman in Justice League: Heroes, King Leonidas in 300, Baldur in Too Human, Winter Soldier and Dark Colossus in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Albedo in the Xenosaga trilogy, Will Turner in Kingdom Hearts II and all the Pirates of the Caribbean games.

In addition, Crispin has acted theatrically on Broadway and has performed at numerous regional theaters. He got his undergraduate degree from Williams College, where he majored in theater and minored in computer science. Afterwards he went to Columbia University's Graduate Theater School, where he got his Master's of Fine Arts in acting. You can find out more about him on his Web site: http://www.crispinfreeman.com

Otakon 2009 will be held July 17-19 at the Baltimore Convention Center in Baltimore, Maryland.

ABOUT OTAKON AND OTAKORP, INC.: Now entering its sixteenth year, Otakon is an annual celebration of Japanese and East Asian popular culture, and also one of the largest gatherings of fans in the United States. Otakon celebrates popular culture as a gateway to deeper understanding of Asian culture, and has grown along with the enthusiasm for anime, manga, video games, and music from the Far East. Since 1999, Otakon has been held in Baltimore, Maryland; currently, Otakon is one of Baltimore's few large, city-wide events, drawing over 25,000 individual members for three days each year (for a paid attendance of over 70,000 "turnstile" attendees). Otakon is a membership-based convention sponsored by Otakorp, Inc., a Pennsylvania-based, 501(c)3 educational non-profit whose mission is to promote the appreciation of Asian culture, primarily through its media and entertainment. Otakorp, Inc. is directed by an all-volunteer, unpaid staff – we are run by fans, for fans.

For more information about Otakorp, Inc., see http://www.otakon.com/otakorp/index.asp
For more information and the latest news on Otakon 2009, see http://www.otakon.com/

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