Paul Castro Jr.

Paul Castro Jr.’s Rise Through Anime, Games, and the Art of Quiet Characters

From Brooklyn to the Jersey Shore to NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, the path that shaped Paul Castro Jr. was never a straight line toward voice acting. A decade of stage and screen work in New York City – off-Broadway productions, network television appearances, indie films – built the emotional range that would later make quiet, introspective characters feel fully alive under his voice. The shift to Los Angeles opened the door to the world of dubbing and gaming, and the industry took notice fast.

The role that changed everything in the anime space was Dragon (also credited as Kei) in Mamoru Hosoda’s Studio Chizu film BELLE, released in 2021. A visually stunning picture with global attention, BELLE gave Castro Jr. a showcase moment alongside some of the most emotionally layered animation in recent memory. Around the same time, Square Enix’s NEO: The World Ends with You put him front and center as Rindo Kanade – a lead role in a beloved franchise that demanded both grounded naturalism and stylized energy. That back-to-back breakthrough cemented him as a voice actor with serious leading-man range.

Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail, and the HoYoverse Connection

Few casting decisions generate as much fan engagement as HoYoverse’s English voice selections, and Paul Castro Jr. has become one of the studio’s most recognized voices. As Freminet in Genshin Impact‘s Fontaine update, he brought a reserved, melancholic quality to a character whose emotional arc around grief, family, and self-worth became one of the more talked-about storylines of the game’s Fontaine chapter. Castro Jr. has spoken publicly about being a Genshin fan since the beta – making the casting a genuine personal milestone, not just a credit.

The follow-up came with Opal, one of the ten Stonehearts, in Honkai: Star Rail – a role he announced with clear excitement. Both performances lean into the quieter, more guarded end of his range, and both have resonated deeply with the global fanbases of each title. His connection to these franchises goes beyond the recording booth; he streams Genshin events in character and engages directly with fan communities, something that has built unusual goodwill between him and the audiences he voices for.

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Persona, and the JRPG Circuit

When Final Fantasy VII Rebirth landed in 2024, Castro Jr. appeared as Chocobo Billy – a smaller but memorable role in one of the year’s biggest game releases. His turn as Nozomi Suemitsu in Persona 3 Reload that same year added another flagship JRPG to a portfolio already packed with Square Enix and Atlus titles. Most recently, he was confirmed as Yosuke Hanamura in Persona 4 Revival, one of the highest-profile castings in that announcement and a role with enormous weight given the character’s history across the franchise. Fire Emblem Heroes, Visions of Mana, and Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files (as Jun Sadamoto) round out a game credits list that reads like a greatest-hits run of modern Japanese RPG publishing in the West.

Netflix Anime, Dragon Ball DAIMA, and Expanding the Range

On the anime dubbing side, Castro Jr. has worked steadily across Netflix and Crunchyroll productions. His credits include Rikuya Yoshida in High-Rise Invasion, Allegro in Vampire in the Garden, Abel and Forseti in Record of Ragnarok, and Ryota Miyagi in The First Slam Dunk – a Netflix feature film from basketball manga legend Takehiko Inoue. Chion in The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse, Hibiki Sakurama in Go! Go! Loser Ranger!, and Hikaru in The Summer Hikaru Died further demonstrate how steadily his anime workload has grown.

Then came Dragon Ball DAIMA – and a role that hit differently. Castro Jr. has said publicly that Dragon Ball is the defining reason he pursued voice acting. Landing the role of Vegeta (Mini) in a Dragon Ball title was not just a career credit; by his own account, it was the fulfillment of something deeply personal. The announcement drew significant attention from fans who appreciated the full-circle nature of the casting.

Beyond Voice Acting – Film, Theater, and the Creative Whole

The on-screen dimension of Castro Jr.’s career is easy to overlook given the volume of his voice work, but it runs parallel and deep. His short film Aeris won Best Narrative Short at the Garden State Film Festival, the Canada International Film Festival, and the Gold Kahuna Award at the Honolulu Film Awards, with an official selection at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. He served as lead producer on Madonna and the Breakfast Club, a docu-drama that sold to Hulu. Screen acting credits include Blue Bloods, The Rookie, God Friended Me, Limitless, and the indie features The Skeleton Twins and People Places Things – both well-regarded in the festival circuit. The through-line is the same: a career built by someone treating every medium as a craft, not a commodity.

Most Known Roles of Paul Castro Jr.

• Freminet – Genshin Impact (video game)
• Opal – Honkai: Star Rail (video game)
• Rindo Kanade – NEO: The World Ends with You (video game)
• Dragon / Kei – BELLE (anime film)
• Chocobo Billy – Final Fantasy VII Rebirth (video game)
• Yosuke Hanamura – Persona 4 Revival (video game)
• Nozomi Suemitsu – Persona 3 Reload (video game)
• Vegeta (Mini) – Dragon Ball DAIMA (anime)
• Hikaru – The Summer Hikaru Died (anime)
• Ryota Miyagi – The First Slam Dunk (anime film)
• Riddle Rosehearts – Disney’s Twisted Wonderland: The Animation (anime)
• Abel / Forseti – Record of Ragnarok (anime)
• Rikuya Yoshida – High-Rise Invasion (anime)
• Allegro – Vampire in the Garden (anime)
• Jun Sadamoto – Lost Judgment: The Kaito Files (video game)
• Hibiki Sakurama – Go! Go! Loser Ranger! (anime)
• Chion – The Seven Deadly Sins: Four Knights of the Apocalypse (anime)
• Sigma – Fate/strange Fake (anime)
• Eoren – Visions of Mana (video game)
• Shuji Ito – Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (anime)