The Brief

Imagine playing the lead in a new movie that’s made more at the worldwide box office than this year’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Superman, or The Fantastic Four: First Steps, and yet most people wouldn’t know your name.

That’s the strange reality for Los Angeles-based voice actor Zach Aguilar, who’s the voice of lead character Tanjiro Kamado in the English-dubbed version of the violent anime hit Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle. 

(Much of the rest of the main English-language voice cast is also based in L.A., Aguilar said, likely because, “ In terms of V.O. [or voice over work] in general, L.A. is the place to be.”)

The massive success of the film is something Aguilar says he never anticipated.

“ I never thought I'd be a part of something that's on this level, this type of scale,” he told LAist. “You don't go become a voice actor for anime to try to become famous, I guess you could say.”

But there are people who recognize Aguilar now, and line up for his signature at conventions like L.A. Comic Con or come up to him at amusement parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios.

Zach Aguilar attends the Los Angeles English dub premiere of "Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba Infinity Castle" at TCL Chinese 6 Theatres on September 9, 2025 in Hollywood, California.

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“ I'll go and someone [will] be like, ‘Hey, are you Zach Aguilar? I met you before at this convention. I knew you looked familiar,” Aguilar said. “I think it's like the perfect level of fame. Like you get to go out, live your life, be a normal person, and then if you wanna be famous, you can just go to a convention and everybody recognizes you there.”

Getting into voice acting

Aguilar started out acting at about 5 years old, spending lots of time with his mom driving from Orange County to L.A. for on-camera acting auditions. He got cast in some small roles, but ultimately stopped acting.

When he was around 12, he said he discovered anime and video games and that voice acting was a thing.

“I remember Googling what these characters’ actors were, and I thought it was interesting that the voice actors didn't really look like how I thought they would look," he said. "And that's what ultimately made me wanna pursue it. Just because you weren't necessarily limited by your appearance, you didn't have to fit into this little box.”

But the first voice work he booked was for commercials — for companies like SoCal Honda Dealers and POM Wonderful (the pomegranate juice).

Then in 2014, Aguilar won a voice acting competition at Anime Expo at the L.A. Convention Center and says “ that kind of set me on my journey to all of this.”

The trailer for 2021’s Demon Slayer: Mugen Train features examples of Aguilar’s voice work for the Demon Slayer franchise. (An interesting fact: Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Aguilar actually recorded his lines for the film entirely from a sound booth that he and his dad built in his home.)

How anime is translated and dubbed into English (and other languages)

Once the English-language voice actors are brought in, the animated Japanese films are usually completely finished, so the characters’ mouth movements or “flaps” are timed for the dialogue in Japanese.

Once the script is translated into English, Aguilar said, “then they kind of rewrite the lines to fit those specific mouth flaps. And then we go in, we watch the original Japanese performance, and then we kind of do our own thing. Usually you try to sort of match the tonality of the character that's already been done in Japanese while also kind of putting your own twist on it to fit the English language. You want it to sound as natural as possible, but also have that oomph of anime.”

What makes voice work for anime unique

“ Anime has always had that kind of over-the-top, 120% sort of acting style,” Aguilar said. “Like, you will go above and beyond. Every scream that you do isn't just a scream, it is like the all out end of the world battle scream.”

There are also certain reaction sounds that are particular to anime. For example, he said, “whenever our characters move a certain way, or even notice something, you'll make a ‘notice’ reaction, which is… a very specific, stylized type of sound for anime.”

And those reaction sounds are also scripted: “It'll say ‘open mouth’ or ‘closed mouth,’ because when you make an open mouth sound, it's like an ‘oh’ sound. But when it's a closed mouth, it's a ‘mm’ sound. So you have to match that, and because the lip flaps are already done, if you don't match it, then it's gonna sound weird and feel weird to the audience.”

Misconceptions about voice acting

Aguilar said when fans tell him they’re interested in doing voice acting because they’re shy, he tries to explain that it still requires you to be comfortable with performing around other people.

“Voice acting to me is one of the most intimate things you could possibly do, performance-wise,” he said. “You're performing for a small team of people in a soundproof room, and they're listening to every little mouth click, every breath that you make, and they're on the other side of the glass just staring at you… I think people don't realize just how intimate the process is and how it really is just acting.”

For people wanting to get into voice acting, Aguilar said, “I always recommend just do every type of acting class you can. Do film, do theater, take voiceover specific [classes] and kind of try to mix it all together because I think different performances call for different skill sets.”