Yuri Lowenthal

Early life and education

Yuri Lowenthal was born in Alliance, Ohio, on March 5, 1971, but raised in Nashville, Tennessee, later moving to Northern Virginia. His father worked for the United States Agency for International Development and he spent two years in Niger in Africa. He did not do much acting until the end of high school when he tried out for drama class in his senior year, but it was enough to get him interested in acting, he also joined his high school gymnastics team in his sophomore year. His early exposure to anime was from shows such as Speed Racer, Star Blazers, and Battle of the Planets.

At The College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, Lowenthal took classes in theatre but majored in East Asian studies where in his third year, he studied abroad in Osaka, Japan. He also participated in the school's gymnastics program and ROTC. After graduating in 1993, he joined the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme (JET) where he served as a Coordinator of International Relations, helping out foreign English teachers in Shiga Prefecture. While at JET, he continued to participate in theatre and acting. After two years there, he still wanted to try acting full-time, and moved to New York City and participated in theatre in off-off-Broadway shows. He spent six years in New York doing theatre and indie films.

Voice-over career

Yuri Lowenthal moved to Los Angeles and worked in live-action and theatre roles. To supplement his on-camera work, he and his wife Tara Platt took a voice-over class taught by Rick Zieff. Zieff later happened to be directing the English dub for an anime show called SD Gundam Force; he got his first ever anime dub role there and soon tried out for other anime roles as well as other voice-over work in animation, commercials, and video games. Lowenthal recalled that his first voice appearance in a video game might have also been for SD Gundam Force.

Lowenthal's first major role in video game voice-overs was as the Prince in Ubisoft's Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In an interview with Critical Gamer, he describes that role as "a very lucky break for me, because it ended up being a super game. We audition all the time for all different kinds of projects, and video games are one part of that, a part that I love." He said that "[he felt] that [he] in a way originated that role". Lowenthal did not return to voice the Prince in Warrior Within, being replaced by Robin Atkin Downes. Lowenthal felt that this was a conscious decision by Ubisoft to fit in with the game's overall tonal shift and thought it was the right decision. For Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones, he returned to play the role, as fans had stated their preference for his portrayal of the character. The Prince became one of Lowenthal's favorite roles, and he was pleased to return to the role for The Forgotten Sands. According to Lowenthal, his well-received performance put pressure on him in future games from both fans and staff, as he needed to remain true to and improve on his original portrayal. This ultimately gave him little creative freedom with the character after The Sands of Time. For the reboots following the live-action films, the staff wanted a different portrayal of the Prince to Lowenthal's, and so recast the role.

Lowenthal continued voicing in other anime shows, including the lead character Haru Glory in Rave Master, which had a run on Cartoon Network's Toonami line up. He also voiced a character in Zatch Bell! which had a notable run on Cartoon Network. He starred in a number of anime shows such as: Girls Bravo where he played Yukinari, Scrapped Princess where he voiced Leo Skorpus, Kyo Kara Maoh!, where he voiced Yuuri Shibuya, and Saiyuki Reload where he voiced Son Goku.

When he auditioned for Naruto, which was being directed by the same person who did Rave Master, he had tried out for multiple roles including Sasuke Uchiha and Iruka, and got a call back for Sasuke. In an interview with Silionera, Lowenthal said that "It certainly allows me to go to some dark places as the series continues. And it makes Sasuke that much more interesting as a character. And that much more fun to play." The Naruto anime became one of the more popular anime shows in the U.S., and its sequel Naruto: Shippuden has also aired on Adult Swim.

Acting and production career

Lowenthal has been involved in several live-action projects with his company Monkey Kingdom Productions with wife Tara Platt. In 2008, they produced Con Artists, a mockumentary that chronicles some of their convention visits. They produced a psychological thriller film called Tumbling After which garnered an Award of Merit at the Accolade Film Festival. In 2011, Lowenthal and Platt produced Shelf Life, a web series where they act as action figures in a Toy Story-like environment, but with more adult humor. Lowenthal said in an interview that he wanted to make a show for nerds: "I wanted to make the kind of thing that my friends and I would watch. It's got the four S's: Sex, Social commentary, Slapstick and Superheroes." In 2014, they produced a short steampunk-themed film called Topsy McGee vs. the Sky Pirates which was an official selection at the New York City International Film Festival and was a finalist at the Dragon Con Independent Short Film Festival in the steampunk category.

In 2010, Lowenthal starred as the title character in Van Von Hunter, a live-action mockumentary co-directed by Tokyopop founder Stuart Levy, based on the comics of the same name. In the film, he plays a sword-swinging barbarian from a fantasy world who is thrown into Earth and is cast in a sword and sorcery movie. The film was featured in several film festivals, and was an official selection at Fantasia Film Festival and a special audience award at MockFest 2010. Lowenthal won an award for best character at MockFest as well.

He co-wrote the screenplay for The Arcadian, a film by Dekker Dreyer that was inspired by underground science fiction comics of the 1970s and 1980s. In 2015, he joined Wil Wheaton's web series Titansgrave as a starring cast member which he role-plays a character named S'Lethkk. The series is broadcast by Geek & Sundry. In 2016, he starred as Glenn Lauder in the Keith Arem-produced film The Phoenix Incident, about four friends who are caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the Phoenix lights UFO sighting. The film received awards and nominations at film festivals. He is slated to participate in an independent film called Any Bullet Will Do which stars Mark Ryan and was filmed in Montana.

Lowenthal and Platt co-authored the book Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic, released in 2010. He also co-authored the comedy-noir novella Tough City with Keith Ikeda-Barry as part of a 72-hour novel writing contest. It was released in 2013. In 2016, he released the novella as a weekly podcast series.

Personal life

Lowenthal met actress Tara Platt on an NYU grad film where they played opposite each other in a romantic comedy film called Model Chaser. Six months into their relationship, Lowenthal helped Platt do a cross-country move to Los Angeles so that Platt could participate in auditions there for new TV shows. He had originally planned to fly back after the move, but midway through the trip he proposed to her in Bowling Green, Ohio, and they married in Las Vegas in 2001. They founded a company called Monkey Kingdom Productions in 2004. Their son was born in 2016.

Lowenthal has described himself as a "Tennessee Jew".

Books

Lowenthal, Yuri; Platt, Tara (2010). Voice-Over Voice Actor: What It's Like Behind the Mic. Bug Bot Press. 259pp. ISBN 9780984074006. OCLC 429727108.

Lowenthal, Yuri; Platt, Tara (2018). Voice-Over Voice Actor: The Extended Edition. Bug Bot Press. 335pp. ISBN 9780984074051. LCCN 2017954792.

Lowenthal, Yuri; Ikeda-Barry, Keith (2013). Tough City. Bug Bot Press. 117pp. ISBN 9780984074013. OCLC 849762751.