You may not recognize his name, but there’s a good chance you’ve heard his voice. Maybe you know him as the sinister Shang Tsung from “Mortal Kombat 1,” the lavender-haired Mystery Saja from “K-Pop Demon Hunters” or the haughty Naoya Zenin from “Jujutsu Kaisen.” Now aged 35, Class of 2008 alumnus Alan Lee has worked as a professional voice actor for 18 years, breathing life into beloved video games, movies and anime.
A Santa Clara County native, Lee was drawn to storytelling at a young age. He consumed TV and video games like the 1999 comedy “Office Space”; performed in church plays, community theater and summer camps and tried writing, game design and debate.
But it wasn’t until his junior year at Lynbrook that he found the thread that connected all his interests: the art of playing pretend. He started commuting to San Francisco every week for class at a voiceover conservatory.
“I remember going up in front of the podium, where they give you scripts at the very last part of the class,” Lee said. “The moment I stayed up there, I was like, ‘All right, I’m doing this for the rest of my life.’”
During the rest of his time at Lynbrook, Lee also launched a voice acting club. Members created their own voiceovers and even raised money to buy a high-quality microphone.
“Working with him in the club, I saw how committed he was,” said Jeremy Kitchen, Japanese teacher and former Voice Acting Club adviser. “What’s really cool about his story is that he found something that he was really excited about, and he’s made that his career. Especially at a place like Lynbrook, he took a very different route.”
A year after graduation, while studying English at De Anza College, Lee landed his first role: a radio ad for a Chinese grocery store in San José. Later, he moved south to the University of California, Irvine, where he received a bachelor’s degree in drama.
From there, he began his career in Southern California, where he’s now based. He contributed to walla, or background chatter, in the anime adaptation of “Sword Art Online,” before landing the role of Ledo, the main character in the animated sci-fi series “Gargantia on the Verdurous Planet.”
“I got really lucky and I booked the very first lead that I got, which was baptism by fire because I was way in over my head,” Lee said. “The pressure of carrying an anime on your back was immense.”
Nearly two decades later, Lee has taken on such challenges to land many memorable roles. A personal highlight is voicing protagonist Makoto Edamura in the action show “Great Pretender,” which had what was hailed as one of the best English dubs of all time.
“Because it was the first anime that we were recording during the pandemic, we had to do things remotely,” Lee said. “So my director said, ‘Screw it; let’s just take as much time as we need per line.’ If I walked away from anime after doing ‘Pretender,’ I would walk away happy.”
Amid a fickle industry where upheavals are frequent and success rare, Lee navigated the first 13 years of his career without an agent. He cites self-conviction and persistence as instrumental to his journey.
“You have to have confidence in your own work, and you have to believe that you’re good enough,” Lee said. “I learned really quickly that it’s not about getting your foot in the door. It’s about how long you can stay in. If you have the mental perspective that it’ll happen eventually, then you can probably weather the storm.”
While Lee’s career has naturally stabilized with more frequent roles and clients, the popularity of “K-Pop Demon Hunters” has resulted in another shift. With convention appearances now offering more financial security, he’s taken the opportunity to adjust his schedule.
“This is the first time in my career that I’ve been able to reject work,” Lee said. “Before, I would just say yes to everything and burn myself out. I can breathe now, and pick and choose what I want to do.”
Through all the ups and downs, voice acting remains a true passion for Lee, from weekly classes up in San Francisco as a high schooler to recording sessions down in Los Angeles today.
“Voice acting is a dream job,” Lee said. “How could I really complain? It’s not butterflies and rainbows, no. It’s a struggle. It’s a pain. But if I had to have a job, this would be the job. A hundred lifetimes in a row, it would be this job.”
