by J. M. Alcala, staff writer, Inside AX- Anime Expo

Despite not being as prolific in the anime industry as the other Anime Expo 2011 Guests of Honor, Taliesin Jaffe continues to be involved in both the anime and video game field. Originally a child actor, Taliesin comes from a family that is steeped in the film and theater industry of Hollywood. As a child, he was often tutored on the sets of shows or films he was currently working on, so it wasn’t until he was a teenager that he finally entered high school to socialize with other kids his age. It was in high school that Taliesin discovered anime.

Being a teenager when anime started making its stateside appearance in the states in the early nineties, Taliesin was fortunate to be able to be one of the first cosplayers at conventions. Due to the small number of Americans interested in cosplaying, Taliesin and several others were actually featured on a Japanese game show. As he was being exposed to more and more anime, one series caught his eye that made him want to be a part of the industry: Neon Genesis Evangelion.

It was Evangelion that made Taliesin noticed how the original dubbing for early anime series were a bit on the poor side. So, because he was such a huge fan and felt that he could do better, Taliesin rounded up his friends and decided to try their hand at ‘hard-dubbing’ Evangelion by using the laserdiscs of the show that Taliesin had bought while in Japan. The project was quite ambitious for the teenager, but he soon found support from family friends – including Roddy McDowell, who voiced a member of SEELE, and the Dole Food Company, who had given him money to purchase equipment. Eventually, when ADV Films had purchased the rights to Evangelion, Taliesin was forced to stop his project and give the company his tapes – though he still had copies of the videos himself.

From that experience, Taliesin went onto work several other series and films as a director or English screenwriter such as: Read or Die, Hellsing, Hell Girl, Romeo x Juliet, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad, Sengoku Basara and Speed Grapher. He was also involved in the commentary tracks for both Evangelion movies as well as become involved in the video game industry, most recently being the ADR director for Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

Tags: Anime Expo 2011, goh, Guest of Honor, Taliesin Jaffe, voice actor