English Voice Actors Josh Martin, Dameon Clarke, And Kyle Hebert Reunite For A Dragon Ball Z Panel Fan At Expo Chicago 2025
While the attendance in Theater #3 didn’t even come to close to reaching 9,000 (let alone over), fans still gave off enough energy to make three Spirit Bombs when voice actors Josh Martin, Dameon Clarke, and Kyle Hebert landed onstage for a special Dragon Ball Z “Go Over 9000” panel during the nocturnal extravaganza, Anime After Dark, at Fan Expo Chicago 2025.
Josh Martin provides the English dub for Majin Buu, Dameon Clarke is the voice of Cell, and Kyle Hebert plays adult Gohan. When the crowd finally settled down, the three panelists introduced themselves, and then they reminded everyone of their respective roles on the series. After they finished, Dameon Clarke decided to get something off of his chest that has apparently been absorbing him for quite some time.
“First off,” the voice of Cell began, “I want it known for the record that I hate Gohan. Especially the little version of him.”
Letting the awkward moment pass, the first question was directed at Josh Martin, and how he landed the part of the portly pink nightmare. Aside from DBZ, Martin has done voice work for Fire Force, Dr. Stone, Fruits Basket, My Hero Academia, and Attack on Titan, but it all started with that candy-bar-loving Buu.
“This was the first big voice acting job I ever had,” Martin confided. “I didn’t audition for Buu. I got discovered by Mr. Chris Sabat. I perform with Chris Rager and Mike McFarland, and we ran a comedy troupe together. We performed for years then Mike came to rehearsal one day, and told us about this part on Dragon Ball Z. They [Rager an Mike] invited Sabat to our show where I was doing a character called ‘The Pillsbury Homeboy,’ and Sabat came up to me after the show. He was like, ‘Uh…I think I’ve found the voice of Majin Buu.’”
Along with playing the adult son of Goku, Kyle Hebert was also the narrator on Dragon Ball Z, and (weirdly enough) the voice of Gohan’s grandfather, Ox-King. Herbert’s voice can also be found on other great anime shows like Bleach, One Piece, Naruto: Shippuden, Soul Eater, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, Kill la Kill, Hunter x Hunter, One-Punch Man, and many more. When asked if any of the three actors were familiar with the show before getting the job, Hebert had the most satisfactory answer of them all.
He said, “In the late nineties, the Canadian-dubbed series started airing on independent stations, and then it switched over to Cartoon Network, and I was already a fan of it because of that. Then I was on Radio Disney where I heard about auditions. Then I went in and tried out. The very first stuff I did was on the Bardock special. Just unnamed characters like ‘Man B’ or ‘Alien C’ or whatever. I totally did know how big Dragon Ball was. So, getting it was like a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to do voice acting, animation, and getting to be a part of this was a one-two punch right there.”
Dameon Clarke, who is obviously still bitter about Gohan killing Cell, made a snide comment when Hebert finished. “I’ll give you a one-two punch.”
That’s when a fan tried consoling Clarke by reminding him that Cell was technically only 6 years of age when he was defeated by the 11-year-old Gohan, and that’s why the young Saiyan had the advantage in their epic fight. To which he responded in his Perfect Cell voice, “You’re a real smartass, you know that? Nobody likes a smartass, except when it’s me!”
Since he now had everyone’s attention, Dameon Clarke talked about his role as the narcissistic diabolical android from Dr. Gero’s secret laboratory. Just like the other two, he has done voice work for numerous anime shows, but it’s safe to say that more people recognize him as Handsome Jack from Borderlands 2 & 3. He told fans of just how unforgiving his line of work can be, and that the showrunners settle for nothing less than total perfection.
“Imperfect Cell was a little touch ánd go for a while,” Clarke confessed. “But it was Dale Wilson who told me this ̶ the guy who did the voice for Cell in Vancouver ̶ when I first started out, ‘Make sure you can actually do the voice. Just because you can do the voice doesn’t mean you can keep doing it for three to four hours then do it again the next day, and the next day. They will fire you if you can’t keep it up.'”
If there’s one thing most fandoms have in common, it’s the need to have surprises spoiled for them. Seeing as how Frieza can be resurrected a hundred times, that has people asking if they’ll ever see another Cell Games in the future. Especially since Clarke somewhat reprised the role as the rampaging Cell Max in the full-length feature, Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero.
“Let’s put it this way,” Clarke said. “When I was recording for Cell Max, they wouldn’t let me see the script until I got to the studio. If the DBZ Super movie has taught me anything, it’s that nobody knows what will happen with Cell.”
One of the last questions asked was what the actors would like to change about their characters if they were given complete control, and a time machine. Josh Martin was quick to say that he wished Buu had more dialogue in the episodes while Dameon Clarke would’ve rather had Cell lose to someone else other than a child, but Kyle Hebert answered with something that most fans have been screaming about for the past 20 years, and it earned him a perfectly wicked laugh from Cell.
“Gohan shouldn’t have been absorbed,” Hebert said. “And then nerfed for two decades.”
