Vic Mignogna

Victor Joseph Mignogna (/mɪnˈjɒnə/; born 1962 or 1963) is an American voice actor and musician known for his voice-over work in the English dubs of Japanese anime shows, the most notable being Edward Elric from the Fullmetal Alchemist series, for which he earned the American Anime Award for Best Actor in 2007. Other notable animation roles include Broly from the Dragon Ball films, Tamaki Suoh in Ouran High School Host Club, Fai D. Flowright in Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle, Dark in D.N.Angel, Kurz Weber in the Full Metal Panic! series, Zero and Ichiru Kiryu in the Vampire Knight series, Christopher Aonuma in Digimon Fusion, Nagato and Obito Uchiha in Naruto Shippuden, Ikkaku Madarame in Bleach, Qrow Branwen in RWBY, and Matt Ishida in Digimon Adventure tri. In video games, he is the voice of E-123 Omega in the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Junpei Iori from Persona 3. In live-action work, he has participated in several Star Trek fan productions, including Star Trek Continues, where he plays Captain James T. Kirk. Mignogna has an official fanclub called Risembool Rangers.

In February 2019, studios Funimation and Rooster Teeth cut ties with Mignogna after a number of sexual harassment allegations surfaced. Mignogna has denied the allegations and filed a lawsuit against Funimation and several individuals in April 2019 alleging defamation and tortious interference.

Mignogna was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, to Barb Myers. He graduated from Liberty University with a degree in television and film production. Mignogna taught English and speech at Trinity Christian Academy in Jacksonville, Florida. He helped produce and arrange some of the songs on DC Talk's eponymous first album. Mignogna was a summer seasonal officer with the Ocean City Police Department. In 1990, he moved to Houston, Texas, where he was a film and video production instructor at The Art Institute of Houston. In 1993, he was a contestant on American television talent show Star Search, on which he sang "Worth Waiting For".

While working in video production with John Gremillion in Houston, Mignogna got involved in voice acting in anime at ADV Films. He made his debut as Vega in the video game-based anime series Street Fighter II V. He started attending anime conventions, where he contacted Funimation and landed the voice role of Broly in the Dragon Ball films.

In 2007, the American Anime Awards presented Mignogna with an award for Best Actor for his work on Fullmetal Alchemist. He often gains attention for his role in Fullmetal Alchemist, and he at one point attended between 15 and 25 conventions each year. One of Mignogna's career goals was "to record at all of the major places where dubbing is done". He said he was "the first ADV voice actor to record at Funimation in Dallas and then I was the first to go to New York". He has also recorded in Los Angeles; he tried out for Bleach and received the part of Ikkaku Madarame. In non-anime productions, he voiced Qrow Branwen in Rooster Teeth's web series RWBY.

In addition to voice acting, Mignogna has been involved in production for music, sound and video. He has produced hundreds of jingles for commercials, and he was a worship leader with Houston's First Baptist Church. He has sung the U.S. national anthem at several Houston Astros baseball games. As a musician, Mignogna has released several albums, some of which feature English cover versions of anime songs from shows including One Piece and the Dragon Ball series. He also handled some of the ADR direction for the English dub of Claymore, in which he voices Rigaldo.

Mignogna has been involved with several fan productions, including Fullmetal Fantasy and Star Trek: Phase II. In the latter series, he co-directed the episode "Enemy: Starfleet" and played the Andorian Captain. He directed "KITUMBA" and played Malkthon the Klingon, and was slated to direct the episode "Mindsifter". In 2012, Mignogna worked with the Starship Farragut production group. He directed and starred as Captain Kirk in their web series Star Trek Continues. Mignogna has received good reviews for writing, directing, executive-producing and starring in Star Trek Continues, especially for his portrayal of the character of James T. Kirk, respectfully utilizing William Shatner's unique mannerisms and cadence.

Sexual harassment allegations

Following the English release of Dragon Ball Super: Broly, which prominently features Mignogna's vocal work, accusations of sexual harassment began to surface against Mignogna on Twitter, with some allegations dating as far back as 1989. Multiple accounts alleged that Mignogna kissed, groped and made unwanted comments to fans without their consent, some of whom were underage, using the hashtag "#KickVic". Voice actresses Monica Rial and Jamie Marchi also tweeted their support for those speaking out, and openly alleged being sexually harassed by Mignogna.

On January 22, 2019, Tammi Denbrow, the executive director of employee relations at Sony Pictures, opened an investigation based on reports made by Rial, two female fans and a former Funimation employee, which concluded on January 29, 2019 and resulted in Mignogna's contract termination. On February 5, 2019, Rooster Teeth severed their business relationship with Mignogna, and Funimation recast Mignogna's role of the Executive in The Morose Mononokean. Funimation later publicly confirmed they had ended professional ties with Mignogna on February 11, 2019. In response to the controversy, Mignogna categorically denied any accusations of sexual harassment. However, multiple anime conventions withdrew Mignogna from their guest list.

Mignogna issued an apology during his panel at Bak-Anime 2019 and again via Twitter on February 13, 2019. Since his termination, his fans, who have tagged their support under the hashtag "#IStandWithVic", raised over $236,000 on GoFundMe for legal funds. The GoFundMe account was opened by lawyer Nick Rekieta, who assisted Mignogna in acquiring Ty Beard as his attorney. On February 20, 2019, Mignogna confirmed on Twitter that he was pursuing legal action, and later filed a million-dollar lawsuit against Funimation, Rial, Marchi, and Ron Toye on April 19, 2019 for defamation and interference in existing contracts and prospective business relations. Funimation filed a response on June 12, 2019, denying Mignogna's allegations.

On June 26, 2019, Mignogna was deposed. Funimation then filed an anti-SLAPP motion on July 1, 2019, seeking to dismiss Mignogna's lawsuit. Rial, Marchi, and Toye then filed their anti-SLAPP motions on July 19, 2019, with 10 affidavits, including ones from Kara Edwards and Michele Specht, as well as several allegations that he had made unwanted advances towards Mari Iijima. On July 30, 2019, another affidavit was submitted by the two fans from Funimation's investigation.

Mignogna's team was required to file a response by August 30, 2019, but Ty Beard missed the deadline by 27 minutes, citing technical issues, and later submitted a notice to withdraw and resubmit the affidavits on September 2 due to "defects in form". One of the affidavits included a testimony from Chuck Huber. The defense's legal team called for sanctions under suspicion as to whether the affidavits were legally notarized. As a result, Mignogna received a court order to appear at the hearing set for September 6, 2019 intended for considering the defendants' anti-SLAPP motions, but he did not attend. During the hearing, seven of the 12 cases, particularly against Marchi, were dismissed and Mignogna was required to pay all of her legal fees, with another ruling scheduled in 30 days. On September 17, 2019, Judge John Chupp ordered both legal teams to mediate by October 3, 2019 and would rule on all outstanding orders if the mediation is unsuccessful. On October 4, 2019, Judge Chupp announced that the remaining cases had been dismissed. Mignogna filed an appeal on October 24, 2019, with a hearing set for November 21, 2019. Judge Chupp later ruled that Mignogna was required to pay $223,042.42 for the defendants' attorney fees. On October 24, 2019, Ty Beard filed for an appeal with the appellate court. On October 24, Lemoine filed a motion to dismiss the appeal. On December 11, 2019, Judge Chupp denied the motion to dismiss appeals.

Mignogna was in a relationship with actress Michele Specht from 2006 to May 2018.

Studio albums

• If These Walls Could Talk (1992)
• Selah – Music for the Quiet Time (2004–2005)
• Metafiction (2006)
• Christmas (2008)
• Selah II (2009)
• Revix (2010) – a remix album of some of his earlier singles

Audio recordings

• Gospel of John
• A Howl at the Moon (2014) – audiobook narrator