Christopher Sabat on how he first joined Dragon Ball

Christopher Sabat, who has voiced Piccolo, Vegito, Shenron, Mr. Popo, Nappa, Korin and, most famously, Vegeta, helped shape Funimation’s English adaptation of Akira Toriyama’s work in 1999. He wasn’t a fan when he started — in fact he wasn’t even watching television — and he began the job laughing into the phone with a line he still remembers: “Thank you for calling GameStop.

This is Chris speaking. How can I help you?” He landed his first part after an audition in a bank building in Fort Worth, prompted by Carly Hunter from Funimation. While in college and playing in bands, Sabat was cast as Yamcha in the direct-to-VHS Dragon Ball movie Sleeping Princess in Devil's Castle, a test to see whether dubbing could be done in America rather than Canada.

An early English dub by The Ocean Group, produced by BLT and Funimation, preceded Funimation’s work on Dragon Ball Z, which Saban later distributed in a heavily edited run — the version that introduced many Americans to the franchise and gave rise to the “it’s over 9000” meme.

United States, Fort Worth

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