Hiroshi Yanaka is a Japanese actor and voice actor born on March 10, 1958, in Tokyo. He began his career in theater, graduating from Meiji University and joining the Seinenza Theater Company in 1980 after completing his training there. This theatrical foundation contributed to his development as a versatile performer.

Yanaka's voice acting career spans a wide range of roles in anime, video games, and foreign language dubbing. In anime, he has portrayed characters across many popular series. He is known for roles such as Shikaku Nara in the Naruto series, Sora in.hack//Sign, and Okina Otogi in Nanbaka. He also provided the voice for early iterations of the character Naraku in Inuyasha. More recently, his roles have included Luomen in The Apothecary Diaries, Professor Hoffman in the Pluto ONA, Zohei Kunato in Malevolent Spirits: Mononogatari, and Douglas in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. He also voiced characters such as Nouvelle in Legend of Mana: The Teardrop Crystal, Sōnosuke Nakajima in MARS RED, Gilmar Eristein in Isekai Cheat Magician, Christopher Matts in Super Crooks, Kukuru's Grandfather in The aquatope on white sand, Jem Horner in BNA: Brand New Animal, and Kōtarō Shiba in Forest of Piano.

Beyond anime, Yanaka has been highly active in dubbing foreign films and television series into Japanese. He is well-known as the regular Japanese voice for actors including John Cusack, Sam Rockwell, Robert Carlyle, and Edward Norton. His extensive dubbing work covers a vast array of films, such as providing the Japanese voice for Vince Larkin in Con Air (for John Cusack) and for Rumpelstiltskin in the series Once Upon a Time (for Robert Carlyle).

Yanaka has also lent his voice to tokusatsu productions, including roles as the Arch Orphnoch in Kamen Rider 555 and the Death Imagin in Kamen Rider Den-O. In the world of animation, he has also voiced Dr. Jacques von Hämsterviel in various installments of the Stitch! franchise.

He was formerly affiliated with the Seinenza Theater Company and is now represented by the agency Apte Pro. He is married to fellow voice actress Miho Yoshida. Outside of his work, he is known to have an interest in cooking. With a career spanning several decades, Hiroshi Yanaka continues to be an active and prominent figure in the Japanese voice acting industry.