Makoto Shinkai, born Makoto Niitsu on February 9, 1973, in Nagano Prefecture, is a renowned Japanese animation filmmaker who has also taken on voice acting roles in his early independent works. While he is internationally celebrated as a director, writer, and animator for films such as Your Name and Weathering with You, his involvement as a voice actor is limited to his first two major short films.

After studying Japanese literature at Chuo University, Shinkai worked as a graphic designer at the video game company Falcom for five years. During this period, he began creating personal animation projects. His debut work as a voice actor came in the 1999 five-minute black-and-white short film She and Her Cat, for which he served as director, writer, and animator, in addition to providing the voice for the character "Her Cat". The film is presented from the cat's perspective.

Following the success of She and Her Cat, Shinkai left Falcom to focus on his next project, the 2002 science-fiction short film Voices of a Distant Star. For this 25-minute work, he was again the director, writer, and producer. In another instance of multi-tasking, he also performed as the voice actor for the male lead, Noboru Terao, in the original version of the film. His co-star was筱原美香 (Shinohara Mika). Voices of a Distant Star was notable for being created almost entirely by Shinkai himself, with the exception of the music and some voice acting.

These two roles represent Shinkai's entire body of work as a professional voice actor. His direct involvement in providing voices for his characters was a practical aspect of his early, small-scale production process. After establishing himself as a director with larger budgets and full creative teams, he has not taken on any subsequent voice acting roles, focusing entirely on writing, direction, and production. His early work as a voice actor remains a distinctive footnote in the career of one of modern anime's most influential filmmakers.