Joël Zaffarano is a French actor and voice actor, born on February 5, 1964. He pursued his acting training at the Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique in Avignon, France. His career began on the stage, where he performed in classical plays by authors such as Corneille, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and Marivaux. He made his on-screen debut in 1991 in the film "La Neige et le Feu". He is perhaps best known to French television audiences for his recurring role as Captain Patrick Bochkowicz, often called Bochko, in the police drama series "Diane, femme flic," a part he played from 2003 to 2009. In 2006, he also directed a short film titled "Une épreuve".

As a voice actor, Joël Zaffarano has an extensive career dubbing live-action films and animation into French. He is particularly known for being the regular French voice of actor Hugh Jackman, having dubbed him in the vast majority of the "X-Men" film series as Wolverine, as well as in other films like "Australia," "Real Steel," and "Prisoners". His other notable recurring dubbing roles include providing voices for Aaron Eckhart, Vin Diesel, Cliff Curtis, and Michael Sheen. His film dubbing credits also include lending his voice to actors such as Mark Wahlberg in "La Planète des Singes," Matthew McConaughey in "Le Règne du feu," and Sam Rockwell in "Conviction".

In the field of animation, his work includes providing the French voice for Wolverine in the direct-to-video animated film "Hulk Vs.", as well as a role in "FernGully 2: The Magical Rescue". He has also contributed to the French localizations of video games, including "Dracula: Resurrection" and "Dracula 2: The Last Sanctuary".

In anime, Joël Zaffarano is recognized for his role in the science fiction series "Please Save My Earth" (known in French as "Réincarnations"). He provided the French voices for the characters Shion (also written as Sion) and Tamura in the first two OVA episodes of the series.