Stephen Mendel is a Canadian-American actor and voice performer whose career spans both live-action and voiceover work, including several roles in English-dubbed anime and animated series. Born in Montreal, Quebec, on January 26, 1953, Mendel developed an early interest in the performing arts, beginning to sing at the age of eight. He pursued formal training in theater, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Drama from Bishop's University in Sherbrooke, Quebec, before beginning his professional acting career on stage in 1976. He later moved to Los Angeles and continued his education, obtaining a Master of Fine Arts in Performance from California State University, Long Beach, where he also taught for several years.

Mendel has extensive credits in film and live-action television, but his voice acting work constitutes a significant and notable portion of his career. He is particularly recognized for his versatility with accents and dialects, a skill that has served him well in animation, video games, audiobooks, and commercials. Within the realm of anime and animation voiceover, Mendel is known for the role of Retsu Kudou in the English dub of the anime series The Irregular at Magic High School, a supernatural action series that aired in 2014. In this production, which was dubbed by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, he voiced the character in multiple episodes.

Beyond that specific anime credit, Mendel has a notable history in animated series. He provided the voice of the martial arts master Splinter in the Fox television version of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, a role he performed for 25 episodes from 1997 to 1998. His voice work also extends into film and video games. Early in his career, he voiced the character Nekron in the animated fantasy film Fire and Ice released in 1983. He also contributed additional voices for the video game Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight in 2010.

In addition to his voice roles, Mendel has built a substantial career as a live-action character actor. He is known for his recurring role as Detective Freddie Carson on the CBS television series Night Heat, which ran for 95 to 96 episodes from 1985 to 1989. He is also recognized for his portrayal of Holocaust survivor Morris Ginsberg in three episodes of the acclaimed series Mad Men. His extensive list of guest appearances includes roles on popular television series such as Criminal Minds, Grey's Anatomy, The X-Files, Sons of Anarchy, and NCIS. He has also appeared in feature films, including a role as a first-class steward in Steven Spielberg's The Terminal in 2004. Outside of acting, Mendel is a musician who plays guitar and sings folk music, having recorded an album entitled Sing Me A Story. He also practices an obscure martial art called aki-jutsu and teaches scuba diving.