Ren Hanami
Description
Ren Hanami is an American actress, writer, director, and singer who has an extensive career in voice work for anime, animation, and video games. She is known to anime audiences for her role as the Aunt in the English dub of the Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies, produced by Central Park Media in 1998. Her performance in this critically acclaimed war drama is one of her early notable contributions to the anime industry.
Hanami began her entertainment career as a dancer in parades at Disneyland and in regional stage productions. She has since built a diverse body of work that spans live-action television, film, and voice-over. In the realm of voice acting, she is particularly recognized for her work in English dubs of Japanese anime and other international productions.
One of her most prominent voice roles is Wakako Okada, a powerful fixer in the cyberpunk universe. She provided the voice for this character in both the English version of the CD Projekt Red video game Cyberpunk 2077, released in 2020, and the Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners from 2022, which serves as a prequel to the game. Other significant voice credits include Sally as an adult in the DreamWorks Animation film Orion and the Dark, Director Melanie in Barbie and Teresa: A Recipe for Friendship on Netflix, and a voice role in the Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon.
Her career includes recurring collaborations with animation studios across different international productions. Beyond animation, her voice work extends to dubbing numerous films and television shows from countries such as France, Japan, Korea, China, Sweden, Brazil, and Spain.
Ren Hanami has received recognition for her broader work as an artist and advocate. She is an inductee of the Asian Hall of Fame, an honor received in 2021. She also serves as the National Chair of the SAG-AFTRA Asian Pacific American Media Committee, where she advocates for representation of Asian Pacific Americans in entertainment. As a filmmaker, she has won awards for her work as an actress, writer, and director, including a Best Short Film Supporting Actress award from the Silicon Beach Film Festival.
Hanami began her entertainment career as a dancer in parades at Disneyland and in regional stage productions. She has since built a diverse body of work that spans live-action television, film, and voice-over. In the realm of voice acting, she is particularly recognized for her work in English dubs of Japanese anime and other international productions.
One of her most prominent voice roles is Wakako Okada, a powerful fixer in the cyberpunk universe. She provided the voice for this character in both the English version of the CD Projekt Red video game Cyberpunk 2077, released in 2020, and the Netflix anime series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners from 2022, which serves as a prequel to the game. Other significant voice credits include Sally as an adult in the DreamWorks Animation film Orion and the Dark, Director Melanie in Barbie and Teresa: A Recipe for Friendship on Netflix, and a voice role in the Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon.
Her career includes recurring collaborations with animation studios across different international productions. Beyond animation, her voice work extends to dubbing numerous films and television shows from countries such as France, Japan, Korea, China, Sweden, Brazil, and Spain.
Ren Hanami has received recognition for her broader work as an artist and advocate. She is an inductee of the Asian Hall of Fame, an honor received in 2021. She also serves as the National Chair of the SAG-AFTRA Asian Pacific American Media Committee, where she advocates for representation of Asian Pacific Americans in entertainment. As a filmmaker, she has won awards for her work as an actress, writer, and director, including a Best Short Film Supporting Actress award from the Silicon Beach Film Festival.
All Characters
- EnglishAnime overview: Grave of the Fireflies