Christopher Owen Ayres (May 16, 1965 – October 18, 2021) was an American stage actor, voice actor, stage director, ADR director, fight director and scriptwriter who worked on a number of Japanese anime series at Funimation, OkraTron 5000, New Generation Pictures and formerly Seraphim Digital/Sentai Filmworks. He started his acting career at age six and has performed on Broadway and Off-Broadway as well as in numerous regional productions. He got his start voice acting at ADV Films on Kino's Journey as an extra. In anime, he was known as the voice of Frieza from Dragon Ball Z Kai, Kei Kurono from Gantz, Prince Soma from Black Butler, and Shingen Takeda from the Sengoku Basara series. He was also known for Mock Combat for Cosplay panels at anime conventions.
Ayres died on October 18 2021 at the age of 56, following years of health complications. His death was announced on Twitter the following day by his girlfriend and fellow voice actress, Krystal LaPorte.
