Um Sang-hyun


Um Sang-hyun is a South Korean voice actor who began his career by joining Educational Broadcasting System's voice acting division in 1998.
Before making his debut as a voice actor, he used to work in theaters, including performing his roles as a Japanese assassinator and a royal servant in a 1997 South Korean musical The Last Empress and working as the assistant director for South Korean musicals Gaeddongi and Moskito the same year. In 1992, he also appeared in a South Korean independent film called Opening the Closed School Gates.
After his exclusive work at EBS, Um has been a freelancer since 2001. In the early 2000s, he came to prominence after voicing Kira Yamato on the Korean dub of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED. Since then, Um has dubbed a number of television animation series such as Chrono Crusade, Digimon Frontier, Fullmetal Alchemist, InuYasha and School Rumble. As a result of his popularity among children audiences, the voice actor won a Nickelodeon Korea Kids' Choice Award in 2012 for Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie. He became the recipient of the award for his role as Po in Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, gaining 3,121 votes, which is about 38% of the entire poll.
Although having been highly active as a freelancer for more than a decade, Um is also still one of the main voice actors representing EBS. He is best known for his roles as Calcifer on the Korean dub of the Studio Ghibli animated movie Howl's Moving Castle, L Lawliet on the Korean dub of the Japanese television animation series Death Note, Po on the Korean dub of the DreamWorks Animation film series Kung Fu Panda and even more recently, Poli on the South Korean animated children's television series Robocar Poli.
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Career

Voice acting

TV animation dubbing

A
Arthur
N
Naruto Naruto Uzumaki Ninja Hattori-kun

Animated movie dubbing

2000s
2010s
2020s

Film dubbing

A
Anne of Green Gables
O
Ocean's Twelve

Foreign TV show dubbing

B
Blue's Clues
N
Numb3rs

Narrations

The Best Cooking Secrets Culture & Art 36.5 D'Factory Friday Night Theater FUN FUN Board Games Janghak Quiz Star Track TV Scoop! Surprising World tvN eNEWS The UCC Scientific Expedition
  • ''The World of My Friends''

Commercial film dubbing

A
Ahngook Pharmaceutical
  • * The pollack on the commercial "Tobicom-S"Aurora World
  • * Poli on the commercial "Robocar Poli Action Toy "
  • * Poli on the commercial "Robocar Poli Rag Doll "
    B
    Binggrae
  • * The commander on the commercial "Binggrae Samanco: The Revenge of Samanco "
    C
    CJ E&M
  • * Po on the trailer for ''Superstar K3''
    F
    FedEx
  • * The black guy on the commercial "Zombie Outbreak"
    G
    GS Caltex
  • * Shinbbori on the commercial "The Good-Hearted Oil Stories "
    H
    HP Pavilion
  • * Shaun White on the commercial "The Computer Is Personal Again"
    I
    IBK
  • * Oscar on the commercial "IBK Salary Account "
    K
    Kellogg's Frosted Flakes
  • * Tony the Tiger KOBACO
L
The Lego Group
  • * Narration for the "Lego Ninjago" commercialsLG Electronics
  • * Narration for the commercial "XCanvas David"LG Telecom
  • * The squid alien on the commercial "Mikey Meets an Alien "
    M
    Meritz
  • * Tata on the "Meritz Merry Dolls " commercials
    S
    Shinhan Card
  • * Two guys on the early part of the commercial "Shinhan LOVE Card"SKY
  • * Narration for the commercial "SKY Hush"Sonokong
  • * Narration for the commercial "Fruity Robo "
    T
    Tous Les Jours
  • * Poli on the commercial "Tous Les Jours Robocar Poli Cake"
    Z
    Zambus Korea
  • * Narration for the commercial "Chuggington Die-Cast Toys"

Video game dubbing

0-9
007: Quantum of Solace
M
Magna Carta: Crimson Stigmata

Drama CD

  • Sound of Prince
  • * Roe

Miscellaneous facts

  • Although born in 1971, he looks younger than his actual age, and that is why many fans of Um tend to call him 상현소년 meaning "The Boy Named Sang-hyun", or its shortened form, 상현손.
  • Um Tae-jun, the son of Um, also has worked as a voice actor, participating in dubbing of various television shows for children, including Blue's Clues, Dora the Explorer, Team Umizoomi, and Tickety Toc. He recently voiced young Mike on the Korean dub of Pixar animated film Monsters University.
  • Um also sang some theme songs of his works, such as the opening theme for Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness, and "Clumsy Love ", the ending theme for the third season of Chobits.
  • In the South Korean version of the 2012 KCAs, a new award called "Favorite Voice from an Animated Movie " was featured along with "Favorite TV Actor/Actress ". In the following year, however, the former was excluded from the show, and thus Um currently remains the first and only recipient ever to win that category.
  • As of October 2013, the total number of tickets sold for animated films which Um has participated in dubbing is about 38 million.
  • The ending title for the Korean dub of Transformers: Prime is based upon a video shot by Goo Ja-hyeong, who dubbed Megatron on the show. The title aired only when the first season of the show ended. In this video, Um appears for a moment, with a scene in which Jack Darby is running.