Biographie
Jim Foronda is a Texas-based voice actor, freelance ad copywriter, and cyborg. In 2001, Jim was writing commercials for Hasbro Toys when a budget miscalculation on a G.I.Joe campaign ended up with him cast as Cobra Commander, Duke, Heavy Duty, and a British reporter- all in one commercial. After a year of being asked to play characters like Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Mr. Potato Head in toy ads, he decided to pursue voice acting outside of his day job.
Juggling time between ad writing and voice work, Jim became a regular "pick up" player for Funimation, in shows like Dragon Ball Z, Case Closed, Panty & Stocking, Solty Rei, and more, along with supporting roles including Denny Bloch/Brosh in both runs of Fullmetal Alchemist and Marco Togni in Gunslinger Girl. Jim's first video game role was Jackal in Spikeout: Battle Street, which he regrettably-yet-fondly refers to as his "almost a Jill Sandwich" goofy game VO moment. He went on to voice Apophis, Hyena, and others in Unreal Championship 2, Janempa in a bunch of Dragon Ball games, and 20 different characters across the Borderlands franchise.
In an ironic flip of the actor's proverb, Jim's day job quit him in 2013 when Hasbro changed ad agencies. Turning a layoff into an opportunity, he went to voice acting full-time. Since then, he's voiced Muscular in My Hero Academia, Luxion in Trapped In A Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs, Poncho Panacotta in How A Realist Hero Rebuilt The Kingdom, Shisandan/Bui in Banished From The Hero's Party, I Decided To Live A Quiet Life In The Countryside, Kumasa in If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It To The Budokan I Would Die, HEUSC in The Millionaire Detective: Balance UNLIMITED, Frankenzombie in Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle, Geld I/Orc Disaster in That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime, Mato/King Toma in Fairy Tail, Vander Decken IX in One Piece, and more. He's been in several games too, including over 10 characters in SMITE (like Rambo and TMNT's Shredder!), Tom Banner in Killing Floor 2, and Oscar Mike, ISIC, Whiskey Foxtrot, and MINREC in Battleborn. And in 2019, he was super-excited to take up the role of Claptrap, starting with Borderlands 3.
In his spare time, Jim likes photography, games of the video and tabletop variety, occasional trips to Japan, building LEGO stuff, and working on a novel that he will probably never, ever finish. He loves his wife, Karin, and their three cats Takkyubin, Momiji, and Ikaruga. He also wishes Japari Park was a real place. Diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes when he was 8 years old, Jim wears an insulin pump. By medical definition that totally makes him an actual, for real cyborg. He has yet to jump over a house or lift an automobile with his bare hands.
