Here’s a guide to the cast and characters of Cowboy Bebop, plus what the English language dub voice actors look like. Created by Japanese animation studio Sunrise, Cowboy Bebop is hailed as one of the greatest anime series of all time despite having a relatively short run of just a single, 26-episode season. It first aired in Japan in 1998 and its release in the United States in the early 2000s is credited with spawning a whole new generation of anime fans in the West.
It’s a genre-busting anime that mixes elements of space western, neo-noir and comedy and takes place in 2071, some fifty years after survivors of a hyperspace gateway explosion that rendered Earth uninhabitable were forced to flee and colonize other planets in the solar system. The series follows the exploits of a ragtag crew of bounty hunters who travel from planet to planet aboard their spaceship The Bebop rounding up criminals for a corrupt solar system-wide police force known as the Inter-Solar System Police.
The original main voice cast of Cowboy Bebop featured talents including Kōichi Yamadera, Unshō Ishizuka, Megumi Hayashibara, Aoi Tada and Norio Wakamoto, but who were the Cowboy Bebop voice actors behind the English dub of the classic anime?
Steve Blum As Spike Spiegel
Bounty hunter Spike Spiegel is the main protagonist of Cowboy Bebop and a former member of a crime syndicate known as the Red Dragon. He escaped by faking his own death after falling in love with Julia – the former flame of his comrade-turned-enemy Vicious. He’s voiced by prolific American voice actor Steve Blum, whose other notable roles include Heatwave in Transformers: Rescue Bots or Orochimaru in the English dub of Naruto: Shippuden.
Beau Billingslea As Jet Black
Beau Billingslea of Naruto: Shippuden and Digimon: Digital Monsters fame is the voice actor behind the character of Jet Black. Jet is the captain of the good ship Bebop and a former officer with the Inter-Solar Police System (ISSP). He turned to a life of bounty-hunting after losing his arm at the hands of his corrupt partner Fad during an investigation gone awry.
Wendee Lee As Faye Valentine
Faye Valentine was originally a fugitive captured by the Bebop crew who decided to stick around and join them on their missions. She’s Cowboy Bebop’s resident femme fatale but her hardened exterior belies a tragic backstory; she spent 50-odd years in cryogenic sleep following a space shuttle accident and woke up with amnesia and a mountain of medical debt, hence her turning to a life of crime. Faye is voiced by Akira and Boruto: Naruto Next Generations voice actor Wendee Lee.
Melissa Fahn As Ed
Invader Zim star Melissa Fahn is the Cowboy Bebop voice actor behind the character of Ed – an eccentric and androgynous teenage girl with prodigious hacking skills who serves as the Bebop crew’s tech whiz. She’s also known by the nickname “Radical Edward” and acts as the main course of comedy relief on anime favorite Cowboy Bebop.
Skip Stellrecht As Vicious
Vicious is the former friend-turned-archenemy of Cowboy Bebop protagonist Spike Spiegel. He’s a ruthless and power-hungry member of the Red Dragon crime syndicate whose rivalry with Spike forms one of the main story arcs of the anime series. Vicious is voiced by Skip Skellrecht who, beyond his Cowboy Bebop voice actor work, is best known for voicing Might Guy in the Naruto franchise and Ryu in Street Fighter II: V.