Overview

ProZD Race-Based Casting Controversy refers to an October 2023 controversy that sparked debates and memes surrounding YouTuber and voice actor SungWon "ProZD" Cho's reaction to being limited to voice acting roles for Asian characters. After ProZD issued a statement complaining about being unable to audition for characters of different ethnicities, many internet users cited his previous statements advocating for race-based VA casting and accused him of hypocrisy. In late August 2025, the controversy garnered renewed attention after ProZD accepted a role to voice Orville Park, a non-Asian character, in the Knights of Guinevere pilot. The backlash and accusations of hypocrisy resulted in ProZD leaving X / Twitter.

Background

ProZD, known for his work in the voice acting community and social media presence (specifically in the anime industry), has previously advocated for characters to be played by individuals of the same race. This stance was then challenged when ProZD made a series of now-deleted posts^[1] on October 22nd, 2023, in which he recounted a conversation he had with his agent in which he was only offered an Asian voice acting role, and he wished to audition for all of them (shown below).

Five hours later, ProZD made another post,^[1] this time about the recasting of the voice actor for the character Yuroichi from Bleach back to her original voice actor instead of sticking with a new, racially accurate one. This was seen by many as him doubling down on his original stance that voiced characters should be their original race, and in clear contradiction to his wanting to audition for white characters, leading to many accusing him of being anti-white (shown below).

Developments

Knights Of Guinevere Casting Controversy

On August 30th, 2025, it was reported that ProZD would voice the character Orville Park in the Knights of Guinevere pilot.^[9] Park is a non-Asian character. This caused some people to accuse ProZD of being hypocritical for accepting a job in which he voices someone who is not Asian.

For example, on August 31st, X^[10] user @kangminjlee posted a screenshot of the casting, writing, "Why is ProZD voicing a non-Asian character? I thought VAs should only be allowed to play their own race?" garnering over 19,000 likes in two days.

ProZD's Response

On September 1st, 2025, ProZD made a post on X before privating his page, responding to increasing backlash against his choice to voice Park. In the post, he announces that he will no longer be posting on X, doubles down on believing that voice actors should be given equal casting opportunities and claims that the arguments against him are bad faith.^[11]

Online Reactions

Online responses to the controversy were mixed, but largely critical of ProZD, with some users supporting him and criticizing the casting decisions for not being true to the race of the character. While many emphasized the perceived irony in the situation, discussions on the complexities of race-based casting in the voice acting industry started to spark, with many pointing to examples of it working well in the past.

For example, on October 25th, 2023, X user @IndyBnuuy^[8] posted a QRT to an anti-ProZD meme detailing how Phil Lamarr and Greg Baldwin did amazing in their respective non-race accurate roles (shown below).

On October 23rd, Bounding Into Comics published an article^[2] that further explored the details of the controversy, posting "Western Voice Actor SungWon 'ProZD' Cho Unhappy Reaping What He Sowed, Complains That Industry Is Now Segregating Roles By Race" on X, the related tweet accumulating over 6,500 likes in a day (shown below).

On October 24, 2023, Niche Gamer wrote about the controversy,^[3] posting "Voice Actor SungWon 'ProZD' Cho criticizes race-based auditions for voice roles. Link below:" on X, with the related tweet garnering over 7,000 likes that day (shown below, left).

Additionally, a tweet from X user @GiveMeBanHammer^[4] on the same day received over 6,500 likes in a similar timeframe, saying "Pushing for race-based discrimination and role segregations when it suits them or when they want to virtue signal. Then get upset and shocked when it ends up affecting them too. Eventually you can't have your cake and eat it too" (shown below, right).

On the same day, a Reddit thread on the /r/KotakuInAction subreddit was posted by Redditor^[5] u/FellowFellow22, titled "Western Voice Actor SungWon ‘ProZD’ Cho Unhappy Reaping What He Sowed, Complains That Industry Is Now Segregating Roles By Race" further expanded the discourse, receiving over 500 upvotes from users on the platform (shown below).

Later that day, YouTuber Rev says desu uploaded a video^[6] titled "You Reap What You Sow…," highlighting the developments around ProZD and other past instances of the voice actor being in the public eye, the video getting over 135,000 views and 9,700 likes within 24 hours (shown below, left).

YouTuber Hypnotic also uploaded his own video^[7] titled "GET WOKE GO BROKE | Voice Actor SungWon Cho DESTROYED By His OWN IDEOLOGY And Now Has LIMITED JOBS" going over the backlash, receiving over 32,000 views and 2,100 likes within 24 hours (shown below, right).

Reactions To Knights of Guinevere Casting

ProZD received significant backlash in late August and early September 2025 after news broke that he would voice a non-Asian character in the pilot for the animated series Knights of Guinevere.

For instance, on September 1st, 2025, X^[12] user @kangminjlee, who originally called out ProZD for hypocrisy, shared a screenshot of ProZD making his account private after announcing his departure from X, writing, "The whole world knows you for the hypocrite you are, ProZD. You advocated for a DEI standard saying that VAs should only play their own race, which stripped jobs away from other talented actors because they were not the right racial identity. But then you abandon that standard when it's convenient for you and voice non-Asian characters," garnering over 5,000 likes in a day.

Later that day, X^[13] user @KSMatrixSlides posted a meme about reaping what you sow as a comment to ProZD's response tweet, garnering over 1,100 likes in a day.

Various Reactions

Search Interest

External References