“Off with your head!”  A command from the Queen of Hearts?  Not exactly.  The edict comes from Riddle Rosehearts, housewarden of Heartslabvul at Night Raven College.  What’s his problem?  It’s that he can’t stand people not following his rules.  Upset him, and it’s “off with your head!”  Except the victim isn’t decapitated.  A magical vise is clamped around his neck, and the perpetrator can no longer perform magic.  Such is the way of things in the wizarding world of Disney Twisted – Wonderland: The Animation.

The series is anime-styled, animated and dubbed in Japan, then translated and dubbed into English by American actors.  Riddle’s English performance comes from Paul Castro Jr.,  a veteran voiceover actor whose credits also encompass writing, producing and directing—which remarkably echoes the hardworking nature of his character.

He details his Twisted involvement in the following interview.

Bob Miller: You do more than just voiceover, you do on camera, and you write, you direct, you produce. How can you stay so busy?

Paul Castro: I just love being a storyteller and being a part of any creative process. It’s addicting, and any way I can be of service to a story, I want to. I try to be as organized as I can. So you find the time for the things you love, and when I’m useful for something, I make myself available for it. And if I can’t be, then I don’t commit to things, because I don’t like being one foot in and one foot out of something.

BM: What are your most significant roles prior to Riddle Rosehearts?

PC: In voiceover specifically, a lot of people first knew me from my role as Rindo Kanade in a game called NEO: The World Ends With You. It’s a Square Enix game, and I play the main character in that, and that’s kind of what opened a lot of doors for me. And then from there, obviously, Genshin Impact has become very popular. I voiced Freminet in that, and I wound up meeting a lot more fans through that fandom. Even more recently, I got to voice a mini version of Vegeta from Dragon Ball called Dragon Ball DAIMA. So I’ve been very lucky and privileged to touch some of these legacy franchises that I never thought would be possible. Now I’m here with Disney Villains. It’s crazy.

BM: Who is Riddle Rosehearts, and what is his problem?

PC: He is the housewarden of House Heartslabyul, which is based around Alice in Wonderland and the Queen of Hearts. One of the books is called The Red Rose Tyrant. He is the tyrant leader of this dormitory, and he is so firm about being strict to the rules that have been put in place and kind of paying homage to the Queen of Hearts and all of the ridiculousness and the structure that she has created, whether right or wrong. Those are the rules and people must abide by them. So if there is not the structure that has been put in place from the Queen of Hearts, there would be chaos. To Riddle, the worst sin you could ever commit would be to break the rules. He is there to enforce them. That creates a lot of conflict with some of the characters we see in Twisted Wonderland.

BM: And then this non-magical human, Yu, comes into their world.

PC: Yeah. This is during a ceremony which means so much to Riddle, the most formal thing you can do at Night Raven College. This person comes who may or may not have magical powers, and it’s ruining all of the order that Riddle works so hard to create. It’s the inciting moment for Riddle’s character and the stances he takes against people.

BM: How did you get the role? And how did you prepare for the audition?

PC: I’m very lucky, first of all. I owe a lot to NYAV and Stephanie Sheh and Michael Sinterniklaas and Brittany Lauda and Reuben Lack at Disney as well for seeing something in me to bring this character to life. He’s such a tricky character to play, and I think there’s a lot of pitfalls. It demanded a lot of me. I auditioned for all of the boys that I could have possibly have gotten, and I never thought in my wildest dreams I would have gotten Riddle, who’s basically the face of the first season. And we get packets that are kind of not descript to what the character is. It was all code-named. Eventually I got more information through callbacks, and I worked with Michael to really find the character.

I just really put my heart and soul and did all my homework that I could by reading the manga and playing the games and reading the books to understand Riddle as much as I can because on paper, he seems very one-dimensional, tyrant, anger, rage. Bringing a lot of the other nuances to life I think is what helped me get the role, to not just play it as one note. So I’m very lucky, and I’m just really glad that they trusted me to play such an important character.

BM: Riddle’s voice goes all over the place due to the nature of the character. I mean, he’s smooth, and then he becomes psychotic. Do you psych yourself up for the performance beforehand, or do you do it at the drop of a hat? What is your approach?

PC: You’ve said all of the things that have made this a challenge to do in a way. It was a tall order to walk into. And from playing the game and reading the manga, I knew where these things were going. So I had a little bit of a head start.

I’ve been doing this for a while now, and if you do your homework, you’re able to feel confident and just take on the moment as it is. As voice actors, we don’t get scene partners, but sometimes we’re lucky enough to hear the people who have recorded before us, or you hear it in the original Japanese if you’re dubbing. For me specifically, I try to lean on being in the moment as much as I can humanly can, and if I’ve done all my homework right, something authentic and truthful comes out.

For the more intense scenes, your instrument needs to be prepared for taking on these types of things. Kudos to NYAV, the recording studio, for working with me on that and being conscious of my voice and my instrument, because that would have been a lot had they not had the foresight to know what it was going to be.

BM: How do you protect your voice in those instances?

PC: I try to do as much as I can to be a smart actor, warming up beforehand. I even am wearing something right now, this thing, it’s a voice straw, and I always have it on me to do my proper warm-ups and keep my vocal cords as relaxed as possible using my diaphragm, being silent as much as I can surrounding my recording sessions. I like to talk a lot, so to not talk for days is just part of the job sometimes, to preserve your voice, and being a good advocate for vocal health. Like what we’re talking about here, usually we record four hours at a time, but we recorded for two-hour chunks or less on the more intense days for Riddle. So just being a smart actor, drinking lots of water, a lot of tea, slippery elm, anything you can to lubricate your vocal cords can help them not strain or tear. Yoga’s a great thing, too. I try to do a lot of vocal throat chakra yoga as well. It seems to help, and I still have my voice, so you do as much as you can.

BM: Let’s go into your background. What motivated you to become an actor in the first place?

PC: Growing up, I never really even knew that you could become an actor. It wasn’t until I was in college where I realized it was a profession that you could pursue. I just thought that Hollywood selected who the actors were going to be. When I was in college, I was studying pre-med. It wasn’t for me. The scientific route just could not hold my attention.

My mom saw this ad in the newspaper for this musical. ‘You should audition for it.’

I’m like, what? I love being a goof and being a comedian of sorts, and I never really thought about performing, but I did it. It was terrifying, and I fell in love with being a storyteller. I went to NYU and before that Monmouth University, and I studied theater, and I just fell in love with really telling stories. That led me to do all the different aspects of it—directing, writing, on camera, producing. I just love being a part of things that inspire us, that move us, and being any part of any cog in that wheel, I’m there for it. I just love it.

BM: Do these different disciplines help you for your vocal performance?

PC: I think so. It informs you, like, what certain moments might demand or where you fit into the puzzle. Being a director, you know what it’s like sometimes to deliver exposition. We had wonderful engineers on this project, and it helped me tremendously. And mic technique, knowing how they have to edit things, it all serves me one way or another.. I treat the acting specifically in voiceover like I would act in any other project—understanding what the audience is and the genre of the thing can flavor it a little bit. Ultimately—as they would say in the Meisner methodology of acting—it’s just living truthfully under extraordinary circumstances. Stanislavski, you know, I try to just do that at its core, no matter what the job is.

BM: How did you break into the industry?

PC: I went to NYU, I transferred, and while I was in school, I was sneaking off to auditions while I was taking my classes in my Meisner Conservatory, and I wound up just getting lucky booking some indie films. I booked a lead in this indie movie called Buffalo Boys, and then another indie movie called Skook. That got me representation, and I was acting in New York City for a while doing TV, Law & Order, Blue Bloods, God Friended Me. That started my career, basically, working in indie film and short films, student films, and I fell in love with voiceover. I became the voice of Nick Sports, so when people would be watching Nickelodeon Nick Sports, you’d hear, ‘Coming up next is Rocket Power, only on Nick.’ That was my voice for a while, and that opened my voiceover career. I got to be the voice of Clifford the Big Red Dog for the PBS video games and interactive stuff they did. I moved to LA in 2020 because I just loved voiceover and anime and video games. That first job I got was Neo: The World Ends With You.

I really attribute a lot of the success I’ve had to just a never-ending passion and dedication to wanting to have a place in this industry. It’s so competitive, but if you care a lot and you respect the craft and you bring what’s unique to you to these roles, I think people are hungry to see different takes that we’ve never seen before, so I think that’s all I can attribute to why I am where I am.

BM: Okay. Considering everything that you do, how do fans keep up with all your activities?

PC: Social media is great for that. I try to post and promote the projects I work on, because I’m usually very, very proud of them, and I give my all to them. We get to go to conventions throughout the world, and I’ve gotten to visit all sorts of different places and meet fans face-to-face. It’s such a privilege to be an ambassador for some of these projects.  Specifically these characters. I’ve had very kind people who have followed me from day one till now, and I’m so grateful for the support. I don’t think I’d be where I am without people who have shined a light on my performances or any other work that I’ve done.

BM: What else do you want people to know about your contribution to Twisted?

PC: I just hope people give the show a watch and fall in love with all the other aspects of the property. There’s books and manga and the game, and it’s already been confirmed for three seasons here for the anime. Everybody out the gate has already taken this so seriously to really bring these characters to life. The game’s been out for so many years. For me specifically, I did not take this moment for granted. I really hope that people enjoy all the intricacies to Riddle and to learn why he is the way he is. It’ll be a really great story to see unfold.

Interview conducted November 4, 2025.  Learn more about Paul Castro at his personal website, here.

Special thanks to Shae DeWaal and Ariana Drummond of Allied Global Marketing.

Disney Twisted – Wonderland: The Animation is currently streaming on Disney Plus.