Overview
Bill Trinen is a longtime translator at Nintendo. He was originally hired into a full time job after his work translating debug reports on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Since then, he has worked on the localization team for many of Nintendo's biggest titles of all time from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time to Super Mario Galaxy and almost everything in between. From heavy RPGs like Animal Crossing, Super Paper Mario or The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass to lighter fare like Drill Dozer on the Game Boy Advance and Mario Kart DS.
Bill Trinen is most commonly known as the personal translator for Nintendo's mastermind game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. Working in that capacity, he often appears beside Miyamoto at press events, tradeshows, roundtables and interviews translating Miyamoto's words directly after Miyamoto speaks in Japanese.
He has appeared on stage with Miyamoto at numerous E3 events and during numerous major E3 announcements. He has often taken the stage himself to talk about specific games or to appear directly before Miyamoto.
Trinen has worked and lived in Japan for many years and knows the language fluently in both speaking and written. He first started studying Japanese when he was in high school and later moved there. He lived for a long while in Shibuya in Tokyo, Japan.
In addition to translating, he also works as an advisor at Nintendo, helping them to better understand the West and pointing out features as part of both focus group testing, marketing and public relations. Overall, he is a valuable member of Nintendo's team and has become a beloved personality over the years.
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