I wanted to put together an article that listed the steps I took to become a voice actor…

BUT…then I realized that an article of those steps would be dozens of pages long.

No one has the patience for this level of detail…

So, I’m going to break it down into three articles over the next few weeks:

My journey to becoming a voice actor (everything that happened before I really got started)
My first two years of pursuing voiceover professionally
The past three years since the first two years

I think that will narrow it down sufficiently into bite-sized pieces so no one chokes. I can’t have any deaths on my conscience.

The four main types of people who become voice actors:

Actors
Radio DJs
Fans of video games and/or animation who, like the little mermaid, just really want to be “part of that world”
People with “normal jobs” who say *things like:
“I’ve been told I have a great voice”
“I can talk! I just need a microphone and I can make six figures from home on Fiverr”
OR “I’m really great at impressions! Here’s my Morgan Freeman…”
*(Please forgive my undisguised contempt for these statements, it’s just that I doubt anyone ever makes similar statements to a structural engineer, a doctor, or an accountant. If you HAVE said these words in the past, I hope you have since come to the realization that acting and/or voice acting are difficult and competitive professions that require skill and training just like any other profession. Thank you for attending my TED Talk.)

You’ve been a great audience! Thank you!

In my accountability coaching, I always remind people that they shouldn’t go off blindly into the wilderness when others have already heavily trod a path leading to the same destination. On any journey, it’s wise to take a map so that you don’t find yourself lost and hungry, freezing to death, not realizing that you are only a hundred feet from the campsite’s safety and warmth (it’s an analogy…go with it).

As an entrepreneur, you might not literally be in danger of dying, but striking out on your own without any sort of guide does leave you vulnerable to wasting a lot of time and money.

Maps are great. Sometimes asking a local is even better.

So even though your path will be different than mine, I’m writing this to describe the terrain and the obstacles I faced along the way, and the tools and skills you’ll need to make the journey. This is the map I wish that I’d had when I started out. My journey might have been a lot shorter if I’d had one.

Wherever you are coming from, and wherever you are in your voiceover journey, I hope this helps make your journey easier.

The beginning of my path:

I am born in the small town of Sparta, Wisconsin to a…wait. Nope. Fast forward a bit.

Cows have nothing to do with my voiceover journey.

I develop an interest

I’m three, and my family takes me to see my aunt Annie perform in her high school production of Oklahoma. I decide then and there to devote my life to acting, and annoying my family with my “plays” in grandma’s musty farmhouse basement every time there is a gathering.

I do school plays. I do community theatre.

My mother gets me a cassette boombox for my 8th birthday, with some blank cassette tapes, and I LOVE it. I listen to the radio all the time. I record songs off the radio, and make up my own commercials. Mom is often the recipient of a loud cry of “SSSSSHHHHHHHH!!!! I’m RE-CORDING!!!!”

I get a formal education and acquire skills

I go to college and get my degree in Theatre Arts.

After college, I take classes and workshops in improv, musical theatre, film and commercial acting, clowning, commedia dell’arte, physical and devised theatre, etc. I join an ongoing scene study class which I attend weekly for TEN YEARS.

You might think a lot of this isn’t necessary to become a voice actor, and it’s true: you don’t need 20+ years of experience doing school plays, community theatre and professional theatre and more than a decade of acting training to become a voice actor, but guess what—it definitely doesn’t hurt.

Voice acting IS acting.

Primitive voiceover recording technology

I gain experience through volunteering

In college, I take a “Business of Acting” class, and my teacher talks about voiceover as another potential income stream to explore while pursuing theatre and film. She recommends volunteering as a way to gain experience in voiceover.

I contact a local organization for the blind, and for six years, I record materials for them. Articles about macular degeneration, diabetes care, and depression. It’s extremely glamorous.

Recording on a really old cassette recorder they give me, “editing” means rewinding the cassette and taping over my mistakes. I love the challenge of recording really dry boring material while keeping the energy up and not just droning my way through it.

I develop my skills further

I sign up for a voiceover class at a local theatre. We do reads around a table in a classroom, and do not work on mic or in a studio at all. (To be honest, I now barely remember what they taught us.)

At the time, classes are really hard to come by. In-studio classes are non-existent, and home studios are still a few years away, so I take what I can get, which isn’t much.

I put together a demo (kinda)

One thing I do learn from the class is that I need a commercial demo. I go back to what I know, and start using my a voice recorder and then later my phone to record material off the radio. I transcribe spots that I like, and practice them. I work on some of this copy with my then-agent, who is open to listening to me read and giving me feedback

Note: This agent relationship was already established and she offered. Agents are very busy. DO NOT go asking a random agent to do this, as they might not be super nice about it. This is what coaches are for.

A few years into this, I record a “demo” with the help of a friend.

Note: DO NOT DO THIS. If you want to work and be taken seriously in this business, wait until you are actually ready to record a demo, and do it with a professional.

To my credit, I never actually use this demo.

I invest in equipment (kinda)

Once home studios come about, and the P2P sites start hopping, I realize I could DIY, and I do a small amount of research on microphones. Like the complete newb I am, I buy a Blue Yeti USB mic, and set it up on my desk without any sound treatment whatsoever.

Even though I live in the country and consider it a fairly quiet environment, the mic picks up everything—the water heater in the other room, my cat purring by my feet, and pretty much every other noise for about a mile radius. I put it back in its box and decide to give it up for now.

I put myself out there (kinda)

At the same time I purchase the microphone, I sign up for profiles on the two major P2P sites. Then…I don’t do anything with them. I rediscover my profiles about seven years later, not remembering having ever set them up, as if I’d done it while sleepwalking.

I take some professional advice (that doesn’t work)

At an industry lecture at a local casting agent’s office, the woman running the event suggests that one doesn’t really need a demo to get started, and recommends asking my on-camera agent to send me on a few voiceover auditions.

My agent tells me: “No. That’s not how it works”

(Actually, I now know that for some people it is. A friend of mine did get in this way before she had a demo. My agent just wasn’t having it.)

I gain confidence

A bit bummed after being shut down by my agent, I sign up for a one-day voiceover workshop, where I get to be directed by some local industry pros, including a voiceover agent and a sound engineer.

Though surely NOT awesome, I’m awesome enough in comparison to the non-actors in the room to believe that I could actually do this. As a trained actor, I am already able to express myself well through speech and also know how to take direction.

Yay, student loans that I’m still paying off!

I gather more information

I go to a voiceover info session with the lovely Beth Chaplin (who LITERALLY wrote the book on acting in the Twin Cities). From this, I get info about recording professional demos locally, and a LOT of other great information.

I make my demo (for real this time!)

And I quit my day job, become a successful voice actor and make a ton of money.

The End.

Okay, not quite…There’s still a lot more to the story, but I’m going to stop here for now.

Tune in next week, and I’ll get into the nitty gritty of what my first two years as a professional voice actor were like (spoiler alert: hard work!)

Recent Posts:

Journey to Your Dream Career in Voiceover: Vol. 1