Today marks 4 years since I moved to Los Angeles to further my Voice Acting career and earlier this month I also celebrated 10 years since my first trip to the USA, which was my first voice-over adventure and the first big step in my VO career. In my time here in America I have been fortunate enough to work on many wonderful projects, accomplish a number of my goals, make many of my dreams come true and achieve successes that I once would have considered impossible. I'm even at a point where I have people who admire my work ask me about how to become a voice actor.
So I thought I would celebrate all these milestones by sharing my thoughts on what I feel it takes to become a voice actor and what you can do to make it happen…
The first thing I’ll say is I personally suggest to voice act because it’s fun and because it makes you happy… and that if it ever starts to make you unhappy and isn’t fun anymore, then it’s okay to stop.
The other thing I'll preface this with is there is no “correct path” to becoming a voice actor nor are there any guarantees when it comes to success. There's no magic formula or quick thing you can do to become successful. As such, this is a general outline of various things that I personally believe will serve you well.
So let’s say that you are curious about voice-over, it interests you and you think that you may want to do it… my first recommendation is to research it, to build up a base knowledge and a strong foundation. You can learn so much about the basics of voice acting - about the craft, technique, career advice, what the business side is like and more - from books, the internet, podcasts, interviews, videos and more. This is a very easy and cost-effective way to learn about voice-over and see if voice acting is for you. I actually have a list of these introductory resources that I personally recommend if you’re interested, for a list of books, click here and for podcasts, websites and shows, click here.
Part of this research also includes figuring out what types of work you want to do, what types of people do that work, where those people are located, what agencies are in these locations, what studios do these types of work, where they are located and so on. Even just paying attention to the credits in movies, shows and games can provide a wealth of information.
Another helpful thing you can do right away is to practice reading aloud - reading books, articles and more out loud can really increase your eye-brain-mouth coordination and improve your ability to interpret the written word and its intended meaning on the spot.
Once you have learned about voice-over generally and built up a good intellectual base knowledge about it, if you still like the sound of voice acting, then the next thing I recommend is to take classes and workshops, as this is where you can actually put that intellectual knowledge into practice and perform voice-over in a safe, nurturing environment where you can develop your skills and abilities.
Ideally, I would aim to take classes and workshops in voice acting specifically BUT don’t limit yourself to just classes for voice-over, pursue other creative outlets too. So in addition to taking classes for VO, if other acting classes are available to you (for stage or on-camera), take those as well. Try to take some improv classes if you can. It will all help, though you may like some things more than others and that’s okay. Not everything is going to be for you and that’s just fine. However, you will want to train for different mediums, so don’t just stick solely to animation, commercial, dubbing/ADR, video games, narration or animé but do several of them, as many that interest you.
Additionally, try to take both private AND group classes, as each has their own merits. A private, one-on-one series of classes will be more focused and specific to you, you’ll get more time to read scripts and practice and you’ll likely find that your abilities improve much quicker in this environment due to its personalized nature. However, group classes have their benefits too, they’re usually cheaper than private classes and though you get less time on the mic due to the presence of other students, it’s fascinating to watch other students and learn from their strengths and weaknesses, you can see in them the ways that you yourself are succeeding but also the ways you may need to improve. You can also make friends, which is an amazing thing as well. Also, don’t just take classes with one teacher, you’ll want to learn from different people with varying perspectives and see what vibes with you and works for you. Different teachers will bring out different strengths in you and make you aware of different weaknesses. At first, I recommend working with teachers who are actors, as they can teach you the craft better than anyone i.e. HOW to do this, but once you’ve developed your talents a bit, then you can take classes with directors, casting directors, agents and more. Classes can be taken both in-person and remotely, via things like Skype, Zoom and Discord, so don’t let physical distance be an off-putting factor. I once again have a list of recommended teachers and classes here.
So at this point you’ve trained, you actually have some skills and abilities now and though there is always more to learn and always ways we can improve, you feel you are professionally competitive, at least in some ways and that you could professionally do some voice-over work. You feel ready. Thus, you’ll want to get a professionally produced demo made, as good demos can be a tremendous help in getting you known to people and getting you work. A professional demo producer’s outside perspective and experience will hugely benefit you. A good demo will showcase your skills and capabilities, oftentimes it will be the first time someone will get to hear your talent, so it’s of the utmost importance to get it right. If you’re making multiple demos for different genres of work, try to get the demos made at same time or close to one another or at a similar time, rather than just one now and then another later (you can also do different demos with different people).
An important thing to know beforehand is “who are you?” and “what do you bring to the table?” and the more unique your answer, the better. Throughout your training and learning, you will discover there are certain things you are better at than others, certain genres of work or character types that you are more suited to playing, there are going to be ways other people view you and particular role types that you will be hired for again and again. So try to identify these strengths and understand what it is you have to offer people.
I will take a moment to reiterate this: I highly recommend making a demo only once you feel you are ready to compete professionally AND to make your demo with a professional demo producer (and not on your own). Like I said, for many people, this will be their first impression of you and you want that to be as good as possible - so make sure that you are ready and producing it professionally will yield the best results (I'll leave a final note at the end about all this).
Once you have professionally made demos, then it’s time to get them out there. Firstly, I recommend making a website to host them on. It can just be a simple, one-page site but having your demos on a website (available via a URL) can be more convenient than constantly needing to send them as attachments and is just a good extra option to have. But then, you’ll want to try to take your demos (slash website) and get them into the hands of agents, studios and casting directors.
Being represented by an agency can lead to you getting opportunities you can't otherwise get on your own and making personal connections with studios and casting directors can lead to more direct opportunities and some that don't go out to agencies.
My first recommendation for connecting with these people is to… well, be recommended. Being recommended to a casting director or studio is always the best thing: “Do you know so and so? They’d be great for this!”
If you any of your teachers would be willing to recommend you to an agency or studio or casting director, then that’s a great avenue to go down. Similarly, if any of your classmates from those group classes that you totally took are willing to refer you to their agents or to anyone, that’s helpful too. But please don't push too hard with this kind of thing, especially with your friends in classes, just let them happen in a more organic way than forcing it too much. Even just being friends with your classmates on social media can lead to you being tagged by them in the comments for a potential job if they see something and think of you.
Another way you can get yourself in front of people is in workshops. As mentioned earlier, you can take workshops with casting directors and agents, these can be a good way to get yourself in front of people and if they like you, they may want to hear more from you, and that’s when you can submit your demos to them.
If you don’t have referrals or workshops available to you, then you can cold-submit to people, so long as you do so politely and respectfully. Try to do this as professionally as you can with courtesy, contacting people only via professional means such as designated email addresses (not personal ones), contact forms and LinkedIn and not via social media. Be courteous and respectful, these are busy people who may have to deal with lots and lots of people trying to get on their radar, so remember your manners and be kind.
(There are websites and casting places you can join to get auditions but I'm not personally sure of how worth it all these are, as they are forever changing and I just wanted to outline a more general approach to connecting with agencies, studios and casting people, as ultimately it's this trio that will likely lead you to your best opportunities)
Throughout these steps, where you are located is a factor and could change how you approach some of them. Depending on the type of work you want to do and the studios you wish to work with, you may need to move closer to them - if that's the case, this could be during your training period so that you can do more in-person classes or it could be once you have demos made if were able to train and make demos remotely. However, I recommend taking trips first so that you can familiarize yourself with a place rather than just moving somewhere that you've never been to before.
… and that's it! If you ask me, “How do I become a voice actor?” that's my answer. These are my personal suggestions but I feel they have served me and my friends well.
If you pursue this too, then I wish you all the very best and I sincerely hope that you love every moment of it 😊
* I know that financially this could sound a little daunting - if you do a bunch of classes and make professional demos, it could cost a lot. However, at the end of the day, it is an investment and I personally feel the best things in life are worth the effort and usually require it. Many careers require a college or university education or for us to buy specialized equipment to do it; they usually require time or money or both. This isn’t any different from that, I’m afraid.
** Just going a step further from this too - this career will likely require a lot of sacrifice and patience, not everything is just going to happen overnight, it’s unlikely that you’re just going to be working on loads of brilliant jobs with awesome pay at many amazing studios after a few weeks or even months. That’s why I stressed at the start of this to have fun and do this because it makes you happy. We love people in spite of their flaws and a career is the same too. You have to be able to take the bad with the good. There are a lot of different aspects to this career: creatively, personally, industry-related, business-related… you may not always like them all equally but you nonetheless need to accept them as a whole… and if that whole doesn’t make you happy, then this may not be for you and that is totally okay. If there is any point where it becomes too much and you are feeling unhappy, there is nothing wrong with stopping. This is still something you can do for fun on the side in passion projects and such. But there’s a difference between doing that and this being your career and being your life, and I think it's important for me to say that.