Five Basic Steps to Kick-Start Your Voice-Over Acting Career

Voice-over (VO) actors bring video game characters to life; they give you directions via your GPS device; they voice upbeat radio jingles and guide you through online e-learning modules. Are you considering becoming a VO actor?

This post will look at five basic steps to kick start your VO acting career.

[Average read time: 4 minutes]

Step 1. Identify your Strengths and Weaknesses as a VO Actor

Your first task is to figure out where you are as a VO actor. You need to understand your voice, be able to describe it, and be generally aware of your strengths and weaknesses as a talent. Consider the following questions:

• How would you describe your voice? Is it high pitched or low pitched?
• What is your vocal range? Can you change your vocal resonance to sound older or younger?
• Can you communicate in a dramatic way? How would you describe your acting skills?
• Can you take direction, mimic the delivery of another actor, or sync to video? 
• Are you a good speaker? How well can you modulate your voice? Is your intonation rich and engaging?
• Can you read a text out loud flawlessly when you see it for the first time? Do you catch your own reading mistakes?
• Do you have native fluency in several languages? Can you imitate foreign or regional accents? 

The answers to these questions will help you understand what you need to work on and leverage what you do best. 

For example, you may realize that you are not an acting virtuoso yet, but that you read in an engaging way with very few mistakes. That’s great! You may be ready to test-drive your skills as a VO actor for corporate content while you work on your acting. In order to understand what kind of VO is the best fit for you at this point in your career, you need to know the different types of VO genres and categories out there.

Step 2. Know the VO Categories

To keep things simple, we divide VO in three main categories based on the type of performance and skills required.

The first category is character VO, which includes genres like live-action and animation dubbing, ADR, and voices and dubbing for video games. This category calls for serious acting skills and voice versatility, and often the abilities to mimic the delivery of reference audio files and to work with certain time constraints or lip-synch.

The second category is commercial VO, which includes radio jingles, TV and online ads and promos, and certain marketing videos. Talents are generally asked to communicate with personality to get a message across or compel the audience to buy a product. Commercial recording sessions are tricky because talents may receive notes not only from the director, but also from the advertising rep and end client who often attend the recording. Talents have to be ready to adapt their delivery to subtle directions like: “Try to sound less announcery,” or “I want to hear you smile.”

The final category is narration, which encompasses three main subcategories: educational narration (e-learning, audio guides, etc.), corporate narration (training modules, corporate videos, IVR, etc.), and narrative (documentaries, audio description, audiobooks, etc.). Talents are usually asked to tone down their acting, to avoid being excessively emphatic, and to understand and adapt to subtle differences between projects. Scripts are long and may contain difficult or uncommon words. Therefore, reading with few mistakes and catching your own errors is crucial. Clear standard diction and an engaging tone are a must.

What VO genres would you like to pursue? If your goals and interests as a VO actor are not in line with your strengths as a talent, the next step to consider is coaching and training. 

Step 3. Get the Training that’s Right for You

Once you’ve measured your skills against the different VO genres and you know where you want to take your career as a VO talent, it’s time to find the training and coaching that’s right for you. 

There are plenty of opportunities to self-coach, take free online lessons and workout on your own. But the right instructor will personalize the vocal techniques to your individual needs, provide valuable consulting, and help you find your voice. Acting schools and VO training programs allow you to be in the booth, acquire professional automatisms, get outside your comfort zone, socialize with fellow actors, and receive more specialized instruction. Some VO schools even offer job opportunities to actors that graduate from their programs, and very often they produce demo reels with professional audio quality for their students. These demos can become an actor’s first ‘business card’ when reaching out to talent agencies, voice banks, or recording studios.

Training is particularly important if you are new to the VO world as your first guide to navigate your new environment: the VO industry.

Step 4. Know the VO Industry

You need to know the ins and outs of your industry and the customary ways to get work. Reach out to professional industry associations and the online community, get your name on actor’s listings, and familiarize yourself with the common union and non-union rates for each genre and usage (broadcast, online, theatrical, event-based, internal, etc.). Check out useful online resources like the VoiceOverHerald, VoiceOverXtra or the VoiceOverResourceGuide, particularly if you are located in Los Angeles or New York. Compile a guide of casting services, voice over agents, unions, demo producers, and professional VO studios. If your goal is to have a career in commercial VO, you may want to consider getting an agent; however, you do not need one to get VO work. You can book gigs by auditioning directly via casting services such as LA Casting or Backstage, or by submitting your demo to professional recording studios such as JBI Studios.

And, if you don’t have one already, contact a demo producer and invest in a good demo. This is your number one asset as a professional VO actor; it is the equivalent of your business card. Demos should be category-specific; that is, you should have a character demo, a narration/corporate demo, and a commercial demo. You need a good demo to send to studios, casting sites, casting directors, and even to agents if you choose to get representation.

Step 5. Market Yourself and Be Professional

Regardless of your initial skill level, you need to appear professional at first glance; otherwise your demo will not be considered. 

Ideal candidates are specific and concise in their submission and provide a brief description of their voice and experience. They also provide a link to their personal webpage or demo site, such as SoundCloud or YouTube. On average, casting directors, agents and talent managers spend only a few minutes viewing your website and only listen to the first few seconds of a demo. Therefore, avoid slating or having long musical introductions, and make sure your skills stand out from the very beginning. 

Finally, professional VO talents are responsive, brief and they follow instructions. If asked for a custom audition, they provide a perfect read of the audition text. Even the best voices may get rejected if they interpret the audition script rather than reading it as it is. Questions about delivery or potential script issues are welcome. A freestyle or flawed read is not. 

The voice is the most powerful human communication tool. If you wish to use it for a living, follow these five steps and you’ll be on the road to success in your VO acting career. 

A few references:
How to Become a Voice Over Artist, by Natalie Roers
How to Start and Build a SIX FIGURE Voice Over Business: Set Your VO Career on Fire!, by Bill DeWees
More Than Just a Voice: The REAL Secret to VoiceOver Success, by Dave Courvoisier
Talking Funny for Money: An Introduction to the Cartoon/Character/Looping Area of Voice-Overs Book, by Pamela Lewis
The Art of Voice Acting: The Craft and Business of Performing for Voiceover, by James Alburger
Voiceovers: Everything You Need to Know About How to Make Money With Your Voice, by Terri Apple
Voice Over LEGAL, by Robert J. Sciglimpaglia Jr.