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Welcome to episode 168 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

I’m so excited to share with you the first part of my interview with the multi-talented, Zehra Fazal! You may know Zehra from her voice acting work as Nadia Rizavi in Voltron: Legendary Defender, Halo in Season 3 of Young Justice, and Mara in She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. In games Zehra has played the voice of the Guardian in Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Amara the Siren in Borderlands 3, and the AI Announcer in Apex Legends. Zehra also performs on-camera and has appeared in shows like How to Get Away with Murder and Lucifer. In addition, Zehra is fluent in Japanese and spent part of her college years studying in Japan. Her passion for the Japanese language and for Japanese theater eventually allowed her to intern at the Takarazuka Revue, a very famous all female theatre troupe that had a big influence on Osamu Tezuka, the godfather of anime and manga! As if that weren’t enough, Zehra has also written and performed numerous one woman shows including a musical comedy about her experiences growing up as a Muslim-American of South Asian descent.

In the first part of this interview, Zehra shares with us how she got started as a voice actor. She grew up in Indiana, the youngest of 4 sisters. All of her older siblings were very intelligent, articulate, and self-possessed which meant that Zehra had to be very precocious and sophisticated in order to be able to get a word in edgewise! Her parents emphasized the importance of academic achievement, but they had an appreciation for the arts as well. One branch of her family tree had actually been heavily involved in the Indian movie industry known as Bollywood. Since communication was such an important skill to have in her family, Zehra became fascinated with talking. She got involved in speech and debate contests and also performed in many of her high school plays.

Since she was a fan of animation and comics, Zehra initially thought she would go to college to study drawing with the goal of eventually becoming a graphic artist or animator. However, a visit to an animation convention as a high school graduation present, helped change the direction of her career path. In 2001 she attended the Gathering of the Gargoyles, a convention to celebrate the Disney animated series, Gargoyles which had drawn so many fans to its mature storytelling and sophisticated themes. One of the events at the convention was a staged radio play where fans of the show would audition to play parts in an original script that the show’s producer, Greg Weismann, had written especially for the event. Zehra auditioned and was cast as the NY Detective and lead female character from the Gargoyles series, Elisa Maza. After the radio play, Greg complimented her on her performance and suggested that she seriously consider pursuing voice acting in the future. While she didn’t think much of it at the time, Greg had planted a seed in her mind that would flower many years later!

Zehra’s journey towards a professional acting career is full of interesting twists and turns. At many points along the way, it was not always clear which direction she should go next. However, she always did her best to follow her fascination and inspiration even if it took her down paths that may have seemed tangential or not obviously related to pursuing a career as an actor. But I’ll let Zehra tell you all about her serendipitous and synchronistic adventures!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #168 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 167 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

This is the second and final part of my interview with the epic voice guy himself, Jon Bailey! While Jon has worked in a number of different fields in voice over, including commercials, trailers, games, and animation, he’s probably most famous for doing the voiceover for the hit YouTube series, Honest Trailers. Jon is also a huge Transformers fan and has had the opportunity to play Optimus Prime in Transformers: Combiner Wars, as well as both Shockwave and Soundwave in the Transformers movie, Bumblebee. In addition, Jon voice matches celebrities for trailers and movies including Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and many other performers!

In the first part of our talk together, Jon shared with me his unique path for breaking into the world of voice over. Even though he grew up in Memphis, Tennessee where there were few opportunities for voice over work, his fascination with the expressive capabilities of the human voice, his willingness to attack challenges head on, and some encouragement from his wife, helped him get the attention of a studio in his area that was holding open auditions. His passion for voice acting and his prodigious abilities helped him book voice over roles much quicker than other performers at the same studio. With an entrepreneurial mindset and a willingness to think outside the box, Jon was then able to expand into other voice over marketplaces including Los Angeles where he eventually relocated with his family.

In this episode, we talk about what inspired Jon to become a voice actor in the first place. What’s interesting is that Jon doesn’t think about his desire to act in terms of formal inspiration, for him playing pretend as imaginary characters was just fun. When he was young, he often had a lot of time to himself. Being alone so much, he had to find creative ways to entertain himself. He read books, played games, and listened to music, all of which helped inspire his creativity. Often while he was reading books or listening to music, he would visualize the stories or make up images in his mind to go with the melodies he heard. This creative visualization would end up serving him very well when it came time to play pretend in imaginary worlds as a voice actor.

Jon also fell in love with the voice over introduction to the classic 1980’s cartoon, Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Later he discovered that the voice actor who performed the show’s opening narration, Peter Cullen, also played the main hero character Optimus Prime in the Transformers animated series. From then on, Jon was hooked on following voice actors and studying their performances. His ability to combine his appreciation of voice actors with his fertile imagination and creativity became a great foundation on which to build his voice acting career. In our discussion, you can hear his enthusiasm for the vast expressive capabilities of the human voice. I hope his passion inspires you to focus on the aspects of voice acting that you find most fascinating.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #167 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 166 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

Welcome to the first part of my interview with the epic voice guy himself, Jon Bailey! Since 2009, Jon has worked in a number of different fields in voice over, from commercials to trailers, from games to animation, as well as loop groups and celebrity voice matching. Jon’s resume is long and varied! You may be familiar with his work as the Council Spokesman in the XCOM game series franchise, as Optimus Prime in Transformers: Combiner Wars, and as both Shockwave and Soundwave in the Transformers movie, Bumblebee. What you may not be familiar with is the fact that Jon voice matches many celebrities when producers need either scratch tracks or replacement dialogue for trailers or even for the final movie! He’s voice matched Ryan Reynolds, Chris Hemsworth, and many other performers! In addition, Jon is famous for being the epic trailer voice guy in the hit YouTube series, Honest Trailers.

Jon and I begin our discussion by talking about how he broke into voice over. It turns out that this involved quite a bit of serendipity! Jon was born and raised in the Memphis, Tennessee area. Even though he enjoyed experimenting with his voice and mimicking other voice actors, there weren’t a lot of opportunities for professional acting work around Memphis. With the rise of social media websites, Jon’s wife became interested in building him a profile on the then highly popular website, MySpace. She put all of his favorite things on his MySpace profile including his appreciation for cartoons. Jon didn’t think much of it at the time since he didn’t find social media websites very interesting. Little did he know his MySpace profile would change his life! One day, a pop-up ad for a production house called Studio Center showed up on Jon’s screen. The studio was having open auditions for voice talent in the Memphis area. Initially, Jon thought it would probably be a waste of time to go in and audition. Fortunately his wife convinced him otherwise. She asked him what he had to lose if he did go audition for the studio. “After all,” she said, “the worst they can do is say no.” Jon took her advice to heart, went to the open call, and the studio offered to represent him as a voice talent almost immediately. In less than a month, he had booked his first job and was beginning his journey into the world of professional voice over.

I’m really excited to share Jon’s story with you because his path into voice acting was so unique. He didn’t have the advantage of living near a city that had a large voice over industry. There was no easy access to professional acting jobs in his area. In addition, he never had the opportunity to study acting in school. Instead, his fascination, enthusiasm, and tenacity helped him find his own unique way into the voice over world. Jon has a passion for the human voice and is driven to explore all of its expressive capabilities. He’s eager to learn and willing to tackle thorny problems. Whether he’s facing the challenge of how to create a certain type of voice over performance, or how to find voice over opportunities, Jon is relentless! I hope you find inspiration in his journey and his ambition!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #166 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 163 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

This is the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and video game advocate, Sarah Elmaleh! Sarah has worked on many AAA and independent video games including Gone Home, Gears 5, BioWare’s Anthem, Pyre, After Party, and For Honor. In addition to her voice acting work, Sarah also works hard to facilitate communication and collaboration between the people who perform in video games and the ones who develop them, including co-founding and co-hosting GameDev.world, a global game developer conference that strives to help game designers from different linguistic backgrounds communicate with each other in their native tongues. In addition, Sarah and I have both participated in the Interactive Committee at our Actor’s Union, SAG-AFTRA, which helps negotiate video game contracts between the union and game producers. Sarah has been instrumental in helping to create a low-budget video game contract for independent game developers who would like to work with union acting talent. I’m very grateful to Sarah for spending so much time with me on the podcast talking about her experiences in the industry, and her love of games!

In the previous episode, Sarah told us the story of her initial journey as a performer. She began dancing when she was very young, but transitioned to acting after she suffered a leg injury. During that time, she was also an enthusiastic gamer and a huge Star Wars fan. When she discovered that Mark Hamill, the same actor who played Luke Skywalker, also played the voice of Adrian Ripburger in the LucasArts game, Full Throttle, she was amazed. From that moment, she became fascinated with voice acting and began to consider that career path as a possibility. After exploring acting in theater, film and TV, she eventually decided that her true passion was for games and eventually moved out to Los Angeles to pursue voice acting full time.

In this episode, Sarah and I talk about what inspired her to become an actor. Sarah is honest and courageous enough to share with me some of her own personal struggles and how she’s learned to channel her emotional vulnerability into compelling acting performances. Like Sarah, I too was a very sensitive child who found that I could use acting as a way to explore my psyche and learn how to more effectively process my own emotions. It’s a delicate topic and I’m glad we could explore it in more depth here in this section of the interview. After that, Sarah talks about her work as an ambassador of sorts between game developers and game performers, and we end our discussion with Sarah’s advice to the aspiring voice actor. Sarah has an amazing way to speak directly to a topic with incredible thoughtfulness and rigor and I’m so happy to share her insights with you!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #163 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 162 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

Welcome to the first part of my interview with Sarah Elmaleh, who is not only an accomplished voice actor but is also a video game advocate and enthusiast! You may know Sarah from her acting roles in a myriad of AAA and independent video games including Katie in Gone Home, Lizzie in Gears 5, the Female Freelancer in BioWare’s Anthem, Tamitha in Pyre, Apollyon in After Party, and the Female Raider in For Honor. In addition to her voice acting work, Sarah is also an ambassador of sorts between the worlds of actors and game developers. She works hard to facilitate communication and collaboration between the people who perform in video games and the ones who create them. She’s been the awards director at the IndieCade festival which showcases independent games. She’s also the co-founder and co-host of GameDev.world, a global game developer conference that strives to help game designers from different linguistic backgrounds communicate with each other in their native tongues. In addition, Sarah and I have both participated in the Interactive Committee at our Actor’s Union, SAG-AFTRA, which helps negotiate video game contracts between the union and game producers. Sarah has been instrumental in helping to create a low-budget video game contract for independent game developers who would like to work with union acting talent. I thought it would be great to have Sarah on the podcast to talk about her experiences in the industry, and how her love of games helped her find her way into the world of voice acting!

In the first part of our discussion, I ask Sarah how she got started as an actor. When she was very young, she studied dance and was a ballerina. Unfortunately, she suffered an injury between 8th and 9th grade which required her to wear a leg brace. She was unable to practice ballet for an entire year and that discouraged her from pursuing dance professionally. However, with some encouragement from her mother, she decided to transition from dancing to acting. She was blessed to have attended a high school with an excellent theater department. She credits her teachers from high school for instilling in her a solid work ethic when it came to acting as well as an appreciation for how much vulnerability and honesty she needed to bring to the practice of acting. She was also really into video games as a child. Some of her favorite games were the Lucas Arts adventure games from the 1990’s including Full Throttle, Curse of Monkey Island, and Grim Fandango. She happened to be a huge Star Wars fan as well, and when she realized that Mark Hamill, the actor who played Luke Skywalker in Star Wars also played Adrian ‘Rip’ Ripburger in Full Throttle, she was blown away. Ripburger’s voice was so different from Luke Skywalker’s that she became fascinated with how Mark Hamill had changed the sound of his voice to play that role. From that moment on, voice acting for video games was something that she definitely wanted to explore. While she did continue to pursue stage and screen acting in theater, film and television, it was her love of games and her appreciation of voice acting that eventually lead her to pursue a career in voice over. But I’ll let her tell you how it all happened!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #162 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 161 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!

As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:

http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast

Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and home studio guru, Jordan Reynolds! You may be familiar with Jordan’s voice acting work on games like World of Warcraft, Fallout 76 and the new Final Fantasy 7 Remake. He’s also been in numerous anime including Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Hero Mask, and Lupin the Third. He’s done voice over for thousands of commercials and corporate videos and he even produces demos at his website, DemosWithChops.com. In addition to being an accomplished voice actor, Jordan is also extremely knowledgeable about home recording equipment and how to build an effective home studio!

In the previous episode, Jordan and I discussed how he broke into the world of voice acting. He began by learning all he could about recording equipment. He did extensive research and in relatively short order, he had built himself a professional quality home studio. However, he quickly realized that it would take more than the right equipment to become a working voice actor. He also needed to have professionally competitive acting skills. So he began taking classes from coaches who were working in the industry. He also set himself the goal of practicing voice over on a daily basis and recording everything he practiced. After a couple of months, it was eye-opening for him to go back and listen to his audio files from earlier practice sessions, and to realize just how much he had improved! Once his skills became professionally competitive, Jordan was able to combine his acting abilities with his technical knowledge and began to make money as a voice actor part-time from his home in Denver, Colorado. Later, as his client list and voice over work load increased, he eventually decided to move to Los Angeles to pursue voice acting in a bigger marketplace. I was excited to share Jordan’s experiences with my listeners, especially those who may not live in a major voice over city like LA, and who may also be trying to figure out how to create a professional quality booth at home. If you haven’t already, I highly suggest you listen to the first part of our interview, because Jordan shared some truly useful information on these topics!

As we wrap up our discussion together, I ask Jordan what inspired him to become a voice actor in the first place. Much of what drove him was the desire to be creative, especially when he saw other people expressing themselves through music or acting. Jordan and I also share what animated shows influenced our childhoods and how they shaped our pursuit of voice acting! Jordan then talks about the value of improv and how he applies his improv training to all of his voice over work. We wrap up our discussion with Jordan’s advice to the aspiring voice actor and how important it is to step outside of your comfort zone on a regular basis to make sure you keep growing and expanding your abilities! It’s a very honest and personal conversation and I’m eager to share it with all of you. Let’s dive in!

If you are interested in hiring Jordan to help you with your own home recording setup, you can visit him at JordanAudio.ninja and make an appointment online!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #161 Here (MP3)