Welcome to episode 173 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 actress and voice director, Lisa Ortiz! Lisa has worked on such seminal anime series as Record of Lodoss War, The Slayers, Revolutionary Girl Utena, and the Irresponsible Captain Tylor. She’s also played many characters in Pokemon in addition to voice directing over 150 episodes of the show! Lisa and I started voice acting in anime in the late 1990’s, but whereas I moved to Los Angeles in late 2001, Lisa has only recently moved to LA in late 2019 after having spent the previous years pursuing voice acting and voice directing in New York City! I’ve been eager to get Lisa on the podcast to share her East Coast perspective on voice acting for those of my listeners who may reside closer to the Big Apple than to Southern California!

As we dive deeper into our discussion, I ask what inspired Lisa to become a performer in the first place. It turns out we both got into acting for very similar reasons! Lisa’s primary motivation for pursuing acting was to understand people better. She was shy when she was young and found acting to be a useful way to help her understand other people’s psychologies and motivations. I too was an incredibly shy person who didn’t always understand the emotional physics of how people related to each other. Role playing as different characters in different situations gave me a safe space to explore both my own psyche, as well as the psychology of other people so I could relate to them more effectively.

Another huge influence on Lisa was the public library system. Her family lived on Long Island in NY when she was young and they didn’t have a large budget for entertainment. Lisa’s mother would often take her daughter to the library where Lisa was able to explore not only literature, but all the audio and video resources in the library as well, including recordings of famous Broadway shows! The public library was an invaluable resource to Lisa. It allowed her to learn about storytelling in ways that never would’ve been available to her without it. Access to such a wealth of literature, plays, and music, whetted Lisa’s appetite for more and inspired her to apply her knowledge of story to performing on stage.

As our conversation comes to a close, Lisa shares with me her advice for the aspiring voice actor, including how important it is to develop good vocal technique in order to avoid damaging the very fragile instrument that is your voice! She also stresses the importance of finding a physicality for your character. Rooting your performance in your body will always help your acting sound more authentic and less pre-meditated. Lisa’s got some great insight into the actor’s process in this episode, and I’m eager to share her wisdom with you!

Also, it turns out that the 10th anniversary of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast is rapidly approaching! I released my first episode way back on July 1st, 2011, and it has always been my goal to provide the most concise and useful content when it comes to this topic that we all love.

In honor of the podcast’s 10th anniversary, I would so appreciate it if any of my listeners would be willing to call in and leave a message about how Voice Acting Mastery has influenced your own acting journey or any other part of your life. I’d like to feature some of these messages and respond to them in the 10th anniversary episode in July.

You can leave a voicemail by calling 323-696-2655. Please remember to state your first name and what city in the world you’re calling from before leaving your message. Thanks again for listening and as always, I wish you all the best in your voice acting endeavors. Take care!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #173 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 172 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 voice actress and voice director, Lisa Ortiz! It’s a real honor to have Lisa on the podcast since she played the lead character, Lina Inverse, in the first anime series I ever worked on as a voice actor, The Slayers! You may also know Lisa as the voice of Deedlit in the anime series Record of Lodoss War, Amy Rose in the Sonic X Animated Series, and numerous characters in both the Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh anime franchises! Lisa has also voice directed many animated series and games including over 150 episodes of Pokemon!

Lisa and I both got our start as voice actors in the late 1990s in New York City, but it wasn’t long before our paths ended up diverging! In November of 2001 I moved to Los Angeles while Lisa stayed in New York in order to pursue voice over opportunities there. For the next 18 years, we both worked as voice actors on opposite coasts of the country, until late 2019 when Lisa decided to make the move to Los Angeles herself. I’ve been eager to chat with her about what the voice over industry has been like in New York while I was gone, and what insights she can share for those of my listeners who may live closer to The Big Apple than Southern California!

We begin our discussion by reminiscing about our time working on the Slayers. Back then, the anime dubbing industry in New York City was just getting started and the two of us got in on the “ground floor” so to speak. While we both had theatrical acting training, learning how to perform in a small recording booth without a scene partner and matching the lip flap of a character on a video screen was a new challenge for us. We were often figuring out our dubbing technique on the fly and learning from each other as we went! Both of us relied on our theater training to help us find a physicality for our characters which helped our performances sound more authentic and believable. It also helped us avoid stiff or awkward line readings.

Strangely enough, pursuing a career as a voice actor might never have happened for Lisa if she hadn’t woken up one morning and found that her car had gone missing! Her efforts to track down her car, and the serendipitous adventures that followed, eventually led to her being able to audition for her first anime dubbing job. In fact, the more you learn about Lisa’s journey as a voice actor, the more you’ll hear how much serendipity has played an important role in the development of her career! Her success hasn’t all been due to mere luck, however. As the saying goes, luck is when preparation meets opportunity and Lisa has always been very committed to being as prepared as possible! Even with all her experience, she’s still eager to learn more and develop her acting skills even further. I really admire her commitment to the craft of acting. It’s a pleasure to have her on the podcast and I’m so happy that I get to share her story with you!

Also, it turns out that the 10th anniversary of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast is rapidly approaching! I released my first episode way back on July 1st, 2011, and it has always been my goal to provide the most concise and useful content when it comes to this topic that we all love.

In honor of the podcast’s 10th anniversary, I would so appreciate it if any of my listeners would be willing to call in and leave a message about how Voice Acting Mastery has influenced your own acting journey or any other part of your life. I’d like to feature some of these messages and respond to them in the 10th anniversary episode in July.

You can leave a voicemail by calling 323-696-2655. Please remember to state your first name and what city in the world you’re calling from before leaving your message. Thanks again for listening and as always, I wish you all the best in your voice acting endeavors. Take care!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #172 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 169 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 the multi-talented, Zehra Fazal! Zehra has worked on well known animated shows including Young Justice, Voltron: Legendary Defender, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. She’s also worked extensively in games including Destiny 2: Beyond Light, Borderlands 3, and Apex Legends. Zehra works as an on-camera actor as well and has been featured in shows like How to Get Away with Murder and Lucifer. As if that weren’t enough, Zehra is also fluent in Japanese and her studies in Japanese language and culture eventually led to her interning at the Takarazuka Revue, a famous all female theater troupe in Japan. Zehra brings a wide range of acting experience to all of her performances and I’m so grateful to have her as as guest on the podcast!

In the previous episode, Zehra shared with us how she got started as a performer. Ever since she was little, she had always been fascinated with language. This helped inspire her not only to audition for and perform in plays at her school’s theater, but she also participated in speech and debate contests as well. Eventually, her appreciation for comics and animation led her to a convention for the Disney animated series, Gargoyles, where she gave an impressive performance in a staged radio play that took place at the event. The producer of Gargoyles, Greg Weisman, suggested that she might have a future as a voice actor. While she appreciated his compliment at the time, it wasn’t until many years later, once she had graduated college and worked extensively in theater in the Washington D.C. area, that she eventually decided to move to Los Angeles in order to pursue both voice acting and on-camera acting.

In part 2 of our discussion, I ask Zehra what inspired her to become an actor in the first place. She acknowledges that it wasn’t so much a conscious decision on her part, but more of an irresistible compulsion! Being the youngest of 4 daughters, Zehra had to master verbal communication skills at a very young age, just to get a word in edgewise! She also had to learn to empathize with the adults around her which helped her relate to others on a deeper emotional level. This allowed her to bring more authenticity to her acting since she had become good at seeing the world through other people’s eyes. We also discuss the challenges she faces being a woman of color trying to pursue acting in a primarily white cultural environment. Then we do a deep dive into her passion for the Takarazuka Revue, a theater troupe that has not only been deeply inspiring to Zehra but was also hugely influential on the god of anime and manga himself, Osamu Tezuka. After that, we wrap up our talk with Zehra’s advice to the aspiring voice actor. I truly appreciate Zehra’s honesty and vulnerability and I’m excited to share more of her story with you!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #169 Here (MP3)

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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 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)