Welcome to episode 178 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 actor, film actor, writer, comedian, and all around wonderful guy, Feodor Chin. You may be familiar with Feo’s voice over work as Mudmug in World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria, Harunobu Adachi in Ghosts of Tsushima, Lee Sin in League of Legends, and one of my personal favorites, Zenyatta in Overwatch. In animation he’s worked on Cartoon Network’s Regular Show and on-camera he’s worked on TV shows such as Nash Bridges, The Mindy Project, and Jane the Virigin. As of this episode he’s also narrated or contributed narration to over 100 different audiobooks! Feo has worked as a performer in so many different mediums and he brings a great perspective to the challenges of sustaining a career as a working actor.

In this episode, I begin by asking Feo how he got his start as an actor. When he was in high school, Feo saw Dustin Hoffman’s performance as the character Willie Lowman in the movie adaptation of Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman. Feo was so fascinated by Hoffman’s ability to transform into a different character that he wanted to explore that sort of transformational acting himself. So he decided to pursue acting in any way he could. He started taking drama classes and auditioning for the plays at his school. He also joined his school’s forensics and debate team in order to gain more experience with public speaking.

When it was time for him to apply to college, Feo had to balance his personal desire to pursue acting with his family’s expectations. Feo grew up in San Francisco and his family wanted him to attend college somewhere in his home state of California. They also hoped that Feo would major in a subject that would serve as a good foundation for a financially stable career such as being a doctor or a lawyer. In an attempt to satisfy both his parent’s desires and his own, Feo applied and was accepted to UCLA, initially as a design major. Not long after his matriculation at UCLA, the school dissolved the design department so Feo switched his major to communications. Attending college in Los Angeles allowed him to explore acting possibilities there as well as to build up a network of friends that would be helpful to his career in the future. By majoring in communications instead of acting, he mollified his parents’ concerns, while at the same time giving himself the opportunity to take as many acting classes as possible.

After graduating college, Feo moved home to San Francisco to explore acting opportunities in the bay area. He spent many years there taking the time to build up his skills and his resume until he felt that he could compete in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles. I advised my listeners to do the same way back in episode 18 of the podcast where I suggest that it’s wise to exhaust all of the acting opportunities in your local area first before moving to a bigger marketplace! Feo moved to LA in August of 2001 and has been a working actor ever since.

What I love about Feo’s journey is how practically minded it is. Feo was willing to put in the time and effort to do unglamorous things like looking for auditions in trade newspapers, printing and mailing out headshots and resumes, and diligently following up with casting directors to keep them aware of his talents and his marketability. He understood that succeeding as an actor didn’t mean suddenly getting discovered by some casting director or producer. Instead he did his homework consistently until he was able to create an acting career for himself. It’s wonderful to hear from an accomplished journeyman actor like him and I hope you find his insights as practical and useful as I have!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #178 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 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 150 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 inspiring Maryann Strossner! In the last episode, Maryann talked about how she got started as an actress in New York in the 1960s, even though her parents did not approve of her pursuing a career as a performer. We also discussed how she transitioned from stage work to voice over work when she moved to Los Angeles in 1977. After arriving in Hollywood, one of her first theatrical acting jobs was working with the Variety Arts Radio Theater Company of LA which produced old time radio dramas on stage in front of a live audience. She also started working on audiobooks for Scholastic around that time as well. During the 1990s she moved around to different places in order to take care of family members. Eventually, she returned to Los Angeles and picked up her acting career where she left off doing commercials, films, and TV projects. However, it wasn’t until she reached her 70s that she started pursuing voice acting in animation and video games. In 2016 she was cast as Granny Marl in Blizzard Entertainment’s World of Warcraft game franchise. Now, she is probably most famous for her work in 2018 as Scrollsage Nola, the kind, grandmotherly turtle creature who lives in the land of the Tortollans. Maryann’s journey really shows that it’s never too late to pursue your voice acting dreams!

In the second part of our interview, I ask Maryann what inspired her to become an actress in the first place. We discuss some of her early childhood memories of going to see Broadway shows with her mother and falling in love with the world of the theater. We also talk more about her parents objections to her pursuing an acting career and the fact that her mother had artistic aspirations of her own that she never fulfilled. Then Maryann shares some details about the acting training that she got from her cousin, a theatrical director, whose special method of teaching Maryann was very applicable to voice acting. And finally, Maryann gives us her advice for aspiring voice actors and about how important it is not to wait to do what you want to do, but to just get out there and do it! So without further ado, here’s Maryann.

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #150 Here (MP3)

Welcome to episode 149 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 a truly unique guest, Maryann Strossner! Maryann has acted on stage and done voice over work on both the East and West Coast of the United States since the 1960’s! She was born in 1940 and started acting professionally in her 20’s in New York City. In 1977, she moved to Los Angeles where she continued to pursue theater in addition to working with the Variety Arts Radio Theater Company of LA. While she received rave reviews in the New York Times for her stage acting, and worked in voice over not only in Los Angeles, but in North Carolina as well, she recently became famous for her voice acting work in the online video game, World of Warcraft! Her first character for the franchise was Granny Marl in 2016, but she became a fan favorite when she voiced the gentle and caring Scrollsage Nola in 2018! In the game, if you visit the land of the Tortollans who are a turtle-like race in World of Warcraft, you are greeted by Nola who asks you to protect newly born turtles from predators as the baby turtles crawl from their hatching places on the beach and work their way towards the safety of the ocean. When you succeed, she exclaims, “A turtle made it to the water!”.

Maryann’s performance as Nola was so charming, that she became a sort of grandmother figure to the players of World of Warcraft. In 2018, Maryann was a guest at Blizzcon where she recited her famous lines on stage to great applause. In fact, these lines have become such a meme that someone has turned them into a song. Here’s a clip of it from YouTube!

I first met Maryann back in 2014 when she took some of my voice acting classes. I was not only impressed with her work in class, but also with the fact that she was jumping into the world of animation and video games as an older actress. Most people who enjoy animation and games tend to be of a younger generation, and often my class is filled with these young people. However, recently at conventions, I have been asked by more mature adults whether I think they are too old to voice act. Now, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for a while, you probably already know that my answer is that it’s never “too late” to pursue your voice acting dreams as long as you’re truly passionate about voice acting. But rather than simply trying to reassure any of you out there who are thinking of getting into voice acting later in life, I thought it would be even better to share a real-life success story! It is my honor to bring Maryann here on the podcast to share her experiences and talk about what it’s been like for her to start voice acting in animation and games in her 70’s!

We begin by exploring how she became an actor in the first place. While she discovered at a young age that she was fascinated with acting, her parents did not approve of her pursuing a career as an actress. They were immigrants to America who had weathered many challenges in their lives. They wanted their daughter to have an easier life than they had experienced, and they saw acting as not only economically unstable, but morally questionable as well. In the face of such resistance, Maryann had to find her own way to accomplish her career goals. She kept her dreams of being an actress to herself until she had the opportunity to move out on her own with her older cousin, Nancy, who just happened to be a theater director! Nancy coached Maryann privately as she began her acting career in New York City. From there, Maryann’s journey as an actress went to many interesting places and I’m eager to have her tell you all about it!

Download Voice Acting Mastery Episode #149 Here (MP3)