Voiceover: How Did You DO It??

Rolf Veldman is CEO of Voice123, the world's first and largest online marketplace for professional voice actors. In this in-depth conversation, we delve into the hot-button issues and changes that are already happening in the voiceover industry regarding AI, TTS, and Pay-to-Plays, and how they might play out in the future. I found Rolf to have a very detailed, nuanced understanding of the industry, its future, and V123's place in it. Please note that this interview was before the merger with Backstage.

Alessandra is all things creative. A voice actor, vocalist, bass player and producer. From creating characters at the age of three, to singing in front of large groups at thirteen, she knew her place was on stage, in the studio, and on camera. Growing up in a musical family helped, as weekends were spent having family jam sessions. Soon after her completing degree in studio music, she landed a gig singing with Ben Folds and the Pittsburgh Symphony, sang for Radio City Music Hall as a Rockette, and sang on My Brightest Diamond's album “This is My Hand.” Studio singing quickly opened up the doors for her as a voice actor, with clients such as Google, Starbucks, Verizon, LEGO, Target, Aflac, Cinnabon, Hello Fresh, Ketel One Vodka, Hasbro, Amazon, Fidelity, iHeartRadio and many others.

Morgan Berry

With over twenty years as a professional voice actor, J. Michael Collins has worked with some of the biggest companies, brands, sports leagues, and organizations on the planet. In addition to his work in the classic, agency-based world of VO, J. Michael has established himself as a leading authority in the online casting marketplace and has become recognized as an industry leading voice talent coach and demo producer as well. J. Michael is a 38 time Voice Arts Award winner as a voice actor, demo producer, script writer, and casting director.

Khristine Hvam is an award winning audiobook narrator, producer, director, and voice over actress. You will hear her in TV/Radio commercials, video games, animated series, and most notably in over 375 audio book titles. Khristine has been honored with four Audio Publishers Association Audie Awards. AudioFile Magazine has awarded her eight of its Earphone Awards for her performances. She's a proud mom of two!

Dave Fennoy has been a preeminent voice working in Los Angeles since 1990 and one of the most versatile voices in the industry providing voices for Commercials, Narrations, TV Promos, Award Shows, Animation and Games. Mr. Fennoy is a sought-after VO instructor, and the subject of a chapter in the book “Secrets of Voiceover Success” by Joan Baker.

Her video game voice work includes protagonist Special Agent Vera Englund in Whispers of a Machine, Viv Vision in Marvel Avengers Academy, and characters in Unavowed, Lamplight City, The Vortex, Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff, Organ Quarter, and many others. Ivy also voices Minthe and Iris in the animated web series Gods'School. Ivy's commercial voice over clients include Aquaphor, Sam's Club, Sesame, Stashable, and more.

David is one of the top voiceover coaches in the business today. He works with clients worldwide and has helped many people get their starts or further their careers in the industry. In his 25 years of teaching and coaching, David has been a private coach to celebrities, and to up and coming voice actors who are definitely on their way. He is also a casting director for games, game apps, and cartoons, as well as a voice director for a number of cartoon series.

She teaches for Voice Actors of NYC, is on the faculty of the Tom Toddoroff Conservatory, has been a guest teacher for NYU Voice Over program, and has taught at the SAG-AFTRA foundation. As an actor Anna has decades of experience as a VO artist. She can currently be heard voicing the character of PALMON on the DIGIMON animated series as well as Selby the bear on the animated series KIOKA. Anna was nominated best character voice actor for her role as Kiera in the PlayStation games Jak and Daxter 1 and 2 by the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences.

Robb is a successful, and currently, working Voice Over Talent and Coach who specializes in both Spanish and English commercial work. With over a decade of acting training through the Fame School of the Arts and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, his acting pursuits in theater took him to the world of voice over, where being bilingual has truly paid off for him and his clients. Robb is currently the voice of “Pushy the Push Pop” in the US and Canada, and has worked commercially with McDonald's, Lunazul Tequila, Pepsi, National Geographic, Fisher Price, AT&T and most recently campaigns with Giorgio Armani in English and Yves Saint Laurent in Spanish.

Today's guest is the amazing Jim Conroy, commercial, animation, and game voice actor, commercial actor, film and tv actor, voice of Ameritrade, and many other brands over the 20 years he's been doing this, not to mention dozens of celebrity impersonations on Celebrity Death Match. He's known for appearing on television shows, such as Celebrity Deathmatch, Kenny the Shark and Fetch! with Ruff Ruffman, as well as numerous radio commercials and video games. He has worked for WGBH, The Walt Disney Company and Discovery Channel. He's been in Curious George, Ice Age: Continental Drift, Grand Theft Autio IV & V, Star Wars: The Old Republic, and many more.

Kira Buckland is a Los Angeles-area voiceover actress providing voices for video games, animation, anime and dubbing, commercials, corporate narration, phone messaging, toys and children's media, arcade machines, educational apps, text-to-speech and artificial intelligence, promos, and more. She records from both home and in-studio, and continues to be hired by a variety of repeat clients around the world for her versatility in voices and styles.

Tom is a New York based voice actor who has been in the business since 2017. He is currently represented by Stewart Talent and has worked with clients such as AT&T, Heineken, Nickelodeon, IBM, and McDonald's to name a few. He loves VO because no two gigs are ever alike! I mean what job allows you to be a dinosaur in a kid's show and then talk about the Nintendo Switch in a commercial? All in the same day?!

Sam is an experienced and professional voice actor based in New York City. Her work can be heard in almost every genre of voiceover, including, commercials, narration, eLearning, animation, video games, audiobooks, voicemail/IVR, and everything in between. She's a proud cabinet member of the best group on the internet, Voice Actors of NYC. In her free time, Sam loves to make pottery, cook complicated recipes, and dance to funky beats.

Battled stuttering, stammering, and a lisp. Fell into broadcasting at age 17 after going through speech therapy as a tween. Working in broadcasting since 1994, first paid VO gig in 1996. Mel has been a writer, producer, production director, and coach for radio, television and voice over. Currently a working voice over talent and the host of the AnyVoices Podcast at AnyVoices.com and voice overs at TheRealVoice.com

Maria Pendolino is an award-winning professional female voiceover actor. Maria has been a professional working actor for more than fifteen years, Maria's vocal style is real, conversational, authentic, natural, friendly, relatable and sassy. Trained in musical theatre, film, television and voice, Maria's delivery is youthful and on-trend – perfect to represent and speak to Millennials and Generation X. Accolades include winning the 2017 and 2018 Voice Arts Award for Best Voiceover Performance in the e-learning and consumer sales video categories. She was also nominated in the radio imaging category. Maria was also awarded the 40 Under 40 Award in 2020 by Business First Biz Journals. In 2020, she was nominated for a German Computer Game Award as part of the Prim Adventure Game team.

Dee started in radio many years ago, learning his VO and engineering chops.  He has over 20 years of experience recording & producing for local businesses as well as large corporations and has hundreds of clients in over 50 countries doing commercial, animation, games, eLearning, narration, and just about anything else clients need, including advanced editing.   In this episode, we talk music, nerd out on equipment, and get into the nitty gritty of VO.

Lisa Biggs is a voice actor, coach, demo producer, and so much more! People gave Lisa a hard time about her "squeaky" voice since she was a kid. After giving an oral presentation as a sophomore in college, she was approached by a professor who said, "Your presentation was great, but if anyone is ever going to take you seriously in the real world you're going to have to do something about your voice”. And that's exactly what Lisa did. Now, she's a professional voiceover talent, hired by top brands for Commercials, Toy Voices, Promos, Animated Series, Character & Gaming Voices, Elf Imaging, K12 eLearning and so much more!

His clients include Nutrisystem, Uber, Cadillac, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, Green Dot Bank, Zillow, Wrangler, Microsoft, Amazon, John Deere, Sears, 4Ocean, and Michelob, among others. Joshua has done radio broadcasting, PSA's, and video production incorporating voice acting work in a career serving clients all over the world.  He's also done jingles, because he used to be a singer. Joshua has a storied career from the comfort of his home, and he loves what he does.  He truly lives to serve, because being chosen is very important to him.

Anne Ganguzza is a long time voice talent, voiceover coach, and demo producer. Her voiceover experience includes corporate and industrial narration, e-learning and online learning tutorials, voicemail, IVR, on-hold messaging,  commercials, infomercials,  live broadcasts, government & educational promotional videos and advertising, and so much more!

Steve French has been in voiceover for over a decade. He's been a promo voice for NASCAR and narrated nature documentaries for National Geographic. He's a game show announcer (Match Game) and an Undead Drust Monster (World of Warcraft). He's given voice to the Armor All Viking, and an animatronic purple koala (Netflix's Maniac). He's voiced spooky movie trailers (Phantasm Remastered) and delightfully silly commercials (Purina Busy dog treats). He's also the voice of the promo spots for The Mandalorian.

Voice President of Cashman Commercials, Marc creates and produces music and copy advertising for Radio, TV and Internet, and has won over 150 advertising awards, including the prestigious CLIO, on behalf of hundreds of ad agencies and clients across the country.

Debra Sperling has been a professional voiceover artist for over 25 years. Over that time, she has been the voice of National Television Campaigns such as: Cascade, Pampers, Charmin, Maybelline, Listerine, JC Penny, Folgers, Kohler, Ibrance, Brookside Chocolates, Johnson and Johnson, and many more. Debra is also a huge player in the promo world, having been The Voice of WEtv and The Oxygen Network, as well as ongoing gigs for numerous other networks such as NBC, USA, The Smithsonian Channel, HBO, and many more. Debra makes an incredible living solely from voiceovers, and has for over 25 years! I sat down with Debra to find out how she did it.

As a New York-based voice actor with over 20 years of experience, Tom has narrated thousands of projects for hundreds of clients in over a dozen countries. His experience as a corporate trainer as well as a voice talent make me uniquely qualified to help both aspiring and veteran voice talents navigate the voiceover industry.

Carin Gilfry is an experienced voice actor who voiced thousands of commercials, instructional videos, IVR systems, eLearning programs, documentaries, and video games, and narrated and produced over 100 audiobooks. Her past and current clients include FedEx, Citibank, Duncan Hines, Aspercreme, Quaker, Clairol, CVS, Zulily.com, Neutrogena, Benjamin Moore, GrubHub, Jakks Pacific Toys, Little Tikes, Play Doh, Denny's, Shutterfly, Audible.com, Quell, and many more.