How To Become A Voice Actor (2024)

Voice acting is indeed a sought-after profession, offering a blend of creativity and flexibility. However, it’s essential to understand the intricacies and demands of the job before pursuing it as a career. Let’s delve deeper into what it means to be a voice actor, along with its benefits and drawbacks, to help you make an informed decision.

**What is a Voice Actor and What Do They Do?**

A voice actor is a performer who lends their voice to characters, narrations, commercials, animations, audiobooks, video games, and educational content. Their primary role is to convey emotions and portray characters convincingly through voice alone. This requires strong acting skills, versatility, and the ability to express a wide range of emotions effectively.

Voice actors may engage in various tasks, including mimicking voices, portraying multiple characters, and adapting their voice to suit different projects’ requirements. Continuous training and practice are necessary to hone these skills and deliver high-quality performances consistently.

**Advantages of Being a Voice Actor:**

1. **Work From Home:** Voice actors have the flexibility to work from home, setting up their own studios to record and deliver voiceovers remotely.
2. **Flexibility:** Voice acting offers flexibility in terms of working hours, allowing individuals to manage their schedules according to their preferences and commitments.
3. **Good Earning Potential:** With lucrative projects like animation films and commercials, voice actors have the potential to earn a substantial income while enjoying a flexible work environment.

**Disadvantages of Being a Voice Actor:**

1. **Unsteady Work:** Voice acting may involve irregular work opportunities, leading to periods of unemployment or limited projects.
2. **Heavy Competition:** The profession is highly competitive, requiring voice actors to continuously strive for excellence and stand out among peers.
3. **Financial Investment:** Setting up a home recording studio can be costly initially, requiring significant financial investment in equipment and soundproofing.
4. **Voice Maintenance:** Voice actors must prioritize vocal health and hygiene, which may involve lifestyle adjustments and avoiding certain foods or habits that could affect their voice quality.

Before embarking on a career in voice acting, aspiring individuals should carefully weigh these pros and cons and consider whether they align with their goals and lifestyle. While voice acting offers creative fulfillment and potential financial rewards, it also requires dedication, resilience, and continuous self-improvement to succeed in a competitive industry.

1. Take Acting Classes

One of the first steps that you need to take to become a voice actor is to take acting classes. As we have said earlier, one needs to be a good actor to become a voice actor. You will need to express the emotions and feelings that your character is going through. And even though you would be narrating a play, story, or tale, you need to have a good command of your voice as it would be expressing everything and connecting to the audience. By taking an acting class, you would learn how to express and act which would ultimately help you to become a good actor.

2. Hire a Voice Acting Coach

The second and most important thing you need to do to become a voice actor is to hire a voice acting coach. It is an important step and you can’t miss it either.

The catch would teach you how to act through your voice and how to have a proper command over your voice while you are giving voice to different characters. He would also teach you other valuable lessons and techniques. This would include having control over breathing, pronunciation, articulation, and delivery. You can’t know all these things on your own and would need an expert to teach you.

3. Listen to Professionals

One of the other things that would help you become a voice actor is to listen to the professionals. You should make a habit of listening to professional voice actors. This would include watching animated movies, commercials, movies that are dubbed in other languages and are narrated. Make sure you know how important it is to sound genuine and how you should sound when you are delivering dialogues. Listening to professionals would certainly help you to become a good voice actor.

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4. Record Your Voice as a Demo

One of the things you should do is to record your voice and see how you sound. A voice-over demo would give you an idea of your acting skills and the delivery of your voice. This would help you know your strengths and weaknesses so you can work on these things. You should try recording for different characters and perform different scenarios that require different approaches, different emotions, and dialogue delivery from you. Try out comic, emotional, and angry sounds for different characters.

Apart from this, it would be like an audition which you can send to different agencies or people who are looking for a voice actor.

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5. Keep Practicing

As an artist, you have to keep practicing and make sure you never leave your practice session. This would help you to become a good voice actor and perfect your performances and improve your talent. Keep making notes, practicing the vocal delivery, and working on your acting skills as well. You should leave practice even when you become a well-established voice actor.

6. Find Your Specialty

Since there are many areas where you can showcase your talent and be a voice actor. So you should be looking for a specialty too. Decide in which area you work in. There are many choices such as in commercials, animations, movies, dubbing artists, narration, and so on. You can also decide which kind of role suits your voice the most, such as a protagonist, villain, or comical roles.

To Get a Job As Voice Actor

Now that you have become a voice actor and know what it would be like being a voice actor, you should now work on getting a job and your first break as a voice actor. To get a job, you need to follow these steps:

7. Going to Auditions

Like the acting jobs, you would be going on different auditions as well. So you have to keep in mind that you would have to take a lot of auditions before you finally get your first break. Make sure you go to auctions for the roles that suit your abilities and strengths. So avoid going for auditions for the role that you can’t perform well. Know what you are best at and keep going for the audition for similar approaches.

Keep looking for auditions via the internet or acting agencies, whatever works best for you. You have to know about the auditions so that you don’t miss an opportunity. When you go for an audition, make sure you have practiced enough and are ready for the role. Also, dress appropriately and keep your appearance in the mind as well.

8. Build a Network

One of the other things that would help you to get more projects and voice acting jobs would be building a network for yourself. You should know who is hiring and which people would help you to get the jobs. It is a two-way street and you have to keep building connections and approaching the people to build a good network.

9. Find an Agency

There are multiple talent agencies that help aspiring artists to showcase their talent and make a mark in the industry. They would help you to get the job by providing you with the auditions and marketing you as well. It is important that you hire a talent agent who will take your career to the next level and help you to become a professional voice actor.

10. Make a Portfolio and Resume

Make sure you have a portfolio and a resume ready so that you can distribute them among the hiring agents. You should make sure that your portfolio and resume are well written and showcase your talent and expertise. It would be like having a resume for a regular job. Include a demo reel in it if you can.

How Much A Voice Actor Makes?

It is one of the most asked questions when it comes to choosing voice acting. The basic per hour rate is approx £250 per hour. It may vary slightly depending on the project and your location. Overall it would be a freelance career so how much you make would directly depend on the projects you would get.

Conclusion

Ending the article on a note of encouragement and realism, highlighting both the challenges and rewards of pursuing a career in voice acting is a thoughtful approach. It acknowledges the uncertainties of the profession while also inspiring readers to pursue their passion and talent. Thanking the audience for their attention and expressing hope that the article has provided valuable insights adds a courteous and conclusive touch.