Understanding your casting bracket as an actor is important to ensure you are booking the right roles. Wait a minute! I am a voice actor, why am I reading an article about an actor's casting bracket? That is a great question, and the answer is because the same applies to you. A casting bracket is the typical role as an actor you will get booked for. A tall, attractive, masculine man may get booked for a superhero role. Whereas it is unlikely they are going to get booked as the super nerd of an organization. Meanwhile, the thin, glasses, skinny male with his hair scraped back is likely to book the super nerd role and not the superhero role.
Does the same thing happen in voiceover? Well, not completely, but it does happen. If you are famously known for character voices you may be picking up less narration and more animation. On the same note, if you are known as a prolific narrator you may not get cast for many animations. At the same time, it is important to play to your strengths. If you have a mixed bag of animation voices, it is important that you pitch yourself well for the animation casting bracket. At the same time, if you are a clear, confident, and skilled narrator then documentaries, audiobooks, and other forms of narration might be the avenue of work you want to focus on.
Now, in voiceover, you are not judged by how you look but instead by what you can do vocally. So, in theory, you can be a short skinny person who can play a convincing, powerful, and impactful hero character stereotype. Whereas it is nearly impossible for this to happen on TV. But the casting bracket still gets captured in voice acting via the demos. Unlike the world of acting where compilation demos are normal. In voiceover, a specific demo for each sub-genre of the industry will be required. The talented character crafter may develop an animation demo whilst the hard-core narrator may produce a narration demo.
The most important thing is knowing your strengths and weaknesses. If a particular style is your strength, then utilize it to make money and pay the bills. The end goal is to work right? If you enjoy it, then this is even better because you are doing what you love. But if your heart is in another genre, you can use your newfound income to continue growing and learning. You can develop a skill set in other areas of voiceover it just requires time and dedication. It is very normal for voice actors to nail multiple genres. You may hear a voice actor who typically does audiobooks delivering an incredible video game performance. Or you may see a gifted character voice actor who normally does animations finding themselves enjoying the slower pace of an audiobook. You have the freedom to go in whatever direction you want.
Knowing Your Casting Bracket by Alan Shires
Voice Actor