My journey into voiceover began in 2021, during my first year of college. At the time, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life. That same year, Tales of Arise was released, and I decided to check it out. It was during this time that the idea of becoming a voice actor as a career option hit me for the first time.
I’ve always loved video games. I’ve been a gamer my whole life, completely immersed in these incredible worlds. They’ve always inspired me, and I knew I wanted to be part of the gaming industry in some way. Tales of Arise stars Ray Chase—one of, if not my favorite voice actor—which was probably a big reason I picked up the game in the first place. While it’s far from my all-time favorite game, I know for certain that it ignited some voiceover spark within me.
Fast-forward about six months later, and I really needed to figure out what I was going to do. I was majoring in sociology, but I wasn’t passionate about it. My parents wanted me to have a plan and even pushed me to get a part-time job so I’d have something beyond school. That wasn’t something I wanted to do, so I started researching voiceover—learning about scripts, demos, and acting.
At the time, I was living with three roommates, which made it difficult to practice and record. When I first started, recording felt embarrassing. I was unconsciously holding back because I didn’t want to annoy, bother, or wake up those around me. Obviously, this wasn’t an ideal way to practice, but over time, I got more comfortable. Eventually, I put together a short reel of different character voices as I was learning. Spoiler alert: it sucked.
When I went home for spring break, I told my mom I wanted to pursue voice acting. She wasn’t sold on the idea. She thought voiceover was only for celebrities and famous actors, but she was willing to support me. A few months later, I started looking into voiceover schools and coaching programs and found one that seemed like a great fit. With my parents’ support, I enrolled in a commercial and animation training program.
It started with weekly commercial coaching sessions. Part of the program included some basic voiceover equipment, which I used to get started. Coaching was something I needed—and honestly, I think everyone does. Looking back at my early recordings, I can hear so many mistakes. My untreated space made my audio sound bad with too many sound reflections, but even more importantly, my acting wasn’t there. I was just reading the script, not performing it.
My commercial and animation coaching helped tremendously, but the biggest thing I gained from that training wasn’t something technical—it was confidence. Not really the confidence you think about all the time. It was more of a sense of “not holding back”. Through my classes, I started feeling more comfortable in my own voice. I let go of the embarrassment and hesitation. I stopped holding back. It was like I had been restrained and finally broke free, allowing myself to be my authentic self.
Of course, this wasn’t an overnight transformation. My training alone took over six months. After that, I started auditioning, looking for work on Twitter, Discord, and Casting Call Club. Looking back, I’m so grateful to the people who gave me a chance because my audio quality back then was not great. But over time, I built a body of work, joined voiceover rosters, and eventually got agency representation.
Now, I continue to audition and book work, and I’ve never looked back. Voiceover is an incredible journey—fulfilling, exciting, but definitely not easy. It takes patience, resilience, and persistence. If voiceover is something that excites you, and it’s the only thing you can see yourself doing, then go for it. As they say, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.