I have been giving this question a lot of thought. When I first started out on my Voice Acting journey I was very focused on my passion for creating characters and that will always be a big driving force in what I do, but my eyes have really been opened up to the endless possibilities that lie ahead as a voice actor. A voice actor in simple terms is a voice that you hear and don't see the actual mouth it is coming from. It can come in many forms: A commercial, an animated tv show, the voice in the lift telling you which floor you are on, the people who you have to listen to to navigate to the complaints department when you call a company, the voice on on the train toilet that explains how the toilet works. These are just a small selection of examples of what a voice actor provides a voice for. It isn't all glamourous, but it is all definitely a lot of fun to create!
My initial focus has been on character voices and commercials. I love the idea of bringing a character to life and this I feel is my biggest passion and will continue to be so for quite some time. Animation and Gaming are areas that really excitie me, but you know what? The other day I was dealing with my insurance company as it is that time of year again when I call to say 'just make life easier for us all and give me a better deal so I don't have to shop around', and whilst on that call I had to navigate to through various options that needed me to press a number. I found myself really enjoying the vocal performance of the person who was providing the options and I realised that it excited me to fantasise about being that voice! How amazing would it be to actually be the voice that guides people to where they need to go when making a call like that! I even found myself wondering what it would be like to be the voice in a train toilet cubicle that explains how things work (always a weird experience) and you know what? That excitied me too!
A voice can really tell a great story and the more I peel back the layers of the industry, the more I realise how improtant voice actors are for the world. There's a certain rock star feeling about voicing characters in animation or video games or voicing a big commercial, but being a reassuring voice inside a toilet cubicle or letting people know what floor the lift just arrived on, that I am quickly discovering is serious life goal levels of awesome.
I guess what I am saying is that I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I was wrong. The good kind of wring though. The kind of wrong where I was still right, but the picture I was looking at just had way more depth and colour than I could have ever imagined.
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