How To Get Into Voice Acting In 2022

Have you ever had someone tell you, “you should go into voice acting!” If you have a great voice or can speak in a variety of tones, you may be suitable for voice acting. Entering the world of professional voice acting takes more than a good voice.

However, successful professionals have ambition, polished talent, and great business ethics. This means that not only should this be your passion, but you may need to take a few skill classes to polish your voice before you are able to pick up any work.

However, if you’re interested in this kind of work, you’ll want to get started sooner rather than later. Voice acting is a valuable skill, but the path to get there isn’t always easy. However, this career is filled with excitement and can be incredibly rewarding to voice actors. It offers a variety of different clients to work with, flexible hours, and the ability to audition and work from home.

Below, we discuss more details on how to start your journey as a voice actor.

What Is a Voice Actor?

A voice actor is a performer or an artist who uses their voice to entertain, narrate, or use for marketing purposes in different forms of media. These can include commercials, animation, audiobooks, video games, and educational content.

Voice actors may be required to do impressions, mimicry, or character voices. However, it’s not just reading from a script. Voice actors must also be talented actors and portray certain feelings or tones using their voice. This can be a difficult task.

Many voice actors practice and train on a consistent basis, always looking to improve their vocal skills and range so that they deliver stellar performances, stand out from their competition, and land clients.

Voice actors typically read and record copy, scripts, or other written material in a vocal booth or in a home studio. They may deliver their lines directly or as a performance, depending on the project’s needs.

This means they must be able to change inflections and tone while providing different deliveries, enunciating correctly, and sometimes providing different samples for clients to choose from.

How to Start Your Voice Acting Career

As mentioned above, voice acting takes practice, and the best way to learn is to jump right in. One of the key things you’ll want to be sure you learn is the different script genres within the commercial genre. This can include things like a real person, announcer, spokesperson, character, banter, PSA, and more.

There are many different genres, and they all require specific interpretative skills, talent, and voice tones. Promotions, audiobook narrators, animation, and ADR are among some of the most popular, but there are also genres like comedy and drama to consider. Depending on your interests and talents, you may be better suited for one over the other.

After you get a good handle on the different genres, you will want to get a better understanding of timing, relaxation, projecting a naturalistic tone, microphone techniques, and learning to bring a script to life in a recording booth.

This is different from acting for film, TV, or stage because you typically don’t have another actor to work with. You will need to be comfortable using your imagination for these things to bring forward the right voice for your project.

There is no age limit on when you can start your voice acting career either. Some voice actors are young children, and others are older individuals. Whatever your situation, you’ll want to be sure you land a good vocal coach.

Therefore, do some research in your area or online to find a good fit. Once you’ve trained enough, your coach will guide you through the process of creating a demo reel that you can then send out to land projects.

The Benefits and Downsides of Voice Acting

As with any job you start, there will be pros and cons to voice acting. You’ll want to consider both before you head down the path of starting voice acting to be sure this is something you want to commit your time, effort, and talent towards.

Some pros of voice acting include:

• Important projects. Even the smallest voice-over project can make a big impact. Each client you work for has a mission to accomplish, and a voice-over may be a key part of that. The company and their project are being made better by your voice. This can be very rewarding for the voice actor involved.

• The community. The voice acting community involves producers and coordinators as well as other voice actors looking to connect with other professionals in the industry. By networking, you can create some great professional relationships during your time in the voice acting community, thereby opening yourself up to future opportunities.

  Joining the voice acting community can also be extremely rewarding, providing you with friendships or professional relationships you may not have had before.

• Your clients. Similar to colleagues in your industry, you may run up against the same clients time and time again. Keeping your clients nearby opens up future opportunities as well as other doors to new clients they may recommend you to.

  Clients are often very grateful for voice-over work and can become close networking connections, even if you decide to pursue something different in the future.

• Flexibility. The flexibility of working from home and on your own schedule is incredibly important. Voice acting typically allows you to work from anywhere with an internet connection in a place that works for you.

  There are incredibly successful freelance professional voice actors who have expressed their gratitude for creating a better work-life balance that works for their families and schedules.

• Unlimited opportunities. Voice acting is essentially like running your own business — you’ll get out of it what you put into it. Your voice is your business and should be treated as such. Since you’re your own boss, it’s up to you to make sure you’re successful, which means the sky is the limit. Be prepared to work hard and learn a lot in the process.

Of course, not every job is ever all good. There are absolutely cons to be aware of when you start voice acting work.

• Time commitment. From studying with a coach to set up a home studio to learn more about the industry, the amount of time you’ll spend on your voice work can be daunting. You’ll want to be sure you’re prepared, but this requires a significant time commitment on your part. Be sure you’re willing to put in the time to receive the benefits.

• Isolation. Working from home by yourself can be incredibly isolating, even for voice actors who are experienced in the field. As a voice actor, it will be incredibly important for you to balance your time with other activities or find a way to actively engage in the voice actor community so that you don’t feel so isolated.

  Isolation can also cause you to work too hard, so be sure you take breaks and find a good balance between your work and home life.

• Cost. Running a voice-acting business can sometimes be more expensive than you may initially think, depending on your goals and lifestyle. If you want to pursue voice acting as a full-time career, the costs to begin will be higher.

  You may want to invest in a high-quality home studio, professional equipment and take some classes to better understand the industry and other skills that might be necessary to build. There is also a cost in getting a voice acting coach.

How to Train as a Voice Actor

We’ve talked a bit about the importance of getting a coach, so let’s dive a little deeper into what voice-over coaches provide. These people are gurus in the voice-over field and can expose you to different techniques, concepts, and tactics you may otherwise be unfamiliar with.

They can help you expand your network and connect you with the talent to start making an income. Voice coaches are typically available for hire online or in person.

Many voice over coaches provide basic generalized training for beginners, but many offer services for more experienced voice-over professionals, sometimes even with training in specific industries or niches.

They can help voice-over artists with audio production education and demo production, which will be the key piece you need to land your clients and projects. They can also provide services like accent training or reduction, character voice development, marketing strategies for your services, and more.

Voice Actor Salary

As with any other freelance career, it’s tough to figure out what to charge and what to accept from your clients. However, it’s a vital part of the industry, and you should consider yourself completely in control of what you accept.

A good starting point is to look up the estimate of voice actor salaries to see how you compare. There will be a variety of things that might impact your pricing. However, you should be aware that many clients express that price is not a factor when they find the right voice-over actor.

The considerations you might want to take into account when considering your pricing structure will make sense once you understand the voice-over business model. You’ll want to be sure you factor in costs associated with running your business, including your studio space, your equipment, your training, industry experience, portfolio, among other things.

Once you’ve taken this into consideration, be sure you can turn a profit before you offer up your pricing to clients.

How to Set Up a Home Recording Studio

Setting up a home studio doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Having a home studio will enable you for more opportunities and the ability to work from home. There are a few things you’ll want to consider before you start, mainly if you have the space to create a voice-over studio recording space. This might be a room, a closet, or something else.

If you’re looking to create your own home recording studio, consider these tips:

• Soundproof with blankets. Soundproofing might sound fancy, but it doesn’t have to be. You can use heavy blankets or comforters from your bed to absorb any unwanted sounds.

• Expensive isn’t always better. Your recording equipment doesn’t need to break the bank. Just because a piece of equipment is more expensive than something else doesn’t mean it’s any better. Do your research, and remember you can always upgrade your tools after you start turning a profit.

• Use what you have. Your recording studio can be a closet in your home or something completely different, but it doesn’t mean you need to build something from scratch.

There are a variety of other considerations you may need to make when setting yourself up for success as a voice actor. Be sure you do your research and start small before expanding. Talk to other professionals in the industry and be bold to reach your dreams.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research. Caitlin holds a degree in English from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA.

Expert

Matt Warzel, CPRW, CIR

Matt Warzel a President of a resume writing firm (MJW Careers, LLC) with 15+ years of recruitment, outplacement, career coaching and resume writing experience. Matt is also a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) and Certified Internet Recruiter (CIR) with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration (Marketing Focus) from John Carroll University.