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Kickstarting your Voice Acting Career – Sara Secora

3/20/2020

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​Sara is a voice actress who has been featured across a range of media such as video games, animations, radio, narration, web, commercial, audiobooks, and more. She shares valuable tips about starting your voice acting (VA) career, finding VA gigs, and dealing with competition or rejection.

what's in this article?

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​I’ve been working full-time as a voice actress for six years and part-time as a casting director for about three years.
 
As a voice actress, I provide clients from around the world with voiceover that is often recorded and processed in my home studio. I work mostly with video games, but also commercial, corporate, animations, radio, and much more.
 
As a casting director, it’s my job to help find voice actors, handle auditions, make selections, manage budgets, and ensure quality and efficiency between clients and actors.
 
Here are some of my tips to kickstart your career:
 
Getting Started
 
Invest in Voice Acting Classes before Building a Home Studio
 
Many voice actors, with myself included, often begin humbly with a closet repurposed as a recording studio or something equivalent. From there, it’s best to slowly invest more into a studio. But before investing in that, I highly recommend aspiring voice actors to invest wisely with acting classes to better learn the fundamentals.
 
Types of Voice Acting Classes
 
There are tons of options available online or in person, such as: webinars, improv classes, online coaching, and group classes. It’s important to first establish if voiceover is right for you as a career before worrying about studio equipment.
 
Spend more time learning how to ACT and worry about the voice aspects down the road. Too many new voice actors do the opposite and it shows.
 
Choose Your Equipment according to your Budget and Preferences
 
When it comes down to the equipment, however, that can vary. Everyone’s budget and voice aren’t the same, so in the same respects, the best equipment for each actor might also not be the same. There isn’t a singular method to having a well-done studio setup. Research a lot about what works, who it works for, and even ask other actors what they recommend. Just be sure to do your due diligence.
 
Finding Jobs
 
Ways to Find Work as a Freelance VA
 
As a non-union voice actor, most of the work is spent finding jobs and clients. The point here is you’ll always be actively branding and searching for work. And truthfully, that’s more what voiceover is for non-union/freelancers than voicing itself. There’s no simple answer to this question, but here are a few ways most go about finding work:
 
  • Actively search for Paid Jobs: Cold call email companies, browse voiceover forums for open casting calls, apply for agents, sign up to pay-to-play websites.
 
  • Pro-bono Work: If you’re new, start with free work. Tons of YouTube channels and start-ups are looking for pro-bono voiceover. That’s a great way to gain experience, build a resume, and move on toward better opportunities.
 
  • Know where the Jobs Are: I would also recommend newer voice actors to aim for commercial, corporate, narration work over anything character related because that is where the higher work capacity is.
 
Dealing with Competition and Rejection
 
Looking for work can sometimes seem fruitless and may involve monetary challenges, or even distress. Along the way, many actors also come to realize just how competitive the field is, and they have a hard time handling the immense rejection that’s involved.
 
You simply must come to terms with how the industry works and keep pushing along, even when jobs run dry and you’re constantly told no. Voice actors need to know how to not take any of that personally or think it means something is wrong with them. To put it in few words, voiceover can be incredibly frustrating, but if it’s your passion, you keep going.
 
Make Sure that Voice Acting is Your Passion
 
Personally, I’ve always believed voiceover was a career choice and not a great hobby, so ensure that it’s where you want to be before investing. Know that voiceover is competitive, oversaturated, and sometimes, it’s brutal. Don’t do it for fame or money because you’ll be sorely disappointed. If voiceover is your dream, then there is no better time to start your journey than now.

About the Contributor

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Sara Secora is a Detroit-based voice actress, casting director, and published author. With her main focus set within the voiceover world, Sara has been heard across a range of media such as video games, animations, radio, narration, web, commercial, audiobooks, and much more. She has worked on video games like Visage, Home Sweet Home 2, Overload, and Starflint. I've also worked with Facebook on corporate material.
 
With over six years of voiceover experience, Sara’s voiceover work is internationally recognized with her clients from around the globe. In addition, Sara has brought her voiceover knowledge full circle and works as a casting director for a range of studios. Her expertise and insight has helped to fulfil projects with outstanding voice casts.
 
Follow Sara on Twitter - https://twitter.com/sarasecoravo
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