“The enduring magic of the voice actor”

Article written by By Bryan Lufkin11th June 2018

From entertainment to electronics, companies still turn to the human voice to sell products and tell stories.

You may not know their faces, but you know their voices.

They’re voice actors. And if you’re like me, they shaped your early years: I grew up on Looney Tunes. Mel Blanc was a wizard – I was shocked as a kid when my dad told me Blanc voiced nearly every single character on screen. I woke up at 6am on Sundays to watch Count Duckula (when it aired in the US). I had my parents tape Japanese anime (which was not as popular in the West as it is today) on our VCR every weekday morning as I headed off to school. Those characters’ voices were the soundtrack to my childhood.

Fast forward some 20 years later, and it’s clear I’m not alone.

Fan conventions like Comic-Con, which celebrate cartoons old and new, now pop up on every continent, and some performers who voice popular characters have huge followings on social media platforms like Twitter.

It’s a pretty anonymous profession – or it used to be – Rob Paulsen

Voice actors have power. Whether you hear them through the voice-activated assistant in your kitchen, the navigation system in your car, a cartoon you watch with your child, or a video game you play alone, their voices inject humanity into the experience.

And while voice actors at the top of the industry can earn salaries as high as film stars, their real influence is more profound. They conjure an emotional connection and bond between you and the work or product.

So what’s it like to be one – and how have changes in technology and the industry shaped the career?

Rob Paulsen poses with a fan at a convention. He voiced Raphael in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Donatello in the recent remake (Credit: Getty Images)

The growing power of voice actors

“It’s a pretty anonymous profession – or it used to be,” says Rob Paulsen. He’s a voice actor who’s starred in Animaniacs, Pinky and the Brain, and both the ‘80s and 2010s version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He also runs a regular podcast on the voice acting industry.

Now? The once-invisible performers lead panels in packed convention centres at events the world over, and can command massive social media followings. For example, Tara Strong has over 350,000 Twitter followers – she’s starred in animations like The Fairly OddParents, Rugrats, The Powerpuff Girls, as well as the Final Fantasy video game series.

“It’s really, really hard to break in,” says Strong. “You have to know that’s all you want to do. You need to make sure to have a lot of acting training: scene study, improv classes, and singing lessons to learn what your instrument can do.” Voice actors mention meeting fans at conventions who want to become voice actors themselves.

She also says “it doesn’t matter what you look like – you get to play all kinds of characters.”

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