How do I become a voice actor?

How to become a voice actor?

• I am a male that is 16 years of age, i have been in a few australian television shows and advertisements, but nothing to make me stand out. I was watching a little bit of TV and a cartoon was on, i thought 'wow i wish i could be the voice bhind someone like Philip J. Fry' Later down the track i was at school and a friend was in america for a holiday, he lied and said he was voice acting for a game, i know it's not true. but i thought how good it would be to be a voice on COD or any other game. I was just playing a game and was listening to the voice acting involved and decided i'd look it up, it was really hard to find the right job, as i am 16 and cannot really leave the country or state i'm in. I was thinking, maybe someone could answer my question with a suggestion or even an interview invitation to an Australian cartoon show company, or some show on ABC. thank you for your time even if i don't quite get the answers i'm looking for. :)

• Answer:

  Voice acting is not an easy business to get into. It's very compeitive, moves quickly and runs in a very tight knit circle. Voice acting is for hobbyist because nowadays most voice actors work from home. In order to become a voice actor you have to record demo reels of yourself doing different things like different character voices maybe one bubbly, one geeky, one with an accent maybe etc. If you sing that good too, because you can make a demo of you singing. Most voice actors are singers anyway esp the famous ones. Anyway, if your serious about becoming a voice actor you will have to invest in some equipment and focus on making one area in your house as soundproof as possible. Voice acting is a very time consuming hobby because the equipment you have to invest in is just crazy. With that being said I assume you don't have the equipment necessary to start working on it from home so u will have to look into recording studios that would be willing to let you use studio time and record demo reels of yourself so you can send out to audition notices. Voice acting is a business that moves VERY fast so needing an agent isn't even a requirement, but as I said before if your serious about this then you will have to invest in an at home recording studio, because actors rarely go into the studio anymore to record their voices. They just record and send it out to the recording studio and they make any needed adjustments. In know in the states if you want to do voice overs for anime, most of those companies are in Florida and Texas and you sometimes have to relocate for a little while in the beginning of your career if chosen to do voice overs for a T.V show.