“Put a face to the name.” This a common phrase, but, in practice, is usually skipped for the voice actor. A voice actor lends their voice to a character or product and remains faceless, even nameless, to the media consumer.
If you’re like me, you grew up watching Saturday morning cartoons. The voices of Ash Ketchum in Pokémon, Bruce Wayne in Batman, SpongeBob, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Arthur, Zuko, Aang, Katara, and Sokka from Avatar: The Last Airbender. All incredibly iconic characters, but I know them as the character. Not the voice actor.
Recently, ComiCon and other conventions have begun bringing in voice actors as primary guests and speakers, which has been a huge hit. These people have dedicated their career, passion, and professional ability to a character that thousands, even millions of fans, have loved. Now they get to experience that passion together with fans and celebrate the journeys their character went on.
Watch (and hear) video game voice-over artist Stephanie Southerland on The Voice Choice.
But not all voice actors are starring in conventions. Many live as unsung heroes. Someone who brought life to a character or commercial, never to be heard of by the general public. So how does voice acting continue to be a profession and art, despite not having the ‘star factor’ that traditional acting seems to carry with it?
Stardom’s greatest necessity may often seem to be looks or physical appearance. It’s hard to imagine movies like The Terminator without also picturing Arnold Schwarzenegger. Voice acting, however, allows a talented person to bring several, even dozens of characters to life because the voice actor isn’t limited by their physical appearance. So, while Hollywood stars play an appearance and visually heavy brand game, the Voice Actor is not held down creatively in the same way.
Listen to the voice talent of Bill Ratner, who provides voice work for Hollywood movies, animations, and video games.
The art of voice-over has endured every technological innovation of the last one hundred years. It remains to this day, the primary tool leveraged by companies to breathe life into their marketing campaigns. Despite AI voices, subtitles, and other technology advancements, companies still choose a real human to bridge the gap between product and customer. To bridge the gap between concept and character. The gap between idea and hero.
We’ve already dubbed the Voice Actor the unsung hero. But there is no better way to describe it. Do you think we would connect and remember Geico insurance without Martin, the lizard? Hardly. Insurance, while important, is often bland to market. The voice actor of the Geico lizard bridged that gap and gave us a human connection. The power there cannot be understated.
That famous voice at your command. Watch the story of Susan Bennett, the original voice of Siri.
So, while the Voice Actor is often the “unsung hero,” we hope the mystery and clouds continue to be peeled back. We hope the trend of propping up voiceover artists continues!
If you’re like us, you might be interested in The Voice Choice Vodcast, a podcast dedicated to this very thing! Their slogan is “The Vodcast about the people you hear that you never see.”
Check it out: https://thevoicechoice.tv/
