Featuring Vanessa garcia
Please introduce yourself and give us a little background on how you got started?
Hi My name is Vanessa F. Garcia. I'm a Los Angeles-based, Queer Lati- na, SAG-AFTRA Eligible voice actor, social media content creator, creative consultant, convention guest speaker, proud brand ambassador of Voicemas- ters Voice Acting Academy, and Voice Over Editor for Fusion Magazine and Fusion TV Media. I am also a One Voice USA 2025 nominee in two categories: 1) Best Non-Binary Voice Over Performance (USA/Canada) and 2) Voice Over New- comer of the Year (USA/Canada).
Voice acting has not only allowed me to tap into my authentic self, but it has also allowed me to express myself more freely through the art of storytelling as well.
What got you into a career in voice- overs?
Ever since I was a little girl, I have always had a natural tendency to play and act. I would recreate famous movies and TV scenes as if I were those actors/charac-
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VOCE TRAK ters in real life. I would study their man- nerisms and emotions. I was instantly hooked on imitating these characters and making them my own without even realizing it.
However, if I could pinpoint an exact time in my life that inspired me to find "my purpose" as a voice actor, it would be when I joined my high school's Speech and Debate team. During all four years of high school, I would memo- rize different scripts and bring multiple characters to life on stage at various tournaments and invitationals. This crea- tive process allowed me the freedom of being "in my own element" which was seriously liberating. The more I practiced character development and voices, the more I would qualify in these tourna- ment semi-final and final rounds.
As I started "adulting," I found myself suppressing my natural playfulness and character voices. After gradu- ating from UCLA undergraduate as a double major in Political Science and Sociology and later from UCLA Extension's Paralegal Program with Honors Distinc- tion, I started realizing that pursuing law was not just my only passion or my calling.
After being in the law field for about 20 years as a litigation and trial paralegal, I slowly started listening to that inner voice calling me back to my inner child self. Specifically, that happy place of "playing" and expressing myself through my characters and voices. I was also in a personal growth development period where I gave myself permission to be my "authentic self." And then COVID-19 hit. Although the pandemic did stifle some of my initial plans, I did come to the realization that I wanted to train and take voice act- ing more seriously; I realized that voice acting was my "purpose." As a result, I took as many online voice over classes, coaching sessions, and webinars as I could find and even converted my walk-in closet into my own mini sound treated voice over booth. I also started posting more of my voice over content online through Instagram and Tik Tok. It was then that I realized that there was a whole community of other voice over artists that I networked and, eventually, became close friends with.