FEATURING ELIAH
PLEASE KINDLY INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
My name is Chris Johnson and I am a profes- sional Voice Actor based in Los Angeles. I have been involved with Voice Acting for the last 11 years.
HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY.
In 2014, I was working at an advertising agency and gave a presentation to a client. I was approached afterward and asked if I had ever thought about doing Voice Acting...which I had not. Two days later another person asked me the same question, out of the blue, so I started to ask myself if I SHOULD be thinking about it. I was in a band at the time and wasn't a stranger to performing, but pursuing something like Voice Acting never crossed my mind. I did a little research and found a 4 hour "Intro to Voice Acting" class which I decided to give a shot. I immediately fell in love with it and started tak- ing more and more classes from there.
WHAT MADE YOU GET STARTED IN THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY?
When those colleagues brought up Voice Act- ing in the span of a couple days all those years ago, I think it sparked something in me that I had never fully explored. I knew I had always loved music and singing so my involvement with that was a no-brainer, but I had never let my mind explore the possibility of using my voice in animation or commercials or anything else really. I knew it was a job that existed, but it always seemed like something other people did for a living and while it seemed like a lot of fun...that was for them, not me. It turns out, it was definitely for me, I just needed that initial synchronistic spark
PLEASE SHARE A MOMENT WHERE YOU FELT YOU WANTED TO BE INSPIRED TO BE A PART OF THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY.
This whole journey has been inspirational, but if I want to take it back to when seeds were planted...one of the first times I I remember being fully aware of a Voice Actor's performance was when I watched Aladdin when I was around 10 or 11 years old.
I remember sitting on my couch, being com- pletely enamored by the scene when the genie is first released from the lamp. Robin Williams cracking jokes at break-neck speed while the animations did their best to keep up was pure magic. I remember rewinding the VHS count- less times, trying to memorize all the beats and quirks of his delivery. While it didn't dawn on 11 year old me at the time that I wanted to do that, in hindsight it was definitely a mo- ment in time that drew me in and planted the seeds that would take root many years later.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN THIS INDUSTRY AND HOW YOU OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES.
This industry is very challenging on many levels, some you can foresee and others that pop up along your journey. You are a one- person business in this industry, responsible for not only your own performances and craft, but also your own marketing, invoicing, networking, technical setup and know-how and everything else it takes to run a successful business.
This can certainly be an uphill battle. I was fortunate to have worked in the corporate world and dealt with invoices, client interac- tions, contracts and networking...but I did not have an acting background. I knew this would be a large hill for me to climb, so when I started out, I didn't look for work for the first couple of years. Instead, I took class after class after workshop after workshop so I could develop my skills and make sure I was "ready" when I started looking for work.