Growing up for many of you, some might remember waking up to watch cartoons as soon as they get out of bed. The goofy and light-hearted comedies, to an intense action-filled series that kept you at the edge of your seat. Many can recall their favorite characters from way back when even to this day like Bugs Bunny, Popeye, etc. Even if you're younger now, this might be no different for you. Beside how the character is written, the element that gives these characters such memorable substance are their voices, and those voices are connected to amazing story tellers we call voice actors.
A voice actor is a professional entertainer that utilizes their voice to perform from a set script or idea. These individuals stand behind a mic and perform, rather than being in front of a camera. With this, voice actors are able to experiment with their vocal range, and tend to perform for a much more diverse set of cast than a regular actor would. Since their physical appearance is no longer in front of the viewer to reference to, this frees up the voice actor of having to be assigned roles based on their appearance, and allow them to fill up roles that their voices fit. This also comes with a common misconception.
Many confuse voice acting with just doing a silly voice in front of a microphone. Since voice actors are free to use a large portion of their available range, many times the job of a voice actor is to sound as little as themselves as possible or a role they performed in another show earlier. But voice acting is still very much acting, it's the majority of the job description. If you as a vocal actor cannot perform the emotion responses that are laid out on your script, you will be immediately replaced with someone who can. It's definitely not a simple task to perform, being able to recall emotion and portray it effectively for as little conflict of tonal flow is a something that requires training and lots of practice.This is not to say that to be a good voice actor, you have to take it super seriously. But to be a great voice actor, you would need to be a great actor as well.
With all that said, there is most definitely a hugely fun side to vocal acting. Aside from all the tons of auditions you would need to put in to get roles, once you get behind the mic, that's where you can shine as a voice actor.The performance given by an voice actor is what brings these stories to life in a captivating way. Building a bridge for you as a viewer to connect to the characters that are presented to you in a deeper way.
Remember the next time you watch a animated show, or play a video game, that the voices you hear constantly in these media, are a big reason as to why you may relate and further dive into these man-made worlds and stories in a way that other methods can't manifest as effectively as voice acting does.
