This Week's Question

This week, we have a great question for Inside Voice about representation from Michael Bentley - a second year student in the Theatre Creation and Performance program at Red Deer College. Take it away, Michael!

Michael:

In a voice-acting career, is an agent a must, or can you get by without one? If so, is it recommended to have different agents for voice and live action roles?

Tracey:

Many voice actors have home studios, and whether they work in the union or non-union market, their chances of booking a variety of work increase with a reputable, experienced voice agent submitting them (and their voice demo reels) for work.

In most major talent agencies with “programming” (film, TV/theatre) agents, there is a separate voice agent specifically geared to representing talent for narration, e-learning, e-books, promo, commercial and animation work.

I’ve had the same wonderful voice agent for 27 years and I have followed her to different agencies throughout that time. I have a separate agent for theatre, film and TV. That’s called split representation.

Most Canadian agencies represent talent where both of their agents are under the same agency roof.

I welcome your questions for future posts on Inside Voice. You can find my contact info on the Home page.

Until next time,

Tracey

This Week's Question

Another great question from Michael Bentley - a second year student in the Theatre Creation and Performance program at Red Deer College in Alberta. Here’s Michael’s question for this week’s Inside Voice: 

Michael: 

Is it harder to break into/make it big in (the voice acting world)?

Tracey: 

The very talented people in this part of the business come from various creative backgrounds: theatre, film, TV, broadcasting, advertising, journalism, copywriting, singing, etc. It can be hard to break into.

You actually learn a lot by doing: both auditioning and booking the actual job. If you treat every audition like the real thing, the “process” can be just as fun and creatively gratifying as the “result.” People who love the creative, collaborative process tend to get called back, short-listed and booked regularly.

A genuinely positive attitude and gratitude for simply being in the room is always recommended. Smart questions and great choices are memorable, too. The talent who love auditioning, are generous with their scene partners and who can apply direction professionally and creatively tend to work in this part of the business for a very long time.

Until next time! 

Tracey