The Ultimate Guide to Voice Acting for Beginners

Becoming a Voice Actor has never been easier. With advances in technology, communication, and access, the online space presents an unprecedented opportunity for freelancers interested in Voice Acting to give it a solid try.

When I first started voice acting professionally in 2019, there was a lot of not-so-great advice being shared from the top down about how to get started and how much it costs to get started. More than three years later, I’m here to tell you it’s not as difficult as it may seem and it doesn’t cost nearly as much as you think to get going.

Here is my ultimate guide to voice acting for beginners. Let’s start with what voiceover is…

Voiceover, Voice Acting, and VO according to the Oxford Dictionary is “a piece of narration in a movie or broadcast, not accompanied by an image of the speaker.” Think of any commercial on the radio, TV, or streaming service, that is voiceover. Think of the ads for Home Depot you hear while in store — that’s voiceover. Think of the last required work training that had a voice narrating the presentation — that’s voiceover! Voiceover is quite literally everywhere when we think about it, and the voices you hear were paid to voice those spots.

Someone who delivers, or voices, a voiceover is considered Voice Talent, a Voiceover Artist, a Voice Actor, etc. We Voice Actors go by many different names, but they all mean the same thing: we get paid to voice projects for clients.

These days, most Voice Actors have home studios, where they have a setup with a microphone, DAW (Digital Audio Workstation), and a sound-treated space. I go more detailed into this in this post on Stage 32.

We’ve talked a little about recording audio, but where does this happen? Traditionally, recording would take place in a recording studio in a big city, but now remote at-home setups are the norm for about 80% of Voice Actors (according to data from the 2021 State of VO Survey). Sometimes, the client wants the actor to record the script on their own time before a certain date. Other times, the client likes to call in while the actor is…