Voice acting - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated

Animation

Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...

characters (including those in feature film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

s, television program

Television program

A television program , also called television show, is a segment of content which is intended to be broadcast on television. It may be a one-time production or part of a periodically recurring series...

s, animated short films, and video games) and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-over

Voice-over

Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...

s in radio

Radio

Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...

and television commercial

Television advertisement

A television advertisement or television commercial, often just commercial, advert, ad, or ad-film – is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization that conveys a message, typically one intended to market a product...

s, audio dramas

Radio drama

Radio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...

, dubbed

Dubbing (filmmaking)

Dubbing is the post-production process of recording and replacing voices on a motion picture or television soundtrack subsequent to the original shooting. The term most commonly refers to the substitution of the voices of the actors shown on the screen by those of different performers, who may be...

foreign language films, video games, puppet

Puppet

A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is used in puppetry, a play or a presentation that is a very ancient form of theatre....

shows, and amusement ride

Amusement ride

Amusement rides are large mechanical devices that move people to create enjoyment. They are frequently found at amusement parks, traveling carnivals, and funfairs.-Notable types:*Afterburner*Ali Baba*Balloon Race*Booster...

Performers are called voice actors/actresses or voice artists, and may also involve singing, although a second voice actor is sometimes cast as the character's singing

Singing

Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...

voice. Voice artists are also used to record the individual sample fragments played back by a computer in an automated announcement
em. At its simplest, this is just a short phrase which is played back as necessary, e.g. the Mind the gap

Mind the gap

"Mind the gap" is a warning to train passengers to take caution while crossing the gap between the train door and the station platform. It was introduced in 1969 on the London Underground...

announcement introduced by London Underground in 1969. In a more complicated system such as a speaking clock, the voice artist usually doesn't actually record 1440 different announcements, one for each minute of the day, or even 60 (one for each minute of the hour), instead the announcement is re-assembled from fragments such as "minutes past" "eighteen" and "pm." For example, the word "twelve" can be used for both "Twelve O'Clock" and "Six Twelve." So far voice artists have been preferred to speech synthesis because they sound more natural to the listener.

A list of voice acting by one voice actor, one director, or on one subject, is sometimes called a voxography.

Broadcast media

For live-action production, voice acting often involves reading the parts of computer programs (Douglas Rain

Douglas Rain

Douglas Rain is a Canadian actor and narrator. He is primarily a stage actor, but his best known film role was as the voice of the HAL 9000 computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey and its sequel 2010 ....

; Majel Barrett

Majel Barrett

Majel Barrett-Roddenberry was an American actress and producer. She is perhaps best known for her role as Nurse Christine Chapel in the original Star Trek series, Lwaxana Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation, and for being the voice of most onboard computer interfaces throughout the series...

), radio dispatchers (Shaaron Claridge

Shaaron Claridge

Shaaron Claridge, now retired, was a second-shift radiotelephone operator or police radio dispatcher at the Van Nuys Division of the Los Angeles Police Department. Women were primarily desired as police radio dispatchers because LAPD psychologists thought that women's voices would have a more...

), or characters who never actually appear on screen but who give instructions by telephone (John Forsythe

John Forsythe

John Forsythe was an American stage, television and film actor. Forsythe starred in three television series, spanning four decades and three genres: as single playboy father Bentley Gregg in the sitcom Bachelor Father ; as the unseen millionaire Charles Townsend on the crime drama Charlie's...

in Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels
Charlie's Angels is a television series about three women who work for a private investigation agency, and is one of the first shows to showcase women in roles traditionally reserved for men...

), or mailed recording (Bob Johnson

Bob Johnson (actor)

Robert Cleveland Johnson , known professionally as Bob Johnson, was an American actor and voice actor who played supporting roles on series television and in films from the late 1950s until a few years before his death...

in Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible
Mission: Impossible is an American television series which was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicled the missions of a team of secret American government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force . The leader of the team was Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, except in...

). "Stunt double" voice actors are sometimes employed; if a voice actor or actress loses his or her voice, someone who sounds similar can step in. For example, when Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons

Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...

' vocal cords

Vocal folds

The vocal folds, also known commonly as vocal cords, are composed of twin infoldings of mucous membrane stretched horizontally across the larynx...

became strained during the recording of The Lion King
The Lion King
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

song "Be Prepared", Jim Cummings

Jim Cummings

James Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...

was called in to finish the song.

It is not unusual to find among the ranks of voice actors people who also act in live-action film or television, or on the stage (see e.g., J. Scott Smart

J. Scott Smart

J. Scott Smart, also known as Jack Smart , was an American radio, film and stage actor during the 1930s, 1940s and early 1950s....

, an "old time radio" actor). For those actors, voice acting has the advantage of offering acting work without having to bother with makeup, costuming, lighting, and so on. An occasional advantage is the fact that through voice acting, an actor can reprise a role that he has played in live action but would be otherwise too aged to portray. An example of this is Walter Koenig

Walter Koenig

Walter Marvin Koenig is an American actor, writer, teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction legal thriller InAlienable.-Early life:...

in Star Trek New Voyages who reprises his role as Lt. Pavel Chekov

Pavel Chekov

Pavel Andreievich Chekov is a Russian Starfleet officer in the Star Trek fictional universe. Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in the original Star Trek series and first seven Star Trek films; Anton Yelchin portrayed the character in the 2009 film Star Trek.-Origin:Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry...

.

A common practice in animation is to cast

Casting (performing arts)

In the performing arts, casting is a pre-production process for selecting a cast of actors, dancers, singers, models and other talent for a live or recorded performance.-Casting process:...

a woman to play the role of a young boy. On The Simpsons
The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...

, for example, Nancy Cartwright plays Bart Simpson

Bart Simpson

Bartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...

and several other juvenile males. Other voice actresses who would fit this criterion are Tara Strong

Tara Strong

Tara Lyn Strong is a Canadian actress, voice-over artist, singer, who is best known for her voice work in cartoons.-Early life and career:...

, who voices Timmy Turner, Poof and, other young boys on The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents
The Fairly OddParents is an American-Canadian animated television series created by Butch Hartman about the adventures of Timmy Turner, who is granted fairy godparents named Cosmo and Wanda. The series started out as cartoon segments that ran from September 4, 1998 to March 23, 2001 on Oh Yeah!...

, and she voices other young boys on other TV shows, or Regina King

Regina King

Regina King is an American film and television actress. She is well known for her role as Mary Jenkins's studious daughter, Brenda Jenkins, on the 1980s sitcom, 227, and for her critically acclaimed supporting role in the feature film Jerry Maguire...

as the voice of Huey

Huey Freeman

Huey Freeman is a fictional character of The Boondocks syndicated comic strip written by Aaron McGruder, as well as the main character and recurrent principal narrator of the animated TV series of the same name...

and Riley Freeman

Riley Freeman

Riley Freeman is a fictional character from the syndicated comic strip The Boondocks written by Aaron McGruder and its TV series adaptation...

on the Adult Swim

Adult Swim

Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...

show The Boondocks
The Boondocks (TV series)
The Boondocks is an American animated series created by Aaron McGruder on Cartoon Network's late night programing block, Adult Swim, based on McGruder's comic strip of the same name...

. This casting practice goes back to the early 1930s with actresses such as Mae Questel

Mae Questel

Mae Questel was an American actress and vocal artist best known for providing the voices for the animated characters, Betty Boop and Olive Oyl. She began in vaudeville, and played occasional small roles in films and television later in her career, most notably the role of Aunt Bethany in 1989's...

providing the voices of various male babies and children in Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios, Inc., was an American corporation which originated as an Animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York...

cartoons, and continues with Elizabeth "E. G." Daily

Elizabeth Daily

Elizabeth Ann Guttman , better known by her stage names of Elizabeth Daily and E.G. Daily, is an American voice actress, actress, singer-songwriter, and musician...

as Tommy Pickles

Tommy Pickles

Thomas Malcolm "Tommy" Pickles is the main protagonist of the Nickelodeon animated television series' Rugrats and its spin-off All Grown Up!. He is clad in only a T-shirt and a diaper and is bald with big, blank eyes. He translates everything adult into baby gibberish...

on Rugrats
Rugrats
Rugrats is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon. The series premiered on August 11, 1991, and aired its last episode on June 8, 2004....

and All Grown Up!
All Grown Up!
All Grown Up! is an American animated television series created by Arlene Klasky and Gábor Csupó. After the success of All Growed Up, the Rugrats 10th anniversary special, Nickelodeon commissioned All Grown Up! as a spin-off series based on the episode.The series ran from April 12, 2003 to August...

today. June Foray

June Foray

June Foray is an American voice actress, best known as the voice of many animated characters...

, even as a senior citizen, can still faithfully voice Rocket J. Squirrel

The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show

The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show is an American animated television series that originally aired from November 19, 1959 to June 28, 1964 on the ABC and NBC television networks...

. Casting adult women for these parts can be especially useful if an ad campaign or a developed series is expected to run for several years, for while the vocal characteristics of a male child actor would change over time, the voice of an adult female will not.

Notable exceptions to using women to voice young boys' roles are the Peanuts
Peanuts
Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday American comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000, continuing in reruns afterward...

animated specials and films, in which boys were actually cast to read the boys' lines (e.g., Charlie Brown, Linus, Schroeder). In South Park
South Park
South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

, the authors Trey Parker

Trey Parker

Trey Parker is an American animator, screenwriter, director, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of the television series South Park along with his creative partner and best friend Matt Stone.Parker started his film career in 1992, making a holiday short...

and Matt Stone

Matt Stone

Matthew Richard "Matt" Stone is an American screenwriter, producer, voice artist, musician and actor, best known for being the co-creator of South Park along with creative partner and best friend, Trey Parker....

are also voice actors for most male roles, especially the boys: Parker voices Stan

Stan Marsh

Stanley Randall "Stan" Marsh is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by and loosely based on series co-creator Trey Parker. Stan is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Kyle Broflovski, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...

, Cartman

Eric Cartman

Eric Theodore Cartman is a fictional character in the American animated television series South Park. One of four main characters, along with Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Kenny McCormick, he is generally referred to within the series by his last name...

and others while Stone is the voice of Kyle

Kyle Broflovski

Kyle Broflovski is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by co-creator Matt Stone. Kyle is one of the show's four central characters, along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kenny McCormick, and Eric Cartman...

, Kenny

Kenny McCormick

Kenneth "Kenny" McCormick is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is one of the four central characters along with his friends Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, and Eric Cartman. His oft-muffled and indiscernible speech—the result of his parka hood covering his...

, Butters

Butters Stotch

Leopold "Butters" Stotch is a fictional character in the animated television series South Park. He is voiced by series co-creator Matt Stone and loosely based on co-producer Eric Stough. He is a fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town...

and others. South Park kids' voices are pitched up a little in order to seem more "childish". In addition, kindergarten kids on the show are voiced by actual young children for realism. Jason Marsden

Jason Marsden

Jason Christopher Marsden is an American screen and voice actor who has done numerous voice roles in animated films, as well as various television series.-Early life:...

is also known for young male roles.

Rise in use of film actors for voice roles

For much of the history of North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

n animation, voice actors had a predominantly low profile as performers, with Mel Blanc

Mel Blanc

Melvin Jerome "Mel" Blanc was an American voice actor and comedian. Although he began his nearly six-decade-long career performing in radio commercials, Blanc is best remembered for his work with Warner Bros...

the major exception. Other early exceptions include Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards

Cliff Edwards , also known as "Ukelele Ike", was an American singer and voice actor who enjoyed considerable popularity in the 1920s and early 1930s, specializing in jazzy renditions of pop standards and novelty tunes. He had a number-one hit with "Singin' in the Rain" in 1929...

in Pinocchio
Pinocchio (1940 film)
Pinocchio is a 1940 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and based on the story The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. It is the second film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics, and it was made after the success of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and was released to theaters by...

, Edward Brophy

Edward Brophy

Edward S. Brophy was an American character actor, voice artist, and comedian. Small of build, balding, and raucous-voiced, he was known for portraying gangsters, both serious and comic.-Career:...

in Dumbo
Dumbo
Dumbo is a 1941 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released on October 23, 1941, by RKO Radio Pictures.The fourth film in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, Dumbo is based upon the storyline written by Helen Aberson and illustrated by Harold Pearl for the prototype of a...

and Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee

Peggy Lee was an American jazz and popular music singer, songwriter, composer, and actress in a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman's big band, she forged a sophisticated persona, evolving into a multi-faceted artist and...

in Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp
Lady and the Tramp is a 1955 American animated film produced by Walt Disney and released to theaters on June 22, 1955, by Buena Vista Distribution. The fifteenth animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, it was the first animated feature filmed in the CinemaScope widescreen...

. Over time, many movie star

Movie star

A movie star is a celebrity who is well-known, or famous, for his or her starring, or leading, roles in motion pictures. The term may also apply to an actor or actress who is recognized as a marketable commodity and whose name is used to promote a movie in trailers and posters...

s began voice acting in movies, with one of the earliest examples being The Jungle Book
The Jungle Book (1967 film)
The Jungle Book is a 1967 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Released on October 18, 1967, it is the 19th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was inspired by the stories about the feral child Mowgli from the book of the same name by...

, which counted among its cast contemporary stars such as Phil Harris

Phil Harris

Harris and Faye married in 1941; it was a second marriage for both and lasted 54 years, until Harris's death. Harris engaged in a fistfight at the Trocadero nightclub in 1938 with RKO studio mogul Bob Stevens; the cause was reported to be over Faye after Stevens and Faye had ended a romantic...

, Sebastian Cabot

Sebastian Cabot (actor)

Charles Sebastian Thomas Cabot was an English film and television actor, best remembered as the gentleman's gentleman, "Giles French," opposite Brian Keith's character, in the 1960s sitcom Family Affair. He was also known for playing Dr...

, Louis Prima

Louis Prima

Louis Prima was a Sicilian American singer, actor, songwriter, and trumpeter. Prima rode the musical trends of his time, starting with his seven-piece New Orleans style jazz band in the 1920s, then successively leading a swing combo in the 1930s, a big band in the 1940s, a Vegas lounge act in the...

, George Sanders

George Sanders

George Sanders was a British actor.George Sanders may also refer to:*George Sanders , Victoria Cross recipient in World War I...

and Sterling Holloway

Sterling Holloway

Sterling Price Holloway, Jr. was an American character actor who appeared in 150 films and television programs. He was also a voice actor for The Walt Disney Company...

. The film which truly brought about this modern perception, however was Aladdin which was marketed with a noted emphasis on Robin Williams

Robin Williams

Robin McLaurin Williams is an American actor and comedian. Rising to fame with his role as the alien Mork in the TV series Mork and Mindy, and later stand-up comedy work, Williams has performed in many feature films since 1980. He won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance...

' role, against the actor's own wishes. The success of this film eventually spurred the idea of highlighting the voice actors as stars of a film, this becoming the norm in movie marketing

Movie marketing

Film promotion is the practice of promotion specifically in the film industry. As with all business it is an important part of any release because of the inherent high financial risk; film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue early in the release cycle. Marketing...

, with a greater focus on hiring Hollywood

Cinema of the United States

The cinema of the United States, also known as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. Its history is sometimes separated into four main periods: the silent film era, classical Hollywood cinema, New Hollywood, and the contemporary period...

celebrities for name power, rather than performers with more experience in voice acting, particulary the Toy Story (Tom Hanks

Tom Hanks

Thomas Jeffrey "Tom" Hanks is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. Hanks worked in television and family-friendly comedies, gaining wide notice in 1988's Big, before achieving success as a dramatic actor in several notable roles, including Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia, the title...

and Tim Allen

Tim Allen

Tim Allen is an American comedian, actor, voice-over artist, and entertainer, known for his role in the sitcom Home Improvement...

) and Shrek (Mike Myers, Cameron Diaz

Cameron Diaz

Cameron Michelle Diaz is an American actress and former model. She became famous during the 1990s with roles in the movies The Mask, My Best Friend's Wedding, and There's Something About Mary. Other high-profile credits include the two Charlie's Angels films, voicing the character Princess Fiona...

, Eddie Murphy

Eddie Murphy

Edward Regan "Eddie" Murphy is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, singer, director, and musician....

and Antonio Banderas

Antonio Banderas

José Antonio Domínguez Banderas , better known as Antonio Banderas, is a Spanish film actor, film director, film producer and singer...

) franchises. British animation also used big names, most notably Chicken Run
Chicken Run
Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop-motion animation film made by the Aardman Animations studios, the production studio of the Oscar-winning Wallace and Gromit films...

(Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

Mel Colm-Cille Gerard Gibson, AO is an American actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 12 years old and later studied acting at the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Art.After appearing in...

, Timothy Spall

Timothy Spall

Timothy Leonard Spall, OBE is an English character actor and occasional presenter.-Early life:Spall, the third of four sons, was born in Battersea, London. His mother, Sylvia R. , was a hairdresser, and his father, Joseph L. Spall, was a postal worker...

, Jane Horrocks

Jane Horrocks

Barbara Jane Horrocks is an English voice, stage, screen and television actress, voice artist, musician, and singer. She is best known for her role as "Bubble" in the TV series Absolutely Fabulous as well as her distinctive voice....

and Miranda Richardson

Miranda Richardson

Miranda Jane Richardson is an English stage, film and television actor. She has been nominated for two Academy Awards, and has won two Golden Globes and a BAFTA during her career....

) and Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Fiennes

Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....

, Liz Smith

Liz Smith

Liz Smith may refer to:*Liz Smith , English actress*Liz Smith , American gossip columnist...

, Peter Kay

Peter Kay

Peter John Kay is an English comedian, writer, actor, director and producer. His work includes That Peter Kay Thing , Phoenix Nights , Max and Paddy's Road to Nowhere , Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and other independent productions which have included two sell out tours.-Early career:Peter Kay...

and Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter

Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...

). By contrast, using anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

voice actors as a box office draw was developed far earlier in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

.
Some voice actors, such as Billy West

Billy West

William Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival...

, are highly critical of using movie stars for voices in animated features. A particular point of contention is the practice of bringing in veteran voice actors (who are capable of greatly altering their voices and inflections in order to create personalities for characters) to read for a part, and then use the recording of the professional voice actor as a guide for the movie star, even though the actual character creation work is being done by the unpaid voice actor. West struck back at this practice in Comic Book: The Movie

Comic Book: The Movie

Comic Book: The Movie is a 2004 direct-to-DVD mockumentary directed by and starring Mark Hamill who is best known for his role as Luke Skywalker, the main character in the original trilogy of Star Wars feature films...

, in which the entire main cast comprises voice actors, including Jess Harnell

Jess Harnell

Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...

, Lori Alan

Lori Alan

Lori Alan , sometimes credited as Lori Allen, is an American voice actress who provides the voice of news anchor Diane Simmons on Family Guy, various voices on Hey Arnold!, and SpongeBob SquarePants as Pearl....

, Daran Norris

Daran Norris

Daran Morrison Nordland , usually credited as Daran Norris, is an American film and television actor and voice artist. Since 1977 he has participated in more than 400 films, video games, and television projects. He is best known as Gordy from Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide, the voice of...

, Mark Hamill

Mark Hamill

Mark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...

and Tom Kenny

Tom Kenny

Thomas James "Tom" Kenny is an American actor, voice actor and comedian. He is especially known for his long-running-role as SpongeBob SquarePants in the television series of the same name, as well as the live-action character Patchy the Pirate, Gary the Snail and the French narrator based on...

. The practice of hiring singers to "fill in" for voice actors in a singing role has also seen change, as both Jeremy Irons

Jeremy Irons

and Mel Gibson

Mel Gibson

have done singing in the respective films The Lion King

The Lion King

The Lion King is a 1994 American animated film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It is the 32nd feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series...

and Pocahontas

Pocahontas (1995 film)

Pocahontas is the 33rd animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series. It was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and was originally released to selected theaters on June 16, 1995 by Walt Disney Pictures...

, rather than have a singer as substitute.

Voice Actors for Commercials and Local Television

Voice actors have a relatively small but dedicated fan base, with appearances at large events like Comic-Con International

Comic-Con International

San Diego Comic-Con International, also known as Comic-Con International: San Diego , and commonly known as Comic-Con or the San Diego Comic-Con, was founded as the Golden State Comic Book Convention and later the San Diego Comic Book Convention in 1970 by Shel Dorf and a group of San Diegans...

, various anime conventions, and websites dedicated to profiling their work.

Commercials for television and radio are also cast using voice acting agencies. Ernie Anderson

Ernie Anderson

Ernie Anderson was an American disc jockey, and television and radio announcer/voiceover artist...

was one of radio's most prominent voices throughout the 1970s and 1980s and was heard on radio stations across the United States. While Don LaFontaine

Don LaFontaine

Donald Leroy "Don" LaFontaine was an American voiceover artist famous for recording more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers. His nicknames included "Thunder Throat" and "The Voice of God"...

filled the category of "The Voice of God" until his death in 2008, Ashton Smith

Ashton Smith

Ashton Smith is a voice actor, recording many movie trailers, television commercials and network promotions. Ashton works out of his home using an ISDN link.-External links:...

, Howard Parker and Miguel Ferrer

Miguel Ferrer

Miguel José Ferrer is an American actor and voice actor who is often cast as a villain. His notable roles include Bob Morton, a supporting character in RoboCop , the short tempered FBI agent Albert Rosenfield in Twin Peaks, and Dr...

provide most of the narration for movie trailers. David Mark

David Mark

David Alechenu Bonaventure Mark is the President of the Senate of Nigeria and Senator for the Benue South constituency of Benue State. He is a member of the People's Democratic Party ....

was heard around the world for various radio stations and across the country for Fox TV, UPN TV and ABC TV.

Training and how-to classes

Many VO coaches who have had success in commercial, narration, and animation offer private training, tele-seminars and weekend workshops for both novice and experienced voice actors. However, care should be exercised when looking for such services. A weekend workshop or tele-seminar cannot possibly set forth all the material needed to begin a career in VO. Many of those offering VO training include making a voice demo MP3. If this is the case, ask to listen to several examples of the work. Learning the art of VO is a process and the longer the training the better the result.

In Japan

Japanese voice actors (seiyū
Seiyu
Voice acting in Japan has far greater prominence than in most other countries. Japan's large animation industry produces 60% of the animated series in the world; as a result, Japanese voice actors, or , are able to achieve fame on a national and international level.Besides acting as narrators and...

) work in radio

Radio

, television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

and movies

Film

. Their work largely mirrors that of their Western counterparts: performing roles in animated cartoons and video games, performing voice-overs for dub

Dubbing (filmmaking)

s of non-Japanese movies, and providing narration to documentaries and similar programs.

Because the animation industry in Japan is so prolific, seiyū are able to achieve fame on a national level and are able to have full-time careers as voice-over artists. Japanese voice actors are able to take greater charge of their careers than in other countries. Japan also has the institutions to support the career path, with around 130 seiyū schools and troupes of voice actors that work for a specific broadcast company or talent agency. They often attract their own appreciators and fans who watch shows specifically to hear their favorite actor or actress.

Seiyū frequently branch into music, often singing the opening or closing themes of shows in which their character stars, or become involved in non-animated side projects such as audio dramas (involving the same characters in new storylines) or image song

Image song

An image song or character song is a song on a tie-in single or album for an anime, game or dorama that is usually sung by the seiyū or actor of a character, in character...

s (songs sung in character that are not included in the anime but further develop the character).

Broadcast media

Rise in use of film actors for voice roles

Voice Actors for Commercials and Local Television

Training and how-to classes

In Japan

See also