VAM 209 | Interview with Zeke Alton, Part 2
Welcome to episode 209 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Get ready for the second part of my interview with the hardest working actor I know, Mr. Zeke Alton! Zeke is a multi-talented performer who does voice acting, performance capture, and also works on-camera. He’s been in major AAA game titles like Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Starfield, and the Callisto Protocol. He’s also worked on TV shows like S.W.A.T and movies such as My Dead Friend Zoe starring Morgan Freeman and Sonequa Martin-Green. Zeke is not only a member of the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, but also serves on many of their contract negotiation committees helping to secure artistic rights, fair wages, and safe working conditions for his fellow union members. In addition, Zeke is also a founding board member of NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, who work tirelessly to promote the interests and protect the rights of all voice actors regardless of union affiliation.
In the last episode, Zeke outlined for us the fascinating journey of how he transitioned from being a pilot in the Navy for 20 years, into becoming a working actor in Los Angeles. It’s a very inspiring story and if you haven’t heard it yet, I strongly encourage you to listen to the previous episode before continuing with this one. Even though he decided to purse an acting career later in his life, Zeke didn’t let that dissuade him from breaking in to the entertainment industry. In fact, knowing that he might be at a disadvantage, he made sure to be methodical and diligent in his approach. This focus and determination served him well. It not only allowed him to develop the necessary skills to be professionally competitive, but more importantly, it helped him hone a mindset that gave him the resilience and the resourcefulness to deal with the challenges he faced. One of the resources he found helpful at the time was this podcast! He started listening to my episodes back in 2015 and he thanked me for the helpful advice he found on my show. I’m so honored to have contributed to his success!
In this episode, I ask Zeke what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. For Zeke, the moments when he’s acting feel like absolute magic. He goes into what some describe as a “flow state” where the rest of the world falls away, and the only thing that matters is him performing as the character. He finds this state so compelling that he’s willing to manage and deal with all the more mundane aspects of an acting career in order to experience it. Zeke also shares with me his advice for the aspiring actor and how important he thinks it is for actors to understand that if they want to be commercially successful, they need to think of themselves as contributors to an entertainment business enterprise. We then talk about Artificial Intelligence, a subject I dearly wanted to discuss with Zeke because of his extensive knowledge about not only the technology of AI, but also the current business practices of the companies trying to use AI in their creative projects. There’s great advice in this episode, both about developing your performance abilities, and about protecting those hard won skills from being exploited by technology. I hope you find it as insightful and useful as I did!
VAM 208 | Interview with Zeke Alton, Part 1
Welcome to episode 208 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’m very pleased to present the first part of my interview with one of the most industrious men I know, Mr. Zeke Alton. Zeke works in many different areas of the entertainment industry including voice acting, performance capture, and also on-camera. You may know his voice acting work as Terrell Wolf and William Peck in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Quantum in Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Mike Abadio and Lendel Green in Starfield, and his amazing performance as Elias Porter in The Callisto Protocol. Zeke also works on camera and has been in The TV series S.W.A.T. as well as the movie My Dead Friend Zoe starring Morgan Freeman and Sonequa Martin-Green. Zeke is a member of the actor’s union, SAG-AFTRA, and serves on many of their negotiation committees helping to secure artistic rights, fair wages, and safe working conditions for performers. As if that weren’t enough, Zeke is also a founding board member of NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, who work tirelessly to promote the interests and protect the rights of all voice actors regardless of union affiliation.
We begin our discussion with Zeke telling me how he broke into the world of show business. His journey is incredibly unique. His father was in the Air Force and stationed in various places in Europe. Zeke was born in Italy and raised in England where his mother’s family resided. Eventually his father moved his family back to the U.S., and after spending his early childhood overseas, Zeke ended up going to High School in America. While he did study acting in elementary and high school, he didn’t act in college, but instead got a scholarship through the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps, commonly known as ROTC, and focused on pursuing a military career.
After graduating college, Zeke joined the Navy as a pilot and subsequently achieved the esteemed status of test pilot, flying new and experimental aircraft. He ended up serving in the Navy for 20 years. He knew that after those 20 years were up he had some options available to him: he could choose to stay in the Navy which most likely would have led to a distinguished career being promoted up through the ranks, or he had the option to retire and enter civilian aviation as a commercial pilot which was another common career path for Navy fliers. Zeke did neither, however. Instead he chose to pursue a career as an actor. It was a momentous decision, and one that he did not take lightly. He knew that if he was going to pursue a career in entertainment, that he would need to approach it with the same focus, dedication, and commitment as he would give to any goal that he attempted in the military.
Zeke took years to study, plan, prepare, and train as an actor before he finally decided to make the move to Los Angeles. He arrived in LA in 2019 and has made great progress in his acting career ever since! The story of how he went from being a Navy test pilot to deciding he had to pursue a career as a performer is a fascinating study not only in what steps you can take in order to be successful as an actor, but also in how important it is to adopt an effective mindset so you can achieve your acting goals. Zeke attributes the bulk of his success to the professional attitude he adopted, which helped him approach his acting goals in a reliable and effective manner. I hope my listeners can take inspiration from his journey, as well as adopt his practical approach to pursuing an acting career. So without further ado, here’s Zeke!
VAM 205 | Interview with Lauren Mayfield, Part 1
Welcome to episode 205 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with an accomplished voice actress who just happens to be a former student of mine and one of my class assistants, Lauren Mayfield! One of the things that I love most as an acting teacher is when a student of mine is able to achieve a level of success in their career where the two of us can graduate from being teacher and student to being fellow colleagues in the voice over industry! Lauren has definitely achieved that! I first met her when she started taking some of my acting classes back in 2016! I admired her talent, her commitment to the craft of acting, and her generous spirit, so I eventually asked if she would be willing to assist me with my classes, and she graciously agreed.
Since then, Lauren has been a consistent source of encouragement, advice, and inspiration for many of my students, and I’m so grateful to have had her on the Voice Acting Mastery team for so long. Over the years, Lauren has also been diligently building her own voice acting career, and I was delighted to hear from her recently that she and I were both playing characters in the video game Starfield by Bethesda. You may also know Lauren’s work in games like Smite where she plays Deadly Dinner Discord, Smash Legends where she plays Brick, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III where she plays Raptor, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom where she plays Yona. Lauren is signed with one of the most prestigious agencies in Los Angeles: Sutton, Barth and Venari, more commonly known by the initials, SBV, and I couldn’t be more proud of her accomplishments!
In this episode, I begin our discussion by asking Lauren how she got started as a voice actor. As she recounts how she became interested in performing at a young age and started pursuing not only acting, but musical theater, I was amazed to discover how many similarities that Lauren and I had in our childhood experiences! We both would reenact scenes from our favorite movies for our parents, we both had an appreciation for classic MGM musicals, and we both came to the realization that neither of us really had the temperament to pursue a full time theater career in New York City.
Lauren is a California native who grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and spent time both there and later in the Los Angeles area where she went to college. She also had a love for Disney theme parks and worked at Disney World in Florida right after she graduated, and then returned to California where she worked at Disneyland. While there, she applied for a special ambassador-style program in addition to her regular duties, but was passed over for the position, even though all of her co-workers in her department were chosen. Feeling disappointed, and having more time in her schedule, Lauren decided to pursue something that had always interested her: voice acting.
She started taking voice over classes at a school called Del Mar Media Arts based out of Orange County, California. She also started taking classes with me at Voice Acting Mastery, and at Bang Zoom Studios in their Adventures in Voice Acting program. She fell in love with voice acting and decided to commit to pursuing a professional career in voice over. During our discussion, Lauren shares with me not only the detailed action journey steps she took to try to further her voice acting goals, but also the adjustments she had to make to her mindset, and what preconceived notions she had to let go of in order to find her own way of breaking into the LA voice over market place. Even though we’ve known each other for many years, I learned so much from diving deep into Lauren’s voice over journey, and I hope you will as well!
VAM 198 | Interview with Sara Secora, Part 1
UPDATE: Sara Secora is currently offering private coaching services via her website. She is no longer offering coaching services through SkillsHub.life. Please make sure to reach out to her directly if you’d like to train with her!
Welcome to episode 198 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the first part of my interview with the resourceful and multi-talented Sara Secora. You may be familiar with Sara’s voice acting work in games, where she voices Dunyarzad in Genshin Impact, Mathila in Warframe, and Pat Myers in Fallout 76. In animation and dubbing she’s played Radia Rainbowfish in Enchantimals, Avi in Boonie Bears: Back to Earth, and Hayate in Rumble Garanndoll. Sara has also worked as a casting director on games like Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, Smite, and Paladins, and she’s voice directed the games Smite, Paladins, and Overload. In addition to all of that, Sara has somehow found the time to write a book on voice acting called The Anywhere Voice Actor about what it takes to work as a voice actor no matter where you live. You can find it on Amazon. Sara has been so successful that she was invited to be a coach on Jennifer Hale’s amazing website, skillshub.life where she’s available for private coaching sessions.
One of the reasons I was so eager to get Sara on the podcast is because she has built her entire voice over career without leaving her home studio. Sara has a disability that keeps her homebound which we discuss in detail in this episode. Despite this challenge, Sara has not only been able to book voice over work that would normally be possible to do from home, such as commercials, independent games, and narration work, but she’s also been able to break into areas of voice acting that have traditionally required performers to move to the city where such work was being done, such as animation, dubbing, and AAA video games. Sara’s ability to achieve so much while negotiating her limitations is a testament to her ingenuity, her determination, and frankly her courage in the face of adversity. What she’s accomplished is truly admirable and I hope my listeners can gain some inspiration from her journey.
Sara and I begin our discussion by talking about how she got started as a voice actor. She was initially a YouTuber who enjoyed playing horror games and decided to create a YouTube channel where others could watch her play. Many of these horror games would have letters or notes that the characters had written, revealing information about the world of the game. Usually these important pieces of text did not have any voice acting associated with them, so in order to keep things interesting, Sara would read the letters aloud to entertain her audience. Her impromptu performances became very popular with her fans and many of them encouraged her to pursue voice acting. After receiving enough of these supportive comments, Sara eventually decided to reach out on twitter to a voice actor whose work she had admired. He was kind enough to respond and to give her suggestions, including some advice on getting training as an actor.
Sara took these suggestions to heart and started applying herself diligently to creating a voice acting career. While her success speaks for itself, I’m very eager to let her share her story with you in her own words!
VAM 197 | Interview with Josh Petersdorf, Part 2
Welcome to episode 197 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with voice actor and theme park voice performer, Josh Petersdorf! You may know Josh from his work in games like League of Legends, Fire Emblem: Engage, World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, and Overwatch. He’s worked on the English language dubs of anime shows like Aggretsuko and on live action shows like Project “Gemini”. He’s also the voices of both Megatron and Optimus Prime at the Universal Studios Theme Park during the live action show that takes place before the Transformers 3D ride.
That last time we spoke, Josh shared with me how he became a voice actor. He was inspired to pursue performing at a young age after watching his sisters perform in dance recitals. However, during high school, he focused more on athletics, and it wasn’t until after he was living on his own that he realized that he wanted to pursue voice acting as a career. He moved to LA, started taking classes, and was fortunate enough to be able to book work at the Universal Studios Theme Park and to also get agent representation. He started booking voice over work, but when he landed the role of Roadhog in Overwatch, it definitely took his career to a new level.
In this episode, I ask what inspired Josh to become a performer in the first place. He shares with me how much the artists from his childhood influenced him to try to create things himself, and how his love of pro wrestling and his nostalgia for 80’s cartoons still inform his artistry today! The characters from the entertainment he consumed often served as role models for him and helped shape not only his creative sensibilities but his personal development as well. He and I also talk about how the most successful voice actors are always looking to expand their capabilities and grow into different areas or niches of the industry. And finally, Josh gives me his advice for the aspiring voice actor, which at its core seems to contain a paradox: He suggests that actors both be ready to work hard and also be easy on themselves. He thinks they should both be demanding when it comes to their own skills, but forgiving as well. It’s a fascinating contradiction that I actually think you’ll find very insightful as we explore it in this episode.
VAM 195 | Interview with Yuri Lowenthal, Part 2
Welcome to episode 195 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
This is the second and final part of my interview with the incredible Yuri Lowenthal! You may know his voice acting work in animated shows like Legion of Superheroes, Ben 10, and the 2021 version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. In games, he’s worked on Prince of Persia, Sunset Overdrive, and Marvel’s Spider-man series. In anime, he’s very well known for playing Sasuke in Naruto. Yuri and his wife, Tara Platt, also have their own production company called Monkey Kingdom Productions where they develop and produce their own original shows and projects. They’ve also written the well known book Voice Over Voice Actor, What It’s Like Behind the Mic.
In this episode, Yuri shares with me what inspired him to become a performer in the first place. This may come as a surprise to my listeners, but he’s not really sure! This uncertainty is actually not uncommon among artists. Often what inspires someone to pursue a career in the arts is not an intellectual or rational motivation, but rather a gut feeling that they need to explore a field of expression, like acting, in order to fulfill some need for psychological or spiritual satisfaction that can be difficult to articulate. Yuri does admit that he loved storytelling on a deep level and that drove him to explore it first as a writer, and later as a performer.
One huge influence on him when he was young, was when his father gave him the Dungeons and Dragons basic game set and then sat down and taught Yuri and his friends how to play. Yuri credits playing D&D for contributing to most of the things he likes about himself today. D&D inspired him to read more, to learn about mythology and history, to develop his critical thinking skills, and most importantly, to practice storytelling improvisationally, in real time! While playing D&D, not only did Yuri have to use his imagination to visualize the entire world of the game in his mind, but he also had to play as a character in that world as believably as possible. He found that the skills he developed while world-building and playing characters in D&D were directly applicable to the challenges he faced as an actor.
Yuri is a huge fan of genre storytelling such as Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror, etc. His appreciation for these genres also helped contribute to his desire to try pursuing a career in the arts. However, he knew that simply loving storytelling was not enough, and that he also had to develop professionally competitive acting skills in order to have something to contribute artistically to the stories he so admired. In this segment, he and I talk about how he balances his fandom for the projects he’s working on with the need to approach each project as a consummate professional. Since so many of my listeners are often avid fans of the games and animated projects they want to work on, it’s an important topic to explore!
After that, we end our discussion with Yuri’s advice to the aspiring voice actor and how vital he feels it is for someone just starting out to get as much practice acting as they can, even if it’s just reading out loud every day to develop your cold reading skills. He also stresses how important it is to actually finish projects that you may be working on. Bringing a project to completion and moving on to the next one will teach you far more than tinkering with the same project endlessly. It’s a very practical approach to pursuing a career as a voice actor, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with all my listeners!