VOPlanet

Becoming a voice actor can be lucrative. Plus, you can work from home and you become a member of the vibrant voice over community. While there are many benefits to voice acting, starting a career in voice overs requires careful consideration. Read on for straightforward, actionable steps for starting a career in voice acting.

The creative industry moves at lightning speed and so should your voice over casting. You no longer have to book a voice over through an agent, schedule an in-person session in an LA studio and then wait days for your voice over to be recorded. Online voice casting has made it possible to quickly and easily tap into a worldwide network of freelance voice actors from the comfort of any device and get professional voice overs in minutes. Let’s take a look at how casting voice overs online can save you time and money and take your creative to the next level.

If you have a project that requires a voice over, it's best to hire a professional voice actor. A professional voice over can help you win and keep accounts, increase the effectiveness of your eLearning courses and give your project a professional edge. Read more to find out why you should you hire a professional voice talent instead trusting your creative to your co-worker Jerry with the "nice voice."

Are you frustrated that you keep getting auditions from the same voice actors when you cast a voice over? Do you know that you may be paying voice over sites thousands of dollars in unnecessary fees and commissions? Let's talk about why it's hard to find fresh voice talent on the corporate voice casting sites and what kinds of fees and commissions can affect your voice over budget. If you use a voice over casting site to find and hire voice actors, here are a few insights that might surprise you.

Look up the word versatile and it’s quite possible that a photo of professional voice actor Maria Pendolino is right next to it. From slinky smooth commercial voice overs to highly technical medical jargon, Maria is a voice over chameleon. We are quite lucky to have Maria on the VOPlanet VO Team and even luckier that she had moment between all her awesome endeavors to sit down and answer a few questions about her career, favorite voice over jobs and the future of voice over casting.

The demand for a neutral international sound has popularized a voice over accent that is not quite American, British or European. Transatlantic voice overs, also known as Mid-Atlantic English, International English or Neutral English, are in demand and voice actors who have mastered the accent are being cast with increasing frequency. Voice buyers and voice actors are sometimes unsure of what exactly Neutral English is. To get a better idea we went to the experts. We talked to Juliette Gray and J. Michael Collins, two of the top professional voice actors who book Transatlantic voice over work, about what the accent is, how it’s being used and what exactly it sounds like.

Whether you are new to the voice over business or you are a veteran voice over director, insights from the voice actor’s side of the microphone are invaluable. Preparation before and guidance during a voice over session are vital to bringing out the best performance from voice talent. VOPlanet's Kevin West asked voice over session masters Debbie Grattan and Kelley Buttrick for tips on how to direct voice actors.

Is it best to hire voice actors through a casting agent? What about Union versus non-Union voice talent? Does it make a difference? Let's explore.

We continue our discussion on hiring professional voice actors with a look at the different online voice over casting options. Are those top-of-page ads touting cheap voice overs legit? Hiring a voice actor direct from their personal site can be a great option if you have the time. We discuss some important points to consider when hiring a voice actor direct from their website.