How do I find a voice actor?
How do you find voice actors for a project?
Just like finding any freelancer, there is a multitude of ways to find voice actors. Different websites, platforms, social media, etc.
However, taking a bird's eye view there are really two main ways: casting or direct contact.
A casting call is... a call for casting! You have a script, brief, details and you send this information over to an agency, or a casting platform like Voices.com, Voice123, Bodalgo, etc. You then receive auditions from voice actors which you then have to sift through to find who sounds right for the project.
The main advantage is you get to hear your script being performed, which makes it easy for you to visualise the finished content more.
It provides a snapshot as to how that voice actor would perform that script.
The main disadvantage is a workload one. For larger bigger budgets you may have to go through hundreds of auditions, which can of course be tiring. Having spoken to people who have done this there is also a lot of rubbish that gets uploaded.
The other side is direct contact. You maybe search for a "British voice actor" or "big American voice", etc, and find what Google serves you. This is also a perfectly valid way of finding the right voice for your project. It also serves a possible route to long-term relationship.
Even if a voice actor specialises in e.g. commercials, they're often very competent at other genres as well, making this an opportunity for a long-term professional relationship.
A big advantage is that by having more direct contact there's more opportunity for clarification and question answering, which may lead to something which closely matches the vision of your project.
Reputable voice actors also have a network of people, so if you need e.g. a female counterpart to the male voice, you have options which have already been curated for quality and professionalism (something which is not a guarantee on casting platforms).
Both are valid ways of finding excellent voices for a project. The reason to choose one over the other is more workload related, and whether or not you're looking to establish a closer professional relationship.
If you need a professional voice actor, you can have a look at the services I provide! https://www.markmullens.com
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