Erik Shields - I take critisism well and can change and addapt.

I take critisism well and can change and addapt.

• Erik Shields is registered with Voice123 since Aug 01, 2010.
• Erik Shields started his/her voice over career in 1994.
• Currently Erik Shields is a Standard subscriber.
• Auditions and proposals submitted through Voice123 during the past six months: 0
• Erik Shields was last active on Voice123 278 days ago

Voice Description

(I'M TALENTED, GIVE ME A CHANCE TO PROVE IT.)
As I said before I am ever Expanding my voices, and always love a challenge. My voice Range is very wide and is ever expanding. If you ask for a raspy old man and I have NEVER done it before give me about 3-5 min and I'll have you a raspy man. About 10-15 and I'll have the raspy old man you want. I take direction VERY well, I do put my own creativity's into my work, but I always make sure it is what the client wants. (You never know if you don't try.) My voice is gutsy, I can go to a very high squeaky pitch all the way to a low "boom" voice, and everything in between. To tell you all the voices I CAN do would take way to long, and because I can do anything I need or want to with my voice. My challenges are woman mostly teenage female voices and adult female. I CAN do them I just struggle and in my mind, not as good as many of my other voices. I am a little better the older the woman....probably because of the high and low tones I can do with my voice at the same time. This ability also allows me to do "out of this world" voices, such as demons, aliens, creatures from the beyond, and so forth. What ever you have me do I pride my self on pronunciation, annunciation, and articulation. You CAN understand the words that come out of my mouth, also I am getting better at my "poppers" S's, P's, B's and so forth. You will enjoy my voice because my voice is a choose what you like. In this regard anyone can like my voice.

Voice Genders and "Ages" I Can Perform

• Baby
• Child
• Teenage Boy
• Young Adult Female
• Young Adult Male
• Middle Age Male
• Senior Female
• Senior Male

Language(s) of Which I Am a Native Speaker:

• English - Other

I Offer my Services for these Recording Purposes

• Commercials
• Promos
• IVR, voicemail, phone systems, and on-hold messages
• Training, business presentations, sales, and web sites
• Audiobooks
• Videogames
• Documentaries
• TV shows and movies
• Movie and game trailers
• Podcasts
• Adult content
• Songs
• Others (on-camera, infomercials, live announcers, spokespersons)

Jobs I Am Willing to Take (Union-wise)

• Non-Union Jobs

My Union Affiliations and Memberships

None

My Recording and Delivery Capabilities

• I will go to any designated studio in my area
• I can record and then deliver the audio files via Email
• I can record and then deliver the files by regular mail

Pre-, Post- and Production Services I Offer

• I can deliver edited and finished voice tracks
• I have a music library and can add music to any project
• I can add special effects to any project

My Home Base

Boise, Idaho, United States

Accents, Impersonations, Characters and Dialects

As I said before A LOT, but some that come to mind are: Sean Connery, Demons, Soldier, Proper English, British, Irish, Yank, Russian, Ghey, romantic, chirping, Helium/chipmunk, Deep, Announcer, Narrator, and Smaug....to name a few.

My Voice Experience

Today we have the privelage to do a Q&A with an up and coming voice over Erik Shields.....Tell Us Erik whats your biggest strength?

THEATRE!!!!! theatre is my life I have actually been in shows since before I was born.

...wait that's not possible.

My mother was Mary in a musical my parents wrote, "The Carpenter"

AHHHH I see.

Yes I was unborn Jesus.

But that doesn't really say anything about YOU as an actor or voice actor.

True I Technically didn't start acting till 3. but more of to get out of trouble. My actual theatre experience and voices started when I was about 5 and I started telling stories, and acting out all the character in a book. My mother called me Erik Bear the story teller.

When did you start acting in front of people?

When I was about 5. Anyone who would listen became my audience I use to record my self on a tape player and put the tape in a radio and press play when allot of people were in the area.

AH, so you kinda forced it on people?

Well at first yes. but as I got older people wanted to here my voices and stories. I would LARP with my friends at recess and because they loved my characters and voices I would play DM and I would be different characters.

So it was only in front of Friends and family?

OH no I started trying to get into theatre and auditioned and got to play a wide variety of characters. but it wasn't until my sophomore year, when, I suppose my Voice acting talent was "discovered" by my Drama teacher Mrs Tragger. She was casting "The hobbit" and I wanted to be Gullum SOOOOO BAD.

And were you casted as Gu...

I'm getting to that. No actually I was not, and at first I was upset, but I was always taught that if you weren't chosen for something you wanted its cuz you were needed more some where else. And I was. I was Casted as The Goblin King, Smaug the Dragon, and the Narrator.

Wait...3? she cast you as 3 pretty big roles?

Actually neither of them were that big, but I made them big. I asked her Why she casted me as she did, I told her I'll do it, I just wanna know why. She said "Well Erik, you could have played, just about any part,(EGO BOOST) but I couldn't find ANY one who could have played those 3 better than you. I found some who could do better in other places and you may even do a better job as them, but some of them couldn't do any other part."(EGO BOOST TO THE MAX)

Wow...are you worried she said that to you just to keep you as those parts?

I was a little bit, but I looked at it from her point of view, I could have played almost any part. but I knew for a fact the the girl she got to play Gullum was better for the part, she was down right a contortionist, that was her part, she didn't fit anywhere else.

But how Do you KNOW she wasn't trying to just ego boost you to do a better job?

Well I didn't until closing night. every one got a gift. I think mine was probably the best. Mrs T gave me her Director notes for casting.. next to every character she had an interesting web from character to actor, mine had a line from EVERY single character, she was color coded, Red was her way of saying this is the One character she could see play that character, mine were all red.

Well that is fascinating, so that was when you realized that you were a voice actor?

Well yeah, on top of her saying I could play any character, she had me take the Voice characters she fell in love with my voice so I started from there and learned more voices and I have even won stuff for my voice talent.

Oh? like in a talent show?

Not really, I called into a local radio station (the X) when I was 17 and did my Sean Connery and made the female DJ faint, so I won tickets to Warp Tour 05 .

OK so have you only done voices locally?

no actually my father and I, when I was 18 made a sound booth in our basement and I was already apart of a local theatre troupe, Ichidan. Some people from that group and my family began to do voice acting, our first "gig" was to voice MANY voices for an upcoming game Deus ex Nameless Mod.

WOW So you were in a Game what was your Character?

Well actually I did, I think 10 voices I'm several characters in that game.

OH WOW so it was true what your teacher said.

Yeah, I am the man of many voices.

So do you remember the name of all your characters?

no....Well I played.... Sam, I am several of the security guards, I'm the black guy who has a higher voice than some one that size should, (cant pronounce his name) and I was a couple crazy people, I only really remember Sam's voice, because He was hard to do at first.

Anything else or just the game?
Well I am on ODESK always looking for work because I am also an animator. But voices are my passion.

I can see that. So you very well might voice over one day a character you animated?

One can hope. Ive never seen a voice actor and animator have the same name in the credits, I hope to make that mile stone. But I am always improving and growing.

Well thank you Erik it was a pleasure speaking with you. hope to see your name among the greats one day.

You Will!

Join us next week when we interview Sean Connery

(as sean connery) Well we could just do the interview now? I mean I am right here.

Thank you Erik.

I was just saying...(sean connery)

My Training

Voice acting with Micheal Coleman for 3 days
Voice work with father for 11 years
4 years of Sound board Experiance
Been in Shows since 1994
went to Westwood College for Animation and game arts.