J. Michaels

Dark, mysterious, "Orson Welles"

• J. Michaels is registered with Voice123 since Jun 08, 2007.
• J. Michaels started his/her voice over career in .
• Currently J. Michaels is a Standard subscriber.
• Auditions and proposals submitted through Voice123 during the past six months: 0
• J. Michaels was last active on Voice123 27 days ago

Voice Description

I am a classically trained actor and can manipulate my voice for serious, comical, or informative effect. I can sound young or old(er), upper and lower class. I an affect a regional accent like a Brooklyn accent or a Jewish accent or that of an older person; I can create humorous character voices for cartoons or animated adverts. My specialty is dark and mysterious like narrators on horror shows or movie trailer voiceovers. I learned this from listening to old-time radio artists like Orson Welles.

Voice Genders and "Ages" I Can Perform

• Young Adult Male
• Middle Age Male
• Senior Male

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

• English - North American

I Offer my Services for these Recording Purposes

• Commercials
• Promos
• IVR, voicemail, phone systems, and on-hold messages
• Audiobooks
• Documentaries
• Movie and game trailers
• Podcasts
• Adult content
• Songs
• Others (on-camera, informercials, live announcers, spokespersons)

Jobs I Am Willing to Take (Union-wise)

Unknown - Click here to ask J. Michaels

My Union Affiliations and Memberships

None

My Recording and Delivery Capabilities

• I have Phone Patch in my studio

Pre-, Post- and Production Services I Offer

None

My Home Base

Astoria, Queens, New York, United States

Accents, Impersonations, Characters and Dialects

Unknown - Click here to ask J. Michaels

My Voice Experience

As a kid, I had a pronounced “Bronx” accent, thick enough to be laughed-at. My family could not afford voice lessons for me so I would watch a great deal of TV and emulate the voices of the characters on television. I loved horror movies so in no time I could affect a British accent thanks to Dracula; I would combine my grandmother's Yiddish with Bela Lugosi’s Hungarian to create a “foreign” sound; and listening to Orson Welles endowed me with a dark baritone perfect for haunted house documentaries and scary characters. I played him years later on stage. As a character actor specializing in classical theatre I was able to put a polish to my TV-formed tones. It has landed me a lot of stage work and recently video game voices.

As a young actor, I needed these voices to get me out of tight spots. I was quite poor, so when the creditors would call I found I needed to affect a different voice to get them off the phone. After a point I would give these escape-voices names. Maybe Welles would be "Bill, my uncle" and get rid of my credit card collection agency while Bela became "Jack, my grandpa" and would handle the phone company. I would put stories behind them to stop the creditors from asking questions: "Vat's a mata... he owe you money?" or "hey is this about the job offer? Cause he's still looking" or just harken back my Bronx-brogue and say “hey, I’m Carl, his roommate, I’ll take a message.”

My Training

Off-B’way: Mercury Theatre’s War of the Worlds (Orson Welles); title roles in Faustus, Volpone, Julius Caesar (Off-Off Broadway Review Award winner), as well as portrayals of Shylock (The Merchant of Venice), Scrooge (A Christmas Carol), The Major-General (Pirates of Penzance) Friar Lawrence (Romeo & Juliet), Henry (The Fantasticks), Rosencrantz AND Guildenstern (Hamlet). He created leading roles in Tartuffe, the musical at the John Jay Theatre; In The Rain for the ATHE New Works Series at the Marriott Marquis’ Starlight Theatre; and Michael Kessler-45 in Wisdom’s original presentation at The Dramatists Guild. Film/TV: a deadbeat dad in Twelve Fingers; a horny hunchback in L’elisir d’amore; a nerd with a secret in Myron; a nervous DA in Taking the Stand; a cursed corporate exec who becomes an insect in Norman: A Modern Metamorphosis; and Dr. Samuel Mudd in Footsteps of the Civil War. Other film appearances include Keeping the Faith and Duane Incarnate. He adds video games to his list as the voice of Shadrack in King’s Quest X (out this fall). A director and producer of classical works, his credits include Hamlet, Macbeth, Richard III, Oedipus Rex, Suor Angelica, A Yorkshire Tragedy, Othello, The Spanish Tragedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, The Bacchae, Il Tabarro, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew, Dr. Faustus, and Romeo & Juliet. Behind the scenes, he served on staff for Broadway’s Cats, Damn Yankees, Guys & Dolls, Big, the first Les Miz, the national tour of Edwin Drood, and a Town Hall showing of The Vagina Monologues; he wrote the book and additional lyrics for Critic, a musical (winner, ASCAP Award); served as a speech writer for several international organizations, writing prose for Hilary Clinton, Fran & Barry Weissler, James Earl Jones, Tom Freston, Clive Davis, Rocco Landesman, Tommy Mattola, Joe Torre, and Gerald Schoenfeld; as well as reporting ringside at Madison Square Garden for The Golden Gloves; he produced the 1997 season of None of the Above Theatre, and in 1998, he and Mary MiCari turned an arts program at The Educational Alliance into Genesis Repertory. He was recognized in the SSDC National Quarterly, TheatreWorld, and Crain’s Who’s Who. He is a theatre/media professor and curator of a pop-culture exhibition entitled ComixCulture. He thanks Robert, Eric, and his fellow actors for a great time; extends his thanks and respect to the members of The Present Company for continuing this great New York institution; and sends love and respect to his partner in life and crime, Mary Elizabeth MiCari, for support & abundant patience.