Alexander Nowak

American Midwest, Chicago, Southern, California Surf Dude, East Coast (New Yorker), Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota, British Artistocratic, Cockney, Scottish, Irish, Australian, light French, light German

I've always been fascinated by voice over. In particular, I've always loved cartoon voiceovers. I think the first time I really thought about voice acting was while watching Batman: The Animated Series back in the early 90s. It was then that I found out that Mark Hamill did the voice of the Joker. I was shocked. Luke Skywalker did voices? Now that was cool. I'd been aware of a few other voice actors before in a casual way, particularly Mel Blanc and some of The Simpsons cast. However, after that fateful Batman episode, I started paying more attention to the character voices I would hear on Saturday morning and after school cartoons. Soon I became familiar with other voice over actors and their styles - Maurice LeMarche, Jess Harnell, Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Billy West, and many, many others. I also realized that I really liked impersonating those characters and seeing how closely I could match their voices. Watching standup comics and actors on shows like Saturday Night Live got me interested in doing celebrity impersonations. When I got to college, I discovered radio. Of course I'd listened to the radio growing up, but I'd never thought about any of the people speaking on air. It hadn't occurred to me that in a way, radio was just another form of voice acting. And as a journalism student, I found radio more fun from an anchoring standpoint as all I had to think about was the delivery into the microphone. I did my first voice work for that radio class, narrating stories and anchoring a little. As school continued, I started thinking more about voice over careers and opportunities that might be available. For years, I'd worked on my impersonations of actors, celebrities, and cartoon characters, but I'd never really had a way to use them outside of telling jokes or quoting memorable dialogue. My first voice over job after graduation was narrating a safety video. As freelance videographers, my associates and I made the video for a church youth conference that was partly designed to help elderly people with home maintenance. The video and narration were designed to be funny while illustrating proper maintenance safety. Since then, I've continued to freelance as a videographer. But I've never forgotten that Batman episode. And so I now begin my pursuit of a voice over career. Experience: Narration for radio news wraps Radio news anchoring Narration for a safety video - video was commissioned by a church parish in Rockford, IL Independent study and practice of numerous character voices I started practicing character voices from cartoons when I was a kid. As I got a little older, I started adding celebrity impersonations to the mix. I worked steadily on developing realistic accents, often basing my delivery on an actor's performance in a particular film. For example, my French accent is based in part on Paul Freeman's performance as French archaeologist Belloq in Raiders of the Lost Ark. I also continued to build a repetoire of character voices, mimicking the performances I would hear watching cartoons and movies. I work on all of these things to this day. In high school, I was active in theatre productions. When appearing in plays, I would always try to find the right voice for my character. I also performed in the school chorus as well as a barbershop quartet that won second place at the Illinois State High School Barbershop Competition. At the University of Illinois, I did voice over work for my journalism classes, both radio and TV, mostly in the form of narration for a weekly story. I also did a little anchoring. I'm an independent filmmaker. I find that many of the skills involved in filmmaking can be useful elsewhere. When it comes to acting, the vocal performance just becomes a part of the overall performance. I also sing and compose music. Some of the character voices I do, including Gaston from Beauty and the Beat, are from musical productions, so I've tried to carry over the voice to match what's sung as well.