Dan Downs

I can do a movie trailer type voice and many accents, including, British/English, Southern American, French, Indian, English, Australian, Scottish, German, Latin (Spanish sounding) and Russian.

My experience doing different accents and what I call the "movie voice," has been varied. The beginning of my love for performing accents began at a young age. My mother has told me that when I was a child, I would watch a children's show called Spot, where all the characters spoke in an English accent. Afterward, I would imitate these characters around the house. Throughout my middle and high school career, I would also use these accents in front of my friends as well. In middle school, a friend of mine and I would pretend to be British when we had substitute teachers, insisting our names were Terrence and Philip, and maintaining our characters throughout the duration of the class. More recently, I attended a church group called Crossfire, where I would perform before and during a series of skits that we named, Hope Opera. Before the skit started, I would do a Don LaFontaine, movie preview,type voice, detailing events in the previous week's play. At the end, I again would put on the voice to give a preview of what was to come in the following week's skit. Many times I was given a guideline paragraph that I edited and rearranged in order to make it sound more like the narration of a movie trailer. This group was formerly talkative, but since the addition of the movie voice during the skits, the teens began to stay silent for the duration of the play. At this same youth group, one night I was given a microphone and was allowed to narrate the entire night in a "Borat" voice. This was met with much enthusiasm, as the movie had just been released. On Halloween, (guilty as charged; I still dress up...) I frequently pick characters that I can use an accent with. One year I was a Viking, not unlike the ones from the popular Capital One commercials, complete with British accent. A friend of mine and I frequently take on an Australian persona when we are out at restaurants or bars around town, and the waiter/waitress is always convinced that we are genuine Aussies. Today I am a manager at a grocery store in the Omaha area, looking for a way to break into the voice acting field. As I stated before, my voice acting experience has been varied, but I feel that I have the talent and drive needed to succeed in the field. Consider me for your next voice over job; you won't regret it. In high school I was the Assistant and Copy Editor of the Benson Gazette for three years, as well as being the Copy Editor of the Benson Year Book for two years. After graduating, I completed an internship at the Omaha area arts paper The Reader. I currently attend Metropolitan Community College with close to 89 credits and a 3.0 GPA. In the fall I will be leaving Metro to attend the University of Nebraska at Omaha, where I will be majoring in Secondary Education, with English and Language arts as my subject and field endorsements, respectively. My current position of employment is as a manager at the Baker's on 72nd and Military. I have worked there for a little over four years. College: * Metropolitan CC '09 * Secondary Education - English High School: * Benson High School '06 Employer: Bakers Supermarket Position: Assistant Grocery Manager Time Period: September 2006 - Present Location: Omaha, NE Employer: Hy-Vee Position: Dairy Clerk Time Period: July 2006 - August 2006 Location: Omaha, NE Employer: Bakers Supermarket Position: Grocery Stockperson/GM Clerk Time Period: June 2005 - July 2006 Location: Omaha, NE Employer: Louis Market Position: Courtesy Clerk Time Period: June 2004 - September 2004 Location: Omaha, NE While I feel that doing various voices is one of my strong points, I also feel that writing is as well. In addition to doing voice over work, I aspire to be a writer and English teacher. I am very picky about good grammar and I enjoy correcting and working with others on their writing. My friends and family frequently bring me school essays and articles to copy edit. Writing has always come easy to me, and eventually I hope to write a book. I am also involved in music. I currently play the baritone (t.c.), trumpet, and tuba, and led a brass quintet for four years that played around the community.