New Voices Interview with Nicky Sunshine
New faces, new people, new stories — this is New Voices.
Tell us, what got you interested in joining the ranks of professional voice actresses?
I’ve been a stage performer and stand up comedian since the early 2000s. Voice acting was a natural extension of performing arts for me. When I was getting started, I had to learn to tone down my projection because I’m a naturally loud speaker. In noisy comedy clubs, as a host and comedian, I would be booming on the mic. Recording commercial voiceovers meant learning mic techniques and talking to 1 person, grasping the concept of being conversational. So I really had to adjust.
Stand up comedy is about connecting with the audience, similarly with voiceover work. Being confident with characterizing different voices and a variety of people is something I learned in my storytelling while doing stand up. It’s been helpful for when I record voiceovers for animation jobs and audiobooks.
Why did you choose to become a voice actress?
I love working on multiple projects at once but sometimes scatter my energies. So I was always doing some voiceovers, but I wasn’t as focused. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed me into investing in a professional home studio. Before the pandemic, I was visiting various studios in the city, multiple times a week. COVID-19 made it clear: have the right equipment, or else you can’t be heard or be competitive.
“The time had come.”
My friend found a custom booth online and my husband and I decided to purchase it, buy a good ventilation system and hire professionals to assemble it. That has been the best decision for my career.
In what areas would you like to improve as a voice actress and why?
I’d like to improve in longer explainer videos, audiobooks and retail copy. Long-form corporate narration requires a steady technique, and I tend to over enunciate words. I plan on studying Carrie Olsen’s technique and taking a few of her workshops. I also have to improve my direct marketing and marketing plans- I have resources, but I need to review them.
What makes you nervous about becoming a voice actress?
I’m discouraged every day. When I compare my interest and understanding of technical aspects of recording and voice over, it’s true – I don’t know as much as others in the voiceover industry.
I give myself a pep talk and say, “one thing at a time, one day at a time.”
There’s a learning curve and I realize I have to be gentle and encouraging with myself. I took two workshops to learn the DAW (digital audio workstation) Reaper. It’s still “greek to me.”
So I said to myself, “just learn a different DAW for now.”
I had issues with port forwarding for Source Connect. My cable provider made it a nightmare. Two days and they couldn’t help me, so I turned to my online VO community, Voice Actors of NYC (VANYC). If you don’t know something, just ask.
Fellow voiceover talent and tech folks were more than willing to help me.
What's been a very memorable lesson you've learned in 2020?
It’s really important to keep track of what and who you are auditioning for. Account for how many auditions you submit for. A fellow actor explained that
“out of 200 auditions, he booked 5.”
This helped me understand that this is a numbers game.
What do you want to learn this year?
- I’d like to be more familiar with how different genres of voice-overs “sound”. Auto ads have a “sound.” Most retail ads have a certain style.
- I also want to explore animation and push my voice to become more versatile.
- I also want to advance to higher, easier levels of editing with a better DAW.
Are there other professional voice actresses who inspire you, why?
Carin Gilfry, the founder of Voice Actors of NYC, inspires me. She inspires me to keep learning and connecting with other professionals.
“The more you learn, the more you earn.”
She has multiple national commercials running, and I’d love to have that too. Carin inspires me to share information and keep helping fellow voiceover actors. We can all share, be helpful and win, too. Carin is so willing to share information; she’s not competitive or selfish with resources. She really is the “Fairy Godmother of NYC VO Actors.”
Special thanks to Nicky for sharing her thoughts on joining the ranks of professional voice actresses.
Check out Nicky's profile here! And listen to her most recent voice acting work:
Check out our new section with tips and advice as we bring you Ask the pros
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Becoming a voice actor with Hassene Haddad
New faces, new people, new stories — this is New Voices.
Tell us, what got you interested in becoming a voice actor?
I’ve always wondered, “Who are the people that speak in ads and everywhere else?” And I’ve always thought, “this must be one of the greatest jobs ever.” I did a 360° career switch twice, from Medicine to Software Engineering. Even though I’m still doing the last one, I’m committed to becoming a voice actor full time. It’s just what I love.
For the first gig I landed, I applied for multiple jobs on freelancing websites. I ended up being invited to only 1 of the 30+ jobs I applied for. I auditioned and I got the job. It was an ad in English for a company that didn’t want an American Accent, rather, a neutral one.
My first ad voiceover project for QPOD:
What's a memorable lesson you learned in 2020?
That spending some time alone is super beneficial for mental health, and it helps you better discover yourself.
This year has shown me the importance of voice acting and how it is a job that is here to stay.
Yes, the COVID-19 spread has caused a slight decrease in the number of contracts I receive, but instead, I received many online course recordings to do for all ages and specialties, which is super cool.
I learned that spending time alone can be super beneficial for one’s mental health, and can help you better discover yourself. I also learned that you should keep on seeking opportunities even when the entire world seems to have shut down.
What makes you nervous about becoming a voice actor?
Not being able to meet the client’s needs, and as a matter of fact, this has happened to me. It was a client who heard my demo, hired me on the spot, gave me a script and I left right away to record. It was an urgent project, so everything happened really quickly. Turns out what I delivered, in the end, was far from what she was looking for. I figured later that she was looking for an Australian accent, one that I haven’t mastered well.
The advice here? Always have a clear line of communication. You need to get all the information possible from your prospective client before you accept any job.
The last thing you want is to work on something, and waste both your and the client’s time just because you didn’t know what was truly required in the first place.
Now keep in mind, not all clients will be easy to communicate with. Some might not even know what they want! But you have to get the minimum [info] (tone, accent, etc.) to start working. If it’s a short project, provide more than one sample of your work for the client to choose from, or ask them for some references that you can follow.
The advice here? Always have a clear line of communication. You need to get all the information possible from your prospective client before you accept any job. Share on XWho inspires you, and why?
A friend of mine, who forced me out of my comfort zone. What my friend did may not seem like much, but he encouraged me to speak about my ideas during a conference in front of an audience of over 100+ attendees.
After that, he made sure I joined multiple organizations and volunteered at events held by large organizations to work on my social skills. He gave me the first push, and from that, I took a leap of faith, leading to a series of events that changed my life — from changing my career path, to exploring new career ideas in parallel, to doing emcee work, to starting my voice over career.
Success for me was being able to finally do something I enjoyed after spending time conforming to what I thought my family wanted me to pursue in the field of medicine.
Volunteering, giving speeches, organizing events and going on radio shows to promote them, being an emcee at big gatherings like graduation ceremonies… all of these helped with my public speaking and made me aware of how my voice sounds. I finally understood the importance of controlling my voice in order to capture an audience, and how I had to adjust it based on the occasion — whether it was for advertising purposes or to lead a live meeting. All of these experiences have helped me in becoming a voice actor.
What do you want to learn going forward?
I want to keep improving by working continuously. Also I want to learn how to manage a voice over agency; [like] how to know which actors to hire to work for you in the long run.
Also, I’d like to improve in dubbing. I want to master the art of vocal versatility and voice multiple characters at the same time. Right now, I can do around 6 types of voices ([including sounding like] kids, young adults, adults and old men) which is not bad. But I want to master this even more.
Special thanks to Hassene for sharing his experience and advice on becoming a voice actor.
Check out Hassene's profile here! And listen to his most recent work:
Check out our new section with tips and advice as we bring you Ask the pros
Share this post!
A blog owner yourself? Relevant links to quality sites will help your performance on search engines. If your readers will benefit from the services or information on The Booth's Voice over Guide, please consider linking to this post or the guide itself.