500 Voice Over Jobs: A Dearing Student on How He Built a Career From a Closet

Andy Cooper is a Dearing student, and a few years into his career he booked his 500th voice over job. Most of them he recorded inside a closet in his own house. When he first walked into the studio he was too nervous to tell people he was interested in acting; when he sent us this he was a full-time working voice actor. We’re proud of him, and we asked him to tell you how he did it.

Two things before you read it. Spoiler alert: there are no shortcuts, and Andy’s answers are about volume, research and discipline, not luck. And he wrote this in 2016. The specific gear and websites have moved on; the advice hasn’t moved an inch. His words from here.

What advice would you give an actor starting out in voice over?

Thanks so much. I really love doing what I do and Dearing Acting Studio is a huge part of the reason I get to do it, so a huge thank you to the whole Dearing family and staff.

Here’s some very general, very important advice for anyone starting out in VO: the internet is your best friend. It has made a voice over career accessible to anyone with a fast connection, and it contains every bit of information you’ll ever need to learn the trade, from gear and technical skills to agents and coaches. Anyone who refuses to spend the time to research, research, research is going to have a very hard time making a career of VO in the current marketplace.

Which resources do you trust?

The internet can be a very annoying best friend, too; the kind that talks all day and tells you nothing useful. You have to know how to ask it the right questions and ignore the noise. That said, there’s a ton of great information out there, and I’m amazed at how many working voice actors put free help on the web for other voice actors. VoiceOverXtra is a good source for ongoing articles. I find myself back at Edge Studio often, mainly for the rate card and the words-to-time calculator, but they have plenty for beginners. And even though it’s a pay-to-play marketplace, Voices.com does a good job of sharing free information aimed at new VO artists.

What does it take to set up a home studio?

If you hate commuting, this is the job for you. Sometimes my kids get in the way when I’m walking down the hall, but that’s as heavy as traffic gets. I don’t only audition from home; I do almost all of my work here. I’ve seen home VO studios that probably cost $20,000. I built my first one for under $1,000 and haven’t upgraded much since. If you want to do it inexpensively, focus on what you actually need to produce great sound:

• A quiet room. The most important part. If the room is loud or echoes, the most expensive equipment in the world won’t help. Find an interior room that doesn’t share a wall with outdoors. You can’t soundproof it, so it needs as little sound coming in as possible; I even turn off the air conditioning to record. Then kill the echo. I gutted a walk-in closet and covered the walls with moving blankets and foam panels. The test isn’t scientific: clap. If there’s any echo or ring, you need more or better placed absorption.
• A good, inexpensive microphone. There are great mics for $100 to $200. The best for VO are large diaphragm condensers. USB mics keep getting better, but I still don’t hear of anyone using one for professional work. Read a lot of reviews before you buy anything. I started on a starter mic in that range and it was more than enough.
• An audio interface. The box that turns your microphone’s signal into something your computer understands. Another $100 to $200. Mine came bundled with my recording software.
• Recording software. I use Pro Tools, which is incredible and far more than a voice actor needs. Free programs like Audacity or GarageBand will do everything a VO artist has to do.
• Headphones. As flat as possible. Consumer headphones are built to make music sound better than it is; when you’re the one producing the sound, you want to hear exactly what it is. $100 to $150.

Once someone has the gear, how do they find the work?

I sound like a broken record, but it’s the internet. Once you’ve trained and have a good demo, sign up for one of the online voice over marketplaces and audition every day. The more the better; set a goal of twenty a day. You’ll build your skills fast, and before long people start picking you. Then, once you’re being chosen consistently for a certain kind of work, find other ways to market yourself to the companies that produce it. Find your niche. Auditioning and marketing will be your full-time job until paying work takes over.

How did you get to 500 so quickly?

Volume. That’s an important thing to understand. I hear the old-timers talk about the days when a few jobs a month paid the bills and residuals did the rest. That was pre-internet, when there were very few jobs and even fewer voice actors. Today there are countless jobs and countless voice actors. I try to do about four jobs a day. Three quarters of them are for the web rather than radio or TV, and the pay is considerably less. The career is built on a lot of small jobs done well.

How did Dearing play a part?

Gladly. Voice acting, voice over, VO, whatever you call it, is acting. Whether you’re a character in a cartoon or narrating a software tutorial, you’re not reading a script the way you’d read a book. You’re pretending to be someone else. The countless hours I spent at Dearing learning the craft of acting are the reason I can do voice over at all. The things I use every day: auditioning with confidence while making a strong choice; using improv even inside a script; being in the moment with Meisner; and how to be professional in such a silly industry.

Dearing has always been a place where I could open up and be vulnerable. It’s run by a great family that somehow makes everyone feel like family. My first time at the studio I was embarrassed to tell anyone I wanted to be an actor. Without the time I spent there, I would not be in this career I love.

That’s Andy. Notice what he didn’t say: that a website got him the work, or that the gear did. He trained, then he auditioned twenty times a day. If you have a story like his, we’d love to hear it. 480-313-9901.