5 Questions for a Professional Voice-Over Talent – Michelle Ann Dunphy

Michelle Ann Dunphy Voice-Over

Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Michelle Ann Dunphy, a professional voice-over talent based in Los Angeles, CA.

1. The beginning: When did you know you wanted to be a voiceover talent; how did your career begin (please include what year it started) and then when did your passion for voiceover develop into something professional?

Alright, well I knew I wanted voice over to be a part of my life at a young age. I decided that I wanted to be a Disney Princess, like many young girls around the world. When I learned that there were voices behind the Princesses, I figured that was how I was going to accomplish my ultimate goal. My parents bought me a $10 mic at Radio Shack and now… ?! years later, here I am. I did radio plays and fandubs (fan made ADR for Japanese animation) as a teenager, then I went off to college to study Theatre and worked a part time radio DJ job.

It was always a professional goal for me, but the big turning point that pushed me to move to Los Angeles happened right after graduating from college in 2005. I got a job as a DJ at an oldies radio station in a small town in Wisconsin a few days after taking my last final. I was on air for only a couple weeks when I realized that I hated being on air, but I loved doing the voice over work for commercials during the break. I came home that day and told my husband to start applying for jobs in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. I signed up for the online voice over lead websites to start practicing. He got a job in LA and I immediately dived into voice over classes upon arrival.

2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voiceover?

Be prepared to spend a lot of money. I like how Bob Bergen explains preparing for a voice over career. It’s an investment of both time and money. I worked a lot of long, hard hours at my day job and spent a lot of money on training, demos, equipment, etc. to get where I am today. Why? Because I’m insane! Voice over is part of who I am. I’ve tried to quit. I can’t, which is why I did whatever I could to be able to wake up every morning and play pretend for a living. 🙂

3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are you working to overcome it?

My biggest personal obstacle is being a mom of a toddler. While I have a home studio with ISDN & the works (Thanks George Whittam!), I still have to do the babysitter scramble in order to have someone keep him quiet while I record or to watch him while I drive to a session at a studio in town. It’s tough trying to balance work and family when your job is mostly from home and you have a strong sense of urgency involved. I know most moms would agree that it’s hard to balance work and family.

Professionally? Knowing my worth. Turning away work is the hardest thing in the world to do, but I’m starting to really feel comfortable knowing what I’m worth and not doing something that isn’t on par with industry standards. If we want the industry to be respected, we need to respect each other and ourselves so that we can all get fair rates! 🙂

4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?

Perhaps, my insanity? I say this with a laugh, but seriously, you have to be a little insane to do this job. You are constantly facing rejection. 99% of the job is doing auditions. You send them out into the world and forget about them. That was hard for me at first, but it’s definitely a professional attitude I worked on cultivating to help me make it through. It also helps that I’m a pretty big goof most of the time and just love being in the booth – be it audition or job. 🙂

5. In your development as a voice over performer, who has been the one particular individual or what has been the one piece of performance advice (maybe a key performance trick, etc.) that you felt has had the most impact on your actual voice over performance and why?

If this were a verbal interview, you would have heard me state “Richard Horvitz” here without even letting you finish the question. Richard has been my mentor for awhile now and I do not know where I’d be without him. Not only did he help me learn how to relax and just have fun playing pretend, but he’s also been a supportive and kind friend throughout the whole process. I actually organize his classes now because I feel so passionately that everyone should have a chance studying with him! He is an absolute gem of a person and a fantastic actor & teacher to boot.

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