5 Questions for a Professional Voice-Over Talent – Robert Sciglimpaglia
Today’s 5 Questions for a Professional Voice Over Talent are answered by Robert Sciglimpaglia, a professional voice over talent based in New York City.
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?
I took a 2 hour introductory adult education class back in 2005 concerning the basics of voiceover. I did not know anything about the voice over industry prior to that class, but when I walked out of that door, I knew I had found my passion and wanted to pursue the industry. From there, I took some more advanced voice over classes, cut a demo, set up a home studio, and started auditioning on Voice123.com. About a month later, I landed my first gig, a national documentary for the AMERICAN EXPERIENCE television series on PBS.
2. What is the one thing you know now that you wish someone had told you when you first started out in voice-over?
That voiceovers are really part of the big acting “umbrella” and that you need to be an excellent actor to be an excellent voice over artist. I wish I had taken acting classes right from the get go. I didn’t take acting classes until a couple of years after I started pursuing the vo business, and once I did that, not only did my on camera acting career take off, but my vo career did as well.
3. What do you see as the biggest professional or personal obstacle you face that impacts your voiceover business and how are youworking to overcome it?
Time, or lack thereof, is the one constant obstacle that I have always battled while pursuing the industry. I am constantly battling balancing my time between my law career, my on camera career and my voice over business, as well as having time left over to spend with my wife and 3 girls. It is a constant battle, but the more I do it, the better I get at it so that it all seems to work out in the end.
4. What personal trait or professional tool has helped you succeed the most in your career so far?
I have been told I have the ability to be “natural” behind the mic and in front of the camera. I think this is because my personality is laid back and relaxed, for the most part, and this certainly is an excellent trait for success in the acting field.
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?
My acting teacher, Tom Todoroff, has given me many, many pieces of advice that have helped, but the one I keep in mind every single day that impacts me the most is that “I act to express, not impress.” Meaning, I do not care what people think about my performance or how they “judge” me or my performance; as long as I am satisfied with my performance, that is all that matters.
