Mike Lenz Voice - A Journey Into Voice Acting

MARC CASHMAN is one of the few voice-acting instructors in the U.S. on “both sides of the glass”—as a Clio-winning Radio and TV commercial copywriter, producer and casting director, and as a working voice actor. Creative Director of Cashman Commercials, he creates, casts and produces copy and music advertising for Radio and TV clients such as Kroger, Charles Schwab, Quizno's, Pella Windows and Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer among many, many others. Voted one "The Best Voices of the Year" by AudioFile Magazine—three times—Marc has been heard voicing Radio and TV commercials, documentaries, animated series and videogames, e-Learning modules and over 100 audio books. In addition to his production schedule, he instructs voice-acting of all levels through his V-O classes, "The Cashman Cache of Voice-Acting Techniques" in Los Angeles, CA; as an adjunct professor of voice acting at California Institute of the Arts; and online coaching. He also pens a monthly Internet column, "Ask the VoiceCat.” Marc is also a keynote

About me: Hey, I'm Tim. I'm a husband and a father, first and foremost. I've spent over 3 years in the podcasting space, learning everything I could about what makes a podcast great. Prior to getting into this arena, I spent my time touring the country with a band of my best friends (including Liam, one of our project managers here). We got the opportunity to play on MTV, at the Bamboozle, on Warped Tour, and various other opportunities for not-so-humble brags. My background is in sales and marketing -- both online and off, and that's allowed me to help podcasters get amazing results. I've also been the voice for many incredible companies like TOMY Toys, Disney, AT&T, The Travel Channel, The UFC, Expedia, Honda, and more. I'm a nerd, and wouldn't have it any other way... and I eat, sleep, and breathe Syracuse sports (GO ORANGE!) For more information on this and other episodes, head over to mikelenzvoice.com  

Denise Ashlynd brings over 30 years of professional experience to her work in theatre, film, television, commercials, and voice-over. A native of Florida, she made her television debut on "Romper Room" at the age of 5. By age 13, she performed on stage in her first Equity production of "Fiddler on the Roof." Denise graduated magna cum laude from Florida State University with a B.F.A. degree in Music Theatre. While at FSU, she worked and studied with Joseph Papp, Roger Rees, Raul Julia, Nigel Rideout, and Neal Kenyon. She also had the privilege of working with Academy Award winning director, Jonathan Demme, on his film "Something Wild," which was shooting in Tallahassee at the time. Just after graduation, Denise earned her Equity card and moved to NYC, where she continued her training at Circle in the Square. On stage, she has performed Off-Broadway, in U.S. tours, regionally, and throughout 13 countries in Europe in productions of  "Man of La Mancha" (starring John Raitt),  "Hair," >"Jesus Christ Superstar" a

Larry Hudson is a full time voiceover actor with his own studio and has been active in the voiceover industry since 2009.  His client list continues to expand providing his voice to a wide variety of voiceover projects including, commercial TV and radio ads, documentaries, industrial and tutorials for corporate and web presentations.  His current list of clients include Disney/Picture Head, Toyota, Lexus, KB Home, Kubota Tractor Corp, Quaker Oats, Tropicana, Apple, Google & Qualcomm just to name of few. Larry provides a clear concise baritone sound that embodies strength, power and sincerity.  His signature sound is relaxed and conversational.  Listeners are drawn in by Larry’s warm tones which he brings forth in a variety of genres.  Larry's versatility enables him to bring light hearted fun to character pieces or deep sincerity to roles of a more solemn nature.  For more information on this and other episodes, head over to mikelenzvoice.com.

Val Kelly is a bilingual, French/English Voice Actress. Val started her voiceover career in 1999 after being told her whole life how "cute" her voice is and that she should do something with it... and so she did....!! Val has been actively booking Voiceover work for years now and just recently finished working on her new commercial demo with Emmy award winning sound designer, recording engineer and producer "Uncle Roy" Yokelson. Val's specialty is in voicing characters for cartoons, talking toys, apps, videogames, children's e-learning, radio and tv commercials. Her clients include Hasbro toys, "Hungry Howie's Pizza Place", "Roam and Wander", "Mymoonah" and many more.  In addition to being a Voice actress, Val is the Owner/President/CEO/Executive Producer of Mid-Atlantic Voiceover, LLC. Val is in charge of running all aspects of the company and is the Executive Producer for the annual Mid-Atlantic Voiceover "Get Inspired" Conference that takes place in November. Check out the latest news on the upcoming "MAVO

A professional voice actor, coach, and producer located in Orange County, CA, Anne Ganguzza has an enthusiastic, energetic, and fun personality. Her voice is described as professional, believable, warm and friendly. Her voiceover experience includes corporate and industrial narrations, e-learning and online learning tutorials, telephone voice mail, IVR, on hold messaging,  commercials, infomercials,  live theater broadcasts, audio books,  government/educational promotional videos and advertising, and more! She has many years’ experience in public speaking and corporate & educational training, and is an exceptionally clear and concise technical speaker, able to make your difficult scripts easy to understand! As a voiceover talent Anne offers a wide range of services, from voicemail and IVR/on-hold recordings to corporate narration and e-learning, commercial promos, and audio books. She’s great to work with and takes direction well. For more info on thisnand other episodes head over to mikelenzvoice.com.  

Mike Lenz interviews award winning voice actor Bruce Jacobson. 2012 Telly Awards, New York, New York. Category: TV Automotive. Client: Dodge Dealers of El Paso. Voiceover Talent. 2008 Telly Awards, New York, New York. Documentary: History and Biography Category Winner. Voiceover Talent (Narrator), 2008. 2008 Summit Creative Award, Portland, Oregon. Other Website (CSI The Experience): Gold Award. SCA recognizes creative excellence in companies and individuals throughout the world with billing under $30 million. Includes all media and industries. Voiceover Talent, 2008. 2008 Summit Creative Award, Portland, Oregon. Institutional Website (CSI The Experience): Silver Award. SCA recognizes creative excellence in companies and individuals throughout the world with billing under $30 million. Includes all media and industries. Voiceover Talent, 2008. 2008 Texas Association of Museums Mitchell Wilder Award, Austin, Texas. Gold Award for CSI The Experience Website. Voiceover Talent, 2008. American Advertising Awar

Growing up in a multilingual family, Liz spent a lot of time explaining to others that "No, I don't get confused speaking several languages!" In fact, it has been a boon to her voiceover career. She is native and neutral in both English and French, and as such, her voiceover clients get the best of both worlds. English and French Bilingual Female Voice Talent, - The voice of your brand on TV and Radio. - A professional voiceover for your non-broadcast narration. - A soothing voice for your telephone/on hold messaging. Liz has a voice that is clear and will ensure that your message will shine. She knows that your message is the star and she'll make it stand out from the crowd. Her native/neutral delivery in both English & French will allow you to confidently target the American, Canadian, and European markets. Contact her via email at Liz@HireLiz.com or by phone at 973-610-2019 to discuss your project. Check out her website at HireLiz.com For more information about this and other episodes head over

Before Madonna sang about her virginity, when making a phone call from the road meant plunking twenty five cents into a phone booth, before Michael Jackson's first plastic surgery and back when getting "on-line" meant waiting to check-out at the grocery store, Peter K. O'Connell was (and still very much is) a professional voice-over talent. As America's friendly, neighborhood voice-over talent, Peter's amazingly versatile vocal talent allows him to share many voice acting styles with his clients, who range from Fortune 500 Companies to companies who think $500 is a fortune. From his conversational everyman voice to his hard sell straight announcer performances, Peter's natural voice over abilities are favored by clients for commercials, narrations, e-learning, documentary, TV promo, radio imaging and live announcing. A natural born storyteller and an award-winning voice talent, some of Peter's professional voice-over credits include productions for General Electric, Kraft Foods, PBS (Public Broadcasting Servi

Dave Courvoisier, author of More Than Just a Voice: The REAL Secret to Voiceover Success, is a highly successful long-time TV news anchor in one of America's most high-profile cities (Las Vegas). But he is also a busy voice-actor! He speaks and writes prodigiously for the voice-acting community, blogging for "Voice Acting in Vegas," the popular blog on his Courvo.com website.Among his myriad of achievements, Dave is proud to count several Emmys to his credit. He administers many online VO communities and forums, and as the Vice President of the Executive Board of World-Voices Organization, helps oversee the voice-over community's only Industry Trade Association. He has earned national respect for his work helping the plight of disadvantaged children through his weekly "Wednesday's Child" reports. For more info about this and other podcast episodes head over to mikelenzvoic.com.

Join Mike Lenz as he interviews Melissa Exelberth.  Melissa is a NYC based voice talent and narrator, working globally from her ISDN equipped studios (one for each side of the Hudson) for broadcast & entertainment, commercials, promo, narration, film, documentary, multinational corporate communications, information driven programming, corporate branding, character roles, sizzle reels & storyboards, animation, book trailers, videogames and more – not only in English but in fluent Spanish as well. With a background in TV and film distribution, production, post-production and news having taken her to different parts of the world – giving her the chance to meet fascinating people – she gest the big picture and bigger story and bring that to her voiceover work every day. Gor more info on this and other episodes, head over to mikelenzvoice.com.    

Join Mike as he interviews voice actress Kira Buckland. Kira Buckland is a Los Angeles-based voice actress originally from Anchorage, Alaska. She first got interested in voice acting at the age of sixteen, starting out by voice acting as a hobby for a large amount of Internet projects. In 2007, she won the AX Idol Voice Acting Competition and as a result got noticed by BangZoom! Entertainment, which helped get her foot in the door to the anime industry. After finishing college (she majored in Japanese), taking acting and voice classes, and continuing to voice act in flash animations and indie games, Kira moved to California to pursue a career as a voice actress. She worked various jobs in the meantime (barista, retail, waitressing, etc) and began auditioning with a few different studios. Since then, she has become the voice of major characters in all sorts of video games, anime, and other projects, and is now able to work steadily in the field. As an avid gamer, the most personally exciting role for her was

Join Mike as he interviews producer, audio engineer, author, and voice talent Dan Friedman.  Dan is a man of many talents. With over a decade in the voice-over industry, he has produced, directed, or provided his voice to thousands of audio productions. In 2010 he published a book, SOUND ADVICE - Voiceover From An Audio Engineer's Perspective.  A first of its kind in the industry, the book covers audio engineering and studio session etiquette as it relates directly to voiceover talent.  Dan continues to write a popular blog at his website, SOUND4VO.com. Dan was chosen to be among the top 10 "Most Influential Voice-Over Writers in 2011" in a Voice123 online survey.  He is a home studio coach with Voicebank and Edge Studios and is also a voiceover teacher and coach for the Screen Artists Co-op in Asheville, NC. For more information about this and other episodes head over to mikelenzvoice.com.

Mike interviews full-time professional voice actor Lauren McCullough in this episode of Mike Lenz Voice - A Journey Into Voice Acting. Lauren grew up with the Pocono Mountains in her back yard, among the quiet of nature and the magic of the stars. There, Lauren enjoyed performing, whether she had an audience of people or just the mountains. In her first role, Lauren played the Black Crayon, in the locally acclaimed first grade performance of the Crayola Factory, narrating the transformation of primary colors into secondary colors. On that stage, Lauren knew acting was her art. Packing up her box of crayons and dreams, Lauren moved to New York City to study acting at Pace University, at the foothills of the Brooklyn bridge in downtown Manhattan. She worked in NYC as a theatre, film and voiceover actor, while also directing and producing along the way. After seven years in the shadow of skyscrapers, she began to miss the companionship of the mountains. She found a home in the artist community of Asheville, NC n

Karen Souer is a virtual assistant.  What does that mean?  Well, it means a lot of things!  Mike has a great conversation with Karen Souer about her journey into the voice-over industry and the way she developed her niche as a virtual assistant. Karen can help voice actors with everything from editing and proofing, to connecting via skype and listening as the voice actor records, to help check for any mistakes in real time. Karen also specializes in doing research, helping with data entry, social media posting, and social media content writing. This is a great interview for aspiring voice actors as well as anyone interested in learning about other interesting ways to get involved in the voice-over industry. To learn more about this and other interviews, head on over to mikelenzvoice.com.

Join Mike as he interviews voice actor and talent agent Toni Silveri.  Toni has worked as an actor, voice actor and singer, performing nationally and regionally in film, television and commercials, for over 30 years. She has been a working member of the Screen Actors Guild since 1980 and has screened and voted every year on the SAG Awards during her membership. At present, Toni’s talent agency, All Coast Talent Management, represents over a hundred actors across the country and abroad  These talents can be heard nationally for Chevrolet,  Hundai, Budweiser,  Hunter Douglas, Capital One, PBS Kids, Disney, A &E,  Discovery Channel, Worlds of Warcraft video game,  and Promos for Eat Pray Love and Harry Potter, Seinfeld’s original production, “Colin Quinn, Long Story Short”, the Broadway return of “Les Miz”, and recently, the new ABC television series, Once Upon a Time, to mention a few. Her most recent booking was for The World Cup, 2014,Brazilvs.Mexico.  She is the founder of the Western New York Voice Acto

Join Mike Lenz as he interviews actor and entrepreneur Evan Farmer.  Evan is best known as the host of the home improvement show "While You Were Out" that aired on TLC and more recently Evan was the host of CMT (Country Music Televisio) Top 20 Countdown where he appeared every weekend counting down the top videos in country music.  In addition to his acting credentials, Evan is an entrepreneur, an author of the book "Breaking In: The Formula For Success In Entertainment," a pilot, a philanthropist, and a husband and father.  His passion for life and for the world of professional acting (and voice acting) is inspiring.  For more information about this and other episodes, head on over to mikelenzvoice.com.

Join Mike Lenz as he interviews professional voice actor Bob Souer.  Bob is a full-time professional story-teller and narrator. He is the Audie and Golden Earphone Award winning narrator of numerous audiobooks; as well as broadcast and non-broadcast projects for corporations and ministries world-wide.  You’ve heard Bob’s voice on CBS, NBC, PBS, the History Channel, the Military Channel, Audible.com, iTunes and many other networks and sites.  Bob shares his journey into the voice acting profession and provides great insight into staying determined and not quitting in the face of obstacles.  Head on over to mikelenzvoice.com for more information on this and other episodes.

Rodney Saulsberry is the voice of choice for behind-the scenes narration. This Detroit native and University of Michigan Graduate, is one of the premier voice-over talents in the country. He is also a published author with two bestselling books, You Can Bank on Your Voice and Step Up to the Mic.Saulsberry’s distinctive announcer voice is literally everywhere. He has announced promos for the ABC hit Dancing With The Stars and the ABC critically acclaimed Charlie Brown Christmas Special. He announced the 34th NAACP Image Awards and the Essence Awards specials on FOX Television and voiced promos for the Grammy Awards and Country Music Awards for CBS. As one of the top trailer voices in the business, Rodney’s voice has promoted many favorites: Red Tails, Tupac Resurrection, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Friday After Next, Drumline, Undercover Brother, The Best Man, Dumb & Dumberer, Finding Forrester, Soul Food, Crooklyn, and many more. Black Enterprise Magazine called Saulsberry

Mike interviews Voice Actor and Voice-Over Strategist Tom Dheere.  As a voice talentwith over eighteen years of experience, Tom has narrated thousands of projects for clients in a dozen countries for just about every type of project you can think of.  He narrates other stuff, too. Stuff like Audiobooks, Commercials, Medical Narrations, E-Learning projects, Industrials, Video Games, Animation, Apps, and much, much more.His specialty is narrating ‘Explainer Videos’ a.k.a. ‘Whiteboard Videos.' Tom is also a voiceover business consultant.  He helps you figure out what’s preventing you from getting to the next level as a voice talent “behind the scenes”.  He's worked with voice talents of all experience levels to develop their business plans, time management skills, and much more. Tom shares the story of his journey into the world of voice acting and also discusses the business side of voice-overs and offers concrete advice for aspiring voice actors. For more information about this and other episodes, head over to