Hello, my awesomely amazing fellow voicers!! Yes, I may seem to be extra happy this episode and I have good reason to be so…. I just feel very fortunate to have found TVAS. Knowing Mama VO, all our coaches and all of you has brought such joy to my life! And now I’m about to bring an adorable bundle of delight into your lives. It is my pleasure to introduce you to McKenna Roberts – model, voice over talent, star of television and movies, future executive producer. She is one of our youngest class mates to attend TVAS. McKenna attended TVAS when she was 8 years old and took courses for two summers. Her favorite classes were commercial and animation. She enjoys anything that has do with drama. Doing commercials are fun for McKenna and she loved voicing the national TV Fitbit commercial. [Read more…] about Joy’s Talent Spotlight: McKenna Roberts

Hello voicers! I had the pleasure of sitting down with our very own TVAS Newsletter interviewer, Joy Kingston! When Joy retired from a rewarding accounting career; she knew she wanted to do something artistic. She had been a painter and songwriter years ago, so when her neighbor said “hey, you have a great voice!”, and told her about Melissa Moats at the Voice Actors Studio, she thought it would be a great experience. She remembers the exact date she started: February 25^th, 2017. Once on the mic, she was hooked. Her favorite class at TVAS? The Ongoing Workshops. Joy says the Ongoing classes allow her to practice at her own pace. She always learns a lot from other students and gains new insights in every class from the coaches. Her favorite genres are Narration, Commercial and Audiobooks. In early March of this year (almost a year to the date of her first class!), Joy recorded her first commercial demo. In just a few short weeks since then, she is auditioning for leading brands. Her goals? Well, her super-sweet voice is a natural for children’s toys, animation and cartoons, and she’d ultimately love to do children’s audiobooks. She’d also like to travel extensively. As mentioned earlier, what you may not know about Joy is that she is an accomplished painter; her oil paintings were on CNN’s website for a feature titled “Unknown American Artists”, and she sold a few pieces! She also writes songs, (some with copywrites!). And as you all know, she lends her writing and interview talents to the TVAS newsletter every month.  Thank you Joy, for sharing some facets of your amazing life.  You may contact Joy at: joybeevo@outlook.com

Hello fellow voicers!  In this segment, I am thrilled to introduce you to one classy lady and voice talent, Sandra Segrest.  Sandra had been working for over twelve years at the Chicago Tribune in advertising sales when the 2008 recession hit her hard along with so many others. This began her path to becoming a voice over actor.  Sandra refused to give in to despair and invested in acting classes and performed in a few community theater productions. She found she didn’t enjoy all the auditions required for acting parts nor live theater. Sandra decided to use her skills and talent by starting her voice over journey. One of her very first voice over spots was voicing an industrial film. Her favorite genre is elearning but she also excels in radio commercials and PSAs.  Her portfolio includes PSAs on Childhood Obesity and Hypertension in African Americans for the health district. She has done several TV commercials including her favorite: a credit union commercial that ran in California.  In 2012, after moving to Las Vegas, Sandra found our TVAS through the Las Vegas “Meet Up” organization.  She enjoys our specialty classes and finds that attending the on-going workshops at least twice a month helps her grow professionally. Please click on the link to enjoy hearing Sandra in a spot she did for the YMCA .  While still living in Chicago, Sandra helped her community serving in the ministry.  We appreciate Sandra sharing how she became this amazing voice over talent.  Sandra can be contacted at her website: www.s2voiceovers.com and email: s2voiceovers@gmail.com.

Hello fellow voicers! In this segment we are going to meet the suave and handsome John Pitacciato. John has an extensive background in live theater all around the world. He has performed in New York, Los Angeles, Hawaii and England. In addition to his live performance repertoire, John has appeared in many feature films and episodic television playing both the good guy and the bad guy. He has received several awards for his acting chops including for Best Actor in Plays and Musicals from the Hawaii State Theater Council.
[Read more…] about Joy’s Talent Spotlight: John Pitacciato

Hello fellow voicers! It is my pleasure to introduce you to a fascinating voice talent, Jack de Golia. Jack began his voice over journey in 2009 soon after moving to the Las Vegas area. His interest was piqued when he noticed a class in “Voice Over” being offered at UNLV.  The class was being taught by Alice Whitfield, a top voice over coach. Fate stepped in and via his interactions with Ms Whitfied he met our very own Mama VO, Melissa Moats who also had taken this class.  Jack has acted in community theater and has a BA in Drama. He teaches several classes at TVAS including Audio Books, Character Voices and Twisted Wave. Some of the Specialty Classes Jack has enjoyed at TVAS are Dave Fennoy’s Character Workshop and the Animation Workshops.  Jack excels in audio book, elearning and video game genres. His favorite genre is voicing characters in commercial work. He volunteers commenting on the “show logs” for the Voice Over Body Shop  and has done so since 2012.  Don’t miss out on watching Jack’s 3 part series on Twisted Wave which he wrote and produced for the Global Voice Acting Academy. Jack retired after thirty-five years of service with the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and as a Park Ranger for the U.S. Forest Service. Can you just imagine all the thrilling adventures Jack experienced being a Park Ranger in both Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. Thank you, Jack, for sharing some of your fascinating life with us. Jack can be contacted at his website:  www.jackwestcoast.com and email: jack@jackwestcoast.com.

Written by Joy Kingston, 8/26/2017

 

It was an absolute pleasure to speak with Chad Letts, voice actor and one of our awesome coaches at TVAS.  At 19 years old Chad started out in radio as a DJ in various genres in California and Nevada.  His first voice over gig was at age 17, voicing a character in a video game called Lunar. Chad moved to Las Vegas July 15, 2010 and was introduced to Melissa Moats.  After booking jobs for a while, he began noticing how he booked certain jobs but not others. This issue was resolved after taking Troy Moats Business and Marketing class.  Chad feels this class helped turn his career around.  Another class that had a huge impact on his career was when TVAS had a representative from Cope Management listen to students read.   It was Chad’s first time reading for a representative from the “LA World”.  This resulted in Debbie Cope becoming his manager. Chad’s voice over business is currently 80% commercial work and some dabbling in TV promos.  He would like to add history narration in the future.  One of Chad’s biggest rewards of being a voice over actor happened when he was out with his buddies and one of his commercials appeared on the big screen during the game!!  Perfect timing!! Chad has a side talent he would like to share with us:  making balloon animals, a talent he learned in middle school.  Give him an air pump and some balloons and he can whip into shape anything from a wiener dog to a pirates’ sword.  It was an honor Chad, thanks so much for your time and for sharing your expertise.  You can contact Chad at his email:  chad@chadletts.com and please visit his website: www.chadletts.com.

Greetings to all my fellow voicers!  I recently had the wonderful opportunity to chat with the warm and lovely Sarah Vone.  As a kid Sarah, and others in her family, loved to imitate funny voices.  She always hoped to someday play a role in a cartoon. After watching the documentary, “I Know That Voice”, Sarah realized it was possible to have a career in voice over.  From then on, the fire was stoked to make her dream a reality. [Read more…] about Joy’s Talent Spotlight: Sarah Vone

Hello fellow voicers! I had so much fun chatting with Tim Callaway about his voice over adventure. Tim has a background of 6 years being a DJ. He found that being a DJ did not pay enough money so he started pursuing podcasting. Tim’s podcasts were about the “happiest place in the world”; Disneyland and everything and anything Disney. During this time Tim was living near our original TVAS studio and often noticed the studio sign out front. In May 2016 he stopped in and thus began his VO career. One of the classes he enjoyed the most was Dave Fennoy’s character workshop. [Read more…] about Joy’s Talent Spotlight: Timothy Callaway