This week’s featured Voice Over Actor is Shannon!

How long have you been a Voice Actor?

10 years

What attracted you to this industry?

I was always very expressive and drawn to the arts but after having returned from Paris where I had been living and working for a few months after college, I was stuck in a rut working as a customer service rep at a shipping supplies company and living with my parents, feeling bored and aimless. I had all this unbridled energy I didn’t know what to do with so I did a lot of running.

I was always doing impressions of the customers I’d speak to on the phone every day, which seemed to entertain my coworkers, and my dad finally told me, “I’ve decided what it is you should do for a living. You should be a clown”.

One day I was in the break room at work and caught a glimpse of an ad for a voiceover school. I instantly cut it out and put it in my purse. When I got home that day, I found that my mom had cut out the same ad for me and left it on the counter. It was nothing I’d ever considered before, or heard about, but it seemed like fate so my parents kindly signed me up and told me they would consider that to be my version of grad school. And the rest is history.

What are some of your favorite projects?

Despite the toll it takes on my strained vocal chords, I really enjoy doing video games. I love getting to act as a character and to try each line several times, in different ways, with different attitudes and inflections. Although my voice seems to have been made for straightforward corporate reads and book a ton of them, animation acting is my favorite thing to do.

Can you do any unique sounding voices?

I do anything from evil witch/sorceress/warrior characters to toddlers and baby animals. I have a husky speaking voice but am lucky that I have a versatile voice and can sound 21 or 51.

What’s your home studio like?

I have a 4×7 Scott Peterson vocal booth inside of which is a pile of cables and power strips to accommodate my mic, monitor, wireless keyboard, preamp, Skype cam, etc. There’s also a cute retro looking little turquoise fan in here for when it gets hot, and an extra sweater on the back of my chair for when it’s cold.

What else should we know about Shannon?

In the past few years I’ve made a living as a commercial casting assistant, nanny and music booker and am now grateful to be focusing solely on voiceover and making a living doing just this. I also have a hilarious hyperactive tuxedo cat named Buster, for all you cat fans out there.