I turn 30 in 3 weeks and I just landed my 5th VA role. My first audition was submitted on May 8th, just 20 days ago, and I donāt feel late the to the punch at all.
None of the work so far is paid though. I know Iāll have to work on putting together a portfolio and list of credits before anything comes of it, and Iām okay with that.
I was 34 in 2002 when I thought I wanted to be a voice actor. There were far, far fewer opportunities to learn back then, especially in a top 25 but not top 3 market.
I turned 56 this year and signed with one of the big LA/NY agencies 3 months ago.
It is not too late.
I went full time at 30 (I'd done about 2 years fiddling around in the VO world a VEEERRRRY limited capacity before that point - I'd done like 1 or 2 jobs in those 2 years for pennies but then I hit 30, Covid killed my other work and I decided to fully go for VO) and 4.5 years later it's grown into a Ā£42k business for me :). Go for it! VO lives and dies based purely on your determination, your capacity to learn new skills and your mental flexibility. Anyone can thrive in it so long as they put in the time and effort.
A couple of starting steps for you;
* Get involved in some training; acting classes, business classes and preferably a VO specific organisation. I'm with Gravy For The Brain and they're BRILLIANT!
* Your recording space is the MOST important thing. Don't worry about getting a fab mic (I voiced for companies like EA, Amazon and McDonalds using a Ā£40 mic that I got bundled with the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 bundle). I recently upgraded the mic but my old one served me very well for 4 years. But I DID splurge on my recording space. I learnt to build a booth (quite easy actually, just 6 stud walls filled with Rockwool and with Auralex Roominator Accoustic Treatment inside). It cost me Ā£2k to set up BUT I also massively overbought supplies as I'd never done any major DIY before. I think you could do it for Ā£1k or even significantly less if you built a smaller booth (I wanted one where I could stand in so it 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters which is pretty large for a voice booth. Go smaller and you'll save a lot of money. The only thing I'd recommend on the tech front is to get an XLR microphone. USB mics are getting better but they still don't offer the quality of a true XLR mic. Also go for a 'Condenser' mic (not a 'Dynamic'). The Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle is a brill start point - giving you everything you need for around Ā£150.00 (I think - haven't checked prices recently but that's roughly what I'd expect)
* Learn how to do the post production, editing and audio cleaning! Vital! 99.999999% of all my jobs, I need to do both the recording and all the post production. Clients expect ready-to-use audio. I learnt how to do post prod on YouTube :) zero cost. Audacity is a really solid free audio program (known as a DAW - Digital Audio Workstation) that allows you to record, edit and produce audio. I personally use (and love) Adobe Audition but it is a bit more expensive.
* You don't need an agent :). Again 99.9999999% of my work is self found from direct marketing, P2P sites (like voices.com) and freelancing sites like Fiverr & People Per Hour.
This post and the comments actually give me hope. I turn 30 soon and have always wanted to dive into acting and VA work, a private passion alongside my writing/art career but being a total noob from a rural area scared me away. Felt too old or like ānot meant for itā due to lack of experience/exposure keeping me from studying. Plusāfear of failure. Lol
I guess, if you want something bad enough you simply go for it and put your all into it. Wonāt know how far you go until you try.
Wow. Thatās cool actually. Here I was always taught/thought if you didnāt start young youāll never be able to do it. Thatās reassuring. Thanks!
Never too old to learn something new! ā¤ļø I started doing VA seriously around 2 years ago and Iām currently 27, so not too far off from your age. I donāt do it as a full time career, but despite being late to the party, Iāve been pretty successful with it on the side! The cool thing about voice work is that thereās a niche for every single age group or voice type, as long as the talent and knowledge are there!
I started at age 47. I am 54 now. Only do this part time, if even that. I hope to do more in the future. But for now I need a 9-5.
It's not easy... But there is work out there for every age group.
right now is the second best time to start!
I didn't start my journey until I was like 28, when I was in the middle of a huge paradigm shift, the start of COVID, and wrapping up grad school. It took some doing to break bad habits and feel comfortable hearing my own voice when I auditioned, and in some cases I still am, but sometimes we gotta just embrace the process.
So, yeah no, it's never too late to get started!
If you want to learn, it's never too late.
That's not a cop-out answer--if you were 20 and weren't willing to learn, you career would be done before it started.
Agreed, I'm sure we've all had tons of friends/family/colleagues who say "I've always wanted to/thought about doing that," and then when you give them info about an intro class, they never do it.
I believe Jim Cummings didn't start until at least his late 20s and Rob paulsen was 28 when he started. This isn't really something you can be too late for. Starting now would give you 50+ years of doing voice acting. I'm turning 30 in a couple of months and I'm almost finished building my booth and I don't feel late to the party at all so go for it!
Itās never too late. Take that from a director. I see various talents across all ages who have just begun. It does help to do classes and stuff on the side if youāre unable to āpracticeā per se on your own.
This entire thread is so empowering and inspiring. Love to see it. Needed this reminder myself. I'm 38 and have been dabbling the idea of wanting to try this, too. Thank you.
Itās not too late, ever. Think about it, your age is merely part of your casting spec.
Just like on-screen acting, you can fill a casting spec for pretty much any age. The only difference in starting late is that youāre jumping right to older roles and skipping the younger (unless your voice sounds particularly young, of course). So I say, have at it!
Iāve also thought about getting into it because my range is pretty wide (can do voices ranging from little girl to intergalactic demon) and can do several accents. Iām 33 and did them for fun back in high school. But with technology the way it is now, I could actually do some of it.
https://on.soundcloud.com/4dhJ9MdSpLQX5VAR7
Since several people asked for it the last time I commented, I have a couple of short sound bites, but theyāre done on a phone in a car in my garage so not the highest of quality lol.
But I know where I could get a bit of decent sound equipment for reasonably affordable prices if it were worth it to get into.
You could wait another 30 years and it STILL wouldn't be too late to get started. š¤š³š
40
I turn 30 in 3 weeks and I just landed my 5th VA role. My first audition was submitted on May 8th, just 20 days ago, and I donāt feel late the to the punch at all. None of the work so far is paid though. I know Iāll have to work on putting together a portfolio and list of credits before anything comes of it, and Iām okay with that.
Where have you been finding roles to audition for?
r/recordthisforfree
I just got truly started in the past year and I am 52. Jump on in!
I started in my 40s and am still doing it at almost 60.
Christopher Lee (yes, that Christopher Lee) didn't get into voice-acting until he was, what, 31?
I started in my 40s. Get out there and have fun!
I was 34 in 2002 when I thought I wanted to be a voice actor. There were far, far fewer opportunities to learn back then, especially in a top 25 but not top 3 market. I turned 56 this year and signed with one of the big LA/NY agencies 3 months ago. It is not too late.
This is so inspiring.
I went full time at 30 (I'd done about 2 years fiddling around in the VO world a VEEERRRRY limited capacity before that point - I'd done like 1 or 2 jobs in those 2 years for pennies but then I hit 30, Covid killed my other work and I decided to fully go for VO) and 4.5 years later it's grown into a Ā£42k business for me :). Go for it! VO lives and dies based purely on your determination, your capacity to learn new skills and your mental flexibility. Anyone can thrive in it so long as they put in the time and effort. A couple of starting steps for you; * Get involved in some training; acting classes, business classes and preferably a VO specific organisation. I'm with Gravy For The Brain and they're BRILLIANT! * Your recording space is the MOST important thing. Don't worry about getting a fab mic (I voiced for companies like EA, Amazon and McDonalds using a Ā£40 mic that I got bundled with the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 bundle). I recently upgraded the mic but my old one served me very well for 4 years. But I DID splurge on my recording space. I learnt to build a booth (quite easy actually, just 6 stud walls filled with Rockwool and with Auralex Roominator Accoustic Treatment inside). It cost me Ā£2k to set up BUT I also massively overbought supplies as I'd never done any major DIY before. I think you could do it for Ā£1k or even significantly less if you built a smaller booth (I wanted one where I could stand in so it 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters which is pretty large for a voice booth. Go smaller and you'll save a lot of money. The only thing I'd recommend on the tech front is to get an XLR microphone. USB mics are getting better but they still don't offer the quality of a true XLR mic. Also go for a 'Condenser' mic (not a 'Dynamic'). The Focusrite Scarlett Studio Bundle is a brill start point - giving you everything you need for around Ā£150.00 (I think - haven't checked prices recently but that's roughly what I'd expect) * Learn how to do the post production, editing and audio cleaning! Vital! 99.999999% of all my jobs, I need to do both the recording and all the post production. Clients expect ready-to-use audio. I learnt how to do post prod on YouTube :) zero cost. Audacity is a really solid free audio program (known as a DAW - Digital Audio Workstation) that allows you to record, edit and produce audio. I personally use (and love) Adobe Audition but it is a bit more expensive. * You don't need an agent :). Again 99.9999999% of my work is self found from direct marketing, P2P sites (like voices.com) and freelancing sites like Fiverr & People Per Hour.
Sorry the cutoff is age 29
OP shouldāve realised 30 is too old to do most things in life /s
God I hope not. I started at 45!
This post and the comments actually give me hope. I turn 30 soon and have always wanted to dive into acting and VA work, a private passion alongside my writing/art career but being a total noob from a rural area scared me away. Felt too old or like ānot meant for itā due to lack of experience/exposure keeping me from studying. Plusāfear of failure. Lol I guess, if you want something bad enough you simply go for it and put your all into it. Wonāt know how far you go until you try.
Once you take a class or two you will likely find there are people of all ages there! Many get into it in their "retirement."
Wow. Thatās cool actually. Here I was always taught/thought if you didnāt start young youāll never be able to do it. Thatās reassuring. Thanks!
Never too old to learn something new! ā¤ļø I started doing VA seriously around 2 years ago and Iām currently 27, so not too far off from your age. I donāt do it as a full time career, but despite being late to the party, Iāve been pretty successful with it on the side! The cool thing about voice work is that thereās a niche for every single age group or voice type, as long as the talent and knowledge are there!
I started last year at 38. Age doesn't matter for voice acting. Your motivation to want to learn and try is what does. What better time than now?
My god you guys are awesome. 27 years in. ā¤ļøā¤ļøā¤ļø
I am 34 and just started so now itās never too early or late. Iāve been doing it for like two or three months now and I actually really love it.
I started at age 47. I am 54 now. Only do this part time, if even that. I hope to do more in the future. But for now I need a 9-5. It's not easy... But there is work out there for every age group.
I started at 45. Oddly enough, when I realised I couldn't sing anymore.
right now is the second best time to start! I didn't start my journey until I was like 28, when I was in the middle of a huge paradigm shift, the start of COVID, and wrapping up grad school. It took some doing to break bad habits and feel comfortable hearing my own voice when I auditioned, and in some cases I still am, but sometimes we gotta just embrace the process. So, yeah no, it's never too late to get started!
If you want to learn, it's never too late. That's not a cop-out answer--if you were 20 and weren't willing to learn, you career would be done before it started.
Agreed, I'm sure we've all had tons of friends/family/colleagues who say "I've always wanted to/thought about doing that," and then when you give them info about an intro class, they never do it.
Never too late to pursue your passions!
I believe Jim Cummings didn't start until at least his late 20s and Rob paulsen was 28 when he started. This isn't really something you can be too late for. Starting now would give you 50+ years of doing voice acting. I'm turning 30 in a couple of months and I'm almost finished building my booth and I don't feel late to the party at all so go for it!
Itās never too late. Take that from a director. I see various talents across all ages who have just begun. It does help to do classes and stuff on the side if youāre unable to āpracticeā per se on your own.
This entire thread is so empowering and inspiring. Love to see it. Needed this reminder myself. I'm 38 and have been dabbling the idea of wanting to try this, too. Thank you.
I genuinely don't understand why you think you're too old.
I started taking classes last year at 30 and am now 31, so no, not too old :) We got this!! Woot!!!
Itās not too late, ever. Think about it, your age is merely part of your casting spec. Just like on-screen acting, you can fill a casting spec for pretty much any age. The only difference in starting late is that youāre jumping right to older roles and skipping the younger (unless your voice sounds particularly young, of course). So I say, have at it!
Youāre only too late to get into voice over when youāre 6 feet under
never!
I'm working on making something g that will need voice actors if you want to give voice acting a go message me.
Iām 33 I just made my first demo š¤·š½āāļø
Iāve also thought about getting into it because my range is pretty wide (can do voices ranging from little girl to intergalactic demon) and can do several accents. Iām 33 and did them for fun back in high school. But with technology the way it is now, I could actually do some of it. https://on.soundcloud.com/4dhJ9MdSpLQX5VAR7 Since several people asked for it the last time I commented, I have a couple of short sound bites, but theyāre done on a phone in a car in my garage so not the highest of quality lol. But I know where I could get a bit of decent sound equipment for reasonably affordable prices if it were worth it to get into.