My whole life conspired to make me a voice actor — from school plays, to working as a pastor, to a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
When I was a kid I used to sit by the radio with my cassette tape recorder. I’d record the commercials and imitate them, funny voices and all. Who knew that grade school free time would be preparation for commercial and animation voiceover?
I acted in plays when I was a student (grade school and grad school included), and in high school took a special class sponsored by the University of Puget Sound on Stanislavsky’s method.
University years brought new passions, and eventually I became a Presbyterian minister. Being a pastor required its own kind of voice work: every service included Bible readings, with the challenge of making ancient writings live for modern listeners.
Then came graduate school, at Princeton Theological Seminary. My studies in the history and theology of the late Middle Ages and the Reformation included a whole lot of Latin–which prepared me to read medical and pharmaceutical texts with ease.
When I was a seminary professor I had to perform for my students day in, day out. The way to keep them engaged was to make it entertaining, telling stories to move them — to make them laugh, to shock them, or to just get them curious for more.
The acting bug was there all along. It kept coming out, one way or the other.
Now I live in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania, working in voiceover and continuing my previous work as a writer and speaker. You can check out that side of my vocation by taking a look at my award-winning book Kneeling with Giants: Learning to Pray with History’s Best Teachers (InterVarsity, 2012) or by stopping by GaryNealHansen.com.
So here I am — ready to help make your VO project shine.