animation Archives - Rebecca Haugh

Awards for Voice Actors!

animation, business, creative professionals, improvisation, life, small business, voiceover

There are many professional awards Voice Actors receive for their acting. Here’s a hot list of the big ones.

Annie Awards

From their website: Honoring excellence in the field of animation. An Annie Award is animation’s highest honor. Since 1973. Founded by ASIFA – Hollywood.

From their website: The Audie Awards® is the premier awards program in the United States recognizing distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment. Publishers and rights holders enter titles in various categories for recognition of achievement. Finalists are selected, and then one winner is awarded in each category at the Audies Gala.

Television Academy Emmy Awards

From their website: Founded in 1946, the Television Academy is dedicated to honoring excellence in television while promoting creativity, diversity and empowering storytellers through recognition, education and leadership. Learn about the history of Emmy awards for voice-over performance via Wikipedia.

Critics Choice Awards Documentary Best Narration

Per their website: The Critics Choice Association (CCA) is a group of broadcast, radio and online critics as well as entertainment journalists who review films and documentaries as well as scripted and unscripted television. The CCA was officially formed in 2019 with the merger of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and its sister organization, the Broadcast Television Journalists Association.

SOVAS Voice Arts Awards

SOVAS is Society of Voice Arts & Sciences. From their website: The Voice Arts® Awards is uniquely designed to honor the community of performers and craft professionals who perform, direct, produce, cast, engineer, and publish media where voice acting is a central creative element of the work. Categories here. Since 2013.

One Voice Awards

Awards program as part of a conference, once in the USA and another in the UK annually. From their website: The One Voice Awards continues to be the only truly independent voiceover award running today. There’s no “Pay To Win” here. Anyone can submit, and anyone can be in with a chance of winning an award. Since 2018. Categories here.

Let me know if I’ve missed any.

Does Improvisation Make You Be ‘More’ You in Voiceover?

animation, business, creative professionals, improvisation, life, small business, voiceover

Most people in voiceover know that improvisation is an important skill for their success. My main point about learning improv, is that it helps you be more you. There are a variety of benefits we get from improv in addition, but I believe this is the ‘gold’.

Why is ‘be more you’ important?

Most VO coaches and teachers and agents will tell you this in a class or webinar. I’ve heard it hundreds of times, and now say it. And it’s true! If you don’t understand why “being more you” is bottom line, you are probably either new to voiceover or a naturally born great actor doing it instinctively!

The importance of “be more you”: The people hiring you want to hear the alliance of authenticity plus the meaning of the scripted words, as intended, come through your voice.

This is why I say you are “performing” a script, not reading it. The difficulty for voice actors is nailing that alliance in a natural way with words we don’t naturally use in conversation. Oh yeah. That!

What does ‘be more you‘ mean for voice acting, then?

The short answer is, you perform a script as if it were real words you just thought of, like in conversation. Authentic. Believable. Natural.

Isn’t that what you already do when you read a script aloud?

You’ll have to answer that question for yourself. Some think their answer is ‘yes’. Are they being hired again and again and making a living at voice over?

Some think the answer is ‘no’. That when you read aloud you are not speaking as if you are in conversation, naturally. You might sound clear, articulate, with some emotion. But in the majority of cases I believe reading aloud is different than excellent natural acting.

For me, and many other high level voice actors, the target is personal authenticity aligned with the intended meaning of the script coming through your voice. Acting is a skill. So is improvising. And when I read the books of Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, I believed them when they said that improv made them either better actors or helped them actually act.

Improvisation is a door opening to ‘be more you’ when acting.

I believe this. Acting, as defined by Meisner is, “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances”. After studying hard, with some struggle, I found some golden moments while studying Meisner in Hollywood back when I lived there. I felt that ‘knowing’ feeling of living truthfully while pretending under imaginary circumstances. You learn to tap into your instincts, your gut, your whole life experience to play pretend with someone else’s words.

For me though, I found that process difficult and slow, and sometimes even emotionally painful. It was also expensive, and didn’t seem to work as much with voiceover. I think Amy and Tina had an outstanding point. In my own words, I think improv helps you put your life experience into your skills as an actor, or voice actor, if you are willing. Just like Meisner, but easier, and usually more fun.

I think improv is the way to find the alliance of authentic and scripted meaning for VO.

Rather than simply following the adage for voices actors which says “picture your are talking to XYZ friend/family member/loved one”, improv gives you a strong foundation to create that imaginary circumstance. And, improv lets you use your life experience and interests to do that. Even if it does take practice getting good at it. It’s fun!

Are you into knitting, or rebuilding engines, or bar tending when you have guests? Do you spend time playing video games or reading history or playing with your kids? All of this is beneficial within improvisation. You bring your life to improv and play with things you love. And that, my friends, helps you bring your life – YOU – to voice acting. Jump into improv with the thrill and gusto of knowing everything you ever experienced can be used in it!

That, friends, let’s you then apply improv freedom to the structure of a script.

For some, this means a sense of freedom, and of play. Great! Wait – hang on. For others, it’s a bit scary because it’s like uncomfortably exposing the real you to the world. Or feels that way. What if the real you isn’t interesting enough, or not good enough? What if they think you are weird? What if…

Fear scares a lot of people away from improv.

In these cases of fear, you need to begin your improv journey in a safe space with a group leader who understands and teaches you to push but not break your comfort zone. Adults learning new skills sometimes feel vulnerable or uneasy, thinking approval from others is needed. The people in your training and the teacher’s strength to guide can make a big difference. You will be asked to stretch and pull at your comfort zone in expressing yourself, when led by a good improv teacher. Don’t let fear stop you. Do a little research about where you want to study improv, and give it a shot.

Passion from your life experience can be very contagious and uplifting for all! By sharing it, you add new perspectives to improv scenes that cannot be duplicated by anyone else when you are truly authentic. Your unique points of view will always add good flavor to the improv meal! And that, my friends, leveraged to your voiceover scripts, will have “you being MORE you”.

There’s always a little more to this, and you do need to know your VO basics in tech, microphone proximity usage, and script analysis to know the writer’s intent. I suggest you learn all that first.

Then, embrace opportunity with the fear. Learn improv.

3 Iconic Animation Female Voice Actors

animation, celebrity, creative professionals, icon, voiceover

Think back to your childhood. What animated character captured your imagination so strongly that it’s seared into your memory?

For me, there are three. And although very different, they are iconic, classic characters and voice actors that are lauded for their work.

Have you heard of June Foray? Mae Questel? Adriana Caselotti?

June, Mae and Adriana (wouldn’t it be funny if her name was April?) were from different paths and times, and each came to fame in animation voiceover. In my childhood, each of these ladies held a special place in my heart for the animated character they played. Only as I pursued my own voiceover career did I learn… that June is the voice actor behind Rocky and many other beloved characters… that Mae is the voice of Olive Oyl and Betty Boop… and that is Adriana the voice of Disney’s Snow White. As a child, I was simply enchanted and captured by their voices and the beloved characters they played. I now dare to veer into fan-girl territory as I share juicy details about these three actresses, their firsts and their careers.

Adriana Caselotti

An official Disney Legend, she is the speaking and singing voice of Snow White, Disney’s main character in the worlds first feature-length animated film. Adriana was the voice Walt Disney knew was meant to be Snow White’s voice as well, when he heard her among the 150 or so auditioning for the role. I felt enchanted when I heard that song “I’m Wishing” as a little girl, and saw the way that Snow engaged animals.

Adriana’s father, mother and sister were performers. Her father was also a singing teacher in Hollywood, and Disney’s casting called him to ask for potential singer-actors for the Snow White role. Adriana jumped on the second line in the house to suggest herself! She auditioned for and received the role. Adriana was already a singer and performer when she took the Snow White role. And with it, she achieved many firsts: first Disney princess, first English heroine in an animated feature, first ‘named’ female voice actress, a voice on the first feature film soundtrack.

The irony? Being on contract with Disney created a single-lane career for Adriana. It is alleged that while under contract, she was limited to only do what Disney allowed. The Snow White film came out in 1937 and Adriana wasn’t even credited with the role at that time. Disney didn’t credit voice actors, pretending its animated characters were real. In fact, she was paid a small day rate for her work, and much later unsuccessfully sued Disney and RCA for a share of the soundtrack-record profits. This was back in the “studio era” of Hollywood when studios made all the big decisions. At the same time, she seemed enamored of the role, embracing the joy it brought to so many, re-sharing it over and over again in many ways.

Mae Questel

An impersonator, vaudevillian, actress and voice actress – Mae Questel made Betty Boop a media sensation and created the voice of Olive Oyl in more than 450 Popeye cartoons. Extremely famous for her performance as Betty Boop and sensations made while voicing her, Mae captured me with her vocals as Olive Oyl, Popeye the sailor’s girlfriend. I was captivated with Olive Oyl’s silly, unique, fragile, flippant, and sometimes defiant character.

Mae Questel was all personality and entertainer, even though she was discouraged from that career by her parents. Nevertheless, Mae began in vaudeville, became a star with her voice acting, and played occasional small roles in films and television later in her career. Her first big break was as an impressionist, doing all the famous stars of the time.

Max Fleisher found Mae through her comedic imitations. He hired her to be Betty Boop and then Olive Oyl. Mae collaborated with Max to create Olive’s voice: all crackly, squeaky and wobbly sounding, based on some characteristics of a 1930s actress. Olive Oyl was created originally in the newspaper comic strip Thimble Theatre by cartoonist Elize Segar. Popeye the Sailor became a long-running series of animated short films by the Fleisher brothers.

This is Mae’s first: First and longest-lasting voice actress star in animation history. She continued voicing Olive until the 1980s.

June Foray

With her dexterous, pliable voice, June Foray worked in radio and then animation for film and TV her whole life. She captured my heart with her vocal portrayal of Rocky the flying squirrel in the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show” produced by Jay Ward Productions. Since childhood, I have always loved squirrels, including Rocky. Rocky is a smart, flying squirrel that defeats evil with his best friend, a moose.

June Foray, at 12 years old, was on radio in a local drama broadcast. By 15 she was working in radio. Later she wrote and starred in her own radio series for kids, ‘Lady Make Believe’, which got the attention of animation producers. Her first prominent role was as Lucifer the Cat in Disney’s Cinderella in 1950. At Disney, she established one of her signature roles, Witch Hazel, in the 1952 short Trick or Treat. Chuck Jones of Warner Brothers (Looney Tunes, Merry Melodies) was impressed by June’s Witch Hazel characterization and invited her to work at Warner Brothers cartoons. There she played Granny, owner of Tweety Bird and Sylvester the cat, and Witch Hazel reprised with Mr. Jones directing.

Cute side story: Jay Ward Productions top brass Jay Ward and Bill Scott met with June at a lunch meeting while they drank martinis and pitched June on a new show idea. Apparently, June wasn’t sure about the show nor the martinis. But she gave in – on both! And that’s how Rocky found his voice. As well, during the Rocky and Friends program, there was the ‘Fractured Fairy Tales’ for which June portrayed many characters. In fact, June would go on to become the entire female cast for every Ward cartoon show from then on.

June actively wanted the world of animation to be celebrated. She came up with the idea of the Annie Awards through the ASIFA-Hollywood (the International Animated Film Society). In 1995 ASIFA-Hollywood created the June Foray award and she was the first recipient. It’s awarded to “individuals who have made a significant and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation”. In 1996 and 1997 June won an Annie. In 2012, at 94, she got an Emmy, the oldest performer to be nominated and to win.