VAM 226 | Interview with Alejandra Reynoso, Part 1
Welcome to episode 226 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’m excited to present to you my interview with the very talented Alejandra Reynoso! In the world of animation she’s probably most famous for playing Flora in Winx Club for Nickelodeon and Sypha in the popular Netflix animated series, Castlevania. In games she’s played Gallica in Metaphor: ReFantazio, Neon in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin, and Dawnbreaker in DOTA 2. In anime she’s Monica Everett in Secrets of the Silent Witch, Hitomi Takamine in The Medalist, Asa in the series of Mononoke films, and the lead character Liko in the new Pokemon Horizons series!
I first came across Alejandra and her work when we were both cast in Pokemon Horizons where I play the adventurous Pokemon professor, Friede. I heard Alejandra’s performance as Liko and found it hopeful, idealistic, and endearing. Then, I was pleasantly surprised when right after Pokemon Horizons, we were both cast in the anime movie Mononoke: Phantom in the Rain where she voiced one of the main female leads, Asa, and I voiced the Medicine Seller. In that film, Alejandra played a grounded, confident young woman who was negotiating the complicated politics of the Japanese Imperial court. After hearing her in both roles, I was really impressed by her acting range and I knew I had to get her on the podcast!
The beginning of Alejandra’s acting journey almost sounds like it was lifted from a Hollywood fairytale! Her father worked as a film projectionist in Los Angeles and she would often accompany him to work in order to spend time with him and watch movies. When she was only 9 years old, an agent saw her playing in the lobby of the movie theater and thought she might do well as a child actress in commercials. Initially, Alejandra’s parents were nervous about her becoming an actress. They were all too familiar with the pressures put on child actors and they worried it would affect their daughter negatively. However, they didn’t want to restrict Alejandra from doing something that might bring her satisfaction, so they decided to ask her if she’d like to take acting classes to see if it would be something she’d enjoy.
Alejandra was open to the idea, and started studying at a school for child actors. It wasn’t long before she had caught the eye of another agent who wanted to represent her for commercial and on-camera work. After working with that agency for around 6 years, her agent then recommended her to their voice over department which was looking for young talent. Alejandra happened to book the very first audition the voice over department sent her which was for the animated show GI Joe: Renegades, where Troy Baker played her father. Alejandra instantly fell in love with voice acting and realized she wanted to make it her primary focus!
After graduating college, she had to make another choice about what career path to follow. She had been offered a job at a technology company who wanted her to work in their marketing department. While it seemed like a reliable choice, she lacked enthusiasm for the opportunity. She couldn’t stop thinking about pursuing an acting career instead. Fortunately, her parents supported her decision, so she notified her agents and told them that she’d be back in LA soon and was available for auditions. Her agents then sent her an audition for a character named Sypha for a new Castlevania animated series which she booked. It was an auspicious sign! It was as if the universe was endorsing her decision to pursue acting!
Much of Alejandra’s journey to becoming a voice actor can seem so serendipitous as to be almost magical, but if you listen closely, you’ll begin to detect the methods and principles that were supporting her on her path. The actions each aspiring voice actor must take in order to be professionally successful will obviously be unique to every actor, but the fundamental skills and mindset underneath those action journeys is very consistent. Pay attention to the things Alejandra did and the mindsets she adopted in order to be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves. I think you’ll find it very helpful as you pursue your own voice acting goals!
VAM 225 | Interview with Michael Csurics, Part 2
Welcome to episode 225 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
Welcome to the second and final part of my interview with the head of the Los Angeles based recording studio Bright Skull Entertainment, Michael Csurics! As mentioned in the previous episode, Michael has worked as a voice director, casting director and audio engineer on numerous video games including Infinity Nikki, Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, and the current popular hit, Marvel Rivals. Since he’s such an accomplished director, I was very eager to get Michael on the podcast so he could share with my listeners what he’s looking for when it comes to finding actors for the projects he’s hired to record. His insights are especially relevant since this two part interview follows directly after episode 223 of the podcast entitled, “Want To Book More Work? Learn To Think Like A Producer.” If you haven’t already, I strongly recommend you listen to the two previous episodes, numbers 223 and 224, before continuing with this one. They will give you important context.
In the last interview segment, Michael shared with me how he got started as a voice director, specifically in the world of video games. While he did participate in theater at a young age, he wasn’t inspired to pursue acting. Instead, he got involved in the music industry as both a performer and a recording engineer. He eventually moved to New York City where he was hired to work at a record label. On his off-hours, Michael would also take jobs working on film post-production projects. Unfortunately, neither field really satisfied him, and it wasn’t until his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, gave him a book on recording audio for video games that he realized he had finally found his true calling. This was in the early 2000s when games were just getting sophisticated enough to be able to include voice actors, so Michael was trailblazing a career for himself in very new territory.
Normally, I begin the second part of any interview with my guests by asking them what inspired them to pursue their artistry in the first place. However, since Michael did such a good job of explaining that in the first part of the interview, I thought it might be better to kick off this part of our discussion by asking him what actors need to know in order to best collaborate with him. His answers should help you understand how better to think like a producer so you can improve both your chances of getting hired, as well as your ability to collaborate fruitfully on a project.
However, before I share Michael’s insights, I want to remind my listeners that at the end of the previous episode, I challenged you to try to anticipate what Michael’s advice might be. I hoped that by listening closely to what inspired Michael and to what he cared about most as an artist, that my audience would be able to predict what Michael is looking for in the actors he collaborates with. So, were you able to come up with any ideas? Do you feel that you were able to anticipate what Michael’s answers might be? Did you happen to write your answers down? If you haven’t, I would encourage you to pause this episode and take some time to put down your best guesses in writing before continuing on. Articulating your ideas in written language will not only keep you honest about what your mindset was before, but will also give you greater awareness and control of your own creative process later when you compare your answers to Michael’s.
Got your answers written down? Ready to know if your ideas match Michael’s? Well, it’s time to find out!
VAM 224 | Interview with Michael Csurics, Part 1
Welcome to episode 224 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
In the previous episode, I explained how valuable it can be to think like a producer if you want to increase your chances of booking work. For this episode, I thought it would be useful to actually interview a producer so my listeners could hear from a professional perspective not only what types of challenges a producer routinely faces, but also what they’re looking for when they’re auditioning actors.
Therefore, allow me to introduce a very special guest, the head of the Los Angeles based recording studio Bright Skull Entertainment, Michael Csurics! Michael is a voice director, casting director, audio engineer, and studio designer! I’m honestly not sure what he can’t do! Michael and his team at Bright Skull focus primarily on recording actors for video games. They’ve worked on titles like Bugsnax, Just Cause 4, Infinity Nikki, Tacoma, Lord of the Rings: Rise to War, Masquerada: Songs and Shadows, and the current popular hit, Marvel Rivals. I’ve worked with Michael on a number of projects and it’s always a pleasure to speak with him.
We begin this interview with Michael sharing with me how he got started as a voice director. He was born in Woodstock, NY and did theater when he was young, but he was also interested in music: both performing it, and recording it. Eventually he found his way to New York City where he started working for a music label company while pursuing his own post-production recording projects from his home studio. Very quickly, he realized that neither the music industry, nor the film post-production process really suited him.
Fortunately, his girlfriend at the time, now his wife, gave him a book about recording audio for video games. This was in the early 2000’s when games were just getting large enough and sophisticated enough to employ actors. Michael fell in love with the culture and the community of recording game audio and embraced it wholeheartedly. He started attending events like GDC, the Game Developer’s Conference, and networking with other audio professionals who worked in games. With his focus and dedication, it didn’t take long before he was recording actors for games himself.
When Michael, and his wife Rachel, had their first child, they decided they wanted to move out of New York City. They were seriously considering a number of different places, but eventually the pull of the entertainment industry in California brought them to the Golden State, first to San Francisco, and eventually to Los Angeles. In addition to the voice production work he was doing for major studios, like 2K games, Michael was also recording game projects in a private studio he built in his own home. Eventually, he got so busy, that he had to purchase a dedicated studio space with three recording booths, and he may still need to expand further at present!
What is fascinating to me about Michael’s story is even though he did theater in school, an experience that the majority of my voice acting guests share, Michael did not decide to pursue an acting career. Instead, he chose to work on the production side of the process of making games as a voice director and audio engineer, an occupation that has fascinated him from the moment he discovered it. His journey towards his desired career path is a serendipitous one, with a lot of trial and error involved. It also required him to be truly honest with himself about what would bring him the most joy. I hope that all of my listeners can be as honest with themselves about which career pursuits truly bring them joy, whether it’s voice acting, or something else entirely. If your highest excitement is voice acting, then pay close attention to Michael’s enthusiasm for the art of recording for games. The more you understand what inspires him to pursue excellence in game audio, the more likely you’ll be able to match his passion for video game performances with your own acting abilities!
VAM 223 | Want To Book More Work? Learn To Think Like A Producer.
Welcome to episode 223 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
One of the most common questions I get asked by voice actors, especially when they’re early in their career, is how they can book more work. Once an aspiring voice actor starts to develop their skills to the level where they can be competitive when auditioning for projects, they quickly realize that they will audition for many more characters than they will ever be hired for. The goal is to increase one’s booking ratio, which is calculated by figuring out how many auditions you tend to submit before you finally book a part. SAG-AFTRA statistics have shown that working actors, who are professionally competitive, tend to audition for 30 parts before they book a single job. Competition in the entertainment industry is fierce and voice actors early in their careers may feel like they audition for hundreds of parts before booking anything.
Every voice actor wants to increase their booking ratio. After all, it’s always more enjoyable to be cast as more characters rather than fewer. If an actor is industrious, they’ll focus on sensible things to improve their booking ratio, such as improving their acting skills, expanding the kinds of characters they can play, updating their marketing materials like demos and websites, and networking with industry professionals to make sure they are kept in mind when someone is thinking of actors to call for their next project.
And yet, I have noticed that many aspiring voice actors don’t pursue these activities with a practical mindset. Rather than focusing on improving their objective skills and marketability, they tend to approach the audition process like a test of personal approval. They may use language like, “How can I get casting directors to notice me?”, or “Who do I contact so I can get a job?”, or even, “If only someone would give me a chance, I’m sure I would be successful.” At the core of all of these statements is a common mindset: the actor is looking for approval from an authority figure. This mindset is often bolstered by TV shows that capitalize on this kind of wish fulfillment. Shows like American Idol, The Voice, America’s Got Talent, and others, can set an expectation in people who are unfamiliar with the entertainment industry, that the secret to becoming a success is to get the right people to approve of you.
In this episode, I want to suggest that a better way to improve your chances of getting cast, is not to look for approval from a producer, but rather, to start thinking like a producer. What is a producer looking for? What do they need to make their project successful? What sort of collaborators are they eager to find? If you start thinking like a producer, it will begin to shift your mindset. You’ll be less likely to pursue getting approval, and you’ll be more likely to start thinking in terms of what you have to offer a project and why they should hire you over everyone else auditioning for the same part.
As you start to think more like a producer, you’ll realize what sorts of actors you’d like to hire to bring your project to life if you were producing one. As you begin to imagine those ideal acting collaborators, you can start to model your own behavior as an actor to try and satisfy what producers are looking for. You’ll realize how important it is to be able to accurately evaluate your skills as an actor, and also to know which types of characters you can believably and competitively play. You’ll start to appreciate that if you can anticipate a producer’s needs, you can make their life easier. And if you make their life easier, they’ll be far more inclined to hire you for their project. They’ll do this both because you’re perfect for the role they’re looking to cast, and because you’re a reliable actor who’s easy to work with.
Thinking like a producer is a great way to reverse engineer the casting process so as to demystify it for you. No longer will you be wondering what the producers are looking for and if they approve of you. Instead, you’ll have walked in the producer’s proverbial shoes, if only in your imagination, which will help you approach the industry in a much more practical and effective way. So let’s spend this episode learning how to think like a producer!
VAM 222 | How to Maintain Your Artistic Inspiration During An Industry Downturn
Welcome to episode 222 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
I’d like to take this episode to have an honest discussion with you about the state of the entertainment industry. As of the release of this episode in July of 2025, numerous American media companies, including game companies, are experiencing a downturn. Not only are their newly released projects not as financially successful as ones they’ve made in the past, but I would argue that these newer projects are of lower artistic quality as well.
While it can be depressing to observe the current state of affairs, especially for those of us who care deeply about art, storytelling, and the quality of games, these kinds of downturns are to be expected. The entertainment industry is not static, it regularly goes through periods of expansion and contraction. The causes of these boom and bust cycles may differ, as does the length of each cycle. However, if you look back in time, you can observe that these cycles do occur over and over again.
We currently find ourselves in the midst of one of those downturns, with no clear indication of when the pendulum of the American entertainment industry will swing back towards higher quality and more box office success. Multiple franchises such as Star Wars, Disney Animation, Marvel, DC, and even Pixar seem to be struggling to recapture the magic and popularity they once previously enjoyed. If you look around and feel disappointed or discouraged, you’re not alone. A quick survey online will show that both fans and creators are dissatisfied with the current situation. I too am disappointed and I wish things were different. As an actor, many of the forces contributing to the current downturn are beyond my control. However, it’s at times like these when I have to remind myself to work on the things that I can control.
There are two strategies I follow in order to survive an industry downturn without losing my enthusiasm or inspiration. The first is to nurture my own artistry by getting back to basics and revisiting the classics. This means checking in on and shoring up my acting fundamentals to make sure I’m not getting complacent and cutting corners artistically. This also includes studying inspiring stories and performances from the past, to help remind me what I’m aspiring to be as an artist.
My second strategy is to either seek out or create projects that I find artistically fulfilling. An industry downturn usually means that the biggest studios are struggling. When those larger companies falter, it often creates an opportunity for smaller, more independent creators to produce quality projects that can capture the public’s imagination. I do my best to go searching for these more inventive, independent creators to see if I can help them bring their projects to fruition. If I can’t seem to find any projects that I’d like to contribute to, then it’s usually time for me to create my own project and see if others would like to collaborate with me. By seeking out projects, or creating your own, not only will you be working on something that gives you artistic satisfaction, but you’ll also be developing and nurturing personal and artistic relationships that can be very beneficial in the future!
So allow me to spend this episode sharing with you the tools and techniques that I use to maintain my own artistic inspiration during an industry downturn!
VAM 221 | Breaking Behavior Patterns – How Serendipity Makes You A Better Actor
Welcome to episode 221 of the Voice Acting Mastery podcast with yours truly, Crispin Freeman!
As always, you can listen to the podcast using the player above, or download the mp3 using the link at the bottom of this blog post. The podcast is also available via the iTunes Store online. Just follow this link to view the podcast in iTunes:
http://www.voiceactingmastery.com/podcast
In this episode, I’d like to expand on some of the ideas I explored at the end of the previous episode, Part 2 of my interview with Jamieson Price. If you haven’t listened to it already, I would suggest you check out both parts of his interview, as well as episode 204 of the podcast entitled, “Go Hunting for the Best Acting and Storytelling”. While those episodes are not required for you to appreciate this one, they can offer you important context for the concepts I’m going to address here.
One of the big pieces of advice that Jamieson gives to his acting students is to go out and live life. In the previous episode, I defined “living life” as maximizing the interactions you have with other human beings by participating in their emotional lives as well as engaging with their ideological beliefs. These life experiences are what an artist draws upon in order to bring authenticity and believability to their artistic creations. Having diverse and enriching life experiences can help broaden your expressive capabilities as a creative in any field.
In the past, living life usually meant getting out of your house and interacting with people and with the world around you. The further away from home you got, the more likely it would be for you to have new and unique experiences that you hadn’t encountered before. It was as if reality was a random experience generator that increased in novelty the more you explored it, like opening up new areas on a map in a video game.
While this can still be the case, a new factor has been added to modern life, the world of online algorithms. Platforms like social media sites and even media streaming services like Netflix, YouTube, or Spotify, analyze your behavior online and try to guess what you might like next based on your clicks, likes, comments, watch time and other points of data. The ultimate goal of these platforms is to keep you engaged with them in order to fully monetize your attention. It’s even been revealed that certain dating apps can employ algorithms whose goal is not always to find you the perfect match, but instead to provide slight mismatches so that you’ll stay engaged with their platform longer, as you continue to look for a more satisfying romantic partner. The financial pressure on these algorithms to curate your experiences so that you won’t leave their respective platforms is immense.
These algorithms also affect real life interactions and shape society in ways we still don’t fully understand. Social media sites can affect not only who we believe we are and who we choose to interact with both online and in real life, but also how we behave when interacting with them. Online algorithms have changed dating and relationships, and also how we relate to family, friends, and perceived foes. We form opinions based on repeated impressions gathered from social media, and algorithms influence the frequency of exposure to certain mindsets. We may believe or disbelieve anything we see online, which then can affect our behavior not only socially, but politically as well. Online interactions can and often do set the tone for in-person interactions. The online world and the real world are no longer separate territories. They overlap constantly and cross-pollinate, in an ever-shortening news cycle of action and reaction, feeding off one another and often spiraling into absurdity. It’s a constant challenge just to maintain one’s equilibrium in the online battle for our attention spans and engagement.
As our lives are managed more and more by algorithms tuned to maximize this engagement, randomness in our everyday interactions is greatly reduced. The algorithm wants to give us something just slightly different from what we had before, but not too different or it risks losing our attention. It wants to keep us on its treadmill so it can make money off of us, and this diminishes the possibility of truly random experiences.
I want to suggest that it’s time to add some randomness back into our lives, both as artists, and as human beings! One of the best ways to do this is to break out of your habitual patterns of behavior. We can become so lulled into submission by the algorithms that provide us with entertainment and other inputs, that we can lose the personal impetus to reach for something new and different. One way to break this pattern of hypnosis is to make a decision that is completely the opposite of what you would normally choose. Do you always go left at a certain intersection? Why not go right this time, and find out what’s down that street you always skip? Do you always pick the same thing off the menu at a certain restaurant? Why not choose something radically different this time, and see what you think? Have you always watched or listened to a certain show, piece of music, or even the same podcast you always go to? Why not explore the kind of entertainment that you might normally ignore or even avoid? What would be the harm in that? If you try an episode of a show that is completely foreign to you, and you don’t like it, you don’t have to keep watching it, but if something in it does intrigue you, you may develop an appreciation for something the algorithm would never have chosen for you, if you hadn’t decided to be different on purpose.
Breaking your habitual patterns of behavior brings an important element back into your life, and it’s called “serendipity”. The serendipitous experience is the one that you were not expecting, and never could’ve planned for, but somehow turns out to be extremely enlightening or beneficial in some way. Our online algorithms tend to limit the chances for a true serendipitous experience, and I’m going to take this episode to explain why I think breaking out of your habitual patterns, and inviting serendipity back into your life is so very important for you at this time, both as a person and as an artist.