Showing posts with label voice acting. Show all posts
Showing posts with label voice acting. Show all posts

May 11 - Happy Birthday, Kaitlyn Dias

Posted on May 11, 2020

So many people want to become actors! The fame! The fortune! The chance to get paid for playing make-believe!


Of course, acting is one of the performance arts, and therefore actors are artists as well as performers. But what-oh-what is a "voice artist"?

Is a voice artist an actor? 

Yes! 

Animated shorts, animated series, and animated feature-length movies are all popular, and to some extent have become more and more popular. (To some extent animation used to be seen as a for-kids kind of thing, but now it's a for-everybody kind of thing!)

And animated characters need somebody to give voice to their roles. A lot of times, those voices are provided by people who are already super famous - like Dory-the-fish being actor, comedian and daytime TV icon Ellen DeGeneres. Sometime those voices are provided by not-so-famous actors - like today's birthday.

Kaitlyn Dias was born on this date in 1999 - so she is still very young. She started acting and singing at age 5 - but just in church and school productions. She got at agent at age 11 and started working in commercials, short films, and a big Disney-Pixar movie. 





The Disney-Pixar movie, Inside Out, takes place in the mind of a young girl named Riley. The movie starred some big talents acting as the various emotions of that girl - Anger was played by Lewis Black, for example, and Disgust was played by Mindy Kaling. 
Well, they got a young girl to play the part of the young girl! In other words, Kaitlyn Dias played Riley. 


Inside Out was released in 2015, when Dias was just 16 or so. I read that she was cast as 11-year-old Riley when she was just 11 herself. That's pretty awesome!

Like many other voice artists, Dias is an actor in all ways (not JUST as a voice). But some voice artists don't appear on camera; they love doing voiceovers as narrators or in
Jennifer Garner and Amy Adams have
launched "Save with Stories" - a free
resource of celebrities reading aloud
books for kids who have to Stay Home!
animation, in movies and TV and computer games and apps and read-aloud venues. I personally would hate to be an on-camera actor, but I would love to do read-aloud work for pay (I already do a lot of read-aloud-ing within my family!).


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October 25 – Look - Alike Birthdays

Posted October 25, 2017

In these particular photos, I think that these two comedians look a bit alike. Don't you?



The top photo is Nancy Cartwright, born in Ohio on this date in 1957. She is an actress and a voice actress as well as a comedian. She's super duper famous for one particular role - 
   - the role of a 10-year-old boy! - 

Because, you see, Nancy Cartwright provides the voice of Bart Simpson!
Cartwright has won an Emmy and an Annie Award for her voice work on The Simpsons. She has of course voiced other characters in other movies and shows, and she wrote an autobiography. She created a one-woman play based on her autobiography and also co-produced another one-woman play.

The bottom photo is of Samantha Bee. Born in Toronto, Canada, on this date in 1969, Bee has become a writer, producer, political commentator, actress, media critic, and television host as well as a comedian. She rose to fame on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  As a matter of fact, she was the longest-serving regular correspondent!

Bee has written several funny books and has won several awards, including an Emmy.


Check out Cartwright and Bee on video!



Constitution Day in Lithuania









 Sourest Day 









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September 2 – Happy Birthday, Len Carlson

Posted on September 2, 2015



What does Professor Coldheart from the Care Bears and the Supreme Intelligence in the Marvel universe have in common?

They were both voiced by voice actor Len Carlson.

Voice actors are used to help bring to life many different kinds of entertainment, including animated movies and television shows, commercials, radio dramas, video games, amusement park rides, documentaries, audiobooks, and even puppet shows.

Voice actors often provide voices to fictional characters. Most of these characters are animated, but of course Darth Vader was acted by David Prowse but famously voiced by James Earl Jones!

Voice actors also provide narration, translation, and announcements.

A lot of voice actors are also live actors or other sorts of famous entertainers / celebrities. Here is a short list of famous actors / comedians / musicians / entertainers who have done voices for animated movies, commercials, or documentaries.

Ellen DeGeneres – Finding Nemo

Robin Williams – Aladdin

Angelina Jolie – Shark Tale

George Clooney – AT&T commercials

Queen Latifah – Pizza Hut commercials

Morgan Freeman – March of the Penguins



Beatle Ringo Starr – Thomas the Tank Engine

“Weird Al” Yankovic – Transformers


But a lot of voice actors are not live actors. I once worked with a man who could do hundreds of – maybe even a thousand – different voices. He easily and quickly read a script using five different (and fun!) voices, always remembering which fictional animal character had which fictional voice. I was so impressed!

Unfortunately, professional voice actors who aren't otherwise celebrities – people whose names and faces we DON'T know – are used less and less often by big-time entertainment giants like Disney and Pixar. I think that's too bad – it just takes one more way of “making it” out of the mix, and it loads into the baskets of the rich-and-famous more plums than they could ever possibly want (because they already have so many plums!).

So today I salute dearly departed Len Carlson in the hope that the trend reverses a bit!

Also on this date:































Anniversary of the cancelation of Star Trek












Plan ahead:

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