A Week in a Voice Actor’s Life: Day 1

One of my dreams is to have enough money and time so I can pay to follow and shadow someone at their work for 2 weeks. Live and experience their day-to-day life as a plumber, an accountant, a lawyer, a dog trainer etc. I’m curious how people’s lives are, so here’s some insight to mine as a voice actor.

Voice actors across the globe have different routines, depending on the country they live in, if they have any specialties, and where they are in their voice acting career.

Quick intro about myself:

• A Chinese Malaysian living in Malaysia

• 1 year 6 months into voice acting full-time (as of Nov 2021)

• Have a home studio

• Cater to both local and international markets

• Accept all types of voice acting jobs including narrations (eLearnings, audiobooks), character work (indie video games, audio dramas), and commercials (local)

Almost everyday...

• I’m awake by 8:30am involuntarily due to heavy construction behind my house

• I take a power nap in the afternoon

• I sleep around 1am+ or later

Quick note: I was very detailed in my logs for the first 2 days. Then I got too occupied and had to backtrack to fill in the gaps.

Aite, let’s go!

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Day 1: Friday, 12th Nov 2021

Morning	Replied to emails and job enquiries Read Chaika scripts
Afternoon	Lunch with college friend at SS15
Late Aft. (2:30 - 5:30pm)	Worked in a Chatto cafe Replied email on Chaika including questions and feedbacks Read all chapters for The Boar Knight and listened to the pronunciation guide College friend taught me about DnD (Dungeon and Dragons) and together we created my first Character sheet (Dragonborn, Warlock)
Evening / Night	Home, napped 3-hour Volleyball session at the park
​10pm - 2am+	Supper, home, shower Replied emails, created custom orders for clients

Today was a good day: I received multiple VO orders.

If you haven’t realized, I didn’t do any recording at all. Just going through scripts and replying to potential clients, turning them into paying clients.

Expanding on the highlights:

Chaika is a science fiction podcast produced by Y2K Productions, it follows the tale of the FIRST WOMAN on the moon and more specifically, her daughter who grew up on the moonbase.

I play a sentient A.I. named LeQu (乐趣) stationed on the aircraft. There are 8 episodes in Season 1; I spent the day reading the script, jotting down any questions I have about the story and my role. Season 1 also features a Danish A.I. and German A.I, so the script is injected with our native tongues, bringing in a delightful balance of languages.

I’ve worked with Karin Heimdahl (the lady behind Y2K Productions) on the Y2K podcast before and was offered the role without auditioning :)

The Boar Knight is an all-ages musical story by Fool and Scholar Productions, who have produced multiple award-winning audio dramas such as The White Vault (horror fiction) and Dark Dice (horror actual-play D&D).

I’m the narrator for this and am absolutely thrilled about it as I rarely get to narrate in podcasts. I read through the script and listened to the pronunciation guide provided by Travis Vengroff. Fun fact: Travis was the one who gave me my first ever voice acting role 2 years ago as Constance in VAST Horizon, and I’ve worked with him on The White Vault too. I was offered the Narrator’s role without auditioning :)

IMPORTANT: The reason for sharing that I got these roles without auditioning is not to brag. For 2 years, I auditioned tirelessly, sending in proposals for casting calls. I was the one reaching out.

Last month, my audition rate decreased as I’ve been occupied with actual paid jobs. I’ve become more selective on which projects to audition for, factoring in the time and effort to understand the project, deep-dive on the characters, recording and editing the lines before submitting with a personalized intro. To receive roles without auditioning is a milestone for me. *pats on my own back

Read Day 2