Characters can range from traditional beings such as animals and humans to inanimate objects (think CGI films like "Toy Story" or "Robots") such as trees, toasters, and pineapples.

If you think about it, celebrity voice impersonators are also character voice actors. Whenever people come to the site looking for a voice talent who sounds like Arnold Schwarzenegger, George W. Bush, or Elvis Presley, they expect that person to recreate the voice of the celebrity by performing a character voiceover. The same scenario applies if a Catherine Zeta Jones, Julia Roberts, or a Marilyn Monroe impression is in order.

One of the markets that is heavily making use of character / celebrity voiceover impersonators is the telecommunications industry. Telephone broadcasts may use character voices in them to help sell a product or service. Other companies are getting into the game by offering custom recorded character voiceovers for special occasions like Valentines Day and birthdays. Just before Christmas, a company came to InteractiveVoices to find Valentines Voiceovers to use for that exact purpose. Check out some animation voice talent and video game voiceover talents at Voices.com.

When selecting a voiceover talent to record character voiceovers, consider the following:

Does this talent match my overall vision of the character(s)?

Can they perform multiple roles?

Are they easily directable?

How many other voice acting roles have they performed?

If a talent wants to develop their voice acting skills, I know of someone that is very qualified where character voice acting is concerned. David Sobolov is a professional voiceover talent that has recorded for the Spider Man video games, television cartoons, and character voices for a host of high profile companies. Not only is David an authority on animation and character voiceovers, he also coaches and oversees the recording of animation voiceover demos and voiceover work.

Well, that's all for this afternoon :)

Take care,

Stephanie