We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michael Gonzalez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Michael, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?
If I’m going to play characters with my voice believably, I had to become an actor first. That was my main obstacle as I didn’t have an acting background. I took an acting course and a singing course in college, online courses including one from industry professional Crispin Freeman, a commercial voiceover expi with 3 coaches, and I had my network, friends and family listen to my voice giving me ideas of my range. I not only became an actor and can change my voice around, I also became better at communicating with people and taking direction/feedback. As for speeding up learning, I wish I have discovered my network and new friends sooner as they helped me get to where I am now.
Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Michael Gonzalez, and I’m an independent voice actor from Minnesota. I’ve been doing this for almost 12 years where I got to provide my voice for student films, cartoons and videos on YouTube and other online spaces, video games like Almost A Hero on mobile and Slice of Life on the Nintendo Switch, and many projects currently under NDA. I’m also a stage actor that just finished his 4th production, Guys and Dolls, where I played a whopping 5 characters including Joey Biltmore and Angie the Ox. Those around me have described my work as versatile and a strong sense of character. While I understand that’s what a lot of actors/voice actors need in order to be such, I believe I stand out by my vocal range. I recommend your readers to check out my demo reels on my website michaelgonzalezva.com as it’s the best way to show you my range. Everything is recorded from my own booth at home. If you’re an animator, game dev, or you need character acting for your commercials and other promotional material, you’ve come to the right place!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
I would like to try my hand at commercial voice over. I understand that a lot of this line of work tends to consist of more conversational types of reads, but my main obstacle is finding companies that could us a voice like mine. I found some marketing agencies close to me, so I’ll be reaching out to them as soon as I get some samples together and clean them up. As for a mission, I want anyone that works with me to feel like we have a connection. A lot of clients I’ve worked with actually become my friends that I still talk to after the work was done. Even if you want to focus on the business side and move on when we’re done, I still want to enjoy the time we had together.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Before getting my first demo made, I had a consultation with a company that wanted to screen me before taking me on as a client. Unfortunately they couldn’t because I was simply not ready for a demo. I didn’t know what I wanted to highlight, I didn’t fit the character side samples I read, and I didn’t know what to do with the demo. I simply wanted one because many voice actors had one. It was frustrating admittedly, but they were right because the demo could have turned out bad. This chat became a checkpoint in my journey, and I can now say the demo reels I have are not only ones I commissioned companies for, but ones I’ve earned.
Contact Info:
- Website: michaelgonzalezva.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/michaelgonzalezva?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Twitter: https://x.com/Mikeysota?t=Ml0DSwPDXcPfVocEZwyeZQ&s=09
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@mikeysota?si=QppKtr9GGK9RbOJA
- Other: Also active on Newgrounds: https://mikeysota.newgrounds.com/
Image Credits
Great Theatre Stephanie Okoyo Bailey Amburgy Charles Brubaker DECA Games Sam Klug