We recently connected with HB Gibson and have shared our conversation below.
HB, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Has your work ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized?
It’s frustrating when you do many things but you’re most skilled at the thing you’re most passionate about, but people still relate to you something else. For example when I started voice acting, I did not think that I would ever really go back to screen acting. Having a home studio and the ability to be able to record at home, inflect ,project and not have to go on set for anything was just easier for me. Besides I was able to achieve my dream in voicing video games. I also hate it when I give people my stage name and they don’t respect it. My stage name is HB Gibson.
HB, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is HB Gibson, I’m an actor and more recently voice actor. I started officially acting in my early thirties doing indie films and off Broadway plays. After being in a few productions I felt that it was time for me to go more professional and get actual drama training. I felt that I’ve done a lot and needed to go to the next level and be properly educated on terminology and performance.. the actual art of acting. So in 2010 I’ve enrolled at the New Jersey School of Dramatic Arts. Attending the school definitely gave me a fresh perspective on the art.
I believe my most notable on-screen performances have been a scifi web series called Body Jumpers where I played a powerful alien lawman named Darius.
Fast forward to 2019, my fiance and I moved to Atlanta where she inspired me to pursue voice acting. Voice acting was something that we had always talked about. So we brought equipment and I put together my first vocal booth. Unfortunately due to a fire we felt it was time to go back up north and I was able to establish a new recording studio at my parents home. During the pandemic of 2020 I was blessed with an email from an author named Brian McMickle who was looking for a voice actor to record his audiobook. Since then I recorded three audiobooks, performed in video games, audio dramas, an industrial training videos.
So far my main clients have been in the video game developers. They’re really fun to work with as I love video games. There’s a gamer that my lady and I watched named Markiplier. I always told her that it would be really cool to voice a video game and watch him play it… I performed in a video game called Bloodwash.. I’m sure enough Markiplier did play it and enjoyed it!! It’s truly a blast to watch all the great gamers play video games that you voice in.
Now I’m mostly known as the character, The Watcher from the Roblox horror game Apeirophobia. I’ve obtained quite a fan following which is humbling to say the least.
I provide my clients with clean clear quality recordings in a quick and timely fashion. I can be found on Fiverr.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
While living in Atlanta, before the fire, I was pretty miserable living there. My prayer was that if God wanted me to go back up north, I made a promise that I would use my video streaming talent for my church, as I also have a YouTube channel and I am also skilled in streaming, graphics and production. My fiance had to go back to New York to care for her ailing father for a couple of months. The fire broke out while she was in New York. And it was a horrible experience. Fortunately none of our belongings were damaged in the fire. I managed to move most of our belongings into a storage unit but could not afford to put the larger appliance in storage. By the time my fiance came back to Atlanta all the large appliances were stolen. We took that as a wake-up call to just go back home. God definitely answers prayers because right after I started my streaming services to my church, I was contacted by the Sci-Fi author author Brian McMickle to read his book Echo Nova Delta. And many other doors opened up after that. So I would say that my faith is the source of my resilience.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
The word “actor” does not mean “rich”. It takes time, training and beating the pavement looking for work to become a success. I cannot say that at this time that I am a full-time voice actor. I CAN say that it is amazing side hustle! I am grateful for where I am. And I believe that humility will open up more doors for you for as long as you’re consistent. You don’t have to have an incredible voice to be a voice actor. But you do need to know how to sound convincing, know how to inflect and emphasize certain lines in certain words. You have to know who your audience is, who your character is talking to and the point that you’re trying to get across. Also remember that voice acting is acting. You still have to read the entire script and know the when, where, who, what, how and why. Also my trainer told me to memorize the script.. now you would think that a voice actor just sits there and just reads the script. Nope. Memorization helps you really dig into the character and grasp what’s going on. It also helps to get to know your digital audio workstation, or the app that you use to record your voiceovers. Once you get a hang of using your equipment you should be able to create quality recordings!
Anyone who decides to do this needs to be aware that they must get training first before they decide to drop a lot of money on it equipment. Because what if you start training and then realize that it’s not for you? And now you’re sitting around with $500, $700 worth of equipment?
To research, get trained and watch the Masters.
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Polaroid Studios