Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chelsea Krause. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chelsea , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Despite being a shy kid, I have been doing voices and impressions since around 6 years old. I knew I wanted to be a voice actor at age fifteen, but there weren’t resources on how to get started the way there are now! Instead, I continued on my theatre journey and got my degree. I was doing lots of plays and also exploring film. So, by the time I made my way back to discovering voiceover about five years ago, many more online resources were available! I devoured everything I could that was cheap or free- books, podcasts, videos, articles, free training courses, you name it! And eventually I started my voice acting training.

Honestly, my background in classical acting propelled me much further and helped me tremendously when getting started. I don’t know that there’s any part of my process of learning that I would have sped up. I think every step of it lead me right where I need to be at this moment. Having an acting background is the most solid advice I can give to anyone trying to do this work! The only thing that kept me from specifically doing voice acting from the start was a lack of resources. But I promise that is not an excuse anymore! There’s an abundance to learn and places to learn it!

Chelsea , 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?

Sure! My name is Chelsea Krause and I am a voice actor. I used to do Powerpuff Girls impressions contests with friends at a young age and from there my love of voices and impressions grew. I started theatrical acting in middle school. While I loved the theatre, voice acting was THE thing I wanted to do beginning at around Fifteen years old. Unfortunately, there were just no online resources at the time. The people who were in voice acting just- were. So I got my degree in Theatre and Marketing and pursued theatre and film for several years in New York City. But something was missing, I loved acting but I just wasn’t fulfilled. Around Five years ago, I remembered my desire to be a voice actor as a teen and dove head first into all the brand new resources I could find and never looked back.

I now work as a voice actor with the bulk of my work being in character driven pieces. Some of my select credits include games like Genshin Impact and AFK Arena, animation like the full length feature The World’s Divide, and Audio Drama projects like The Oasis Transmissions (for which I was nominated for an Audio Verse award) and 7 Suspects. I also have done commercials including some work for Spotify as well as corporate narration, trailers, and IVR (telephone guides/operators). And that’s just a select few! Several projects I’m very excited about are still under NDA.

I also organize and host 48 Hour Audio Drama Festivals. Some of these include: 48 Hours of No Evil and Ghosts: A 48 Hour Audio Drama Festival.

I also love helping people get started in pursuing voice acting. I regularly make TikTok content to help people gain their footing in this industry. I also made a huge master list of resources! That way no one will struggle to find how to get started the way I did at the beginning of my journey. I am incredibly proud of being able to share that resource with others!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Something I don’t think most people realize about being an actor is that auditioning is essentially the bulk of our job. The average ratio of audition to booking is about 1 in 100. Around 70-80 percent of what we do is auditioning and marketing. Only about 20 percent is actually doing the work (if that!) We also do not get paid to audition. To other, non-actors, that is the equivalent of the bulk of your job being that you go on hundreds of interviews. You then get hired briefly to do one job, and then the cycle repeats.

Many people think acting is not hard work, and while it may not be as physically demanding, it is a major test of resilience every day. We experience far more rejection than acceptance. It truly takes people who love what they do to be told no over and over and continue to do it anyway.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have just over 50k followers on TikTok. Which is a drop in the bucket to some, and a significant amount to others. Yet, because of my TikTok presence, I have been blessed to have been booked several time from people finding me there. I’m constantly being asked my “secret”. But the truth is- there’s not really a secret to it. But I have three things that I think may help:

1. You have to be consistent. Just like anything the more consistently you post the more potential eyes on you at any given time.

2. You have to enjoy what you’re making. If you don’t love it, other people won’t either. Never spend time on content you don’t enjoy because you feel like you “have to”. Make content that will bring you happiness and when it no longer does- stop making it and find something else that does make you happy.

3. It’s not always about being totally original. I’ve seen lots of people say they can’t make content about something they love because other people do the same thing. But algorithms reach different eyes! As long as you’re not being a direct copy you’re allowed to do something similar to others while brining your own twist or unique flavor to it!

You are at the heart of your content and you are what makes your social presence special!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.chelseakrause.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chelseamkrause?igsh=MmVlMjlkMTBhMg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chelsea-m-krause?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChelseaMKrause?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@chelseamkrause?si=Pa7JHtDhCIi7IdPs