Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lauren Kong. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Lauren, appreciate you joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
I grew up an only kid with two extremely busy parents, so I grew up playing a lot of pretend and watching a lot of cartoons/movies. The most influential one was Batman: The Animated Series, where I first learned about voice acting. I fell in love with Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill’s expressive and immersive performance as Batman and Joker, leading me down a rabbit hole of just how much goes into voice acting and how it works. The idea of playing pretend every day with characters that could be either similar or different to me really inspired me to pursue the art.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m an Asian-American voice actress from California and I do a lot of voice work for commercials, video games, animation, audio productions, and so much more! I’ve been working for about 3 years now and help bring director’s and brand’s visions to life with my voice, providing genuine and expressive performances.
I started getting involved in voice acting when I was 16 years old, working a lot on audio dramas and visual novels. Despite my early start, the hardest business thing that I still end up struggling with every day is finding ways to further involve myself in the community and market my skills to larger clients on a day to day. On the other hand, the most difficult creative thing is trying to be more forgiving of myself and my skill set. I am definitely my harshest critic, but with the help of my friends (both in and out of the industry) and family I’m always reminded just how far I’ve come and just how much time I still have to figure things out as I go. I’m extremely proud of just how adaptive I am in that sense, with some of the highest compliments I’ve received being for how directable and open to feedback to further enhance the quality of work I tend to be.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding thing to me is seeing a project come together in all its moving parts. The first time I played through a visual novel I was in, I was so excited the entire time and immersed in not just my own performance and the performances of my casemates, but rather all of the pieces that made the game- from the music to the art to the sound design and effects used on all out voices, I knew that feeling of seeing how my recording from my office closet impacted that story and added to it was my favorite part of what I do. Being able to not only express myself, but see a vision realized is truly something extremely special.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I have a lot of goals in my career and a lot of dream roles and gigs that I would probably be able to retire happy with, but my biggest goal in all of this is to enjoy what I do. I got into voice acting because I loved it, it brought me a lot of joy and it brought a lot of joy to people both in and out of my life. I never want to get so caught up in the desperation to make money or build a certain level of fame that I lose that love that drives me and every character I play. It’s that bit of humanity that I really do feel helps make my performances not only believable, but a real. relatable, and “living” soul.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://laurenkong.carrd.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/laurenkong_/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-kong-b83130262/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/LaurenKong_
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPulszlU-x7BEuS8sG0EO4w
- Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13868491/?ref_=tt_cl_t_16
