We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jariel Acevedo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Jariel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
In the fall of 2022 The First Dollar I earned from my voice was from an Author that goes by the name of Eon Tempest. Eon Approached through a comment from a Deathnote Fandub I did, the Character I voiced as Practice was Touta Matsuda.
He says “ if you’re interested, i have a small project for you to work on once the Animator is done.” So Immediately I sent him a Dm asking who he was & what the project was about.
Eon tells me that he’s an Author for an Amazon Kindle series called “Alldust:chronos!”
He felt like my voice was a perfect fit for his main protagonist Quincy Alldust & explained his unique world. After we discussed the project he sent me a link to his series to read on what it’s all about. From my first read I was pulled in by the storytelling and the rise of who Quincy is. I knew in that moment Eon put all his faith into me being his voice to tell his story.
Fast forward months later I received the animation for Eons project, & from my first glance, I was absolutely speechless and teary eyed because I never would have imagined someone wanting my voice for their Character. let alone a main protagonist. From seeing the art, the actions, & listening to the sounds, shows me how much passion and faith he has for me.
So on the day of recording I had that same feeling like I did when I recorded that Almight Voice over challenge. The Stress and Anxiety lifted off of my shoulders as I read his lines in one take.
After i sent the take,
I waited anxiously for Eon’s feedback.
So to pass the time I decided to take a quick power nap, only to wake up from Eon telling me that I did an awesome job and how much he loved the voice.
My heart was relieved and happy that I was able to make someone’s day with my Unique Talent. Shortly after Eon asked me what I would use to receive money after doing voice work. Mind you, This being my first original voice over project ever,
I never even knew I was getting paid to begin with. I honestly wanted to just help bring his world to life. So I provided him with my Cashapp information and from there on out we ended up getting to know each other through our love for fighting games.
Not only have I made a client’s dream come true, I ended up creating a beautiful friendship out of it.
Jariel, 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?
Hello everyone before i start this off by saying
i’d like to say i am extremely honored
that you took an interest to know my story.
My Name is Jariel Acevedo,
I’m a 27 year old Puerto Rican that was born in Haverhill Massachusetts
& I’m going to tell you a Unique story on how I learned to be a Voice Actor.
Back in 2017,
Me, my Childhood Friends Kendry & Miguel
would always hang out at my place & watch Anime in English sub.
The Main reason for this was because
English dubs never really appeared after the Anime’s original launch date.
So Deep down we really want to hear it in English Dub.
so we would randomly muted the Audio &
just act out the scenes we saw with our voices.
We had no Acting Experience, we just had a Unique Talent
for bringing stories to life.
fast-forward few years into early 2020.
Covid was just on the rise & everyone was not allowed to go outside. My older brother and my little brother had the Luxury of staying home to enjoy all the Anime & Video Games to their heart’s content. While me and my father were the ones having to go out and work because our jobs were considered essential. My Fathers 1st shift job & my 3rd shift job.
So on my break at work I’d just go through Facebook & just watch random and funny videos. well As i scroll through Facebook, i see two
Best Friends Roland & Hector commenting on a post over their love for video games.
Witnessing their interaction made me want to know what these two were really all about.
So i created our group chat, we got to know each other & started to Game together.
The First game we played was “The Forest” then after that we played “Dying Light.” On PlayStation 4
We’d crack jokes, found some glitches, & even start doing random voices to pass the time.
We laughed so hard in a game I started to wheeze like the penguin from Toy Story that was on the shelf.
The next day we played, they asked me if “I was ever into voice acting?”
I said “no to be honest, it never really crossed my mind to do voices
Professionally, because I not only found reading boring but I also had a major problem with reading out loud.” They both were very understanding & Hector decided to send me a video of an Almight vs Nomu voice over challenge. As I watched the video I noticed that Almights voice dialogue was muted & had a timer leading up to his speech for the viewer to act out. In that moment I instantly remembered what me and my childhood friends used to do. I felt like all those times muting those shows and acting out the scenes was something that was extremely essential for me to gain that confidence to actually bring a story to life.
Now the biggest obstacle was to figure out how to get my voice to sound good on the video without a mic and a soundproofed room. Then I realized that people on tik tok use their cellphones built in microphone most of the time when filming their videos along with recording in their living room, bedroom and even closets. So without hesitation, I decided to take that approach and ask my older brother Richard if I could Record a Anime Challenge in his closet. His facial expression was in a state of confusion and shock.But he allowed me to use the room anyway. As I observed the Closet, I noticed that there were tons of clothes Hung up on the hangers along with storage containers.
I felt like the room was good for recording since the clothes can absorb all the sounds I make. Once I got the video ready I noticed that it has the scene on the left along with a selfie view of me. In that moment I took that deep breath, heard 3 beeps then started to read the Dialog that dropped. When I read the script, I felt like all my stress, anxiety just lifted right off my shoulders and i Spoke those Legendary words with all my might.
After recording the video in one take and reviewing it, I honestly didn’t want to post it.
Main reason for it was because I had that fear of people making fun of me in public.
As a child till junior year of highschool I was bullied for my weight and always getting called some vile names. So deep down my heart just hurts imagining those bullies coming back to insult me once the video is posted. Few hours go by with some time to calm my anxiety. I told myself ” Don’t Worry, the only outcome that might happen is people telling me I need Acting lessons.”
So with a single push of a button, the video was posted &
I set my phone to airplane mode and didn’t look back till the next morning.
Holding my breath I opened up Tiktok and let out a huge breath of air once I saw tons of positive feedback and honesty. Seeing something like this is unexpecting & honestly made me cry with joy and relief. So without hesitation I thanked Hector & Roland for seeing something Unique that I never saw in myself.
So from there on I was able to continue practicing my voice acting skills through Fandubs with just my iphone in brothers closet.
Still to this day I can’t thank my friends and brother enough for preparing me for such a Unique Career path.
I am still working hard currently to make sure we all end up being in a project where we can all chase our dreams together.
Have you ever had to pivot?
In the year 2022 in December i was home in my bedroom quarantining myself due to having covid-19. This has been the 2nd time I’ve been locked up in a room, it really just started to feel like the pressure of not knowing when your last breath will be.
Especially from something like a respiratory virus. The more I look back into my life, what always kept me pushing forward was my older brother Richard, after he survived his heart attack in October 2019.
knowing that he was able to get a second chance in live his life
after his recovery, seeing him get healthy, accomplishing goals, and actually ending up finding a girlfriend.
at the time of me typing this he is now married, and expecting his 1st beautiful child.
seeing him make that pivot in his life, made me want to chase my dreams.
and if you haven’t even attempted to chase your dreams at least just once,
then you’re simply not just living the life you think you want.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
back in 2019
i had got done with my shift one morning
to come home and see my older brother watching tv.
mind you, we were roommate’s at the time of this event.
we’d usually always discuss what our plan for the day is going to be.
after he told me he was going to lunch with a friend i decided to get
some cleaning done around our apartment.
When my older brother came back from his lunch,
he told me things went great but for some reason he just felt like something was off about himself,
he said he had cold sweats and back shoulder pain. so he decides to open the freezer door and let the cool air hit his back,
i found it odd, but then i just ignored the signs and told him that
“i’m going to bed so i can get ready for work tonight, is there a chance you can wake me up instead of my alarm.”
he said ok and told me that he was going to take
to make this clear to everyone reading this, i did not have a license to drive a car, so the only way of transportation would be from my older brother or as a last resort, Ubers.
when my older brother gave me the confirmation to take me in to work that night,
i went straight to bed while he said he was going to take a cold shower to see how he feels after..
now my shift at my night job was 11pm-7am
so i woke up around 8pm and i see my little brother sitting in our dining room in the dark all quite and distressed.
i look around the room to see no one else but him.
that’s when i askes the question ” where is Richard?”
my little brother tells me how he had a heart attack and he’s currently in the hospital recovering.
the next day the doctor told my brother that his Diabetes covered the pain that most people have.
(but not everyone will have the same experience as he did.)
When I heard that from my Big brothers own words, it made me realize that life is short, so you should always take care of your mental and physical health by having the closure you need with yourself.
that’s when I started to go on a solo journey by myself to figure out what I want to do in life. because i want to be able to make sure that my family is living their happy and healthy lives with a future to inspire the next generation to chase there dreams with their Unique Talent.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jariel_avocado97/profilecard/?igsh=ODBtZWdmM2wyMGZ1
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jariel-avocado-23b603303?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: https://x.com/jariel123
Image Credits
Creative theory world
Broken Beat Forthbringers
Amazon Kindle series
Alldust:Chronos! By Eon Tempest
The Magic Lantern
Bemyvu shorts
Soufflé Bunny
Ct_serbu
Michinoku Toge