We were lucky to catch up with Sean Mahan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sean, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I think I’ve always had that bug. I’ve been using my voice to entertain people since I was a kid, and I’ve also been great at imitating people. Of course, that could sometimes get me in a little trouble in school and in the Army, but it was always fun. When I was a kid watching Bugs Bunny cartoons, the thought of being able to do what Mel Blanc did for a living – bringing life to all those different characters – was something I often dreamed of. Fast forward to a few years ago, when my wife was teaching a middle school novel study class. As part of the class they would listen to a chapter in the audiobook of what they were reading. There was a young adult novel that was narrated by a pretty well-known actor (whom I won’t name!) and he was….pretty bad. His narration was flat and there was no life in the dialogue as he read it. So she said “YOU could do better than this!” I said that sounds great but thought the obstacles were pretty substantial. But she looked online and found the Mid Atlantic Voice Over conference, and I signed up and learned a ton while having a blast! From then on I knew I had to keep going.
Sean, 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?
I grew up in suburban Connecticut, not far from New York City. After college I was commissioned as an Army lieutenant, and spent the next 20 years as an officer. I lived in Germany twice, Kansas, Texas, Cairo Egypt, and now Hampton Virginia. When I’m called upon to create a character on my own, I often use people I’ve worked with on active duty as inspiration. I’ve worked with some REAL characters! After retiring, I kept working as a contractor for the Army, something I’m still doing while I work on increasing my number of bookings.
In 2018 I attended my first voice over conference, the Mid Atlantic Voice Over (MAVO) conference. I learned so much in one long weekend! Of course part of what I learned was how much I needed to invest in training, equipment and technical know-how. Fortunately at the end of MAVO I won a raffle for a Sennheiser MKH 416 microphone and interface, a top-of-the-line mic for voice acting! Then my wife and adult sons got together and bought me a nice booth for Christmas. It’s so great to have their support on this!
Since then I’ve coached up and recorded a commercial demo reel and an animation character demo reel which are now on my website. But a lot of my work has been through direct contact with people. I’ve done character work for a regional puppet theater where I’ve voiced FDR, George Washington and even a prairie dog who sounded like Clint Eastwood! I’ve also narrated a couple of audiobooks, some web commercials, some e-learning and some narration for the museum at Fort Eustis, the local Army post. Doing narration for museum exhibits is something I really LOVE doing! I’m a real history buff, and there’s always a chance I’ll learn something new from the job I do. No matter what kind of voice acting it is, the main thing I love doing is breathing life into the words that somebody has written.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Well my resilience comes in the form of “it’s never too late to live your dream!” I spent 20 years as a soldier, then another 13 years as a contractor working for the Army before I even started my voice acting journey! During that time I was always the “voice guy,” the one who could either imitate people or make up crazy voices, and also the guy who could do the “Voice of God” at awards ceremonies while a commander would be pinning a medal on a soldier. The whole time I was thinking I’d love to do this as a career, but back then there was no way to easily find out on your own.
Of course, starting that late presents its own challenges but I’m determined to keep working at it from now on. That means taking lots of training, attending conferences, upgrading my recording space and equipment, and of course self-marketing.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
There are so many! There are the voice over conferences like MAVO (www.midatlanticvo.com) and VO Atlanta (www.VOAtlanta.me), Facebook groups like VOpreneur (https://www.facebook.com/
Contact Info:
- Website: seanmahanvoiceover.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmahanvo/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmahanvo
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@seanmahanvoiceoverartist9546
Image Credits
The huge group photo is all the attendees and guest speakers at MAVO 2022. It was such a fun event! The small group shot is me at MAVO with Elley Ray Hennessey (center) and Val Kelly (MAVO President and CEO) The two photos of the ensemble are also from MAVO, during a radio play we did called the Scarlet Pimpernel. Finally, the last photo is me with the puppet of George Washington from Rainbow Puppet Productions. This was right after I recorded the lines for George in a play.