We recently connected with Adam D. Bullock and have shared our conversation below.
Adam, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Ever since I was a little kid, I always had an obsession over watching or experiencing things that had amazing stories with interesting characters. So much so that I would use my free time as a kid to imagine and re-create the things I experienced. Whether it was from all watching my favorite TV shows or even sitting in the audience and watching a live theater performance, I was glued into what they were showing me. It truly was a wonderful time in my childhood to witness such greatness in front of my eyes. I mean it really made me love characters as a whole.
As time went on, I started getting into minor roles in local theater productions for the youth, got into learning and doing things related to puppetry, clowning at one point and so on. It was in the early days where I really built my foundational skills sets in creativity and acting, without really knowing where it was going to go. There are so many stories to tell I wouldn’t know where to start. Though still I kept my interest and involvement alive by taking the time to learn and play in the world of my imagination.
The older I got, the more I kept exploring the different facets of my creativity. For a short while I got into learning and doing things related to graphic design and photography. Though after awhile I started to loose interested and wanted to do something more with my life that I was truly passionate about. I was at a point in my life where my day jobs weren’t as wonderful as I thought they would be. So much so that I left a few because I just felt I could be doing something more. Like I didn’t really feel I belonged in those places of work. There were some jobs that had great promise and even a route I could have made something of but yet again, my creative spirit/soul wanted more.
Since 2013 I have been a practicing a form of buddhism called, Nichiren Buddhism. In which this belief system helps you discover how to become happy from within and the answers to your life’s great problems through the practice and study of this form of buddhism. I bring this up because through my buddhist practice of chanting “Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo” each day, I discovered within me what it was I was really seeking to accomplish in my life, in order to be happy. So with that said it was in 2015 and like I have mentioned before, I got to a point where I had given up on so many jobs and felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere. So with my inner determination to win over my humanistic ego tendencies to give up, I chanted and reflected on my past interests and experiences to pinpoint what my direction should be.
Long story short I discovered that “creativity” was my life’s greatest passion and that it brought the best side of me when I was doing it actively. I mean it makes my heart glow with joy and makes my life better. It was after that point I made a list of creative careers/hobbies I had tried to pursue in the past and after much reflection I decided to get back into my love for wanting to be a voice actor for animation, commercials and more.
To bring back some of the things I said earlier in the answering of this question, I had talked about my love for characters. Amongst all the experiences I had relating to character work, one thing that I kept getting a lot of feedback on from friends but especially the younger family members, that I should pursue a career as a voice actor. They saw so much at how enthusiastic I got into performing as different characters and the fact that it made them smile/laugh all the time, that they inspired me to look into and make efforts into making a career like this a reality.
So for a short time back then I made efforts to learn about, practice more in and learn from others what it meant to become a voice actor. Though being so young at the time (around age 15-17yrs old), I got “almost” no support from certain family members in regards to getting training/coaching, the local voice actor’s I talked to didn’t give me the help I wanted/needed direction wise and at some point the personal creative projects I was doing on my own were not exactly making feel proud in myself for what I was able to do, that at some point I just gave up trying to make this a reality and like I had mentioned before, I had then re-directed my efforts toward graphic design and photography. At the same time though, I still kept my love for wanting to go after voice acting in the back of my mind.
Flash forward back to when I was talking about my buddhist practice, again as I said I had made the determination to try again with voice acting because I knew it was a career that still had a need in the world vs graphic design work being an easy skill that almost anybody can get good at quickly. With your voice, there is only one of you and that’s something to be proud of.
So finally around 2016, I got back on the horse of taking action of bring back my pursuit of making a voice acting career happen. In the year I started reading up more on the career, taking coaching sessions and more. Though let me tell you, for those that want to make this a full time career, it is possible but takes years of efforts to make it happen. You just have to want it enough and love it enough to do so. Since about 2018 though I’ve been making a decent living with my career/business as a voice actor/podcast producer and more..but like I said this career takes time so in between projects I work a normal 9to5 job to keep the lights on and food on the table. There are more details ther but I can tell you more later at some point.
Overall and with everything said, ultimately for me I am making this my life’s pursuit, professionally speaking of course, because I love making a positive impact on the audience that watches me perform. The fact that I can bring out these amazing character from within me and it makes the smile, laugh, surprised and more…is what makes me most happy. In fact I have been inspired by so many legendary voice actors who have said that when they go to their autograph session at comic conventions/events, that people will come up to their table and tell them their life’s story. By life’s story I mean, they say that if it wasn’t for that character(s) or shows/movies they had done, they wouldn’t have gotten through the toughest times of their lives. There are other types of things but let’s move on.
With that light bulb moment when I learned from what they’ve said about their experiences with their fans, I was like, this has to be my mission too. We as human beings can impact hundreds of people, over our lifetime but what if you could impact millions and not even know you did. I’m sure whoever is reading what I have just written has been impacted by many creators in their life and just didn’t have the opportunity to express it to that person who did so for them.
Hope that answers the question haha.
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?
If you would reference my answer from the first question, I’ve selected to answer, you will find a lot of answers that relate to this question. Though I will fill in some other details that I haven’t stated yet below.
– In the Summer of 2023, I got to make my Cartoon Network (Africa) debut in a pilot animation series called, “Garbage Boy and Trash Can, where I performed as the voices to some evil henchmen for the villain of this series, in 2 different episodes. This was an amazing experience and has definitely open some doors for me when it comes to new projects, networking connections and more. The process of the productions took about 5 years but has taught me so much about the animation industry and so much so I pass on those lesson to my students and others to this day.
Since then and even before this opportunity, I continue to work with independent animation studios (and independent filmmakers) in their projects as a voice actor. As well as working with local and out of town businesses with non-character like projects for their business needs (ex, commercials, internet ads, radio, explainer videos and phone systems).
– Since the Summer of 2021, I’ve been producing a podcast called, “Just Say HELLO”, where I interview other voice actors, animators, character actors and others from the same industries. I get to know who they are, what they’ve done and talk about current industry trends. Though with selected voice actor guests, I have them do 2 improvised scenes with me and from that myself and my audio engineer Timothy Bliss ( of TB Natural Audio) edit in special sound effects/music to make the scene come to life. At the time of article you are writing about, we are in the middle of season 3 of the podcast and have so many amazing things coming up. If you want to support the studio (ABV Productions), please search for us on Patreon.com.
– Since December 2012, I’ve been offering beginners voice acting coaching to those who want to learn more about how to get into my industry but don’t know where to start. I have them perform various scripts for me and give them live feedback to help them improve their skill sets and even give them a PDF document of other great resources to help push them in the right direction. I say all, this because since I never got the right direction taught to me when I was younger, I decided to be that person for someone else. So that in turn, they save money and time but have a better feeling that the path they are on is the right one and not misguided by whatever the internet is telling them.
– In 2023/2024, I’ve done 2 different presentations/workshops with my animator friend, Richie Jimenez, who runs a local animation networking group called the “Phoenix Animation Meetup” and also at Arizona’s 1st Animation conference called the “Phoenix Animation Expo”. I present on subjects related to my past work, various topics that others need to know about my industry and inside knowledge about what it’s like to be a voice actor. I also have been a volunteer behind the scenes to help Richie make his vision for these meetings/events run smoothly.
– Based on everything you have read above, it has lead me to start and build my own independent productions studio, called “ABV Productions”. Where myself and others of my team are producing and developing podcasts and animated projects for ourselves and as time moves along others who need our skill sets. I’m currently building a new website and other related things for my studio so please keep an eye out on my social media pages for updates on that (search for @adambullockvo).
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
In the last 4-5 years, since the pandemic, I’ve went through so many ups and downs in my personal life but most especially my career focus and direction. Based on what I had learn from my studies and coaching sessions for voice over, I had for a long while pursued the route that many voice actors go in because so many had before me. When I say “the same route” I mean doing what other who are more season in the industry had done because that’s what has brought consistent success for them and others.
For a long period of time I focused more on attracting the type of voice over work that pays you more often and is produced more often in today’s society. Like commercials, e-learning, explainer videos, audio books and etc. While the prospect of making more money with this career is definitely an enticing one, it didn’t exactly have the outcome that I had hoped for. For a few years I focused on marketing and networking my services to local and out of town business and got some decent projects from them. I spent allot of time going to and participating in local business networking meetings and events. All of which did make a good impact on my business, my skill sets and morem which I’m very grateful for but allot of things I was taking action on to produce the income that I wanted didn’t happen. I often felt more drained from the efforts that I knew and had learned to do than actually enjoying the work I was getting.
Long story short, after much reflection on the past experiences, re-directions in thought and approach. I decided to focus on the type of voice work that brought me real joy. Even from the grunt work I Knew I had to do in order to attract the opportunities I wanted. The type of work I had mentioned in past interview questions was that of performing as a character(s) for animation, video games and more. So I directed my efforts to finding and doing more auditions, networked in different circles both online and in-person and even paid for more coaching and training to fine tune my character acting skills. From that more opportunities were coming from it and the happiness that I was seeking started coming back even more so but for some reason wasn’t 100% there.
After talking with my coaches and others and even reflecting inward with myself, I yet again came to another crossroads in my career. I realized that I wasn’t attracting or finding the right acting opportunities that I knew I would be a great fit for and that with what I was being given it wasn’t feeling right or just that I got passed on by different potential clients.
So as I’ve stated in previous answers, I got the idea of starting my own production studio (ABV Productions) and being the person who made the opportunity happen. Creating projects where the characters I performed as were made for me and what I know I’m good at. Plus I knew I wanted to help my creative community of voice actors, animators and other creative fields who are struggling to find the work they love to do. Since the Hollywood we know has changed so drastically, I knew that this was the route to go in because it offered the most possibilities than any other route I could go in.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
Yes, most certainly there are many things I wished someone would have told me a long time ago because If I learned what I have listed below, then my career would have started sooner. Though as we all know life has a funny way of things and things happen when they are meant to happen.
Things I wished I had learned/experienced sooner:
1) Being a confident actor (both on camera/stage and in the recording booth). Getting normal acting/improvisation training/coaching at the beginning.
2) Learn more about marketing and networking to attract better leads and more paid projects.
3) Create your own stuff because it the thing that will drive you throw the ups and downs you will go thru. It will be your reason for never giving up, even if times get hard and even when you can’t see the next step forward.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.adambullockvo.com
- Instagram: @adambullockvo
- Facebook: @adambullockvo
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adambullockvo/
- Twitter: @adambullockvo
- Youtube: @adambullockvo
- Other: Direct links to everything I have done and currently am working on is listed via this link >https://linktr.ee/adambullockvo
Image Credits
Garbage Boy and Trash Can – Credit to Cartoon Network/Warner Brothers Animation (The studio has since given me the right to use images and videos from the show for my social media channels).