Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alana Marie Cheuvront. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alana Marie, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?
I technically started performing in plays and doing voices when I was 5 years old in elementary school. Every opportunity where performing was involved, I wanted to do it. I loved doing different voices in school telling stories and singing in the school choir. The Star Wars films inspired my love of voice acting. However, starting in my late elementary school years, I began to suffer from a lot of self-esteem issues and intrusive thoughts about myself when I was younger, even though I was so keen on wanting to become a performer of some sort. I almost didn’t care what kind of performance it was. I just wanted to sing a song or tell a dramatic monologue or do a theatrical solo dance. The thought of doing something BIG and captivating made my heart swell. But I was just so scared about what other people thought or what they would say! I was always inspired by people like Kristin Chenoweth, Madeline Khan, Winona Ryder, and Halle Berry who may at first appear meek, soft, and small, but they are truly lionesses! They pack a hard punch with all of their performances!
I wish that I had someone to tell me to ignore the evil voices and maybe I would have started earlier with actually performing and being more brave to share my voice, but I learned a lot on the journey so far. I’ve had so many different jobs or “noble professions” where I was voice acting or doing plays on the side. Through each twist and turn with these different jobs, I intuitively knew I wanted to be creating or performing. Even through my teenage years as a disciplined Tae Kwon Do student, I knew I wanted to be doing something artistic!
Again, I do wish I had shaken off the self esteem monsters, but in a way, now I get to look at the childhood book of my life and tear out a page from it each time I do a voice over gig in the booth or perform a whole audiobook. I love the feeling I have that this is my story to tell and I get to share it and my voice is loud and clear for people to hear. My natural speaking voice is very child-like sometimes so people do get confused about how old I am sometimes (yay for my mom’s great genes!) so I feel good about where I am at now in terms of how I get to put myself out there and share parts of my younger self in a performance.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
During high school, I was dead honest with my parents about wanting to perform or at least work in the world of theatre. I’d have to work to help pay for college. I inherited my mom’s writing bug and got to writing essays for scholarships. I actually received a few scholarships for my efforts! I then went to Cal State Northridge and was part of such an incredible community of artistic theatre makers. So many of my roles expanded my vocal repertoire and intuitively, I knew I wanted to do more with voice acting. I got into voice over more through Kalmenson and Kalmenson after they gave a presentation at the college and I went on to practice voice over more frequently at Compost Productions in North Hollywood. My first little voice over jobs came through and I was voicing a lot of high energy toy commercials and playing several doll characters in the Shopkins Happy Places web series. Then in 2019, I was the English voice of Charlotte in “Trials of Mana” (which is my favorite video game character I’ve played so far) and also had a national commercial spot playing during the MTV Video Music Awards!
Audiobooks came into play when the world around us changed in 2020. At first, I was a fervently energetic multi-hyphenate performer with a cool day job and I was hopping planes everywhere around the country, working crazy hours and multiple acting/dancing/theatre gigs all over LA to suddenly being alone in my apartment with just my home voice over booth. I am thankful that I had it set up and had been auditioning from home before 2020 because I already had my rhythm going with auditioning frequently and being proficient at editing. Besides working the election in 2020, I felt that narrating and producing the slew of non-fiction audiobooks on health, healing, and femininity I did were important to listeners during that time. We were all part of an unpredictable part of our history where people needed some hope and healing while in isolating conditions. It gave me a sense of purpose. I love being a voice for those who feel unseen, forlorn, or who are going through hardships where they need a sense of hope. I have narrated several audiobooks and guided meditations meant for those in need of a kind voice.
Like many others in 2020, I had the chance to slow down and be patient with the way my work evolved. My inner child work allowed me to pave the path for where my audiobook and voice over work has taken me. I like the describe my voice as “a voice for your inner child.” I feel this phrase encapsulates my brand and offerings with my work. I’ve been able to voice act and narrate such a huge range of projects and I’ve been pleased to have been cast for multiple voices in one project a few times!Although I still love to find opportunities to go nuts and play all kinds of kooky characters, I find so much value in my audiobook narration, especially the books by women and for women with the aim to heal and send love out vibrationally. This year, I have been expanding into romance as well and my first romance audiobook by a leading book publisher comes out at the end of 2024!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I feel the in-person interactions of life always lead to amazing discoveries in terms of art, art-making, inspiration, and community. Businesses grow through getting to know people. Art and inspiration come from seeking out stories and understanding people. I could go on and on like the next person and talk about money to support artists, but I think a lot of what society is lacking is a direct appreciation of art. We are somehow programmed to be on Instagram constantly and swiping about looking at photos of things made just by people we follow, which is a wonderful thing that can grow over time if you love art and small businesses. But if your mindset and vision is just warped into your phone and cause you to self-isolate, you aren’t making connections outside of it and seeing tangible things you might truly love. Unless you have cultivated a thriving online community that helps/supports one another, it’s all about how you wield the power of social media!
I love and support farmers markets, artist’s markets, and live performances where groups of artists come together and perform (Not talking about huge festivals like Coachella). I love the magic that happens when you talk to and learn about an artist face-to-face and see something beautiful they made and you make a direct transaction with that person to own the beautiful item that they made with their artistic talents. It’s a special thing to behold and the more it happens, the more connections are made and the more a thriving artistic community can build and feel happy and fulfilled. Personally, I’ve made more meaningful connections in person and that approach has bolstered my career.
Have you ever had to pivot?
One of my favorite voice actresses Kari Wahlgren once said “it’s ok to let your dreams change.” She referred to when she wasn’t getting a lot of on-screen acting roles early in her acting career, but she was getting a LOT of voice acting roles and decided to go for what was most rewarding for her at that time and now she’s a voice over superstar!
I have had to pivot many times with my career and professions. I remember thinking I had created my dream job at one point when the idea of performing had me feeling jaded. I had worked my way up with this videography company that filmed huge dance shows and competitions and I was traveling all around the US with paid meals and bonuses. When the business started pumping out more video content, I was now a “junior producer,” helping my boss choose what to feature and showcasing the latest greatest dancers and couples in the industry. I thought “wow, this is awesome!” but then I saw the people around me and something didn’t feel right. My intuition was screaming that something wasn’t right. It was saying, “You want to be up there dancing and you want to perform your fun voices and you want to tell stories!” That was also around the time that I booked a slew of fun, kid-friendly voice over jobs. I felt so much more fulfilled performing those scripts. So I quit and I did more of that!
I raced toward what felt good in my heart and I’ve had the pleasure of working on countless projects that have felt so artistically fulfilling. I have to quote Abraham Hicks saying “enjoy the unfolding.” And I feel like I have! It truly is a maze finding the right thing for you, especially in these big cities teeming with artistry and swaths of artistic people. Many of us are constantly redefining ourselves and evolving into different versions of ourselves and that journey should be fully embraced!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.alanamariecheuvront.com
- Instagram: @missalanamarie
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alana-cheuvront1
- Twitter: @missalanamarie
Image Credits
Liana Bassior
Daniel Daleon
Susie Delaney