We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bonnie Marie Williams a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Bonnie Marie, thanks for joining us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

I grew up showbiz adjacent in Southern California with family friends in the industry, and my grandparents worked at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, and I was always involved in theatre growing up. My parents also did theatre growing up, and my mom listened to a lot of musicals while she was pregnant with me, so the love of the arts was always there. I was writing my own plays, planning musicals and little plays, performing them wherever and whenever I could, and so I kind of carried that with me into high school. I took an acting class in high school, and I lost a lot of my confidence when I was about 14, so I stopped acting onstage and was doing some of the scenic work backstage. It’s that whole thing with puberty and adolescence – you already don’t feel like you fit in anyways, which I think is kind of a universal theme like nobody really feels like they fit in. And then I talked to my acting teacher, and she asked me, “Why aren’t you auditioning?” I said, “I don’t think I’m good enough.” And she said, “No, Bonnie, you are good enough. I want to see you at auditions for our play in the fall.” And so I did. Then I got a speaking part and it was really cool. And it kind of gave me my groove back in a way. So I started doing that.

I would say, by the time I was 16, I was set. I said, “No, I’m going to be an actor, and I’ll do the hard work. I’ll do whatever it takes to get there.” I’d always wanted to be involved in the arts somehow and I knew that was where my future was going to be.

Bonnie Marie, 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 decided at 16 that I was going to be an actor, and the original plan was to move to New York City after graduation. I wanted to be on Broadway and Saturday Night Live. No idea how I was going to manage both, but it was the dream! After graduation, I went to college to become a theatre major. And I said, “Okay, when I’m done with college, I’m going to go to New York, and I’m going to be on Broadway. I’m going to be in Beauty, and the Beast, and I’m going to be in Wicked” and all these dreams that I had. And I had a friend of mine in the college theatre department who was working at the college radio station.

She said, “Hey, do you want to do a radio commercial with us?” I said, “Sure. What do I have to do?” She said, “Well, it’s for one of the local Mexican restaurants, you just have to act like you like Mexican food.” I said, “That’s not even acting! Oh no, that’s so hard for me to do… pretend I love Mexican food when we live in Southern California.” But that was my first time behind the microphone, and I thought it was really cool.

But I didn’t think anything of it with the way that things were going. I was like, “Okay, I’m going to graduate, and I’m going to go to New York and be onstage.”

Life had other plans, I had some family things come up that kept me a little bit closer to home in California. So I said, “Okay, I’m gonna get a place in Los Angeles on my own and am really going to give it my all.” And I was doing theatre, TV, and film, I was doing some cool stuff. But it didn’t give me that feeling that I had when I was an undergrad doing Shakespeare or doing musicals, and I was trying to find that feeling again.

I went from different day jobs and survival jobs, one to the other, and eventually I ended up at a PR firm, which was really cool. It was very different. There were celebrities coming in all the time and you had to be cool, you had to just treat people like they’re normal, not like they’re celebrities. But then that job ended and I was going through some really rough personal things, and I thought, what the heck do I do now?

Then two friends of mine who are amazing voiceover talents, both of whom I met doing theatre, told me they thought I would be really good at voiceover. I had so much fun learning from them, getting behind the mic. It reminded me of that feeling that I had when I was pursuing theatre as an undergrad. It’s when you know, and it clicks. I said, “Okay, THIS is what I need to be doing.” I kind of kicked myself for not getting into it earlier. But I didn’t know that people could, I didn’t know it was a real job. I didn’t know it was a form of acting that we could do. It was one of those things that weren’t really talked about a lot. It’s like you would see behind the scenes features on Aladdin, and it would be someone famous like Robin Williams in the booth, but you don’t think that it’s something that normal, regular people do.

Life took me on some twists and turns, and I moved out to North Carolina in 2016. After six years there and one year of being bicoastal, I permanently moved back here to LA, and I’m doing voiceover full time. So I never would have thought, as a 16-year-old sophomore in high school who wanted to be on Broadway, that I would be doing voiceovers now, but I’m so grateful to be doing it, to be a working actor like I wanted to be when I grew up.

I’m a full-time voice actor, specializing in everything from character voices to commercial work. One day I am doing eLearning projects in kids’ voices to corporate narration for tech companies, with phone systems and commercials in between. I don’t have a typical day, which is exciting as a creative, but as a Type A planner, it’s a bit strange to adapt to.

I am most known for my branding and sense of humor and for making social media connections with fellow voice talent and new clients. I’m most proud of following my dream of being a working actor when I was sixteen and going full-time with my business after turning 30.

What sets me apart from others is my brand and brand story, and I have nearly a lifetime of acting and professional work experience. This means I am not only able to take direction but I know what clients and customers are looking for, innately. even if they don’t.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Being an actor or a creative usually means having a challenging path as is, but having major loss and trauma along the way can absolutely feel like they’re setting you back. I’m a big advocate for mental health and going to therapy, and my therapist has been instrumental in helping me gain a sense of calm in all the noise, especially over the last few years.

I also believe that sometimes things get harder when we’re on the right path making us ask ourselves how badly do we want it? Are we going to give up when things get hard?

I’ve had everything from moving across the country and restarting my business on a new coast where I knew absolutely no one, to technical issues where all of my equipment stopped working, and after a year of trying to manage life and careers on two coasts, I made the decision to uproot again and permanently move back to LA with all of the challenges that come with it, but my career has demanded it. It hasn’t been easy, but it has been rewarding.

How did you build your audience on social media?

It’s honestly just about building relationships and having a clear brand. I’ve rebranded over the years, when I moved from LA to Raleigh and moved into voiceover full time. I started building my brand late 2017 and launched it in 2018 (The Voiceover Superhero), and made sure that branding was consistent across all platforms. So that’s probably my second biggest takeaway, is have a clear brand, and be on as many social media platforms as you can. It gives you more opportunity to meet new people. Your brand is YOU, so just be your wonderful self, and get out there to meet people for who they are. That’s the best way.

And don’t buy followers. Not only does it look bad when you have 10K followers but 10 likes on a post, it’s not genuine, meaningful engagement.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://vosuperhero.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voiceoversuperhero
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vosuperhero/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vosuperhero
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/vo_superhero
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLT9TfTEMxBabeoMBLDMzwg

Image Credits
Areon Mobasher / Areon Media