We were lucky to catch up with Curt Bonnem recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Curt, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

Just before I entered the 5th grade, my family moved from Hillside, IL to Elmhurst, IL. There was a local children’s theater company which put on three productions a year and was entirely cast with children between 5th and 8th grade. Being a very outgoing child who already loved singing and playing music, my parents encouraged me to audition for the first production of that season. So, I did, and was cast in my very first stage production as a chorus member in Cinderella.

I absolutely loved every minute of it. Everything about it gave me joy; from the camaraderie of the cast built up during rehearsals, to the fun of dressing up and pretending to be someone else and everything in between.

Then came opening night and a moment I will never forget. The performance went very well, and I immediately fell in love with performing for an audience. When the curtain call came, the chorus members were the first to come out and take a bow. As we took our bow to this cheering, clapping crowd, in my head I had the distinct thought, “This is what I want to do.”

And that was it. I was completely hooked and have never stopped from that moment on. Later in life, I realized that what I learned over the next 4 years being in multiple productions with the Elmhurst Children’s Theatre was the foundation for my entire professional acting career.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a multi-media performer with 40+ years of experience as an actor, voiceover artist, audiobook narrator, musician and variety performer. From portraying Frank Sinatra in a hit musical to a twisted serial killer on Criminal Minds; entertaining crowds with my champion juggling skills to fronting a rock band, my love of performance of all kinds has been unshakable since I stepped onto a stage in the 5th grade. My film and theater career has taken me all over the world, including Edinburgh, New Zealand and Moscow.

For the past 8 years, my main focus and full-time work has been as an audiobook narrator. With nearly 300 audiobooks to my credit, I hold a variety of abilities in my arsenal, including a facility for accents and character voices. Working with both major publishers and indie authors, I have lent my skills to a wide variety of genres, with some favorites being Thriller, Horror, Sci-Fi, GameLit and Fantasy as well as Non-Fiction. A few notable projects include narrating several He-Man books derived from the recent Netflix series, receiving an Audiofile Magazine Earphones Award for the thriller novel Two Good Men and being the Grand Winner of the 2021 Audiobook Adrenaline Awards for my work on the thriller Silent Night (Victor Loshak Book 3.)

While my decades of experience as a character actor on stage and screen have been a great influence on my storytelling abilities as an audiobook narrator, I think one of the most important things I bring to the work are my extremely eclectic life experiences and interests. From cooking to sports to tech to the variety arts to metaphysics and dozens of other varied hobbies, jobs and passions I’ve cultivated over the years, I can connect with a large amount of material to help draw the listener in.

I also teach audiobook narration for the Atlanta Voiceover Studio and am currently serving on the Atlanta Local SAG-AFTRA Voiceover Committee. Seeing my students succeed is truly one of my favorite things in the world.

Have you ever had to pivot?

This actually speaks to how I became an audiobook narrator.

As you may or may not know, being an actor is one of the most difficult careers and a only very small percentage of us actually make a living purely from acting. For a time, when people asked what I did I would jokingly reply, “I’m an aspiring waiter.” Part of why I have had such a wealth of experiences is because of all the different jobs I have had to do while pursuing my acting career.

In 2016, I got to play Sherlock Holmes in a stage production of The Hound of the Baskervilles. After the production ended, I discovered on Facebook that my Watson was also an audiobook narrator. Being a long-time fan of the genre and feeling my particular skills as a character actor could be a good fit for that kind of work, I reached out to see if we could chat. He said yes…and I proceeded to not actually do anything about it!

Cut to about a year later in November of 2017. I had been working in the gig economy for a grocery delivery service but had recently lost that job and was barely making ends meet doing just about anything I could find. I had also lost my apartment of 17 years and had just moved in with my girlfriend (now wife.) Once again, I noticed my friend posting about his audiobook work. I mentioned this to my parents, who strongly encouraged me to follow up. When I showed hesitation, they said they would even help me get set up with recording equipment or whatever else I needed to do it. That flipped the switch for me and I decided I was really going to try and make this happen. Before I even met with my friend to chat about his experience, I researched everything I could about the audiobook industry and went to him with informed questions and at least a basic understanding about the job.

A couple of weeks later, my wife went away for about a week to visit family for the holidays. Luckily, she had a spare bedroom that I was using as my “office” and I spent the time setting up my first recording space. By Jan 2nd, I had recorded and posted my first audiobook sample to the site ACX.com and within the next 2 weeks I landed my first audiobook job. From that moment on, I completely dedicated myself to voiceover and audiobooks specifically.

While this was not my plan as an actor, I have worked in audiobooks non-stop ever since. Within about a year and a half, it became my primary income source and has been how I’ve qualified for my SAG-AFTRA union healthcare for the past 5 years.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

When it comes to voiceover, there is one specific resource I wish I had discovered earlier. It’s called the SAG Foundation Don LaFontaine VO Lab, It was founded in 2010 in honor of the late, great Don LaFontaine (known for his movie trailer voice and “In a world…” catch phrase.)

It is part of the SAG Foundation, which provides free resources to union performers. The Don LaFontaine VO Lab is a beautiful facility in Los Angeles containing several voiceover studios and a teaching space. Aside from being able to use the recording studios for free, the real value is in the workshops, taught by top industry professionals from all genres of voiceover. Every week, you could learn from agents, casting directors and top voiceover coaches about every aspect of the industry. It was also a fantastic place to network. I only discovered it about six months before I left Los Angeles and it was a tremendous benefit in that short time. And all for free! There is a sister VO Lab in New York as well. Prior to Covid, all events took place in-person at the Lab. Thankfully they began doing workshops online during Covid and have continued that, so I have at least been able to do that since moving to Atlanta.

For anyone who is a SAG-AFTRA or Actor’s Equity member and wants to get into voiceover, I highly recommend becoming a member of the VO Lab.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://curtbonnemvo.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curtbonnemvo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curt.bonnem/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtbonnemvo/
• Other: https://narratedby.me
  https://audible.narratedby.me