We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Danny Kramer a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Danny, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

While Pokémon, Yu-Gi-Oh and Marvel have all been wonderful and meaningful clients and projects to work on, particularly since I enjoyed them as a kid– the most meaningful to me would have to be Four Souls of Coyote. It’s a feature length animated movie about the creation of the world from an Ingenious American perspective. Being Indigenous myself, this movie was a dream project. Not only that but the movie has been critically acclaimed, winning numerous awards, being considered for an Oscar and was nominated for the prestigious Annie Awards for Best Independent Feature. More significant still, I booked the role for this movie the day after visiting preserved Indigenous grounds of my ancestors of the Lenape tribe (which are currently under threat of being destroyed, would love to talk about that).

Danny, 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’m a Multi-Racial American Voice Actor who lives on the East Coast, NY area. A graduate from Manhattanville College, I always studied acting and performed in plays and shows throughout primary school. But for college, I originally intended to go into medicine, but found my love for the entertainment industry, and fully embraced my inner storyteller.

After college, having worked in Film/TV for a couple years, my voice was discovered while on set for an Industrial shoot. At the advice of my trusted employers, I began training in Voiceover at Actor’s Connection in NYC. I studied Voice Acting for 5 years under the tutelage of phenomenal instructors including Paul Liberti, Maggie Phillips, Darren Dunstan, Erica Schroeder, Jennifer Sukup, Lisa Ortiz, Rolonda Watts, Cassandra Lee Morris, Wendee Lee, Dan Green, Tony Oliver, Mami Okada and Andy Roth.

I’ve voiced many commercials. And my most popular Animation Roles are The Shepherd in Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS, and Raihan in Pokemon Journeys, while my most popular video game role is Galactus in Marvel Snap

When I’m not reading for Commercials or Animation, I’m most likely Video Editing Commercials as a professional, award winning Video Editor. Or hanging out and playing Video Games with my friends in NYC. OR spending time with my beloved puppy Snoopy.

I think what sets me apart from others in my industry is the understanding that approaching acting is always with a “Yes, and…” kind of mentality, like found in Improv. I also understand that any given project is a collaboration between myself and the production team, and it’s my duty to bring their vision to life, to make the piece the best it can be. That means following the director’s instructions and also knowing where and when to appropriately bring my own flare to make something truly special. That, and I absolutely love what I do! Be it commercial or narrative. I’m just a big kid ^_^

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Perfection is the enemy of good. And it’s a sinister enemy– because whatever you have in mind about the ‘perfect’ performance, it’s unachievable and likely won’t be as alive as your most natural performance, flaws and all.

Those are 2 powerful things I learned from coaches like Andy Roth, Dan Green, Paul Liberti and more.

For the longest time, I agonized over how to make my reads ‘perfect.’ Not chasing perfect for its own sake, but stressing out to make it “the best I can possibly do.” I thought, ‘That doesn’t sound like a bad thing!’ But I would often obsess over how to make it sound like how I thought it needed to in my head. Do I sound committed enough? Am I connected to the material enough? Maybe it’s too deep/light?

Nobody thinks about these things when they just talk in real life, and neither should an actor. The process of creating your character or voiceover style comes through you doing the performance. Decide/figure out who you are beforehand and just bring yourself to that space. Once you’re there, you can bring up or lower the intensity over a couple takes. Or do something totally different to bring yourself to someplace new. Learning these concepts from my coaches was incredibly freeing. But it definitely took time for that to sink in. Now, I give what I have to any audition or performance and don’t agonize over being ‘perfect.’ Sometimes, being flawed is more interesting :-)

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The 2 most rewarding things in my field are the sheer privilege of getting to play in different fictional worlds or be a vocal spokesperson for a product, in either case you get to flex your acting muscles and figure out who this person is. As someone with an active imagination, getting to make up and be imaginary people who are larger than life with magical powers OR are just REALLY into T.J. Maxx is very fun 😁 And rewarding in and of itself.

And recently, getting to meet fans of some of my work is so wonderful and humbling. I’m just this silly guy playing around with different characters, and it’s an honor to meet folks whom those characters resonated with. It’s something I’ll never take for granted. 🙏🏼

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dannykramervo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dannykramervo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dannykramervoice/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danny-kramer-085239108/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/DannyKramerVO
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dannykramer231
• Other: IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm10983602/

Image Credits
Headshot – Tapiwa Muronda Annie Awards Red Carpet photo – David Yeh Yu-Gi-Oh New York Comic Con Event photo – Konami staff All other photos taken by me or a friend using my camera