Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Donald Guzzi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Donald, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

To start, I dropped out of college to attend trade-school for Audio Engineering in 2013 at SAE Institute in Miami, FL. After completing that program in 2014, I landed a job as a Quality Control Engineer for Universal Cinergia Dubbing, also in Miami, FL. They are a dubbing house specializing in English, Spanish, Portuguese and French language projects.

As a Quality Control Engineer (QC) I would watch final dubbed product, make notations if something was long, short, flubby, mispronounced, etc. Then they would be inserted into our internal system and sent back to the director to be re-recorded. It was here when I wondered about how I could become one of the voice talent and start voice acting. I had always loved watching anime as a kid, so this was such an awesome place to be working!

Eventually I mustered up the courage to bug the casting director about auditioning. Originally he shrugged me off, but after a few weeks of me following up, he finally let me get into the booth. Now, I can’t say I was great, but the director was impressed considering I had never acted in any capacity before. He started throwing me small roles here and there and that was how I got my start as a voice actor. Later on down the line, a project came in that they were auditioning for, and one talent no called/no showed and they needed a 3rd audition to send to the client. Since I was already in the building, they auditioned me just to fill the space, they didn’t think I’d actually get it. Well, jokes on them, because I did and that was my first lead role, which led to many more after that.

I still continued working as an Audio Engineer as well. Starting in QC, I moved into recording, directing, 2.0 mixing, mastering, 5.1 surround sound mixing, media services and then Head of Quality Control. I honestly feel that having my audio engineering background heavily assisted in progressing as fast as I did as a voice actor.

I spent so much time watching and learning from different voice talents; taking little things from all of them to add to my repertoire. My time as an engineer also helped me behind the mic; being able to rapidly identify something that was long, short, flubbed or if something could be moved, adjusted or fixed, on top of maintaining a solid performance.

As for what may have held me back from learning more? Well I would say that would be spending a huge portion of my career only working with one studio (Universal Cinergia Dubbing, UC). Because of this I wasn’t really able to branch out and learn from or work with many other studios. There were a few local, Miami studios, but unfortunately I wasn’t able to record with them as I worked Full-Time for UC and after-hours recordings were out of the question. It wasn’t until 2020 and the COVID lockdown that I was finally able to start expanding my horizons and working/recording with other studios and learning their processes and workflows.

I’m very thankful for my time at UC as without them, I doubt I’d be where I am right now. However, I do often wonder how things may have been if I was able to start branching out earlier.

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?

Hello! My name is Donald Guzzi and I’ve been a voice actor/director going on 10 years now! It’s certainly a career path I never thought I would ever have. I originally wanted to be a Graphic Designer. Though, throughout High School and College, I found a love for Audio Engineering and jumped headstrong into that.

I planned on becoming a Live Sound engineer for shows, concerts, etc. But then we started learning about Post-Production in school and I was HOOKED. I could create sounds and do cool things with TV AND MOVIES!? SIGN ME UP!

When I graduated from SAE Institute, I immediately started working with Universal Cinergia Dubbing. I was employed there from 2014 to 2022 holding various positions: Quality Control, Recording Engineer, Voice Director, Mix Engineer (2.0 and 5.1 Surround Sound), Mastering Engineer, Media Services Supervisor, Voice Actor and Head of English QC.

Towards the end of my tenure at UC, I really began developing a love for directing. Being able to pull out incredible performances from talents and putting so much passion and love into a project; it really stuck with me. I realized that, while I did (and still do) love being an engineer, I wanted to really push myself as a director and voice actor. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to do that while employed with UC.

When I eventually left UC, I started my own company Action Audio LLC and began selling my services as an actor, director and audio engineer. I’ve worked with various clients and studios to bring their projects to life as both an actor and director.

I do still operate Action Audio LLC for smaller/limited projects. However, I’ve recently accepted a position with Graphic Audio as a Creative Director and it has been an absolute blast so far!

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I’d have to say… fan reception, I think.

And to expand on that, I don’t just mean being loved by fans. I mean having worked on and brought a project to life that had a positive effect on someone’s life. I love hearing stories about how something I was a part of helped someone conquer something, or that they identified with a character so much it helped them discover things about themselves; things like that.

It’s an incredible feeling to have been able to touch someone or affect their life in such a positive way. I know it’s cheesy, but it brings a tear to my eye.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Absolutely.

So, as I’ve stated in a few other responses, I worked with Universal Cinergia (UC) for quite a long time before I branched out a bit more.

I decided to start Action Audio LLC and try to go full-time as a freelance director, voice actor and engineer, but things didn’t quite pan out.

My first client was with Enboga Today. At the time they were a relatively new studio trying to build up a clientele in Miami. I started working with them as a talent and then eventually they received more work and brought me on as a director. I worked with them for roughly eight months. The first few months were amazing. They paid on time, I was able to bring on a whole roster of remote talents and really began flexing my muscles as a director. Then payments began coming in late and then eventually, not at all. After about two months of no pay, I left. Sometimes you just have to take the L.

Shortly after that I started working with a few audiobook producers, which helped keep the lights on, but due to the high cost of living in FL, it wouldn’t be sustainable. But then we received news that my wife was offered an amazing job opportunity, but we would have to move to Georgia. I lived in Florida my entire life, so this was a massive choice to make. After struggling for so long, we packed up and moved to a new state.

Once we got situated, I was faced with another choice. Get a job to help pay the bills, or keep trying to make my dream happen. Well, my wonderful wife told me to keep trying to make it happen. Now was the perfect time as we were in a new state, cost of living was less and we had some savings from selling our house. So I continued.

After a few months of living in GA, the worst happened. From one week to the next, I lost 90% of my clients. No more audiobooks and hardly any voice work from Miami. I was effectively dead in the water, but I trudged on. I had a few small opportunities come up for some e-learning and things of that nature, but it wasn’t enough. I effectively spent an entire year unemployed, though not for lack of trying. Thousands of auditions, hundreds of email correspondence yielded little to nothing. It was so heartbreaking. Before I moved to GA I had consistent work and now I had nothing. I once again had a decision to make. Get a job or keep pushing, only this time we had no savings and my wife was struggling to keep us afloat by herself.

As I was sending out job applications and scheduling interviews, a studio from Miami reached out to me about directing for them. I jumped at the opportunity. It was a contract position, which means work is NOT guaranteed. I knew this wasn’t going to be forever, but I made the most of it. I was able to direct a handful of projects for them while still sending out resume’s here and there, as I knew I would need something full-time and more sustainable… which likely meant dropping out of the field for a full-time job that would pay my bills. I planned on still voice acting on the side, but it was a hard pill to swallow.

Then something happened that… basically course-corrected my journey, I’d say. I attended Dragoncon 2023 and a company I’d done voice work for relatively frequently had a booth there: Graphic Audio. They do full-cast, full SFX + Music audio book adaptations. If you haven’t heard of them, definitely check them out!

I spoke with them and decided to shoot my shot, asking if they have any open director positions, or if they would soon. I was told not currently, but they would keep me in mind and I emailed them all of my info. A month or so later I had my first interview with them and then in February of 2024, I signed on for a full-time position with Graphic Audio as a Creative Director. So, I wasn’t able to continue pushing VO full-time like I wanted so badly, but I was awarded an opportunity that was far too good to pass up.

While I guess I didn’t fully pivot “away” from my field, I was forced to pivot away from being a full-time, freelance voice actor and director. I recognize how much I was in the right place at the right time. One of my main takeaways from this is you never realize how close you are to having to give up everything. If I didn’t go to Dragoncon in 2023, I often wonder what I would’ve had to give up to make sure I had food on the table.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.donaldguzzi.com
• Instagram: @action_audio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-guzzi-2a7bb999/
• Twitter: @donaldguzzi