We recently connected with Gareth West and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Gareth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

My parents are two of the greatest people on this planet, and I really believe I wouldn’t be the person that I am today without everything that they did right, and the examples they set for me being the people that they are. My Dad instilled in me a kind of gregarious love for everybody, where everyone you meet is your friend until proven otherwise. Which I didn’t fully grow into until later down the line, where I came to appreciate it as a huge part of who I am and how I view the world. Where my Mother is the most stable, and guiding force on the planet to me, where no matter what I am going through she always makes me feel as if there is a way that we’ll make it through it. I have never once felt unsupported by them and I am incredibly lucky to have them in my life as the people that they are. They have always been fully behind my journey and life as an Actor, and I could not be more grateful for them.

Gareth, 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?

Well I’m an Actor/Voice Actor based out of Los Angeles now. I got started young due to both my parents being creatives and professionals working in the Theatre scene. So I did a lot of theatre growing up as well as some commercial work. Then when I finished High School I moved on out to Houston, Texas, and within two months of being there I was brought into the world of Anime Voice Acting. Which I’ve been doing for a little over eight years ever since. That’s probably the number one thing that people know me from if they do, because I have a pretty sizeable grouping of work in that in industry. Some shows I’ve been in include Haikyu, Food Wars, Saint Seiya, Golden Time, and Log Horizon. Two more projects I’ve proud of that are relatively recent would be a short film released on Youtube called “Red Rising: A Power Rangers Fan Film” which was gritty reimagining of the 90’s property, done by a professional studio out of New Mexico named Tomahawk Ridge Films. As well as a video game called Nonorelia which is a puzzle game/visual novel where I voice the Player character, who happens to be a Daddy in the game. Do with that information what you will. And that’s available on Steam in early access right now. As for what made me choose the Actor lifestyle, I gotta say it’s because I just adore it. Playing pretend, telling stories, and getting to embody different people, is just so incredibly fun. No job in the world would be able to make me as happy, and I’m so grateful for every second that I get to do it. Couldn’t see myself doing anything else honestly.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Okay well, I’ve got two answers for this and they both just have to do with “people”. So I do a good amount of guesting at conventions throughout the year, which will be anime, or comic cons, where fellow geeks gather to share in a good ol’ time. And at the conventions I guest at as well as some premieres I’ve gotten to attend. I know it’s a basic answer but hearing somebody cheer, or yell out, or feel an emotion, because of something that you created, playing out on screen, is a high that can’t be found anywhere else. On the more serious side of things, at those conventions people feel safe, and when people feel safe, they tend to share. So I’ve gotten a lot of people that have come up to me and said that something I voiced in or did, is their comfort show. And that it helped get them through some of their hardest times when they felt alone. And that’s really something that means more than you could usually hope to achieve with any sort of entertainment. It’s wild to think that something I did in an air conditioned booth, years ago, could help someone through a tough time, but I’m just so glad that it can.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I mean honestly I just wanna be happy, and in that I want to cause as much joy to other people as I can before my times all up. Making other people happy is kind of the thing that really lights a fire in me, I love seeing other laugh, I love getting to laugh myself, and I like that you hold so much power to spark all of that. All it really takes is a little care and energy to go out of your way to make someone else smile, and that basically feels like a superpower. Anytime I make another person smile through just taking the time to view them as another person, it reiterates to me how we are all really just a bunch of similar, squishy, little people, making our way through life on this planet. And that makes me really happy. I hope anything that I create can entertain, and bring color into parts of peoples lives, maybe when things are lookin’ a little grey.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: GarethTWest
• Twitter: GarethTWest
• Youtube: Gareth West
• Tiktok: GarethTWest

Image Credits
Photo Credits: Arthur Luay, Raul Sanchez, Brent Garcia, Summer Collins,