We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gunnar Ready. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gunnar below.

Gunnar, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I’ve always wanted to pursue a career where I could be creative, but it wasn’t always in an artistic sense. Growing up I was drawn towards mathematics and the sciences and I always loved looking over or discussing difficult problems, trying to find a solution in my own unique way. While this did allow me to be creative, I wouldn’t say it was an “artistic” pursuit. Though that changed one particular weekend when I took a 2 hour intro to VO course offered at Studio 24 and I had more fun in the 2 hours than I had my entire college career. It allowed me to use my creativity in a new way that I hadn’t really thought of before and I don’t think I can ever go back to how I was before.

Gunnar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi there, my name is Gunnar Ready. I’m a voice actor though, until recently, I never thought I’d be pursuing voice acting as a career. My background and college career was much more analytical. I was a full time student where I studied physics, programming, and data analysis but I graduated into COVID throwing everything for a loop so finding work wasn’t the easiest. The first few jobs I found weren’t glamorous but they were a paycheck so that was something. A few months working as night crew for a local grocery store I noticed an ad online for a 2 hour intro to voice acting class being held at a studio associated with a community college. I’d always been told I had a good voice but the idea of turning it into a career never really clicked for me but with this intro class popping up I thought “what the heck, No harm no foul”. I had more fun in those 2 hours than I had most of my college career. Immediately after the class I dove into everything voice over. I started researching how one trained for voice acting, what equipment was needed, how to create a space where background noise isn’t picked up, how to find voice over jobs, everything and I haven’t looked back since.

As for what I offer to people, well that depends on the work but mostly I’m able to bring words to life. If I’m doing a commercial job I make the spot sound like a normal person talking to you through whatever media your listening to, letting you know about whatever great product or deal I’m telling you about. If I’m doing character work then I give voice to that character and make them feel like a real person living in a real world, I work to make sure that the person listening isn’t thinking about me voice acting in a booth but rather that they believe what they are hearing is truly coming from the characters mouth.

As for what I’m most proud of I’d say it would be taking those first steps into voice over. I never thought I’d be here but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I’m happier than I’ve ever been and I take that happiness and channel into my reads which makes the final product all the better.

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

I grew up with, and have a lot of fond memories, of amazing stories in the forms of animated cartoons, movies, and video games alike. They presented me with new ideas, thoughts, and questions in such entertaining ways and the voice actors in them breathed such life into the worlds and their characters that the stories have stuck with me to this day. Personally I’d love to pay that forward in some manner and voice things that will put a smile on peoples faces, bring to life stories that will stick with them for years, and maybe inspire people to pursue whatever drives them creatively.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Being a former non-creative myself I think people might struggle with the idea of the difficulty of acting itself. Can you just read the lines off the script, word for word? You can. but no one is going to remember what you said or probably even pay attention. And that’s goal of all acting from commercial to narration to eLearning to animation, grabbing someone attention without trying to grab someones attention. The difficulty of acting comes from trying to connect with whoever is listening to you without it seeming like you are trying to connect with them, having the words your saying come out in a natural way even though the situation your acting might not be natural.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gunnarreadyvo.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gunnarreadyvo?igsh=YTQwZjQ0NmI0OA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gunnar.ready?mibextid=ZbWKwL8
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gunnarreadyvo?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
• Twitter: https://x.com/GunnarReadyVO?t=5YRE0jfbwtSDldh47bRHzA&s=09
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@GunnarReadyVO?si=53EH5SFlwtK65wbo