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

John, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

This is really a great story, at least in my mind ;). I began acting in High School and then in College and then took close to an 18 year break while I got married, had kids and moved a couple of times. In 2018 I had the opportunity to play Captain Hook in a community theater production of Peter Pan and I was finally back in the game. After that show I had a friend, who I had met during that production, invite me to be a part of another production that he was directing. One evening at rehearsal for that show he said to me “So when are you going to start doing this for real?” It was the first time anyone had ever suggested that I make acting a career and was talented enough to pursue it. He has been around theater and performing for a long time so his encouragement went a long way. That was the moment when I began to think that I could actually do this and it launched me to begin voice acting and eventually on-camera acting. Because of those few simple words I am now on a path to actually do the thing I love to do that I have a true passion for and makes me feel the most alive!

John, 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?

I began in voiceover in 2022 and had some early success and got enough good coaching and feedback that it gave me confidence to continue eventhough starting something new in the area of performance is really hard. I then had the opportunity to act in a 48hr film festival and that was my first on-camera experience and I absolutely loved it! I began to get coaching for voiceover and continued to gain momentum for that while I was also pursuing opportunities to do more on-camera work through agents and through direct work.

I currently provide voiceover services for all things voiceover with the exception of audiobooks. I haven’t gotten into that at all. I also provide on-camera acting for commercials, short films, industrial content, feature films and TV. I have done extensive work with teleprompters and am very comfortable in front of the camera. It is my happy place. I have a breadth of experience which I can use to bring many different roles and characters to life but in the end I bring me to every role. A blue collar heart with a leader’s edge is a good way to describe my vibe and approach to roles.

I am most proud of the amount of repeat work I have gotten from clients. I work very hard to be easy to work with and be someone who people WANT to work with. Acting is a service business so it is of the utmost importance to me to give the customer, be that the director, DP, other actors or the end client an amazing experience. I show up on-time and come prepared. I don’t want to waste anyone’s time and have on multiple occasions saved customers time by completing work in half the time they expected or had experienced from others.

I want to bring authentic, grounded, relatable, fun and impactful characters to life for my clients so I work very hard at my craft to do that.

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

I think the most rewarding thing is moving people with my storytelling. If I can evoke emotion in someone and draw them into the story and make them feel it and get invested, that is they goal. I also love working with other creatives and helping bring their vision to life. It is amazing to collaborate with people and move foward with the same goal.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think remembering that artists are people too. Just working hard and trying to do the thing they love and make a living. We rely a lot on creatives in our lives whether we want to admit it or not. They provide some escape and comfort at times. Any time someone just needs to veg out and get invested in a story not their own they are leaning on the efforts of creatives and artists that work hard to make that available for them. Share and follow the artists in their pursuits. It literally costs nothing to click the follow or like buttons but getting that person exposure to a new audience could be huge for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.johnbasler.com
• Instagram: johnbasleracts
• Facebook: johnbasleracts
• Linkedin: johnbasleracts
• Twitter: johnbasleracts
• Youtube: @johnbasleracts

Image Credits

Shannon Ahlstrand