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

John, appreciate you joining us today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I’ve been an actor most of my life, ever since I was a young child and realized how much I loved play-acting, performing and being on stage. Every opportunity I had, whether in a school play, talent show, in front of (or behind) an 8mm camera, or with my Panasonic cassette recorder running and capturing the silliness, I loved to play make-believe. Despite all of that, I never really imagined that acting could be a viable career for me. It felt like a pipe dream, something only meant for other people, people with overactive imaginations who were divorced from reality. I always did very well in school, got good grades, and excelled in virtually every subject, particularly math and science. Chasing a dream like being an actor, as fun as it sounded, seemed foolish. I felt compelled to pursue something more practical. So, that’s what I did. I went to Harvard. I studied chemistry and earned a bachelor’s degree. I began a career as an applications chemist and quickly became an expert in analytical methods, instrumentation, and technology.

The thing is: I never gave up acting. Yes, I was a “professional” by day, but I kept right on performing at night. I became an active player in the local community theater scene, and it was there that I realized that life was too short to deny your dreams. My career in instrumentation had been growing fast. I was being promoted, I was making more and more money, but I wasn’t happy. I knew I wanted something else. So, I quit my job, packed my bags, and headed to Los Angeles to see what I could make happen.

For those who don’t already know this: pursuing an acting career in Hollywood is an uphill climb. I made some inroads, got an agent, sent headshots all over town, and auditioned whenever I had the opportunity. It was a struggle, though, and it was often demoralizing. I did accomplish a few things, earned my SAG card, had a few credits, compiled enough videotape to make an actor’s reel, but it just wasn’t enough. Living in Los Angeles is expensive. I was married, had a stepson in high school, and we wanted to send him to college, we wanted to buy a house. None of that was happening if we continued down the road we were on. The time was coming that I would have to put those dreams of mine on hold and look for something else to do. Because I had very strong spreadsheet skills (from my days as a scientist), I started working freelance as a forensic accountant, which soon became lucrative and soon became a full-time gig with good pay and benefits. Acting would have to take a back seat, which it did for more than decade.

One of the last things I did before taking a hiatus from acting was to study with a voice teacher, Dan Balestrero, with an eye towards breaking into voiceover. I had always been told “you have a great voice, you should try voiceover”, but I had never really pursued it with any seriousness. I took several workshops with Dan, got better and better at reading commercial copy and eventually recorded a voiceover demo with him. It felt promising, and my demo got good feedback. I got some auditions, even booked a few gigs. It was exciting, but as I explained earlier, I was running out of gas. Maybe someday, voiceover. But not right now.

Fast forward to 2015. I was a full-time forensic accountant for a litigation consulting firm, working on damages calculations for parties involved in complex business lawsuits. My wife and I were finally out of debt. We’d sent our son to UCLA. We bought our first house. Things were looking good. But litigation is rough. Very contentious, very stressful, and with lots of money at stake. I was beginning to feel that the stress of it all was getting to me. I needed a break. I needed a reset. I resigned from my position at the firm without a clear picture of what was to come next. I felt as if I had unfinished business when it came to voiceover. I wasn’t really banking on voiceover being my way forward, I was just looking for a fun and gratifying hobby. That said, the more I looked at it, the more I saw that everything that I knew about the industry from before had changed. Having an agent was no longer a must. Driving all over creation to attend auditions at every studio in LA was no longer an imperative. Home studios were on the rise. Pay to play platforms were a thing. Direct marketing was working for lots of talent. The internet had changed everything in the years that I had been away, and suddenly voiceover seemed doable.

It’s now 8 years later. I have my own home recording studio. I have clients all over the country and all over the world. I’ve won awards for TV/radio commercials and audiobook narration. And I’m just getting started as far as I’m concerned.

So, do I wish I’d started sooner? Do I wish I’d never studied chemistry at Harvard? Do I wish I’d never taken a hiatus and worked in litigation consulting? The answer is no. Those experiences make me a more well-rounded and interesting person, which believe it or not makes me a better actor. They also make me a better businessperson, so I make smarter decisions.

We all do what we need to do in life. We start our creative passions when the urge strikes us. We trudge forward when we can’t imagine doing anything else. We take time off when we need to rest and rejuvenate. We get back in the game when we’re ready. Honestly, I wouldn’t change a thing.

John, 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 formed Malone Zone Productions as a vehicle for my voice acting business. I provide voiceover services to my clients. Sometimes those clients have their own studio and their own engineer, I just need to show up and be prepared for anything. They record me and when the session is done, my work is done. Often, though, my clients do not provide a studio or an engineer. They provide a script and maybe a few notes, that’s it. It’s up to me to analyze that script, interpret the script and record the script by myself with little to no direction or feedback. Clients expect that those reads will serve their project well and that the audio will be pristine. So that means that in addition to being a good actor, I need to be an audio engineer as well. My studio needs to be well designed and acoustically treated. My recording equipment needs to be top notch and I need to know how to use it all. This requires investment of both time and money to make sure that your audio is of high quality. Every time I have a remote recording session with a client, and they hear my audio and say “sounds great”, it makes me proud.

What a lot of people don’t realize about voice acting is…that it’s acting! It’s not just talking into a microphone. Just because someone has a “nice voice” does not mean that they will be a natural at voiceover. It’s an acting job first and foremost, so it takes acting training and acting experience. There’s no shortcut for that. I got into voiceover because I’m an actor and I bring that mindset to the job. Anyone who wants to pursue VO as a career should study acting, should work with coaches and should practice, practice, practice. All the work I’ve done to date to improve myself as an actor, all of the hours I’ve spent on stage, behind a camera or behind a microphone, all of the hours I’ve spent training and practicing, all of this has prepared me for this job. So, whether I’m playing a giant warrior in a fantasy video game or a corporate trainer teaching sales associates about a product’s features and benefits, I’m ready. Plus, I always make sure that I’m prepared before a recording session. I read the script carefully, break it down, and make decisions beforehand, so that I’m equipped for anything. I think that level of professionalism and attention to detail sets me apart from others who might be flying by the seat of their pants.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I had know about meditation earlier in my creative journey. I have a daily mindfulness mediation practice and it has been an essential part of my growth over the last several years. Learning how to do nothing, how to sit and exist without being distracted by my own thoughts has made me a better actor, and a better person.

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.

I think there’s a certain amount of “hustle culture” in the world of entrepreneurs, but I’m not sure that it works as well for creative people. Always being on the go, always working, always hustling can be counter productive for creatives. You can’t force creativity and you can’t force yourself to grow as an artist. It takes a certain amount of time and patience, and I think a willingness to go slow.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MaloneZone.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/malonezonevo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaloneZoneVO
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/malonezonevo/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheMaloneZone
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/malonezone