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

Alright, Kerem thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My journey to becoming a professional voice actor was cemented by my first voice acting job with Danny Shepherd and his incredible filmmaking crew at Ismahawk. I started as just another fan who had stumbled upon one of Danny’s earliest visual effects videos on YouTube – a simple but cool clip of him activating a Green Lantern power ring. I was immediately fascinated by his videos and subscribed to his channel. Years later, when he announced his fan film series featuring my favorite comic book character in “Nightwing: The Series,” I was blown away by the production quality. Here was this small film troupe in Las Vegas creating exactly what DC Comics fans had been begging for: an authentic live-action adaptation of the Nightwing character.

The team launched a Kickstarter for the series, and when it was released in 2014, it became a phenomenon in the pop culture space. As Ismahawk grew and began appearing at conventions, I finally met them in person at San Diego Comic-Con 2015. I would keep running into the whole crew every year at various conventions they would visit in California. Over the years, my relationship with Danny evolved from fan to friend.

Five years after that first Comic-Con meeting, Danny was working on his second live-action Death Battle episode, “Red Hood vs. Winter Soldier.” When he asked if I knew anyone who could do a Mark Hamill Joker impression, I gave a few names but asked if I could audition myself. He graciously said yes. During college, I earned extra money for textbooks by recording sound bites as both Mark Hamill’s Joker and Kevin Conroy’s Batman, so I felt confident in my abilities. Danny knew about my Batman voice – I once sent him a Batman-voiced birthday message – but the Joker was a surprise. After hearing my audition, Danny and the Death Battle team decided to include both voices and expanded the script accordingly. Since Death Battle was owned indirectly by Warner Bros. at the time, this project represented my first official work with these iconic characters, all while being directed by one of my closest friends. Working on the script and nailing down the voices with my, “brotha”, at my side, directing and shaping my performance will forever remain one of my favorite moments in my career.

That experience was the turning point – it was the moment I knew there was no going back to treating voice acting as a pseudo hobby. Though it wasn’t my first step in my voice acting journey, it was the step that eliminated all doubt about my chosen path.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My voice-over journey actually began in 2014 while studying Finance in college. Back then, it was just a creative outlet – I’d voice monologues of favorite characters or write custom scripts for YouTube videos. I built a small following and loved creating, but never saw the path forward into it being my career. The Covid-19 pandemic changed everything. Like many others, I found myself working remotely with extra time on my hands. I decided to take voice acting seriously, upgrading my equipment, investing in workshops, and building lasting relationships within the voiceover community. Fortunately, studios were beginning to open their rosters to non-agency talent and allowing remote recording, creating unprecedented opportunities for newer voices.

What sets me apart from many voice actors is my patient approach. Too often, actors rush to, “go pro” after just a year or two, without putting in the work to practice and improve. I spent years honing my craft before joining my dream agency. The best performances come from actors who can weave lived experience into their work, especially those who can layer multiple emotions into a single line. There are no shortcuts to that level of mastery. Reaching the arena of voice acting amongst the greatest talents on Earth unprepared can lead to some actors burning out too soon, before reaching their true potential.

My corporate background taught me the importance of balancing creative fulfillment with professional service. Every time I step into the booth, I’m grateful to be doing what I love while being compensated for it. I show that gratitude by being thoroughly professional – arriving on time, listening to direction, and maintaining an authentic, engaging presence. I read the room with each team, but I’ve found that most people in voice-over appreciate my style of mixing professionalism with genuine warmth and humor.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

One valuable lesson I’ve learned applies both to voice acting and life in general: while giving 100% effort in establishing relationships is admirable, it’s important to be prudent with people you do not know well. I once helped a peer in the voice acting community who had made some social mistakes. While their transgressions weren’t terrible by general standards, they had lost favor in the voiceover community. Feeling sympathy for their apparent regret and desire to change, I offered support and helped with their auditions when they asked. However, over time, their appreciation waned, and they became increasingly hostile. I learned that no matter how much you want to help someone, you need to gauge your effort responsibly. Like a recipe, any relationship can be spoiled by adding too much. Now, I take my time with new friends and coworkers, gradually increasing my investment as trust builds.

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

I believe society needs to shift how it views artistic expression. There’s often a fascination with the end product but little appreciation for the grueling work behind it or the artists themselves. If people took time to recognize the creators – looking up names in credits, learning about their favorite creators, or becoming healthily invested in artists as individuals – we might see a more unified resistance to things like AI and the expanding corporate commodification of human expression. Actively acknowledging the humanity behind our entertainment with the simplest of actions could help shift our culture away from blind consumerism, and instead toward genuine appreciation of artists and our crafts. Artists won’t be as fearful for their livelihoods, and less surface level slop gets made, it’s a win-win!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.keremerdincvoices.com
• Instagram: @keremiswhelmed
• Twitter: @kermiswhelmed
• Other: Blue Sky: @keremiswhelmed.bsky.social

Image Credits

Kerem Erdinc