We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Mabel Cezar a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Mabel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I am a Brazilian actress, dubbing actress and voice director with almost 30 years of experience in localization in Brazil. I am from Brazil and I moved to Los Angeles 2 years ago. I am the only female voice on Brazil’s largest TV broadcast, Rede Globo. Until I joined, 10 years ago, there was no female announcer on Brazilian TV. It was a milestone in the history of Brazilian television.
Me and my wife are the founders and CEOs of the Brazilian Dubbing Society, the largest dubbing school in Brazil. To date, we have trained close to 5000 voice-over professionals.
And with all this baggage, I decided to move to Los Angeles to continue doing my work here. A risk, but I followed my heart!
On December 10th there will be an award at the SOVAS event, Society Voice Arts, which is considered the Oscar of voiceover work. It will be at the Beverly Hilton. I will be honored for my outstanding career in addition to participating in 2 panels at the voice conference which will take place in the 3 days before the award.
I will be the first Brazilian voice actress to win a recognition award in Hollywood. In almost 90 years of dubbing in our country, I will be the first.
This is a big step and recognition not only for my professional career, but for all Brazilian voice professionals.
Seeing that my work has crossed borders and reached the cradle of the industry, which is where dubbing came from, is a huge milestone.
It’s been a 30-year journey and it’s a confirmation from the Universe to see how the creators of the award describe me:
“Mabel is a rare treasure in the world of international dubbing. It is essential to understand
that, if Brazilian Portuguese is my only language, Mabel is the voice behind the figures
iconic such as Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Eva Longoria, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Tisha Campbell, Scarlett Johansson, Sarah Paulson and many others.
“Amazing” hardly does it justice when talking about its ability to embody
the Oscar- and Emmy-winning performances of these remarkable actresses. Your talent, your determination and my exceptional humanitarian spirit are the reason why we have the pleasure to present Mabel as the first recipient of this prestigious honor.”
And the icing on the cake will be that I will receive the award from the hands of actress Tisha Campbell. I have been her Brazilian voice for many years and “we” have been very successful in Brazil.
Today I can say that the risk was worth it!

Mabel, 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 became an actress 30 years ago because I wanted to be an actress and voice director! This work has always enchanted me! I was invited to give voice acting classes right away and even though I was unsure if I could do it, I accepted. And her career as a dubbing teacher went hand in hand with her career as a voice actress. Today I have dubbed more than 10,000 titles and I am the Brazilian voice of Minnie from Disney, Princess Leia from Stars War, Jessie from Toy Story, Mary Poppins and countless more. Just as I have my voice in several games such as League of Legend, Overwatch, The Last of Us, Rainbow Six, Mortal Kombat among many others. In 2013 I became the first female voice on the largest open broadcaster in Latin America when I became an announcer for Rede Globo, this was a milestone in my history! But only later did I understand the dimension of being the first woman, after 50 years of male voice hegemony, to have a voice on the largest broadcaster in the country. In 2016 I founded my own dubbing and dubbing translation school, the Brazilian Dubbing Society. Which has become the largest dubbing school in Brazil! I was attacked a lot at the time by the voice actors category for having the audacity to think outside the box and do things differently, as it was the first online dubbing and translation school for dubbing, when no one had done it yet at the time. Today, in addition to being a dubbing director for Portuguese and English, I also provide communication consultancy, helping artists and business people to communicate better. And to my delight, Brazilian fans affectionately call me the Dubbing Queen. ​

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I came from a poor family in Brazil where there were no artists. Choosing to be an actress to be a voice actress seemed crazy within my family context: I was 19 years old, I had just had my first daughter, I didn’t have the resources to study or travel to places where courses were available. Looking back, I don’t even know how I did it! But I remember that plan B was to make plan A work! I wouldn’t rest until I achieved it and even with so many challenges I did it and today I tell my story to all my students to show that anything is possible! ​

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Working with people and emotions! Human beings are one of the Earth’s riches and being able to explore emotions, feelings and behaviors delights me!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mabelcezar
• Facebook: Mabel Cezar
• Linkedin: @mabelcezar
• Twitter: @mabelcezar
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sociedade+brasileira+de+dublagem

Image Credits
Some photos by Livia Wippich