We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matt Winter a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Matt, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
In my late 30s I had just married and we were starting to plan a family together. I had stifled my creative side for most of my life partly based on what was my reality as a child and partly out of fear and self doubt. But when I faced the life change of having a child I made a choice to let my creative side come out. Being born and raised in Chicago I obviously started by taking improv classes. I was really enjoying performing and learning this new craft and then I saw an improv friend on a tv commercial. I immediately texted him and asked how I could do that. He said to get an agent and graciously let me drop his name. I started working as background in commercials and films and absolutely loved it. I eventually started taking acting classes with Eugenie Bondurant here in St Petersburg. Her inspiration, coaching and overall amazingness led me to believe I could actually be an actor. Everytime I am on a set I meet the most amazing creative people and that most of all keeps me working hard at this.
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.
Once I realized that I could actually pursue being creative as a business I was all in! Then I learned how hard it is to do that while juggling a corporate job and a newborn and a pandemic. I started my voiceover business in February of 2020. Unfortunately the next month the world shut down and I quickly learned that all those stage and screen actors that couldn’t work now could absolutely start doing voiceovers from home. I was in over my head but kept my hopes up that my investment in myself wasn’t going to fail. I had a hard time breaking into the VO mainstream with only a few clients here and there. Then the world started opening up and things were different. The best change turned out to be that most on camera acting auditions were now being requested as self tapes. Which meant I could do VO and on camera auditions at home. This opened so many doors and allowed me to grow tremendously. I kept investing in myself as I started actually booking some decent paying acting jobs. I took as many classes as I could handle, auditioned for everything I could find and worked on student films to hone my acting skills. I have always been a hard worker, that was instilled in me very young. That work ethic has been paying off in my creative life, it makes me stand out frequently. I take pride in my work and my clients know that if there is something they don’t like or want to change about my performance I am always open to it. Many times the job is helping someone else’s vision come to life, and I am always grateful to be chosen for that task.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Creative people tend to share an openness to new ideas and the willingness to share those ideas in creative and inspiring ways. Witnessing that in action provides such an amazing feeling and being a part of it is incredibly rewarding.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My mission is a simple one, if one person is moved emotionally by something I do creatively, I have succeeded. When I am on the other end of having art move me emotionally, I am always in awe of the creator of that art.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mattwintervoice.com
- Instagram: @mattwintervoice
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattwintervoice/
