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

Rebecca Chiara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I honestly think I’ve lost track of the number of risks I’ve had to take over the course of my career, but I think that just goes to show how important it is to be a sensible risk-taker when it comes to pursuing a creative career. In fact, I’d say my biggest risk was just deciding to pursue my career at all! Even though I’d been a performer from a young age (musical theater, film, dance, circus arts, etc.), my family always wanted me to go to medical school and become a doctor. So while they were happy to see me perform when I was younger or as a hobby, they knew that the odds of being a successful full-time actor were very slim. And since I always loved science, I was ushered into taking the safer path. However, by the time I was ready to graduate from university, I was miserable. As I’m sure anyone who’s pursued the medical field will tell you, it takes a lot out of you. Now factor in the fact that I wasn’t passionate about the end goal and it was a recipe for disaster. However, at this same time, I had joined my college’s anime club, where I fully realized the art of voice over. So by the end of my senior year, I had decided to take a huge risk. I gave myself a year to pursue a career that I was actually passionate about and if I didn’t make any significant headway, I would return back to the safer route I had been trudging along. And from that one risk, I’ve managed to make a career.

Rebecca Chiara, 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?

For those who don’t know me, I am a full-time voice over talent. This basically means I provide voices for anime, video games, cartoons, commercials, e-learning, telephone trees, and more! You can hear me as cute characters for kids’ shows, young boys in action video games, scary creature sound effects for films, the motivating voice in your local Nike commercial, and everything in between. However, my job is not all glitz and glamour. Being a full-time voice actor is a lot of work because you’re your own business. That being said, that’s probably the aspect I’m most proud of. As a voice actor, you’re responsible for building your career from the ground up. Being successful in this profession means being educated in both acting and business. Because once you feel you’ve earned your acting chops, it’s all on you to promote yourself and get good clientèle. So on a typical day, I’m marketing for my brand as well as recording for the day’s projects (either from my remote home studio or in person at a company’s studio). Oh, and did I mention that, unlike other actors, voice actors are also often their own agent, director, and audio editor? That’s right, once we’ve found ourselves some new clients and acquired a project to record, we’re also responsible for self-directing our performances, and knowing how to utilize our equipment to edit it afterwards. Now, of course, this isn’t always the case. Once voice actors start working bigger gigs, they’ll gain agency representation and record more sessions live with a director and editor. However, it’s important to understand the fundamentals of these steps before you can get to that point. And by utilizing these skills on a daily basis, I’m able to work with any studio around the globe from the comfort of home (and in my fuzzy pajamas).

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

For any voice actors out there, I’d strongly recommend 2 things:

1) Take some business courses! Most people get into this field straight from an acting background so they rely solely on getting booked from their auditions. However, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. The beauty of this industry in this day and age is that we can find our own clients and studios. So definitely look into some marketing and branding courses.

2) I’m always surprised by how few people use audio editor plug-ins. Personally, I use an iZotope RX editor (not sponsored by the way) and it makes a huge difference in how long I take to edit my audio. Definitely invest in a plug-in for things as simple as plosives, clicks, clipping, etc.

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.

Sometimes people who work normal 9-5s think creatives have it easy. They think that since we’re our own boss, we can take time off whenever we want. However, I’ve pretty much found the opposite to be true. Considering I work with many clients from around the globe, I’ll often be working super crazy hours to match their time zones. Not to mention, since we’re all from different cultures, I don’t always get time off for the holidays (not all countries celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas/Hanukkah so they still have deadlines to meet on their end). In addition, being your own boss can be quite stressful because you’re the sole motivator to get enough work done. It can be hard letting yourself have any time to relax when you feel guilty that you could be doing more. And lastly, in regards to performers, we’re also pretty vulnerable physically. I know for voice actors in particular, we really can’t afford to get sick. We can’t just push through a cold because our voice literally changes and sometimes it can take a week or more to get it back.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://rcmvoice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rcm_voice/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebecca-chiara-marano-64b3901a2/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rcmvoice

Image Credits
Yolanda Perez Photography LLC