Today we’d like to introduce you to Ruben O’Neill

Hi Ruben, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?

Hi beautiful people, it’s nice to e-meet you all, I’m Ruben. A Hispanic LGBTQ+ actor and my acting journey started in 2021 in a dustbowl town in Lakeside where your best friends were tweakers. (Wish I was kidding)

It was a town where everybody was comfortable and progressing and “Bettering your life,” truly wasn’t a thing, so image the responses I received when I started telling people, “I want to be an actor!” Or “I want to be an author!”

Responses…

“That’s a good dream!”
“Yeah, and I’ll be a millionaire to!”

Truth was, I wanted a better life for myself.

I look back now and can finally tell myself, “Ruben, you’re living the life you’ve wanted!”

I need you to understand this, none of it was easy, and I had to sacrifice a crap ton.

All the parties I was invited to, when my buddies wanted to invite me over for a smoke, and drinks, yeah it all sounded fun, but I wasn’t elevating myself, and truth be told, it scared me, thinking I could end up staying in the town forever.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned though is I’m not ashamed of where I came from, in fact, I’m proud because it taught me valuable life lessons. Example One: NEVER SETTLE.

I can go on and on about my life experience and how coming out as apart of the LGBTQ+ community was hard and such but, this is my story, and I decided to make it a happy one, and one I was proud of.

So I’ll keep it short and sweet, fact is back then.

I drank, I smoked, was overweight, had a lot of debt, a bunch of my teeth were rotting, had some wild moments, but there just comes a time, where you wake up out of autopilot and ask yourself, what am I doing with my life? or maybe you were just stuck in the grove of comfortability?

Just know, your journey, your life, it’s such a beautiful thing and the best thing in the world is, it’s never to late for you to change your life around.

Fast forward to 2024, got my teeth done and fixed, quit smoking and drinking, healthy credit, dropped the weight, and here we are…

Thanks to the people who believed in me, this journey was not a lone wolf story. It wouldn’t have happened if not for them and you know who you are.

They give me a good swift kick in the rear, and after I worked on myself first, I made my first voice over demo, wrote my first book, and got Barnes & Noble to carry it.

That was the beginning of my new life.

Because I decided to give this life a whole new start, and rewrite my new future.

Since my new life started, I’ve been honored and blessed to be on televised commercials, voice in anime, video games, and if you know me personally you know the one thing that’s hard for me to do is take credit, because I’m also a realist.

This all happened, not just because of me, but for the companies who took a chance on me, for the people who believed in me, and God, who walked me through a path, that was frightening and filled with darkness reassuring me that if I kept walking there would be light at the end of the tunnel.

So if you made it to the end of this, my message to you is this.

F#$% the hatters, because I’m proud of you, and everything you’re building your life up to be.

Be your own super hero and ask yourself, what’s my dream life? and what are the steps I need to do to make it happen?

The rest is you and your big dream.

Live the life you want to live, and not one someone else made for you.

Best,
-Ruben

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?

This journey has been such a blessing with some mental and physical challenges, but what beautiful journey isn’t? And how badly do you want it is what you should be asking yourself.

I was always asking myself, how would I get out of debt to afford voice over equipment and was focusing on all the negative while in reality, he journey was just STARTING.

A saying I laugh at a lot:

“Oh you’re homeless? Just buy a house!”

Or

“You’re drowning? Just swim.”

Always make me chuckle because behind every exaggerated joke, there’s always small portions of the truth.

Meaning, I might have been in debt in the moment, but instead of putting my energy into the negative, why not redirect it into something positive like finding out ways to payoff my debt? That way I can be financially free.

This applies to everything, location, maybe you aren’t where the hot studios are? Maybe you have a job that doesn’t pay you as much as you like?

Whatever it may be I promise you if you focus on it hard enough, you really can change your whole life around.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?

I’m an actor as with a published author.

Known for my commercial on NBC, for “Solutions for Change,” as with anime such as, “Game World Reincarnation,” that just won a Telly award, ShowTime!, and “Why the Nativity,” that aired on the History Channel.

There’s more exciting projects are are coming out soon so stay tuned!

What sets me apart is my all in attitude.

I can’t make this up.

If a company wants you to audition, and it’s a dang good opportunity but they’re in another state, nobody needs to know what I do to get there, what matters to the studio is that I’m there.

So yeah, I’ve flown to other states for a possibility that may or may not happen, that’s the beauty of life… what if?

And huge shout out to both:

Pretzel Logic Studios
Ascendant Animations
HTA Casting (Go Camie)

for seriously taking a chance on me in the acting world. I owe my success to them.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rubenvoices.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rubenoneillii/
• Twitter: https://x.com/rubenoneillii

Image Credits

Game World Reincarnation
Show Time!
Show Time! 2
Why the Nativity?
Caressing my Hibernating Bear
Fragile Heart
Bloody Anniversary
& More