Harve Dearing always wanted to act—but his location didn’t offer much in the way of stage or screen. So he found another route: voiceover.
“I love acting but live in a place with little or no chance of being on screen or stage,” he said. “I figured voice acting would give me the chance to act but in a way that I could do from home.”
Dearing initially joined Backstage with low expectations. “Honestly, I signed up for Backstage because there was a discount and figured that if I didn’t get any jobs I would quit after the first year,” he said. “It has been over two years.”
From surprise booking to monthly gigs
Based in Mariposa, California, Dearing estimates he books two to three voice jobs a month on the platform. “I was actually surprised when my first job offer came in,” he said. “But I just followed the recommendations for filling out my profile.”
Most of his bookings have been for UGC-style commercials, but he’s looking to branch out.
“Commercials are what I am doing because those are the offers that come in,” he said. “I want to do more animation, video games, and audiobooks because I love telling stories.”
Learning on the job—and Googling the rest
When it comes to working with clients, Dearing credits patience and persistence for helping him get the job done.
“I had to learn a lot up front,” he admitted. “But the people I am working for are fairly patient and I used Google a lot to find out things I didn’t know.”
He already had some equipment from previous work and gradually added more as the jobs started paying. “I added some more as the jobs came in to pay for it. Lights, green screen, etc.,” he said.
Expect the unexpected
Dearing’s advice for getting started is simple: complete your profile and go all in.
“Fill out your profile as completely as you can and add things as you think of them,” he said. “Then build a search that returns what you are looking for and apply to everything.”
It worked for him—and even led to some surprises. “It works,” he said. “I even got some on-camera work locally, which was totally unexpected.”
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