Today we’d like to introduce you to Dani Gittens.
Hi Dani, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up playing video games and watching anime with older siblings. Staying up late watching toonami.
I love how the characters sounded in Tekken ,Metal gear and Devil may cry ,Dragon ball and my whole life I was told I sound like a cartoon character.
My mom was heavily influenced by Asian culture as well. Im mixed I’m white and black. My mom would have Asian dolls and Asian decor throughout the house.
I always wanted to be a model or actor and loved tattoos as a kids. I was always covered in temporary tattoos.
And as a child, I made my dad record me on the camcorder like it was my own reality tv. Both of my parents played a big influence and how it shaped me today.
Time went on and my parents didn’t end up staying together so when I was nine that really made me messed up.
They divorced and like every tragic trauma childhood story, I became more less confident in myself and more sheltered and protected myself so that plays a big factor a lot as well.
I watched a lot of anime in middle school &high school and even loved drawing art as well that was and still my safe space.
I think 2014-15 is when I started watching anime again I remember falling asleep with adult swim on and hearing the crazy commercials or the shows like JoJo adventures in the middle of the night waking up like what the Frick is going on but yeah and then it continued after that time.
In 2019 I fell in love with My Hero &Hunter Hunter as well.
Fast forward to a major time skip lol I moved to Texas from Michigan in 2021 so I bought an IPad and honestly didn’t know what to do with it. But in 2022 I finally picked up my IPad and created Instagram after having my husband and I’s 2nd son I got influenced and wanted to make money from home.
I made tattoo designs and started following some cool accounts and then had someone I’m still online friends with teach me how to use procreate.
If I never would have reached out I wouldn’t be the artist I am today so I’m forever thankful for them.
I made my first design ever it was a Naruto tattoo didn’t really understand composition as well, but I wasn’t giving up on it.
And watching a lot of shows like anime influences a lot of my work that’s my specialty. I love anime so much. I know it’s cringe, but that’s what gets my imagination going.
Mind you I do know how to design other designs that are non-anime. I have plenty of clients who request scary stuff and I don’t even watch scary movies or like random things. I could still put a design together. That’s how my brain is whatever it looks good in my mind looks good on the paper so That’s my specialty. I practiced making designs before coming a tattoo artist.
So fast forward as well I became a tattoo artist apprentice, and just watching the shows I started like getting interested in voice acting, but never knew what to do with it. I didn’t even know that was really a thing. Obviously you hear the people on the show and I’m like wow how do you get into this, so I’m on TikTok. I see AJ buckles made a TikTok. How do we become a voice actor.
I was like this is really cool .
Then fast-forward again, I see he promoted bang zoom open auditions at anime frontier I’ve only been to one anime convention and it was for tattoos, Otaku tattoos and honestly, I met my very first voice actor group ever in real life.
It was from Maki from fire force love that character so when I met all the other characters, I got like an adrenaline rush. I was like I love this! I want to do this and started asking them questions, you know the whole basics and how to become a voice actor .
So in 2024 I went on stage for the open auditions. I almost didn’t make it and I was nervous. I’ve never had a theater background before in my life. I’m self taught I learn from watching what other actors do in their performances and shows and use what I’ve seen in my imagination to help me as well.
I used that as a learning experience and met more voice actors who later introduced me to classes and workshops and after that I would do tattoos to earn money for acting classes yeah don’t go broke for your acting classes. Be smart, but there’d be times where I’m like oh I need to go to this class. I don’t have money or I had the money and I’m like don’t do that so budget your money for Classes .They will always have them . Not going to lie I’m glad I invested in myself. I can’t see myself doing anything else as well.
The more I took classes the more I learned how to do like ADR learned acting. I’ve was able to connect with so many amazing people . every time I go to in my conventions, talking to voice actors. I like I love meeting people who love my tattoos .
O really show my my whole Instagram and I’ve been tattooing for three years now and voice acting for two and honestly like the third year of tattooing is when I really started popping off and my second year of voice acting.
I started getting more confident in myself and I actually booked my first role as well in a indie project super excited and , another bit part at the studio I take classes at so I’m definitely thankful for opportunities. I’m never giving up on this like I’m too deep.
So in 2025 I also auditioned again at Bang zoom and I plan on auditioning each and every year because this is a way for me to go on stage and build confidence.
Also don’t compare yourself to other people as well. That’s what I did in the beginning and sometimes I still do on my journey.
I’m on my own path you’re on your own path and if that’s some advice I can give you is take the classes, if you like it keep going, also please listen to the criticism.
I still haven’t made a demo yet as well this year I am.
So be on the look out .
Another word of advice is, be in an environment where people want to see you grow as well. I had to separate myself from certain people in life and not saying they’re bad people , I just wasn’t growing how I want to and when you surround yourself with people that are genuinely like you and our happy for you ,you prosper!
Plus making all the friends I’ve made are truly amazing , and a blessing,
I would not change it for the world because they all support me like literally all my clients are like you’re gonna make it. You’re gonna make it lol you better make it and I’m like I will. .
So every time I see a character, my long story short it is really near and dear to me, especially when I can relate to a character that has a backstory has a reason to fight for.
Plus Im a sucker for all of that cool action and romance. So when I take these characters that I see and it helps when I voice act. It means a lot to me because I can pretend to be the character that I wish I was .
Voice acting gives me the opportunity to feel cool and special and I really enjoy the whole acting process.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not at all. It’s been ups and downs for both careers.
With tattoos not having clients was hard and trying to convince people to tattoo was hard.
And still is even though I’m more popular and people love my work I’m still growing and learning.
And with voice acting I’m entering a world with actors and people with different degrees and classes. It was hard.
I pray about getting better and learn how to act and would practice.
Practice makes perfect .
I would set certain milestones for me to reach for example, let me take a classes with somebody and then I’ll do this. Let me impress this teacher and when I do is when I know I I wanna be here. and let me impress another teacher so then I know it’s time for me to make my demo reel so it wasn’t all smooth sailing.
It definitely was a process. A process takes time so the ups and downs were real, I definitely felt like there were time when I thought what am I doing ?? and then I remembered I invested too much money in this for me to give up.
Also you have to have that career driven goal setter mindset this is not for the weak. No career is so you have to keep going no matter what unless you generally don’t like it at all then find something else but for me I love this.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
So I voice act during the week and tattoo during the weekend right now tattooing is my full-time and I really would love to transition to doing tattoos, part-time and voice acting full-time.
And if it came to the point where I was voice acting more than tattoos id probably would do tattoos here and there and not as often just to focus more on voice acting but yeah, I guess what sets me apart is that I tattoo and voice act.I haven’t met a lot of actors that tattoo or vise visas.
I’m super proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone and gaining more confidence and becoming the person that I really want to be.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Voice acting makes me happy. Don’t get me wrong so does tattoos.But but meeting the clients from tattoos makes me happy genuinely like friendship. And of course my family makes me happy. My kids make me super happy that I get to be a cool mom and there for them. As a stay at home mom like having three boys and installing a good work ethic and faith makes me so happy and I’m so thankful that I get to be a creative mom and have a husband that helps support and we support each other, like all of the factors in my life just make me so happy and blessed .
Contact Info:
- Website: https://daninicolevo.carrd.co/#
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cozygirldani/
- Twitter: https://x.com/cozygirldani?s=21
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@cozygirldani?_t=ZT-8ubUpupXuxP&_r=1
