Today we’d like to introduce you to Jerry.
Hi Jerry, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Sure!
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First off, I actually only moved here about 4 years ago. I am originally from Memphis, TN. Def not a VO hub or anything. I also don’t come from a rich family background, or even anyone that had anything to do with the industry I am in now. Zero connections from the start. But did have some folks around me growing who I am close with even to this day, that always believed in me and to this day, will not let me quit or give up. Those friends and family been crucial in some of the story I am about to tell you and I wouldn’t be here without them
There’s a combination of childhood memories that pop into my head on this. The first was sitting in the backseat of my dad’s car while he played the soundtrack to “Aladdin” and I think “Friend Like Me” was playing. I remember thinking to myself, “It would be so cool to do this when I grow up!” The second memory is one where we were at a Christmas party at my friend’s house and my friends and I were asked what we wanted to do when we grow up. One of my friends said “I want to be comedian!” But there was an adult there who told him that he needs to pick a real job and not that because being a comedian is something “everyone would love to do but you cant go for that because only a small handful of people will ever get to be a big famous comedian.” I didn’t care a ton about being famous or anything but I heard them say that and then kinda internalized it when it came to voice acting.
Fast forward to grown me. When I went to College, I just had this gut instinct that I needed to study music and singing or I would regret it the rest of my life. So I did. I didn’t do anything with that for years until my family and I moved here to DFW. When we got here, I was working as an audio engineer on sets for commercials, shows, internal corporate stuff, etc…. My wife had been telling me for about a year or so that she thought I should get into audio book narration and other VO stuff but that moment from my friend’s party kept playing back in my head over and over everytime she said it so I had been hesitant. But I had been getting that same feedback from people I ended up working with on set sometimes after we moved here, so I asked one person and they helped me get in contact with Elise Baughman, who as it turned out, voiced in “Dragon Ball GT,” one of my favorite shows, as the character “Pan” I didn’t know DFW was where a ton of the anime I loved to watch was recorded and over a couple years took a few classes here and there as some lessons and Elise kept mentoring me in the midst of all that. Then about a year and a half ago most of my audio engineering work dried up and I finally decided to go for the thing my wife had been telling me to for years at this point and let the dream I had as kid actually have a chance. Around the same time, I had posted a video on TikTok about a character from the book “Fourth Wing” that ended up getting some traction and the folks in the comments from the indie author community then started me off on some audio books to narrate! So when that began, I just went for all of it! Narration, Anime voice acting with Crunchyroll, agency representation, video game voice acting. The whole lot! I tried to get out and meet more voice actors in the local area who had offered to let me pick their brain on VO world, instead of allowing the imposter syndrome to tell me that I wasn’t good enough and shouldn’t waste their time asking for help or waste my family’s time trying to go for this. I started off online with narration trying to return the kindness given to me and gave authors free audio snippets for their stories when I had the time. (Which I would still love to get back around to doing. I just am much busier than I was back then but it’s definitely a goal.) As I was doing both of those things, I met more and more amazing people, was pleasantly surprised by how loving and welcoming the communities of Narration and Anime can be, and made some FANTASTIC friends I otherwise never would have. Having come from an audio engineering career, I was able to build some form of a decent audio setup, (not top shelf pro mind you, but decent,) with the gear I had from that career and jumpstart some paid VO work within the first year of trying to launch that. Enough so that I broke even cost wise and didn’t lose money in the transition! And then with time, practice and a LOT of mistakes, I ended up finding a career a love, my own flavor of VO for narration, and am progressing through finding my place in Anime as well.
I haven’t yet gotten to do all that I hope and dream to yet, but I have gotten to do SO MUCH MORE than I ever would have believed even a year and a half ago. It’s been incredible and because of the help and encouragement of many incredible people.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been entirely smooth. I have ADHD and trying to work through the difficulties that come with that have been a trial and a half. From stuff like, the management of energy, memory problems, sleep dysregulation, task initiation, sensitivity from rejection, (because it’s not rejection of me, its selection of the best fit for the character/story,) and ACTUALLY LETTING MYSELF REST AND RECHARGE SO THAT WHEN I GET BACK TO IT, MY WORK IS TOP QUALITY. But I have learned a lot about myself and how that works within me in the process and have been able to help others from that and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I like me, ADHD and all now. Like, a lot, and I haven’t ever been so comfortable in my own skin as I am today.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
So right now I do a lot of voice acting in the audiobook realm with most of it being either Dual, (Every chapter is from one of the characters POV and you voice every character in that chapter,) or Duet, (Chapters are still from various characters POV but the characters are only voiced by whichever narrator fits the gender best for that character.) I am currently working on a multicast project as well that is due out later this year that I am pretty stoked for in a book called “Where My Demon’s Hide,” by Kayla M. Lowe. It’s been a lot of fun collaborating with the author, other narrators, and producer. I also have done some background voice acting for Crunchyroll in a few Anime and I am definitely aiming/hoping to do more voice acting for characters with them. If I had to say I am known for any kind of voice work right now, its probably going to be for voicing men who are deep voiced, smooth “Kings of Consent,” and are a combo of the “Golden Retriever” + “Shadow Daddy” archetypes. But broader than that, I am genuinely proud to say I voice act for audiobook stories, particular romance stories written by fantastic independent authors, Anime, and I am aiming to add videogames to that mix as well. I know there are other voice actors doing that mix, but I rarely ever see any publicly talking about all that. I think that might be something that sets me apart. I am not shy about telling stories in any realm, whether it be romance, games, anime, or whatever. I am proud to be part of the storytelling in all of it. Because all of these have wonderful stories full of fantastic characters, exciting moments, and valuable truths to learn regardless of the storytelling medium. AND I am a black man doing that. I DEFINITELY don’t see enough other black folks cast on projects in the various circles I am in and I am proud to help make that more common and hopefully help others feel that they too can chase that dream if they want.
I am gonna add one more thing I think is really important in all that. One of the most important things in life I believe, is storytelling. We as people have been telling stories our entire existence. It’s something we have in common across every age. It also is a bridge between quite literally people of any background or geography. It can bridge any divide and connect folks, create bonds, create understanding, create fantastic memories and bring them together in ways that nothing else does. That is the thing I am here to do. Audiobooks, Anime, Games. They are all different mediums and realms that have been important to me in my life and brought me some of my favorite tales. I want to be that voice for other’s stories and help others also see that they can do this too. I am from Memphis, TN. Not a place you think of when you think of voice actors at all. But….. here I am … doing the thing! If I got to this place in life where I can voice act and tell fantastic stories, then that means they can too. 🙂
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
HAHAHA. Yes, but I do try to be pretty smart about it. Jumping into voice acting AS A HUSBAND AND DAD AND AS AN ADHD BLACK MAN is just, a risk in and of itself. Starting off, being a husband and dad means I don’t have the same flexible hours many of my peers do because, you know, I’m gonna make sure my spouse and kids are ALWAYS getting the quality time they need and don’t want my career to ruin stuff on the family front. Then my ADHD brain means that I have extra hurdles to figure out with my memory, energy levels, organization, time management, scatterbrainedness, etc…. Then being black means that 1.) whether they say it out loud or not, there’s already some bias against me there from various folks. 2.) If you look at cast lists on projects, how often do you feel/see a solid representation of a diversity of folks? Not often. It’s definitely been getting better, but work is still there to be done on that issue. This may mean that there’s hurdles to overcome because some folks legitimately haven’t had a chance to be around folks that look like me and have only ever been informed by the stuff other people with ill intent towards POC people told them about us, Trying to dispel those harmful stereotypes is a risk both in the difficulty of that task alone, but also in trying to find a place to lend my voice in the stories people are writing, animating, and casting for. They may have assumptions they do or don’t even realize are there which means there will be more effort, time, and cost put into being part of that change for the better. It is absolutely worth it, but the risk of failure is also there.
A bonus 3rd risk is that I narrate romance stories. In particular, I have found this unique niche in stories that have …. spice… to say the least. There are definitely stigmas against that in the world and I have lost count of the amount of times I have heard that it could affect voice actors careers in a negative way if they don’t use a pseudonym on those. But… to me… I’d be adding to that stigma if I wasn’t open about the fact that I voice that. (and that sentence in and of itself could get me in trouble and is risky to say.) There are some PHENOMENAL stories that have spicy content in them AND the spicy content is PART OF THE STORYTELLING. There are things that are communicated in those moments, both in these stories and in those moments in real life, that can’t be communicated otherwise. Without going into too much detail, these stories are doing some unique and cool things that other mediums can’t. There are SO MANY romance stories with spice that are being adapted into live action shows on BIG PLATFORMS, yet we still shame spicy romance stories and there’s stigmas for doing VO in that realm. But some of the coolest and most popular stories of the past couple years come out of that realm. FOURTH WING IS A DRAGON RIDER SCHOOL with magic, fantastic characters, and IMPORTANT discussions on what happens when you try to erase history, and is being made into a show by Amazon. Bridgerton took Netflix by storm and has all sorts of wonderful characters. “Heated Rivaly” and “Off Campus” have both been hits! And those are just some of the popular names in that world. There are TONS of good stories being told that will be completely written off because of stigmas. So many valuable lessons and truths, wonderful characters, and expressions of authors souls that gets missed because of those stigmas. I want to help those stories find people that will love them and whose lives will even be better because of those tales. But voicing those is a risk both socially, because stigmas, and career wise on some of my goals to voice in other mediums. But it’s still worth it. Because to not try to help, would be a path I’d hate to walk. We’ve already seen the damage form years of shame around the spicy aspect of our humanity. We HAVE to stop adding to it. (Yup, risky statement)
(Side note, that’s not to say that everyone who uses a pseudonym is wrong or anything. I understand some do it to protect their families from folks and such. I was just speaking to the issue of stigma and shame in particular. None of what I said is meant to be a dig at anyone in particular and definitively not meant as a dig to anyone I know in person. It’s all just stuff that is happening and I want to help make positive changes on.)
Risk to me is just part of the equation of working towards any goal in life. The moment anyone tries to do anything, there’s always a chance of failure. You can’t try at anything without that truth coming into play. I think it matters more to know the things you are able to let fall away or drop when going after a goal. Because then you know where your lines are and what things you aren’t willing to lose and can make smart choices when taking risks as a result. Heck even me talking about the realities of being black here are a risk, but I want to make this path easier for others that come after me across all spectrums of folks and if I am too afraid to bring any of that up, then how is it going to be any better for the voice actors who come later?
Contact Info:
- Website: https://jerrymaynardvo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jerrymaynardvo
- Twitter: https://x.com/Jerrymaynardvo
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@bardicvo
