Lists

The two lists every voice actor needs to make and how to use them

I’ve been running the same exercise with students lately, and it keeps surfacing something I think most of us ignore for way too long in this business. We treat “voice actor” like it’s the whole resume. It’s not. It’s one column.

We often treat our “past life” as if it didn’t lead us to exactly where we are now. Your life experience isn’t insignificant because it doesn’t revolve around the entertainment industry. It might actually serve you REALLY well, but we ignore it because it “doesn’t align” or even, sometimes, we feel embarrassed by it.

That mindset is, forgive my french, horse patooty.

So let’s stop that and make two lists:

Grab a piece of paper, because we are going analog. Now, I know some of you who’ve been with me for a while have done this already. But it’s a good idea to revisit this practice once a quarter. Why? BECAUSE YOU’RE AN EVOLVING HUMAN! RIGHT? Things shift! You learn! You grow! These lists SHOULD NOT be static.

So here we go, put a line down the center of your paper. On one side write “ALL THE THINGS I KNOW HOW TO DO AS A HUMAN” and on the other side write “ALL THE THINGS I KNOW HOW TO DO AS AN ACTOR”.

List One: Human Skills. Everything you know how to do that has nothing to do with acting. Past careers. Certifications. Hobbies you’d never think to put on a demo site. The stuff you’d only mention at a dinner party, not a casting call. Things you know absurdly a lot about. Even affinities to a particular subject.

List Two: Actor Skills. Your actual actory things. Accents, original characters, improv, stage work, singing, whatever you bring specifically to a booth or a set.

Most people can build List Two pretty fast. It’s List One that trips everybody up, because we’ve been trained to think it doesn’t belong on the same page as our acting resume. I’ve watched students turn in lists that include ESL certification, wine tasting, computer repair, martial arts, hearing loss advocacy, gardening, poker dealing, twenty years of teaching, a decade of DMing D&D campaigns. Every single time, somebody says some version of “but this doesn’t really count, right?”

It counts. It’s the whole point. And I have helped them shape direct marketing GOLD out of these lists.

This isn’t just journaling time

I’m gonna say something that may piss a few people off: a generic, talented voice is a commodity. There are thousands of us. Clear diction and good range get you in the room, sure, but they don’t get you remembered. What gets you remembered is symmetry. The place where your List One and List Two overlap in a way almost nobody else’s does.

A martial artist who also does character voices isn’t just an actor anymore. They’re the person a fight-heavy video game studio wants consulting AND voicing, because they understand the terminology and the choreography language, not just the performance.

A former nurse who also voices patient education content isn’t reading a script cold. They’re the person a hospital system trusts to get the terminology exactly right, because they’ve lived it.

A hard-of-hearing advocate who also does audio description work isn’t just checking an accessibility box. They’re bringing standards knowledge that generic AD scripts usually miss.

A person who spent years in the courtroom as a steno isn’t just good at typing, they bring accuracy to a loop group on a box-office film about the law.

That’s symmetry. It’s the intersection, not either list on its own.

Just ask yourself: Would an aviation school prefer an actor who sounds “nice” or an actor who sounds nice and has actually sat behind the cockpit? The actor with the life experience in the space they’re marketing in has an advantage.

How to actually find it

Once you’ve got your two lists, don’t just stare at them. I know this part is tempting. But start to cross-reference, out loud if you have to.

For every item on List One, ask:

• Who already pays for training/education/marketing content in this world? (Companies, certifying bodies, platforms, nonprofits all commission this constantly, and most of it needs a human voice.)

• Is there a documentary, eLearning module, or explainer genre already built around this topic?

• What companies align with my expertise that I can build outreach for?

• Could I be the SCRIPT CONSULTANT as well as the voice, not just the talent for hire?

• Is there a version of my own content (Substack, TikTok, YouTube) where this expertise plus my VO voice makes for something nobody else can make?

You will not find symmetry for every single item. That’s fine. That’s not the point. You’re looking for two or three genuine overlaps, not twelve.

What this looks like in practice

I ran this exercise recently with an actor whose List One included ESL certification and years of teaching, with a List Two full of Disney-adjacent character work and ASL. The overlap was obvious once we said it out loud: children’s education VO, with actual credibility behind the “understands how kids learn language” pitch. Not just a nice voice reading a script. A person who has done the underlying work.

I ran it with another actor limited by disability income guidelines who had a radio background and stand-up comedy credits. The overlap wasn’t “go wide and hope for a big break.” It was “go deep in small-to-mid market radio imaging and local agency work,” a lane sized correctly to both his skill set and his actual constraints.

Neither of these people needed a personality transplant or a brand-new skill. They needed to actually look at what they already had, side by side, and stop treating half of it as irrelevant.

Your homework, your lists

Make the two lists. Actually write them down, don’t just think about it. Then find the overlap. Not the whole list, just the two or three intersections that feel true and nobody else quite has.

That’s your actual pitch.

Tell me what’s on your List One. I read every comment and email, and I promise you have more symmetry than you think you do.