Check Out Avi Cohen’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Avi Cohen.

Hi Avi, 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?
I’m a 43-year-old South African hailing from the small town of Gqeberha. In my mid 30’s, I decided I wanted to come to America to study music, so uprooted and moved to the Twin Cities and got an associate’s degree in the music business. I decided to continue on with my studies in audio production after that. During this time, I had dabbled occasionally with a bit of voice-over work for bands and started to consider becoming more active in it.

At the end of 2017, my school abruptly filed for bankruptcy and shuttered, leaving a lot of us stranded. I transferred out to Musician’s Institute in LA so I could keep my visa and switched my focus to a performance degree, specifically in vocals. While all of this was happening, I was attempting to network and do session work for bands, with some small successes along the way.

I graduated with my bachelor’s degree at the end of ’21, and have been spending my time since pushing my career as a hybrid artist, being both voice actor and singer since. I landed my first video game role with Blizzard at the end of ’22 and have some upcoming on-camera work.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Most definitely not. The pandemic changed the game, for better and worse for musicians and voice artists. It made remote recording more feasible, but it almost made in-person work far more difficult.

Other than that, there’s always the fun and games from immigration to deal with.

I’ve also found it very hard to connect and make proper friends in Los Angeles. People are friendly and courteous enough in a social environment, but it feels like everybody is constantly only hustling and real friendships are hard to find. It can make for an incredibly lonely experience. Especially if one works from home.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m a singer and voice actor. I’m still somewhat unknown outside for a few certain circles. But I’m known for my unique accent and deep voice, along with my singing capability.

While I am a singer capable of singing in many styles, I specialize in heavy metal, with some training in distorted vocals. There’s currently a small group of singers in the voice-over industry who are using those singing techniques for creature and monster sounds, and I’m part of said group.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
You cannot do this all alone. You need a network or team of people you can call upon to help you.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @iron_avi
• Twitter: @doomsdaycomedy
• Other: https://youtu.be/s8C6zJl6DTM 

Image Credits
Anabel DFlux