Today we’d like to introduce you to Austin Lee Matthews.
Austin Lee, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I got started as a voice actor in 2009, doing fun stuff with friends. I had wanted to be an animator and thought that it would be fun to do the voices in my own cartoons. By the time that I’d been in college for a couple of semesters, I realized that I did not have the artistic skill or patience for animation. (I’ve only just started getting decent at art within the last three years). When I dropped animation, I kept up with voiceover. I’d made friends in the community and we all were encouraging each other to do better.
In 2011, my friend Mark Allen Jr. encouraged me to participate in the AX Idol voice acting competition at Anime Expo (and he even coached me through it). I made it into the finals and got to perform on stage at what is now the Microsoft Theater. While I didn’t win, it caught the attention of my mother who sternly asked me “AND WHY AREN’T YOU TAKING CLASSES FOR THIS?!” in the car on the way home haha. She signed me up for classes, and over the next couple years, I worked to improve.
I came back to Anime Expo in 2014, where I partook in an open audition with BangZoom! Entertainment. I ended up being their first callback, which got me into my first professional roles (“Kill La Kill” and “Magi: The Kingdom of Magic”). From there, I got a decent amount of work in anime and anime-styled video games. I made friends in the professional sphere who began recommending me everywhere, and I started working fairly consistently.
In January of 2018, I got laid off from my day job at Build-a-Bear after being promised a transfer, so I didn’t find out I was unemployed until the Monday before we closed. I took that as a sign that I should just start doing my best to make voice-over happen full-time (or as close to full-time as I could get). Through a lot of my own work, the kindness of friends and a BUTTLOAD of luck, I managed to make it through 2018 pretty successfully.
At the end of the year, I booked a role in a show called The Beachbuds, and we recorded every Tuesday from December of 2018 to June of 2019. That was the first time that I ever really got to be part of a voice-acting family. It was the most beautiful experience I had ever gotten to have in my life up until that point. We clicked as a cast immediately from day one, and on our last day we were in tears from the beautiful times that we all shared. Through recording that show, I got the drive that I needed to finally chase my ten years long passion project: a queer superhero radio drama called Megaton Girl. I wanted to continue making things, and I’m glad that I have. Megaton Girl may not be the most well-known thing that I’ve done, but the folks who have listened to it love it and have been deeply touched by it. It’s been wonderful getting to be a part of production from the director’s chair. I want to direct more haha, I’ve caught the fever!!
After we recorded The Beachbuds, I got to do voice-over for The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners (a VR game). That was the role that led to me getting my agent. From there I recorded Final Fantasy VII Remake (in which I play what is likely my most well-known character, Roche), Trails of Cold Steel IV, Trails into Reverie, Cookie Run Kingdom and a bunch more stuff that folks may or may not have seen/played! The pandemic slowed things down for all of us, but I’ve been working my tuchus off the whole time and I’m doing wonderful things now. You all ain’t seen nothin’ yet!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Oh, it absolutely has NOT been smooth! Voice-over is a road filled with soooooooo so so so much stuff in your way! It’s an uphill climb, and it likely always will be. As successful as I have been recently, there have been plenty of times where things have NOT gone my way. We all have dry periods and some last longer than others. Rejection is a constant. You audition for a bunch of stuff every day, and you’ll likely hear back from 10% of those things if you are lucky. It’s a big industry (though sometimes smaller than you’d expect). Honestly though, I like the challenge. It makes the successful times taste all the sweeter. And I’ll never bemoan not getting a role because more-likely-than-not, it means that a friend of mine got the role! I ADORE seeing my friends succeed. I want them to be happy, and I want to see them thrive. My friends are amazing, and I love them all so much.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I’d say the thing I’m most known for is my ability to go from zero to 100 in an instant hahaha. I get cast as a lot of BIG characters; Characters who are loud and dynamic. I get to be a big ham is what I’m saying, hahaha. Roche (Final Fantasy VII Remake) and Alejandro (The Beachbuds) are probably the best examples of this.
Roche is a character who is so into his own hype, so driven by his lust for speed and worthy rivals, and so romantically passionate about every single thing that he does. Naturally, that means he’s VERY theatrical and over the top about everything. His cackling, howling laughter is something I see a lot of people enjoying so much, which I’m glad about! I love getting to play Roche, and being a part of FF7R is important to me as somebody who grew up with Square-Enix games.
Alejandro on the other hand is a big, dumb, goofy bird who is always the butt of the joke in every scene that he’s in (and is very much unaware of his own density). He’s usually got a silly grin on his face, and I play that very naturally. But then there will be times when SOMETHING sets him off and he just devolves into just a bellowing, maniacal tirade (sometimes about ABSOLUTELY NOTHING). There’s a scene in the show where most of the main characters are yelling at Mr. Putu (their boss) about him stealing an armchair from their break room. The rest of the cast all improvised these arguments that fit their characters’ wants/needs regarding the chair. Then the director points to me to present Alejnadro’s improvised argument. I take a deep breath and say: “HELLO MISTER PUTU, IT’S ME ALEJANDRO I LOVE YOU I LIKE SHOUTING AAAAAAAAAAAA ISN’T THAT LOUD?!” We were all dying with laughter.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
My biggest advice is that if you think that you want to do this and do it because it seems fun (not because you want to be rich and famous, because you more than likely will not), give it a shot. There are a lot of resources online to help you with taking your first steps, including The Voice Acting Club. Make friends in the community, do things that are fun, and take classes (PLEASE take classes, you’ll thank me later). See if this is something that you can see yourself doing and enjoying, even through heartbreak, rejection, tough times, and basically all of the other negatives that can come from this career.
Contact Info:
- Email: austinmatthewsva@hotmail.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/austin_matthews_vo
- Twitter: twitter.com/amtraxVA
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@AMTRAX
- Other: megatongirl.com
