Daily Inspiration: Meet Lauren Choo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Lauren Choo.

Hi Lauren, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
For the longest time, since I can remember, I’ve always wanted to perform. I love singing, dancing, and later found out acting too when I was finally able to put a label on what I would frequently do when I would talk to myself and entertain myself with imaginary scenarios. I come from Singapore and I work as an actor and voice actor here in LA. I did most of my education in Singapore until I failed the second to last year of high school. I’d always wanted to go to the US because I believed it would make my dreams of performing more attainable, and my parents finally let me do so at a community college as I would be able to start doing my first year of college with the certifications I already had. After two years, I transferred to UC San Diego as a Junior where I graduated with a BA in Theatre. I only started studying acting in community college because the academic curriculum in Singapore is pretty rigorous and left no room for me to pursue anything else than trying to keep up with that. I also started taking voice acting specific lessons where I met actors with different levels of experience, who were all really kind and supportive. At the start of my career, I remember getting quite a few referrals from friends. At the time, I also joined a list my friend Edward Hong started that highlighted non-caucasian folks to advocate for diversity and authenticity in the industry, which led to me receiving many opportunities (from Netflix, Disney, etc.) I would not have seen especially at that stage of my career. Because of those opportunities, I got an agent pretty quickly and started seeing more work. I definitely had to hustle a lot, responding to opportunities no matter the day or time as my time here in the US is limited and I need to achieve as much as I can. That is definitely not the most conducive way of working as an artist but it felt like realistically I had to do so to survive. I am still hustling but I have definitely made more friends in the industry and after 9 years of being here, it has finally started to feel like somewhere I belong.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Most definitely not. I will say first that I do feel that I came into the industry at the right time because when authenticity and diversity started becoming a hot topic, agents and casting were looking for more non-caucasian folks that could embody characters to tell the diverse stories that creators in the industry were putting out too. Being Singaporean-Taiwanese and speaking Mandarin and Korean put me in a very unique spot as it meant that I was in a smaller pool of talent than most people for certain projects and it also meant I was available when there was a particular increase in demand. It was a blessing that that happened as I entered the industry. However, as I had just started to gain momentum after signing with an agent, I had to move back home to Singapore because my legal working status was expiring. Even though most of the industry had adapted to being remote after the pandemic, there was a lot of red tape I still had to deal with in order to work the jobs I wanted to. Most of them still required for me to physically be here. So while I was in between visas, I felt like I was losing the momentum I had just started building and the proximity to people that could lead to more opportunities. When I got back to LA after 10 months, it felt like I had to start over again because there was barely anybody who could say they knew me enough to have faith in working with me. In addition to that, industry strikes started to happen, game developers started getting layed off and the market as a whole felt like it was worsening. I still feel like I haven’t gotten back to the rhythm I once briefly had, but I’m happy to say that I work enough to be able to live well, even if the jobs I do aren’t necessarily popular video game characters but more like museum audio guides and interactive voice response for customer support. I am also grateful that my persistence has recently led to being recognized by some decision makers in the industry and I am hopeful that my career will get more exciting from here.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am an actor, mainly working as a voice actor. I can’t say I specialize in a specific genre as my work is pretty varied but I do specialize in Mandarin and Korean voiceover in the US. I am most likely known for portraying Grave in the game Goddess of Victory: Nikke. Being the narrator voice of the new Pokemon Tonies toy series has got to be one of the projects I’m most proud to have worked on. There are 4 Pokemon–Pikachu, Bulbasaur, Charmander and Squirtle–that are made into individual toys that each tell different stories, so there was a lot of content to record and I was so fortunate to have worked with such a wonderful team that made the process easy. I am also just really excited and honored to hopefully be a part of many children’s lives as the voice that teaches them important values like courage, empathy and resilience when they interact with these toys. I think the most obvious answer to what sets me apart from others is the fact that I speak 2 foreign languages and have a different upbringing than most people having grown up in Singapore and Taiwan. It does come in handy a lot as more East Asian content gets localized and dubbed into English–which I wish more people would use to their advantage. But besides that, I think my sheer tenacity and faith in myself sets me apart from others. I dove into this career without having any plans really because this industry is so unpredictable. You are never guaranteed a job or the next one when you do get one. I told myself that all I had to do was keep going and never thought of anything else. Because there was nothing else I could see myself doing too and I had to survive. It was purely belief until I started seeing a realistic outline of a career trajectory. Then I started building and expanding my plans off of that.

Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Because of the pandemic, many things and people in my industry have moved online because they’ve discovered they’re more comfortable with that or because it’s the more convenient and efficient thing to do. So I have found that the only ways to meet and interact with industry professionals are during classes and workshops. They are great ways to learn the current trends and upkeep your skills but also opportunities to be in the same space as industry professionals–be it instructors or classmates, because many times in voiceover classes you’ll find students of different experience levels taking the same class. I would say being in LA is beneficial too because there are people who put in the effort to organize mixers and events that keep our community engaged with one another in real life. I think the most important thing is to be genuine and kind even because there’s only much to gain from prioritizing getting to know people and building good friendships with them. How cool would it be to not only get to enjoy life with them but also collaborate with them at work? I have to also mention the caveat which is there is a high chance of not being able to separate work from private life because your colleagues would also be your friends, and it can leave you distraught if not handled well, so that’s definitely something to be mindful of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://laurenchoo.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/l4urenchoo
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-choo/
• Twitter: https://x.com/l4urenchoo