Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Kulewicz
Hi Matthew, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Hi there! My name is Matthew Kulewicz and I’m an audio engineer by day, and voice actor by night! I am a highly experienced Dialogue Designer and Post-Production Professional whose work has been featured on multiple AAA games and animated features/series. I specialize in developing and implementing remote recording workflows for actors and productions. My voice-over work focuses in monsters, extreme vocals and unconventional characters. I am a 2x Emmy Honors recipient, have my Masters of Music (Music Technology) from NYU (with an Honors in Tonmeister studies), and am an active member of MPSE (Motion Picture Sound Editors)
CHILDHOOD
I grew up an hour outside of NYC, originally from Greenlawn, NY (on Long Island). I’ve always been an avid musician, gamer and all round tech-y kind of guy. I am a lifelong musician, being a classically trained pianist, started taking lessons when I was 8 years old. In middle school and high school I was in concert band, marching band and jazz band playing the trombone. Started playing guitar when I was 14, and since I was self taught no one told me ‘no’ so therefore became a lefty, ha! If I wasn’t playing in bands in the basement of churches I was helping run the sound. Towards the end of high school I got the opportunity to work at the famous local venue ‘The Downtown’ in Farmingdale, NY, where I cut my teeth learning live sound and quick problem solving. The FOH engineer would take frequent ‘smoke/Chinese food’ breaks so he taught me how to use the console and run the show, and return at the very end of the night.
UNDERGRAD
I went to college in upstate New York, at SUNY Oneonta. There I earned my Bachelor’s of Music in Music Industry with a minor in Audio Production. During my time in undergrad I played in endless bands; jazz/improv groups, cover bands, rock/metal bands, you name it! (I played keys in a jam/funk group called ‘Bornge’) My main band at that time, ‘Socket’, released an EP which to this day is still on Spotify! One summer I spent working for a live sound company, and had the opportunity to work with some incredible famous acts. As a form of training/gentle hazing, the engineers would put me behind the monitor console where the EQ were located. They’d be on stage and wave microphone into the monitor causing intense feedback. It was my job to determine (and quickly!) which were the offending frequencies and correct the issue. I like to say this was my first formative ear training! In 2008 I spent my last semester living abroad in Hultsfred, Sweden, where I got to work at the Hultsfred Festival, then the largest open-air festival in Sweden.
POST UNDERGRAD
After graduating from college, I still wasn’t 100% on what I wanted to do, so I bopped around. I interned at the famous Cutting Room studios, where I got to work on a number of amazing projects. They gave me the opportunity to use the studios and mix my own projects/records outside of working hours. I worked Sam Ash, Guitar Center, etc. I even toured with a slam poetry group ’The Intangible Collective’, recording their shows on the road for a bit. Eventually I had a quarter life crisis and decided I needed to move into my own place and get a ‘real job’ so I found work in corporate/private IT. After 3 years of being clean cut and hiding my tattoos, I hit a breaking point and decided I needed to take a chance and figure out what in the audio world was my purpose/calling.
GRAD SCHOOL
I decided grad school was the way to go, so I applied to the Music Technology M.M. program at NYU (and only NYU, wasn’t ready to leave NY quite yet). It just so happened that a professor of mine from my undergrad was now a professor at NYU, so I had a foot in the door. After getting into grad school, I quickly found my home in the James L Dolan recording studio, easily one of the best, most advanced studios in Manhattan. My biggest triumph engineering in that studio, was configuring and running a session with a 30 piece orchestra for film scoring. After taking a sound for film class, I fell in love with film sound and realized my true calling. For my masters thesis I researched the effects of height microphone patterns in a multichannel surround microphone systems. Through my thesis I worked with a number of NYU Tisch film student on their grad thesis films, thus starting my tv/film career.
POST GRAD SCHOOL
After graduating, I continued to work with NYU as adjunct faculty/staff. I was an academic advisor, ran the internship program and taught an ear training/critical listening class. Through recommendations I worked on a lot of indie films, PBS series and feature documentaries, and that’s where I became an audio cleanup/restoration specialist. Eventually I was recommended to The Law Show with Stephen Colbert, where they were developing the animated series ‘Our Cartoon President’ for Showtime. I built the studio/facilities, utilizing the only space available, which happened to formerly be David Letterman’s private movie theater/screening room…which was probably one of the most sound proofed spaces in all of midtown! I ended up working on that show for its entirety, wearing many hats as the dialogue engineer/editor, sound designer, mixer, music producer and music editor.
PANDEMIC+BROOKLYN
My wife and I were living in Brooklyn when the world shut down due to the COVID pandemic. Early on in the pandemic I was asked if it was possible to run sound for a season of ‘Our Cartoon President’ remotely and I said yes without hesitation. So from my tiny Brooklyn apartment not only did I run audio for the show, but being stuck at home I doubled down on the freelance gigs. It was here I also started to delve into voice acting; taking classes, making demos, etc. I became very good friends with the actors, particularly the star of our show, Jeff Bergman. At the time he recommended me to Warner Bros to work on Space Jam 2, where Jeff was recently casted as Bugs Bunny (among other characters). In the end I recorded and edited the dialogue for all Looney Tunes characters in that film. This jumped started my contacts/relationships to animation/production in LA. Since my wife and I were set working remotely for the long haul, and we knew NY wasn’t our forever home, we decided to pack up, take the gamble and move cross country to LA.
MOVING TO LOS ANGELES
In January of 2021 we picked up and moved to LA….a month after moving, we found out we were pregnant! Fast forward and now we have an incredible 3yr old daughter, both my girls are my entire world. When we moved out here I didn’t have a full time job, only my handful of freelance contracts. Through the script supervisor for Space Jam 2 (Kathy Cavaiola), I was connected to The Halp Network where I’ve become their go-to remote engineer/editor on a number of games over the years, as well as tapped to work on the animated series Arcane at Riot Games. The original job at Arcane was supposed to be a ‘note taker’ for VO sessions, but after my first session with them I realized they needed someone who can do much more. I was hired at a time they were trying to finish season 1, but season 2 was already in production, and didn’t have the bandwidth to handle all that season 2 needed at the time. I stepped in and took the lead on all things dialogue for season 2 along with a couple core members of the Arcane team. About 2.5 years later, I was laid off from my contract at Riot, while the gaming/entertainment industry was facing an increasing amount of layoffs/turnovers. After a year of not having a full time job, I saw a job opening at Chapman University for a professor of sound/sound design in their film school, so I applied on a whim…I have a masters degree and have taught before, so why not? I’m happy to say as of December 2024 I am finishing up my first semester as a full time professor! Having this new full time job gives me a financial baseline that allows me to continue working in the animation/gaming industry, and now share those experiences with my students.
VOICE ACTING
Throughout my entire childhood, I always loved playing characters and making silly voices and playing video games, but never put 2+2 together. It wasn’t until the pandemic, working very closely with actors who many are now some of my closest friends, that I learned voice acting was also my calling. I would say 2024 is the start of my official full-time voice acting career. I now have 2x agents, am constantly auditioning/networking/taking classes, and have booked over a dozen jobs this year. I’ve booked commercials, animation and interactive/games. I also specialize in creature/extreme voices. I spent so many years on one side of the microphone, having my Malcom Gladwell ’10,000 hours’ in spades, now I’m earning those hours on the acting side of the mic!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Losing my sister – In September of 2013 my younger sister Angela, 22 at the time, tragically died in a car accident. It completely deviated our family, it completely devastated me. At the time I deferred starting grad school, trying to figure out life now as an only child. Through the grief and healing, I really learned to appreciate the moment, being grateful and doing all I could to live life to the fullest surrounded by the people I love. A lot of where my drive/ambition comes from is through remembering her and realizing she won’t ever get a second chance at life…and I don’t want to squander mine for one second. I so live with her on my mind every day, and think of all the amazing things I’m lucky enough to do, wishing she was there to enjoy it too. For sure, it’s sad…but it’s also empowering.
The pandemic – Particularly during the pandemic, I had a habit of never saying no, and always agreeing to whatever was needed, and jumping in head first. This pushed my critical thinking/problem solving skills to the limit. When I recorded the first session of Bugs Bunny for Space Jam 2, the producers approached me and would ask if I was amendable to working with the next actor, and then the next, and then the next…until I ended up recording every Looney Tunes character in that film. It’s a time in my life where I felt so much accomplishment jumping at the chance to help anyone and everyone. Almost 5 years later, I’ve evolved…not in a bad way, but that I know now my priorities are different, being a dad especially, so I have to make sure I take care of myself and my family, and then the rest of my energy goes into my creative fulfillment. It’s important to take care of yourself, it’s easy to push that to the side to help others, you gotta fill your tank once in a while, you can’t run on empty, it’s not helpful to you or anyone around you.
Struggles of freelancing – For the longest time I’ve felt like I was being treated like the kid at the adults table. As a freelancer/contractor you’re not full time, you’re not ‘one of the team’, you are hired help. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been trying to find work and someone will say ‘oh we’re off for the next two weeks, company break, see you then!’…but for me if I don’t work I don’t get paid. It made holidays especially tough. Then with the industry layoffs and strikes, and post-pandemic reactions to the entertainment world, work was becoming even harder to find, nothing happens until it happens…but you have to find a way. I went back to saying ‘yes’ to everything for a while, and it helped but wasn’t a long term solution. Like I said, you have to take care of yourself and relying on my technical knowledge and background in teaching, I was able to find a ground/base through Chapman, and now the whole world in gaming/animation is open to me in ways I never realized were possible, now that the stress/pressure of ‘needing’ the next gig is lifted. That was my solution, not everyone’s solution, and there is a balance for everyone out there.
Paying it forward – For the first time I’m also in a position where I’m able to find work for others. Whether it’s a pro-bono gig, a low budget indie, internships, even just recommendations for career advice, I welcome anyone and everyone to reach out. I love connecting with new people, I love helping people out, even from my little corner of the world. It’s important to be inspired, to share that inspiration and to support others around you….ESPECIALLY people who want to learn and want to step up and rise to bigger things.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I consider myself a Swiss Army knife of all things audio. While some companies/studios see this as me being a ‘master of none’…I’ve found it to be a unique benefit, allowing me to rise to any occasion and challenge I set myself to. In the world of ‘bug or feature…’ my wide skillset and adaptability is very much a feature!
Game Audio – In the gaming world I am primarily a dialogue editor/designer and recording engineer. I record remotely in my studio or on-site at a number of studios around LA. I also am a MoCap (Motion Capture) audio engineer at Sony/Playstation recording actors on set for a number of AAA games.
Animation – I’m a sound designer, mixer and recording engineer for animation..I do it all! Most recently I was the dialogue/adr editor for Arcane season 2. Easily the most rewarding project I have ever worked on.
Music Mixer/Producer – As a musician, I find I work best helping other musicians/composers with their projects, enabling other musicians to +1 their work! For instance I helped produce the soundtrack for ‘The Beast’ in Arcane season 2, as well as helping with some vocal comps/cleanups for a number of other tracks in the show. I was the scoring mixer for the Dreamworks show ‘Dragon: The Nine Realms’ where I mixed all 52 episodes (over 1,000min of music!) over 3 years, sweetening the already incredible score, and preparing it for the mix stage. Lastly, I love working directly with musicians. For example a good friend of mine, actor William Sadler, I spent 2-3 years helping him record music and mixed/produced his first solo album! That’s very much a career highlight.
Voice Actor – While I’ve been delving into voice acting for the better part of 6+ years, I’ve been full-time voice acting since the beginning of this year. I specialize in extreme/monster vocals and am looking forward to sharing a lot of amazing roles I’ve been casted/recorded for this past year in the coming months/years! So far my VA work can be seen in a number of commercials, and small indie films.
Game Dev – For the past couple years when I was struggling to find steady work and looking for a full-time job, I decided to conduct an experiment; I’ve worked on SO many different video games and seen so many sides of game dev…what if I was to make my own game…what would that look like? After some time I found my muse, created a pitch deck and a game dev bible that rivals my own masters thesis and I’ve started my own game dev company! I’m hoping to use this project to bring back the nostalgia of the mid-tier game a-la PS2 era of games, to a new generation of gamers. I also want to enable young people who want to get into game dev in any respect, and give them an outlet to work on a project, hone their skills and have something for their portfolio to advance their career.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
There are a few turn of phrases that have always stuck with me and I find them more and more relevant every day in my life and work.
Good work always behests good work – For the entirety of my career I can draw a clear line from one gig to the next based on recommendation and referral since. Some opportunities are much anticipated and worked at, and some are very surprising and unexpected. Even though I don’t live in NY anymore, every December I am tapped to work on the Colbert Late Show animated holiday segment as a sound designer and mixer…because of the lasting relationship I’ve built and fostered with the team at The Late Show, it’s something I covet and look forward to every year!
The best sound design goes unnoticed – No one watches a film/show and goes ‘wow that ADR was spot on!’. Good sound is supposed to immerse the viewer/player to a point you believe you are in that world, that place. Good dialogue lets us believe that character is real, their emotions and reactions are real, and more often than not the amount of effort that goes into making these characters feel real is unnoticed. I’m driven by that challenge, to bring these characters and worlds to life, I believe in them and I want everyone else to believe in them too!
Are you working to live or living to work? – I did not grow up in the entertainment world. However I did grow up playing video games, playing music, pretending to be strange characters with my friends…but had no inkling I could make a career out of doing just that. I’m so lucky to say that I live to work, that what creatively drives me is what I do to support my family. I plan to continue growing my career until my ears stop working..and even then I’ll find a way to keep working in this field!
Sharing is Caring – The world of dialogue, sound and voice acting is so small, and gets smaller and smaller every day. Sure there are only so many jobs out there, but you’re only hurting yourself if you burn bridges, and force yourself to the top at the detriment of others around you. If I’m up for the same job or role, I’m always super enthusiastic about my friends/colleges getting the role or gig. I’m always eager to help those around me, without expectation of a returning favor, because the world is better when we lift each other up. It’s all about collaboration, not competition!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mattkulewicz.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/mattkulewicz
