Life & Work with Hillary Hawkins

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hillary Hawkins.

Hillary, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I started out running in a UNICEF commercial with Olympian Carl Lewis when I was just a tiny thing! My professional stage debut was in the musical “Betsey Brown” by Ntozake Shange at Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ. You may know Ntozke Shange for her Obie Award-winning play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enough.”  As a child actor, I also worked with Nickelodeon. I was the singing voice of Vanessa on Nickelodeon’s “Gullah Gullah Island” and most people remember me as Kate from Nickelodeon’s “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” Tale of the Jagged Sign. Other credits include “New York Undercover”, which aired on Fox when I was a kid and most recently aired on BET, and a series of industrials by Berlitz “Eikaiwa Challenge” videos out in Japan where I play the part of Jennifer.

Blessed to have an awesome mom that helped me follow my dreams; she would take me all over New York, California, Canada, and more for bookings. Thankful for my dad who paid for countless lessons for me from voice lessons to martial arts classes to acting lessons, and always with the best of the best. I trained with Seth Riggs who was vocal coach for Michael Jackson. Ernie Lively & John Homa were my acting coaches. Professor Harry Baker trained me in martial arts and additional training was with Billy Blanks when out in California. I did also go to school, sometimes… lol. Not all the time because I was often on set, on stage or modeling for a book cover.

Blessed and thankful for Professional Children’s School because they understood when I had to miss class for work. It was A-okay. We still got the homework done with the help of tutors, and before you know it, I found myself studying at Fordham University while technically still in high school at PCS. My parents sent me to Smith College. Eager to get back to acting, I achieved my Dual BA in Spanish and Creative Writing in just three years on the Dean’s List while working as a Radio Personality for WEIB 106.3 Smooth FM. Getting to work at my favorite jazz radio station in Massachusetts was such a blessing and a joy!

Now, I’m focusing on my voice-over career. Thankful for Monica Mathis-Stowe, who was the first author to hire me to narrate an audiobook, and for ACX and Audible.com for making it possible. I’ve now narrated over 100 audiobooks available on Audible, including children’s books, spiritual self-help books, fiction, non-fiction, Teen / YA, and more. Notable self-development audiobooks include: “Oprah”, “Creative Mind and Success”, “As a Woman Thinketh”, “The Game of Life and How To Play It” and “Your Word Is Your Wand”, which was nominated for Voice Arts Awards. In addition, I’ve narrated several Books of the Bible.

I love God, and there came a point in my career when I realized that He was and still is calling me to use my voice… So, I put the on-camera career on the back burner, and my voice-over career took off!

I’ve done voice-overs for UNICEF, AT&T, Make-A-Wish Foundation, Disney, American Red Cross, World Bank, Kellogg’s, Transparency International, Verizon, Digital Impact Alliance, Boost Mobile, World Health Organization, Lego, Philanthropy University, Dr. Oetker, DCFS, UNLV, Pac-12, Free Wheelchair Mission, Daily Celebrity Crossword and more!

I’ve worked as an ADR Celebrity Voice Match Voice Actor for Tyler Perry’s “Acrimony”, an ADR Voice Actor for TV shows such as “The Chi”, “Black Lightning” & “Marvel’s Luke Cage”. I believe the fact that I already had some experience working as an ADR Voice Actor as a child has worked to my advantage as I come with experience… Lots of experience… I was a part of the ADR Loop group for “Dead Man Walking”, “Damages”, “Brooklyn’s Finest”, “Honeydripper”, “Noise” and more.

By the grace of God, the voice-over jobs continue to roll in… I am the voice of Amal in Genndy Tartakovsky’s “Primal” (Cartoon Network Studios), Amhale in Kevin O’Donnell’s “Search and Explore” (ABCmouse), Rachel in “Stop The Bleeding!”, EJ in “Saturday Foursome”, a couple of the Safetyville Kids, Eddie & Miles, in Metro Los Angeles Child Safety cartoons & Amanda Oxendine in the video game “Starfield” just to name a few. Working as an Animation Voice Actor makes me incredibly happy! Such a joy! Such a love! God willing will have more exciting updates for you soon…!!!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
OMG, so many struggles I’ve had to overcome. Check out my book “The Whitest Black Girl You Ever Met” which gets into one of them… I learned at a very young age that I would have to change my voice in order to book the Black parts, a long story… read the book. It’s actually a very short read and ranked #1 New Release in 15-Minute Biography & Memoir Short Reads on Amazon. Honestly, I’m okay switching up my voice cause that’s acting! But it’s also nice when I occasionally get to keep my natural speaking voice for the black & brown characters because as Spiritual Winter in “Actors Anonymous Hotline” Season 1 Episode 14 says, “brown people speak all types of ways.”

Feel free to check out my first interview with VoyageLA for other challenges, like when I booked the lead role of Tiffany on “In The House” starring LL Cool J, Debbie Allen (I would be playing her daughter), Alfonso Ribeiro, Kim Wayans and more. You may think that doesn’t sound like a challenge, but it was because I had the contract and everything but was a minor at the time and before we could get to the courts to finalize the paperwork, the contract was taken away and given to someone else. That’s show business for ya! All I can say is, “All things work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28). Keeping the faith that another big break will come along… God willing I’ll be able to work with them all on some other project in God’s divine time. I really was looking forward to working with them.

Right now, my biggest claim to fame is probably that I was the Host of Nick Jr. I was on TV every day introducing shows such as “Dora The Explorer”, “Bob The Builder” and “Little Bill.” That was truly a dream come true. I also was a live events Host for Radio Disney and performed in National Tours with TheaterWorksUSA. Performing for children and families is always a blast! Thankful for all the agents and talent managers, directors & casting directors, producers, and everyone for believing in me.

But getting back to the challenges, after Nick Jr., I wanted to be on TV again and tried so hard, but no one would hire me. So I started my own production company, brought in award-winning director Larry Rosen DP/Editor Tyrel Jason, found some really talented actors, and created a series of short films pertaining to social issues, and one, “A Pill For Two”, was nominated for seven awards and won me Best Actress Award. Another, “Stuck For A Reason”, was selected for the Northeast Film Festival, Winter Film Awards, “African American Short Films”, aired on ABC, CBS, NBC & FOX and is currently available on Amazon. Thankful for my late uncle for his encouragement.

Now, I get to create opportunities not just for me but for other actors, from newbies to seasoned pros that have been in the entertainment industry for a long time but for some strange reason have been overlooked but are SO SO TALENTED, like hidden gems. 🙂 I see you, I’m rooting for you, and I LOVE you. “Actors Anonymous Hotline” is here to help. <3

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I feel really blessed to be making a solid living as an International Voice Actor. I work with clients in the US, the UK, and all over the world from my home studio in Los Angeles, California, USA providing voice-over services in a variety of accents: Native American, African American, Latin American, Caribbean, African, British, and more. Whether you need a child voice, teen voice, young adult voice or more mature sounds, I’ve got you covered. My voice is very versatile, and people hire me to do little girl voices, kid boy voices, cartoon character voices, video game character voices, commercial voices, etc. Clients also book me as a Bilingual English and Spanish Voice Talent, Trilingual Narrator & I’m also a Multilingual Singer. While VoiceOver is my specialty, there are other services you should know about.

I am still available to work on-camera for anyone that would be open to a 5’2’’ brown female martial artist with a black belt in Karate who is currently training in Nunchaku with US Karate Hall of Famer Eldridge Hawkins, Jr. aka my big brother! 🙂 You may remember seeing me perform martial arts in a Star Wars Target commercial. They found me online. You can too!

My very wide range can be seen in “Actors Anonymous Hotline” where I started out as a young adult and am now a kid again. LoL YAAAAAY!!! It’s also filled with everything from comedy to drama! We are getting into some pretty serious social issues on the show…

I love working on projects that help make the world a better place. If there is some noteworthy cause, I get excited! Happy to entertain simply to entertain, but when I’m able to not only entertain but also help someone’s life improve for the better as a result of my work on the project, that’s what really makes me happy! For example, playing a certain character that inspires people to help others or maybe even finally heal themselves… or simply playing a funny character that makes people smile. Singing songs with seeds of wisdom and using my voice on projects deeply rooted in Love feels right.

Spreading love through the arts is very important, and it’s something I love to do. Hence my albums “Let’s Imagine A World of Love”, “Love Lessons 101” & “Love Lessons 102”. Singing and songwriting is so much fun. It’s like the Holy Spirit leads me and guides me through the creative process. It’s a gift. I love coming up with lyrics and melodies and believe my songwriting specialty is the hook! It’s easy to create a catchy hook to a hot track or even out of thin air! If you need a singer and/or a songwriter, hit me up.

Blessed to have recently worked on “So Silly Symphony”. Was hired to sing the hook, and not only that, they let me create the hook! So much fun working with Kent C. AKA Burnout. The song features Wrekonize and was remixed by Pepe Ortega. Shout out to airgigs.com!

Very blessed to also be working with two beautifully talented funny ladies, Christin Jezak and Sarah Hernandez. We do comedy together on-camera, and it’s SO MUCH FUN! “Neighborhood Watch” is a hoot! More to come…

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Develop a thick skin early on, and if it’s really what you love, KEEP GOING and DO NOT GIVE UP! If it’s really what you love, think outside the box, get creative, and CREATE YOUR OWN OPPORTUNITY! STOP waiting and START CREATING!!! YOU CAN DO IT!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hillaryhawkins.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hillaryhawkins/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/HillAHawk
• Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0370140/