Meet Andrew Russell of ARussellActor in Burbank

Today we’d like to introduce you to Andrew Russell.

Andrew, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Theatre was always a huge part of my life. I started back in high school (although the theatrics of my personality started much earlier). One day when I was in high school it dawned on me that the video games and animations I loved so much needed people doing the voices… and from then I knew that someday I wanted to be a voice actor somehow.

I studied Musical Theatre at the University of Northern Colorado. While I was training for a future in theatre I started to get back into learning things about the Voice Acting world. By the time I graduated… I had learned quite a bit about the VO world.

After graduation, I dove into the professional world of theatre.. and put the VO world on hold. I worked for about four years.. finishing off with the national Broadway tour of Jersey boys. While on tour, I decided to look back into VO. When I ended the tour, I had already worked on a few VO projects.. then decided to go after it full time. Four years later, here we are!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t think anything important to you as a human will ever be on a smooth road. In fact, sometimes the road doesn’t even exist and you have to pave it yourself.

Being a well-rounded actor is difficult. There isn’t any specific path that is correct.. and something that works for me may not work for someone else in the slightest. So that being said of course I had many struggles along the way as most of us certainly do.. at various levels of my life as well.

For example… in high school, I auditioned for over 30 schools to head to theatre school and didn’t get accepted to any. So I went and studied computer science. After figuring out that wasn’t for me… my girlfriend (now wife) convinced me to go audition for a specific school again. I did. I didn’t get in. I auditioned again six months later… I didn’t get in. I auditioned again six months later.. I got waitlisted but not in. And because enough people that DID get in turned it down… I was able to pursue the path I wanted.

I think the trick isn’t finding the road less traveled or the smoothest road… but starting on the journey not worried about what lies ahead.

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I am an actor… I specialize in Musical Theatre and Voice Acting.. and I am primarily known for my Voice Over Roles in animations, video games and commercials. Most notably the Netflix/Disney animation Miraculous Ladybug as (luka)

I am most proud of the fact that everything I have done for my career has been done because of me and my wife. We have made our way.. and lived while being performers for the past 12 years of our lives. Having the freedom to work and live off of what you love is an amazing gift.

What sets me apart from others is my willingness to not accept barriers. For example, I built my computer from scratch (3 times now), I know the tech behind recording myself both Audio and video… We built our own vocal booth.. and since I am a huge gaming nerd I have a long history of listening/understanding how voices in animations/video games should sound. For the on camera world.. it is the same. I take headshots.. film my own footage and build my own websites. I started a YouTube channel from the ground up so I understand what it takes to do my own editing and promotion.

It’s a lot of work behind the scenes that we do.. that makes us different. Then you add in the difficult work of being an actor.. its a lot in the end.

Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I honestly think with the sheer amount of people in this business it would be naive to think that Luck (good or bad) has a role to play in everything that we do… it’s what you are able to do with that opportunity (luck or not)if it arrives which keeps you working.

One role I’ve gotten in the past I got because another friend of mine suggested me.. after she got the job because another friend of hers turned down the role.. only to find out that the friend who originally turned down the role wasn’t even supposed to be the one that was called to do the role in the first place. So by a mistake or luck of the draw the role made its way to me.

I went to the call back for Jersey Boys across the country in NYC.. for a role that needed to play guitar.. but I didn’t have a guitar.

By luck one of the guys that was auditioning for the same role as me… luckily was still in the audition space and casting asked if I had a guitar…. I didn’t… luckily he was kind and lent his guitar to me. I booked the role the next day.. using my competitions guitar. Luck.

I got another role because I went to a Casting director workshop.. asked that casting director if I could come watch them do what they do.. they said yes. I went in.. they asked if I wanted to jump in the booth and try. I did.. they asked if I could sing.. I can. Then all of the sudden, I was working on a brand new show as a great character.

The list goes on.. luck gets you in the door.. and having the ability to do the work, and also being pleasant to work with will keep the doors open.

Contact Info:

• Website: arussellactor.com
• Email: arussellactor@gmail.com
• Instagram: imAndrewRussell
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/andrewrussellla

Image Credit:
Andrew Russell.. me or my wife Brenna Larsen took all of these 🙂

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