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Meet Michelle Marie

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Michelle Marie.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Michelle. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I am a bilingual professional voice actress, lyricist and singer, originally hailing from Oregon, but moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams, dreams that started at a very young age.

When I was three, my parents took me to see my very first musical and while watching it, I knew I wanted to be an actress. Even though I grew up in a small town, the love and support of the arts was huge. Our Performing Arts Center was and still is an integral part of our community. I studied acting there up until I was a teen and participated in community theater and musicals as well. Around the same time, I discovered the world of voice acting. Three voice actresses in particular, Kira Buckland, Laura Bailey, and Sandy Fox, sparked my initial inspiration and I started working on online voice acting projects just for fun, mostly with my friends. Strangely enough, this was when and how my husband and I first met. It was also around this time that I discovered Japanese Pop music and I became so fascinated I began to teach myself Japanese by memorizing the lyrics and looking up their meanings. I created my YouTube channel and began uploading English and Japanese covers of these songs.

After high school, I decided I needed to focus on trying to find a “real” career. I thought about being a translator and ended up living in Japan for two years to formally learn Japanese. I changed my mind again after graduating college and decided I wanted to be a teacher. I began working at a Japanese Immersion Preschool but after a year, I missed my family too much and moved back to Oregon. It was around this time that I collaborated with my friend Ryan (Static-P) and together we wrote and sang the song “It’s Not Like I Like You,” a parody about a popular anime archetype called the Tsundere. So far, the song has reached over 22 million views on YouTube and I really don’t understand how that happened! Working on something creative just for fun again reawakened the spark that I thought had died. I decided I could not ignore my love of voice acting anymore and began auditioning for professional online projects. I started working a full-time job at the same time in order to jump-start my savings.

Then, during May 2017, I decided to fly to Los Angeles and take a voice acting class. That class changed my life. I had never felt more like myself in my entire life than when I was behind that mic. I knew instantly I had to move to LA and be a voice actor as soon as possible.

On May 6th, 2018, I got married in Oregon and then a week later moved to LA with my husband. On May 21st, I submitted my demo reel (an audio file that showcases my acting) to a local studio and on May 24th, I received my first audition. I literally screamed when I saw it in my inbox! Then, on June 1st, I received another email telling me I had booked the role. Her name was Puff Rusher. She was energetic, cute, and had a voice, my voice! I was so nervous during that session that when the audio engineer handed me the headphones and told me I could adjust the volume knob, I inwardly vowed that I definitely would not touch that knob because it would break and then they would never hire me again. I have been given so many amazing opportunities so far that I still feel like I’m dreaming sometimes. This is what three years old me knew she was born to do and she was right.

Great, 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?
Middle school and high school were really rough on my self-confidence. I was picked on a lot, being called names like fat and ugly, and was often told I sounded like a baby because of my voice, not only by my peers but from adults I trusted as well. I hated myself. I wanted to disappear. Voice acting and singing helped me cope, but because I had low self-esteem, I decided I was not good enough. I actually gave up on my dream to be an actress for almost six years.

I think the biggest struggle voice actors face in general is the fact that no matter where you are in your career, nothing is 100% certain, except taxes, those are always certain. The job ends when the script ends and then you wait and audition and hope you have enough money in between bookings to cover your expenses. A lot of people have survival jobs for this reason. I am one of them. Voice over work often happens during the day so I have to work my day job at night. Juggling my survival job hours with my recording hours was very stressful when I first moved here and it was a bit defeating to work at my survival job when I didn’t have any sessions. Thankfully, I had kind friends and a loving husband to support me.

There is also A LOT of waiting involved as a voice actor and this can cause a lot of that uncertainty I mentioned. Even if I send in my demo reel to different studios, they might not email me back. Just because I send in an audition I feel good about, it does not guarantee that I will be cast. I had a lot of moments of self-doubt and lots and lots of tears. Since a voice actor’s job is to take on the emotions and thoughts of others, we have to be able to enter an extremely vulnerable place within ourselves in order for these thoughts and feelings to be realistic. It can be hard sometimes not to feel crushed or take things personally when I don’t book something. That is why it is so important to have a life outside of voice over which I am doing my best to achieve. I signed up for my first fencing class with my husband and I am so excited!!!

We’d love to hear more about your work and what you are currently focused on. What else should we know?
I specialize in children’s voices, high energy characters, or those that have a dual personality of sorts. So far I have been most often cast as characters I lovingly call the “smols”: young or physically small girl characters, often spunky, and/or who stab someone. Yeah….I don’t know what that says about me exactly. Hopefully, nothing bad. Characters like Millium Orion in Trails of Cold Steel III, Niffty in Hazbin Hotel, Fizel in Sword Art Online: Alicization, and Mirai Hatada in Crystar… they all stab someone. Although Millium is a special case because she is turned into a sword first and then stabs someone. Want to know the funniest thing about all this though? I am actually 5’11’’ in real life, not “smol” at all! This is why voice over is so much fun! Sometimes I decide to cosplay the characters I voice and that is also really fun too!

While I love all the characters I voice, there are three that are very significant to me personally. The first being Toki, The Crested Ibis from the anime Kemono Friends. Toki is a bird who speaks softly and carries a very loud and horrible singing voice. I remember seeing her picture on the audition side and instantly knowing how I wanted to portray her. I had so much fun singing badly on purpose! For the first time, I felt like a real voice actor.

Another character that is really important to me is Belle from the game Vindictus. Even though she is so tiny, Belle swings a giant axe and is a snarky powerhouse. She is basically me if I were a playable video game character but shorter. When I was recording for her, I had so much artistic freedom and I got to say so many sassy lines! It was probably the most “me” I have ever put into a character so far!

The last role that I want to highlight is Viridia Magna, an Earth deity from the game Shadowverse, who keeps creating and destroying the world. She was the first character I booked with a lower voice and a more serious attitude. I was a bit nervous during the session, but I’m so glad I was given the opportunity because it proved to me that I am capable of voicing more mature characters. I hope I have the opportunity to voice more in the future!

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Life can be scary sometimes so I think persevering and being brave are important qualities for any type of success, not just voice acting. Being brave enough to go toward that dream you really want with all your heart without knowing if it will work or not. Being brave enough to take a detour in order to survive in the meantime while you find a different way to reach your goals. Being brave enough to listen to that little voice in your head instead of to the big voices around you.

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