"I've always wanted to voice animated characters." Great, so what's your next step? Well, in order to break into animation voiceover, actors need to understand how to navigate the business of animation voiceover. Casting the right voices for animation projects is a science and for this discussion, two of the best casting directors in animation will share their insights about casting, directing and producing animation, plus much more.
Q&A with Andrea Romano and Meredith Layne. Moderated by James Arnold Taylor.
ANDREA ROMANO has been casting and directing voices for over 30 years. Her credits include a 5 1/2 year stint as casting director at Hanna Barbera, directing Disney's DUCK TALES, RESCUE RANGERS and some seasons of WINNIE THE POOH, many of Universal's LAND BEFORE TIME home videos, Warner Bros. STEVEN SPEILBERG PRESENTS TINY TOONS, ANIMANIACS, PINKY AND THE BRAIN, as well as BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES, SUPERMAN, BATMAN BEYOND, TEEN TITANS, AND JUSTICE LEAGUE, and JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED. Also for Warner Bros., Andrea directed 23 direct to video films in conjunction with DC Comics and Warner Home Video. Her other credits include 3 seasons of “THE BOONDOCKS” for Sony, and “AVATAR, THE LAST AIRBENDER”, THE LEGEND OF KORRA, EL TIGRE, AND SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS for Nickelodeon. Currently direcitng “TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES” “TURBO:FAST”, and ‘PUSS IN BOOTS” series as well as several projects not yet announced.
MEREDITH LAYNE is an Emmy®-award winning casting director that has been in Casting for over 15 years, working in live-action and animation on both feature films and television. She is currently on staff with Nickelodeon Animation, where she casts TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (2013 and 2014 Emmy Award), SANJAY & CRAIG (2014 Emmy nomination), BREADWINNERS, and PIG GOAT BANANA CRICKET, on which she also works as voice director. She has previously worked on KUNG FU PANDA (2012 Emmy Award), PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR (2011 Emmy award), FANBOY & CHUM CHUM (2011 Emmy nomination), and ROBOT & MONSTER (also as voice director). Meredith has previously been on staff with Disney Feature Animation, where she worked with Pixar Animation, and has taught voice-over for DreamWorks Animation. As a member of the Casting Society of America (CSA), she has been nominated fifteen times for the Artios Award for “Excellence in Animation Voice-Over Casting”.
About our Moderator:
James Arnold Taylor is one of the most versatile Voice-Actors in Hollywood today known world-wide within the video game and animation communities, as well as an established event host for Disney, LucasFilm, SquareEnix and the USO.
Voicing cartoon legends such as Fred Flintstone, Huckleberry Hound, Wile E. Coyote, Leonardo the Ninja Turtle, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Johnny Test. James is heard daily on Fox as the voice of Animation Domination, has been featured dozens of times in comedy bits for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, is a voice double for the likes of Johnny Depp, Christopher Walken, Michael J. Fox, Jay Baruchel, Ewan McGregor, to name only a few... he’s even the voice of the Strawberry Mini Wheat!
James also created his own critically acclaimed one man stage show which has toured world- wide called, “Talking to Myself” taking the audience on a fast paced, multi-media ride through the life of a voice-actor where he performs over 200 voices live.
James has been a regular host of the biggest Star Wars conventions and events on the planet; Disney’s Star Wars Weekends, and Star Wars Celebration, interviewing Star Wars royalty such as Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Ian McDiarmid and more. He’s hosted behind the scenes events for Disney, Cartoon Network and LucasFilm.
James is also an advisory board member of the Don LaFontaine Voiceover Lab.
