What is a Voice Actor?
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a voice actor. For example, did you know that they make an average of $31.62 an hour? That's $65,770 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 1% and produce 600 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Voice Actor Do
There are certain skills that many voice actors have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed creativity, memorization skills and physical stamina.
How To Become a Voice Actor
If you're interested in becoming a voice actor, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 64.5% of voice actors have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 9.9% of voice actors have master's degrees. Even though most voice actors have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Voice Actor Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of coach you might progress to a role such as team leader eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title marketing manager.
Average Salary for a Voice Actor
What Am I Worth?
Roles and Types of Voice Actor
There are several types of voice actor, including:
Actor
Role:
Becoming an actor has always gotten a bad rap. Everyone would love to become a famous actor, but not everyone wants to take the time to work on their skills through formal education and long-term training.
It's definitely a profession that you want to be working on a lot so you continue to grow. Actors find jobs in production studios, theaters and even theme parks. So if you don't mind attending audition after audition and a little bit of disappointment, then acting may just be the career for you.
- Average Salary: $53,376
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Cast Member
Role:
Cast members are employees seen at the theatres. In most cases, cast members are actors that entertain and perform in a movie, televised production, or in a theatre. However, more than acting, cast members have different roles. For example, they are usually in charge of security and ensuring that people adhere to the rules.
You may also be in charge of welcoming and serving guests and providing a clean and safe entertainment environment. Your responsibilities are to provide customers with exceptional entertainment, assist customers with special needs, address customer's complaints or concerns, replenish condiments and other supplies at the table and other serving areas, clear and clean tables, trays, and chairs. You are also to balance cash and record sales
For this job, you need a bachelor's degree. More than that, you must be team-oriented, energetic, friendly, and outgoing. You should possess superior skills, enjoy working in a fast-paced guest environment and be available to work late on weekends and some late weeknights. The average annual salary of a cast member is $34,763.
- Average Salary: $29,039
- Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Double
Role:
A double, a stunt double, or a stunt performer, is a trained individual who performs stunts for television and movies. Their duties include following safety procedures, studying scripts, ensuring that safety gear is functional, and actually performing the often dangerous act instead of the regular actor.
- Average Salary: $51,745
- Degree: High School Diploma
States With The Most Voice Actor Jobs
Number Of Voice Actor Jobs By State
| Rank | State | Number of Jobs | Average Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illinois | 10 | $77,170 |
| 2 | Virginia | 6 | $65,425 |
| 3 | California | 5 | $98,487 |
| 4 | New Jersey | 5 | $77,818 |
| 5 | Arizona | 5 | $64,087 |
| 6 | Pennsylvania | 5 | $57,762 |
| 7 | North Carolina | 5 | $57,180 |
| 8 | Florida | 4 | $67,941 |
| 9 | Alabama | 4 | $50,744 |
| 10 | Massachusetts | 3 | $90,848 |
| 11 | Maryland | 3 | $88,316 |
| 12 | Ohio | 3 | $81,531 |
| 13 | Texas | 3 | $73,749 |
| 14 | Minnesota | 3 | $58,715 |
| 15 | Rhode Island | 2 | $91,744 |
| 16 | Utah | 2 | $73,618 |
| 17 | New York | 2 | $77,913 |
| 18 | South Dakota | 2 | $66,003 |
| 19 | Tennessee | 2 | $66,263 |
| 20 | Georgia | 2 | $65,765 |
| 21 | Colorado | 2 | $63,238 |
| 22 | Michigan | 1 | $84,399 |
| 23 | Kentucky | 1 | $70,967 |
| 24 | Iowa | 1 | $70,671 |
| 25 | Missouri | 1 | $73,631 |
| 26 | Oregon | 1 | $72,073 |
| 27 | Indiana | 1 | $57,135 |
| 28 | Washington | 1 | $54,954 |
| 29 | Alaska | 0 | $122,808 |
| 30 | Connecticut | 0 | $92,079 |
| 31 | New Hampshire | 0 | $89,385 |
| 32 | Delaware | 0 | $89,762 |
| 33 | Vermont | 0 | $86,526 |
| 34 | Nevada | 0 | $84,195 |
| 35 | North Dakota | 0 | $82,743 |
| 36 | West Virginia | 0 | $80,966 |
| 37 | New Mexico | 0 | $75,918 |
| 38 | Mississippi | 0 | $74,886 |
| 39 | Nebraska | 0 | $71,995 |
| 40 | Louisiana | 0 | $71,698 |
| 41 | South Carolina | 0 | $68,560 |
| 42 | Hawaii | 0 | $76,059 |
| 43 | Kansas | 0 | $66,794 |
| 44 | Maine | 0 | $66,804 |
| 45 | Arkansas | 0 | $64,860 |
| 46 | Oklahoma | 0 | $65,268 |
| 47 | Montana | 0 | $64,554 |
| 48 | Wisconsin | 0 | $60,360 |
| 49 | Idaho | 0 | $51,087 |
| 50 | Wyoming | 0 | $47,774 |
Top Skills For a Voice Actor
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 13.4% of voice actors listed public speaking on their resume, but soft skills such as creativity and memorization skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Voice Actor Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Voice Actor templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Voice Actor resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Voice Actor diversity
Voice Actor Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among voice actors, 29.2% of them are women, while 70.8% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among voice actors is White, which makes up 56.7% of all voice actors.
- The most common foreign language among voice actors is Spanish at 31.9%.
Online Courses For Voice Actor That You May Like
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2. VOICE ACTING MASTERCLASS FOR AUDIOBOOKS AND NARRATIONS
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3. Voice-Over Marketing: Get More Voice Over Jobs in Less Time!
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How Do Voice Actors Rate Their Jobs?
Top Voice Actor Employers
Most Common Employers For Voice Actor
| Rank | Company | Average Salary | Hourly Rate | Job Openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fiverr | $127,092 | $61.10 | 2 |
| 2 | Dreamscape Immersive | $120,792 | $58.07 | 2 |
| 3 | Independent Contractor | $105,632 | $50.78 | 4 |
| 4 | Rockstar Games | $105,313 | $50.63 | 3 |
| 5 | UFG Insurance | $91,278 | $43.88 | 1 |
| 6 | Hofstra University | $90,556 | $43.54 | 2 |
| 7 | DreamWorks Animation | $90,403 | $43.46 | 1 |
| 8 | Ranker | $81,895 | $39.37 | 1 |
| 9 | The Walt Disney Company | $70,132 | $33.72 | 2 |
| 10 | Stewart Talent | $69,266 | $33.30 | 2 |