How to get into voice acting: training, home setup, demos and first auditions

To get into voice acting, train as an actor first, learn to work a microphone and read copy, set up a quiet place to record, and start auditioning on open platforms with a short demo once you have a few strong, contrasting reads. No degree is required, and most beginners book their first work in audiobooks, indie games and animation, or small commercial and corporate jobs before moving toward union work and an agent.

Voice acting is acting with the voice alone, for a character or to give information to an audience (Wikipedia). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counts it as part of acting: some actors do voiceover or narration for animated features, audiobooks and other electronic media, and while "a formal education isn't always required," most actors get some training and many keep taking workshops and coaching throughout their careers (BLS).

The order matters. Acting skill, then mic skill, then a clean recording space, then a demo, then auditions at volume. Doing them out of order, especially paying for a demo first, is the expensive mistake to avoid.

"Voice acting" covers several different jobs, and each one is cast and paid differently. Wikipedia's overview lists these main kinds (Wikipedia):

• Commercials. TV spots usually want a flatter, conversational read; radio, especially local radio, is often more exaggerated.
• Character work. Animation and video games, plus unseen roles in live action such as a radio dispatcher or a computer voice.
• Narration. Audiobooks, documentaries, corporate and e-learning videos.
• Dubbing and voice-over translation. Replacing original dialogue in another language, or reading a translation over audio that stays audible.
• ADR and recorded prompts. On-screen actors re-recording dialogue after the shoot (looping), and transit announcements or phone hold messages.

For a newcomer, the realistic entry points are the ones with open, online casting that anyone can audition for: audiobooks through ACX, indie animation and game projects on community casting sites, and small commercial, explainer and corporate jobs on marketplace sites (all covered below).

1. Take an acting class, not just a voice class. Interpreting copy is acting: who are you talking to, what do you want, what just happened. A scene study or beginners' class builds that faster than any microphone. See Arlo's guide to acting classes for beginners.
2. Add a voiceover class or workshop. Look for one where every student gets real time on a microphone with direction. Arlo's voiceover classes in Los Angeles page lists schools whose own pages name voiceover, with stated prices and schedules.
3. Read out loud every day. Ads, a novel's first page, game dialogue. Record it and note what sounds read rather than spoken.
4. Build a quiet recording corner (next section). You will need it for auditions long before you need a demo.
5. Pick a lane to start. Commercial reads are what most casting sites expect first (School of Voiceover); audiobooks suit people who can sustain long reads; character work suits strong improvisers.
6. Make a short demo only when you have three great, contrasting reads (see the demo section below).
7. Audition at volume. Set a weekly number and keep it. Track what you sent, to whom, and what came back.
8. Keep training and look toward the union and an agent once you are booking regularly.

Open platforms like the ones below take auditions as audio files you record yourself, so the space you record in matters as much as your read. You do not need a professional booth to start, but you do need quiet and a dead, non-echoing sound.

• Start with the room. In ACX's narrator stories, one narrator in a noisy apartment building found a closet worked better than an open room, and treated it by "hanging packing blankets and winter coats in my closet" (ACX Blog).
• Hunt down noise. The same post lists the usual culprits: a ticking clock, the refrigerator, window AC units, barking dogs, passing trucks and computer fans. Laptop fans that cycle on and off are a common one; keep them away from the mic.
• Spend on quiet, not on prestige. One narrator found his cheap microphone was producing most of his noise floor; another says "it wasn't necessary to buy the most expensive equipment available" (ACX Blog). A quiet mic and an interface with a decent preamp matter most.
• Check on several speakers. Listen to your recordings on headphones, laptop speakers and a phone to hear what is missing or too strong.

A useful benchmark is ACX's published standard for audiobook files, which is stricter than most auditions need: every file between -23 dB and -18 dB RMS, peaks below -3 dB, a noise floor below -60 dB RMS, MP3 at 192 kbps or higher constant bit rate, 44.1 kHz (ACX Audio Submission Requirements). If your corner can hit a noise floor below -60 dB, it is good enough to audition from. ACX also requires plosives, mic pops, mouth noise and mouse clicks to be removed, which is a fair standard for any audition you send.

A demo is a short reel of your best reads that casting sites, clients and eventually agents listen to before they hear an audition. The warning every source here gives beginners is not to pay for one too early. School of Voiceover's rule: "Do NOT try to create a full demo until you can have three great clips that are authentic and different from one another" (School of Voiceover). Its guidance for a first commercial demo:

• Commercial first. The first samples of your work are expected to be commercial; other demo types "come later, and don't matter as much."
• Length. A full commercial demo is 56 to 64 seconds of clips, "closer to :60 is better." A typical clip runs 6 to 11 seconds, with no more than two long clips.
• Clip count. Start with 3 to 5 contrasting clips; a 3 to 4 clip short demo can stand in for a full one in many situations. In a survey of professionals it cites, the average was 6.7 tracks.
• Order. Open with a real-person speech pattern in the first three seconds, and make each clip contrast with the one before. Listeners judge you on the first three clips.
• Cost. At home you can license music for a demo for under $10. Professionally produced demos that cost $1,500 to $4,000 make sense for working talent in top markets, but the same article calls expensive beginner demos "a common scam."

Write your own short copy rather than lifting real ads. If a class bundles a demo with enrollment, ask whether you can take the class without it.

Open platforms are where most new voice actors get their first auditions. They work differently, so read each one's current terms before you pay for anything.

• ACX (audiobooks). Amazon's audiobook marketplace. You create a narrator profile with samples that show your range, search for titles, and record an audition to the rights holder's notes. If you agree terms, you narrate and produce the book, it goes through ACX quality assurance, and it is distributed through Amazon, Audible and iTunes (ACX).
• Casting Call Club (indie character work). The site says it "is free for both talent and talent seekers," and lists typical work as character roles in indie animation, games, fan dubs and audio dramas. It is candid that most roles are unpaid passion projects (Casting Call Club). Good for practice, credits and learning to deliver files on deadline.
• Marketplace sites (commercial, corporate, e-learning). On Voice123, for example, clients post a project with a script, invite voice actors whose profiles match, receive custom auditions, and can negotiate rates directly; its secure payment service holds funds until delivery (Voice123). Membership plans and fees vary by site and change, so compare them before signing up.

Red flags on any site: a role that asks you to pay to audition, a "casting" contact who requires you to buy their class or demo package, or a client who wants a finished, usable recording as the audition. California's talent-scam law limits charging performers for the chance of an audition or a job, as Arlo's casting workshops guide explains.

Audiobook narration is where a beginner can most realistically go from no credits to a released, paid title, but it is more work than it looks. On ACX the narrator is also the producer, responsible for the finished audio from recording through mastering (ACX).

• Time. ACX estimates about 2 hours of recording, 3 hours of editing and 1.2 hours of quality checking per finished hour, 6.2 hours in total; new narrators generally need 5 to 7 hours (ACX Help).
• Length. Narrators average about 9,300 words per finished hour, so a 90,000-word novel comes to roughly 10 finished hours, or about 60 hours of your time at ACX's estimate.
• Pay-for-Production. A one-time fee at the per-finished-hour rate you agree at the start, paid when the rights holder approves the book (How royalties work).
• Royalty Share. No upfront fee; you split net royalties with the rights holder, paid monthly, for 7 years only, and the book must be distributed exclusively. Under ACX's new model (from May 26, 2026) the producer's share is 25%, up from 20% under the legacy model, which ACX is discontinuing at year-end.
• Royalty Share Plus. A reduced per-finished-hour fee plus a royalty split. If the rate is at least $100 per finished hour, the deal can carry AFTRA Health & Retirement contributions, paid through a designated paymaster.

Divide any per-finished-hour rate by six or seven to see what it pays per hour of your work. Royalty Share can pay well on a book that sells and very little on one that does not, so check the title's sales signals before committing 60 hours to it.

There is no official pay figure for voice actors alone. The BLS figure for all actors is a median of $29.05 an hour in May 2025, with the lowest 10% under $16.50 and the highest 10% over $143.68; it projects little or no change in actor employment from 2025 to 2035 and notes that artificial intelligence may replace some actors in certain subfields (BLS). Expect voice income to be irregular, project by project, for years.

For non-union quotes, many voice actors check the GVAA Rate Guide from Global Voice Acting Academy. It is free but requires a sign-up, and GVAA says it is informational only and reflects ranges seen in the market: "You alone decide what you charge" (GVAA). Whatever you quote, settle three things in writing: the fee, where and how long the recording will be used (usage), and how many revisions are included.

SAG-AFTRA is the U.S. union for screen and voice performers, and it has been central to how AI is handled in voice contracts. Voice actors and motion capture performers under its video game (interactive media) agreements struck from July 26, 2024 to July 9, 2025, mainly over AI; members ratified the new agreement with 95.04% in favor, and it adds consent and disclosure requirements for AI digital replicas and three years of guaranteed wage increases (Wikipedia). Check sagaftra.org directly for current eligibility, fees and contract terms; this guide does not state them because the union's site was not readable when it was written.

• Members get free booth time in LA. The SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Don LaFontaine Voiceover Lab at 5757 Wilshire Blvd. is free for SAG-AFTRA members, Monday to Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. PT, with directed sessions in a main booth or solo booths. A virtual lab offers 50-minute remote sessions and help with home setups (SAG-AFTRA Foundation).
• Agents come later. Build a body of work and a demo you are proud of before you approach one; until then, consistent auditioning on open platforms is the job.
• Watch the AI clauses. ACX requires human narration and prohibits unauthorized text-to-speech or AI recordings (ACX). On any non-union job, read whether the client can use your recordings to train or build a synthetic voice, and do not sign that away by accident.

Every platform above casts online, so you can start from anywhere. Being in LA adds in-person classes with real booth time and, once you are a member, free sessions at the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's lab on Wilshire.

• Compare voiceover classes, prices and schedules on Arlo's voiceover classes in Los Angeles page, and ask to watch a session first; Arlo's guide to auditing an acting class covers what to ask.
• For broader acting training, see the LA acting class price guide and the improv guide; improv is a common foundation for character and animation work.
• If you want practice copy or a piece to read aloud, find monologues and scenes on Offbook rather than copying text from random sites.