Software Design Engineer Jeffrey Kafer parlayed an interest in acting into a part-time career doing voice-overs. His fledgling efforts have already earned him honors.
By Fred Albert
The closet in question is in Kafer’s Monroe, Washington, home. A scant four feet square, it doubles as a recording studio, where the 35-year-old software design engineer in test pursues his dream of becoming a voice-over artist. Poised at a microphone surrounded by sound-deadening sweaters and blankets, he records lines from commercials, films, software, and books, hoping to become the next James Earl Jones or—at the very least—Don Pardo. “I’ve been known to be in my closet for two or three hours every night,” Kafer laughed.
Kafer’s interest in voice-over work was a natural outgrowth of his involvement in theater. He started acting in his teens and participated in community theater and college improv groups for the next 20 years. But as he got older, other responsibilities took precedence. “I got married and had two kids and just couldn’t devote three or four nights a week to rehearsals,” Kafer explained.
Then, five years ago, a sound designer in Microsoft’s FASA Studio asked Kafer to record a video game’s “scratch voice-over”—dialogue that’s used as a placeholder until the professional voice work is added. “I had a blast doing it,” recalled Kafer, who works in the Xbox Game Publishing Group. “One of the sound engineers said, ‘Hey, you’ve got a knack for this stuff. Let me help you make a demo reel.’”
Kafer recorded the audition tape and almost killed his budding voice-over career before it started. “The agents all said, ‘This is terrible. Come back when you’ve learned more,’” he recalled with a shudder. “I put my head down and studied for the next couple of years.”
Kafer listened to other voice-over talent, read books about the field, talked to practitioners, and did some recordings for free until he was more secure in his craft. Several years later, he was ready to cut another demo reel. Shortly after that, he got his first paying gig: the voice of a cartoon character for an Ontario animator’s thesis project. Total pay: $125. “Obviously, I’m not going to be quitting my day job anytime soon,” Kafer laughed.
While talking into a microphone may sound simple, Kafer said the job is not as easy as it looks. “There’s an old adage: The work of voice-over work is getting the work. I audition probably four or five scripts a day, and I’m lucky if I hear from 1 percent of them,” he said. Some of the leads come from agents, others are through his membership in Voices.com, an online marketplace for voice talent.
Once he lands a job, the actual recording—a commercial, for instance—can take as little as 15 minutes. But that doesn’t include the preparation time. Kafer has to drink lots of water to hydrate his vocal cords and avoids salty foods that can dry up his throat. He spends time doing vocal warm-ups, and if it’s a morning recording session, makes sure he gets up well in advance so he doesn’t sound froggy.
So far, Kafer has recorded a commercial for a Florida cable company, done voice work for corporate videos and animation, and even landed an assignment doing narration for a Saudi Arabian gas plant. Regretfully, he hasn’t done any paid voice work for Microsoft yet but hopes to in the future. In the meantime, he runs the Voice-overs at Microsoft alias, sharing advice with other budding voice actors. In February, Kafer beat out thousands of nominees to receive an award as Best New Voice at the annual Voicey Awards—the only awards program exclusively honoring excellence in voice-over work.
“I was really excited,” Kafer gushed. “I had no illusion of winning at all.”
And is it true that’s it’s really an honor just to be nominated?
“Oh, yeah,” Kafer agreed. “But it’s even more of a thrill to win.”
