Debi Derryberry, who is the voice of boy genius Jimmy Neutron, realized that being a good on-screen actor doesn't guarantee that you'll be good at voice over work. Photo credit: Chris Ameruoso; Jimmy Neutron image courtesy of Nickelodeon.

Debi Derryberry
Possessing one of the most unique children's voices around, Debi is the voice of the precocious Jimmy Neutron on both the big and small screens. She has racked up an impressive list of feature and TV credits, including the original Toy Story and its sequel as Weenie, and Catrina on Oswald the Octopus and Betty in Clifford.

I have been in the voice over business for 15 years. When I first began to work in voice over, I did office work to make ends meet. As I became more established and started working more in VO, I was able to quit the part time office jobs and was surprised to find that I was able to make a really good living working in voice over. In fact, I have little time to do anything else since I have auditions almost everyday and need to be available every weekday just in case a job comes up.

I realized that the voice over community is very small. The women that I seem to work and audition with for children's voices, are the same small group over and over again. In animation, there seems to be this core group of people who book most of the work. Hundreds of people audition for each cartoon, but the fact remains, that there is almost always the same group of people that get the jobs. This is interesting since when we audition, the producers and casting directors don't usually know who we are since they only hear the recorded audition and don't see us.

I also realized after having worked with dozens of on-camera celebrities as guest stars on cartoons, that being an "on-camera" actor doesn't guarantee that you are going to be a good "voice over" actor. Some actors who do both well that I have worked with are: Tim Curry, Patrick Stewart, Larraine Neuman, John Astin, Fred Savage and Mark Hamill, to name a few.

Shayna Fox, who is the voice of Reggie in Rocket Power, learned that a good voice actor gives her whole heart, and not just her voice, to a character. Photo credit: Atilla Azodi; Rocket Power image courtesy of Nickelodeon.

Shayna Fox
A freshman at UC Santa Barbara, Shayna balances college with voice work as Reggie in Nickelodeon's Rocket Power. A naturally gifted athlete in tennis and karate, Shayna chose to pursue on-screen acting and voice work. She has also found time to produce and direct two videos, the award-winning Ten Minute Run and On Growing Older. Shayna's vocal work will be featured in a full-length TV movie, Reggie's Big Break, airing July 26, 2003 on Nick.

When I first started doing voice over work, I didn't know how much commitment it entailed. The more time I spent in the studio, the more I realized how important it is to put my whole heart into every recording session. It is my job to give the character life. I learned that the audience's ability to feel the character's persona depends on how much energy and fervor I invest into the line readings. Also, if I am hesitant in how I deliver a line, the character will appear hesitant and her emotions unclear. Therefore, I try to be specific in the emotion my voice is conveying. I also find that it is better to be over the top and have the director bring me down, as opposed to under-acting in voice over. Most importantly, when I walk into an audition or a job, I bring three things with me: confidence, a positive attitude and my voice!