Ratana smiles before going into her next voiceover role.
Ratana is a voice actor and performance coach. She has performed in numerous commercials, video games, animated features, and educational projects. You can hear her in Genshin Impact, Trese, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Fire Emblem Heroes, Fallout76: Wastelanders DLC, Shadowhunters, Smite, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim and Marvel’s Avengers. She also coaches voice actors as they embark on their creative journeys. As a brand strategy coach and consultant, Ratana uses her expertise in branding and product development to help creative entrepreneurs discover and communicate their brands authentically in order to establish and grow their presence. Ratana talked with Forbes about her career journey through voice acting and entertainment.
Goldie Chan: Hello Ratana. What has your career path been?
Ratana: I’ve had many lives as a professional. My career started in management and systems consulting, took me to grad school, which led me to brand management and product development. All the while, I loved theater, animation and musicals, and ultimately discovered voice acting through a good friend who was studying the craft.
As someone who grew up loving cartoons and animated films, finding voiceover was like finding a true love. I started taking VO classes, and then augmented my education with improv, acting, singing, performance capture, dance, and anything else that I thought would help make me a stronger performer.
I did this while maintaining a pretty demanding 9-to-5 marketing job. At one point, the company I worked for announced they were eliminating my division, and my job eventually disappeared. I interviewed for other corporate jobs and though they made offers, I kept wanting to follow my voice acting dreams. I knew if I didn’t take the leap now I would never do it. So I took a severance package, turned down the other offers and pursued freelance actor life full-time.
That was nearly 11 years ago. It hasn’t always been easy, but I am proud that I took a leap of faith and bet on myself.
Chan: What has been your favorite project that you’ve worked on?
Ratana: I like to borrow a line from the legendary voice actor Rob Paulsen, who says his favorite project is “the next one.” :) Some of my favorite past projects span the breadth of my career(s) like providing the English voice for Leonie in the Fire Emblem game franchise, and Yae Miko in Genshin Impact. Being a part of the cast of Trese, the very first Filipino anime developed for a worldwide audience for Netflix. Getting to write and produce content for corporate clients, and then coaching their speakers on how to deliver that content. Coaching emerging voice actors and creative entrepreneurs on using their voice and building their businesses.
Chan: How would you describe your personal brand?
Ratana: Disney Princess with an MBA. I’m a cheerleader for creativity and entrepreneurship. I describe myself as a pragmatic optimist. If you ask Twitter, they’ll probably say I’m the Auntie or Big Sis with the Dad Jokes.
Chan: What are you currently working on?
Ratana: Auditioning for my next gig. The truth is, for many of us, our current work is under wraps, sealed with NDAs. And we probably can’t talk about those projects for months - or even years. So my current / everyday life is comprised of auditions, keeping in touch with past, present and future collaborators and trying to carve out time to be with my family, chosen family and pup.
Chan: What is a dream role you’d like to do?
Ratana: Oooh, this is such a meaty question. As an actor, I have a number of ‘dream roles’ and projects I’d love to be a part of, including the way I describe my own brand. As a creative entrepreneur, I’m working towards some of my dream projects right now - namely writing a book or piece of content that allows me to share what I’ve learned with others on a wider scale than a daily tweet. Some dreams are more concrete than others; I’m taking the time now to figure out what form this ‘content’ dream will take.
Chan: What is your favorite part of your community?
Ratana: As a voice actor, the best part of this community is our sincere, heartfelt collegiality. We offer each other support and advice. We cheer each other on - even when we’ve auditioned for the same roles!
Chan: What makes an audio-based story come alive?
Ratana: A great story draws us in and takes us on a journey - whether it’s fiction or non-fiction, we stop what we are doing and pay attention. That is NOT an easy thing to do in a world where we are rewarded for swiping and scrolling incessantly.
Stories begin with the writing - we can’t do what we do without a clear narrative to bring to life. Sound design - engineering, foley, sound effects, music, VO and more - help create a sonic world that support the storytelling.
Voiceover is just a small piece of this puzzle. As a voice actor, our job is to paint a picture with our performance so that you as the listener immediately get who the character is, what they want, where they are and what they are doing. Our voices do the job that the face and body do in theater or on film.
Chan: Any last branding or career advice for people looking to get into voiceover work for this year?
Ratana: I tell all emerging voice actors the same thing: Voice acting is acting. It’s more than having a pretty speaking voice or imitating funny voices. It is a skill, and a craft you can cultivate and work on. Take a class - acting, improv, voiceover, singing, movement - so you can try different things and build your skills. Practice. And don’t invest in a demo until you’re ready.
Part of building a brand as a voice actor is based on the above - once you know what you’re really good at, and get clear on some of your own dream roles or clients, then you can start to communicate that to others. You get to tell the story of who you are, how you show up and how you’d like to work with others.
