So it felt like back in the day, unless you were one of the big named actors who were in everything (Nolan North, Troy Baker, etc, etc), you were basically unknown to most people. And obviously to an extent, those names are still the most well known.
But I feel like there has been a shift in recent years where a lot of English Voice Actors have started to be way more public with themselves. Like take for example the English cast of Honkai: Star Rail, a lot of the actors in the game are relatively lesser known actors with a few bigger names sprinkled in there. But because of how they interact with the community via Social Media and Streaming, these once lesser known actors are becoming way more visible and well, less unknown.
I've noticed a lot of these folks are people I don't recognize but they are killing it, their work is fantastic and it's great that they are now getting the recognition that they deserve.
Yes, there are some folks who abuse this, but I don't think some bad apples means a lot of good well behaved actors need to all go back into the shadows or something.
And it makes sense a lot of these actors got into streaming, after all, acting isn't a usual 9 to 5 job, you aren't always having a new gig lined up, so it makes sense to do something that can borrow a lot of the similar skills, while also getting your name bigger and potentially leading to more roles. And it's also letting these actors truly show how much they love the roles they are in rather than just being a job you do and then done with. Hell, half of my enjoyment of the English actors of Honkai: Star Rail is the chemistry they have also outside of the game with each other.
Like, I don't think it's controversial to say that half of the reason people have endeared to Luke from SF6 so much is because of his English VA, Aleks Le, doing so much work to make people like the character and now, it feels like Aleks Le is able to get a lot of bigger roles as his name is now becoming way more known.
I think also this will only lead to even more folks getting into acting themselves, which I think can only be a net positive as well. Not to mention, I would... maybe naively think that in a world where increasingly it seems like companies want AI to take over these creative roles, that it's showing the power of having a face behind the characters also being a person themselves.
But I feel like there has been a shift in recent years where a lot of English Voice Actors have started to be way more public with themselves. Like take for example the English cast of Honkai: Star Rail, a lot of the actors in the game are relatively lesser known actors with a few bigger names sprinkled in there. But because of how they interact with the community via Social Media and Streaming, these once lesser known actors are becoming way more visible and well, less unknown.
I've noticed a lot of these folks are people I don't recognize but they are killing it, their work is fantastic and it's great that they are now getting the recognition that they deserve.
Yes, there are some folks who abuse this, but I don't think some bad apples means a lot of good well behaved actors need to all go back into the shadows or something.
And it makes sense a lot of these actors got into streaming, after all, acting isn't a usual 9 to 5 job, you aren't always having a new gig lined up, so it makes sense to do something that can borrow a lot of the similar skills, while also getting your name bigger and potentially leading to more roles. And it's also letting these actors truly show how much they love the roles they are in rather than just being a job you do and then done with. Hell, half of my enjoyment of the English actors of Honkai: Star Rail is the chemistry they have also outside of the game with each other.
Like, I don't think it's controversial to say that half of the reason people have endeared to Luke from SF6 so much is because of his English VA, Aleks Le, doing so much work to make people like the character and now, it feels like Aleks Le is able to get a lot of bigger roles as his name is now becoming way more known.
I think also this will only lead to even more folks getting into acting themselves, which I think can only be a net positive as well. Not to mention, I would... maybe naively think that in a world where increasingly it seems like companies want AI to take over these creative roles, that it's showing the power of having a face behind the characters also being a person themselves.
