Secrets from Voiceover School

You may never know their names or see their faces, but becoming a go-to voice in Hollywood requires just as much hard work and hustle as making it on the big screen.

Photos by Stuart Palley

It is a Tuesday night in Burbank, and nine students sit across from a microphone-equipped sound booth. There are no desks in this classroom, so students hold white binders on their laps. They open to a page featuring the word “wry.” The teacher asks them to think about what wry sounds like. Most of the students are tanned and beautiful. Maybe you’ve seen them in commercials, or minor television roles. But their good looks matter little when it comes to landing gigs in the field they are training for tonight.

Here, it is all about voice.

Not just the sound, but the tone, inflection, volume, accent and personality that each voice offers. The sign in front of the gray building reads: “Kalmenson & Kalmenson: The Business of Voice Casting.” To get here, you might pass Walt Disney Company Studios, and a business named Bill and Ted's Excellent Ad Ventures. The students here enroll to become the voices behind radio commercials, the announcers on television, the characters…