Meet Allen Chan | Professional Voice Actor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Allen Chan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Allen, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
Both my parents were Chinese-Vietnamese immigrants that worked full time. In my childhood, I spent a lot of time by myself and needed a creative outlet to keep me busy. I occupied my time with so many video games, cartoons, movies, and anime that I knew I wanted to be involved in that space one way or another.

In college, I had my first acting class and fell in love with the craft. It wasn’t until the pandemic/lockdown in 2020 that I had more spare time to chase the creative process. Being isolated with the rest of the world, my creative itch would not let me sit idly by. Not many people were making on-camera movies, so I gave voice acting a try and fell in love with it. I’ve been a professional voice actor since 2021. In a matter of four years, my voice has been heard in the AAA video game “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty”, the popular anime “Kingdom”, and multiple live-action English dubs of popular Asian movies and TV shows.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Being a remote voice actor (not being located in a major entertainment hub city) comes with its benefits and challenges. While I don’t have the ease of access to major recording studios, I do have the benefit of recording remotely from my home studio and not having to worry about travel. In four years, I’ve yet to set foot in a Los Angeles-based recording studio. This doesn’t set me apart necessarily, there are talented individuals all over the world not located in a major entertainment hub. Regardless, I’m incredibly humbled, honored, and proud to achieve as much as I have within such a short time period without being located in Los Angeles.

Originally, my interest was on-camera acting. However, due to a combination of the pandemic and overall lack of success on camera, I shifted my career towards voice acting. The transition came with it’s challenges: I had to learn how to express emotion, how to project, and how to express myself without relying on facial expressions and body language. When you’re behind the microphone, it’s only you and your voice. This took a ton of practice, but it became natural to me as time progressed.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that no voice actor’s journey is alike. There have been times where I felt as if my voice acting career was going nowhere compared to my peers. I had to learn how to not compare myself to others and remind myself that just because I didn’t book the role of a certain character, that other talent voice actors also didn’t book said role. At the end of the day, only one person gets the role and there are many other talented people that fell short as well. There’s a saying in the voice acting industry that if your booking rate is 1-2%, you’re doing just fine. But even then, it’s counterproductive to focus solely on the statistics. My other advice to voice actors at the beginning stages of their career is to not focus on your booking rate, but rather focus on the craft.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’m located in Silicon Valley/The Bay Area/Northern California. I’m blessed with the fact that I’m surrounded by some of best food variety in the world. My personal favorites are Paik’s Noodles located in Santa Clara, Curry Hyuga located in Cupertino, Layang Layang located in Milpitas, and Inka’s Peruvian located in San Jose.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Steve Blum, voice acting icon. He was my first and most meaningful voice acting mentor. At the beginning of my career, I had no idea how to navigate the voice acting industry. His online teaching seminar and Q&As guided me on the right path in making voice acting a career.

Home

Website: https://www.whoisallenchan.com/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/whoisallenchan/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/WhoIsAllenChan

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm9775318