“In whatever industry you may be in, I encourage everyone to embrace their individuality and uniqueness. Through that process of self-acceptance, you will not only be able to find your authentic voice, but you will also find a new fulfillment and confidence that will resonate beyond what you thought was initially achievable.” These words helped Fremont resident J.R. Guzmán find his footing in his journey as a bilingual voice actor.
When he first took classes at UC San Diego, Guzmán focused most of his efforts towards pursuing classes for his double major in Psychology and International Studies. Towards the end of his studies, he took an “Intro to Acting” class, which inspired him to pursue a career that not only utilized his double major effectively, but also satisfied his creative itch. This led him to find voiceover classes in VoiceOne, located in San Francisco and improv classes in Made Up Theatre, located in Fremont.
Since then, he has partnered with an agency in San Francisco to help provide a range of bright and clear voices in both English and Spanish for material such as eLearning, live announcements, video games and promos.
“I originally had this falsity in my mind that I needed to train my voice to sound like that ‘mainstream guy’ voice that we often hear in commercials and on the radio,” Guzmán says, looking back at when he first started voiceover work. “My natural conversational voice is actually more higher-pitched and doesn’t fit into that stereotypical archetype that I thought I had to sound like.”
In June 2024, Guzmán was contacted to record a radio promo spot titled “Fantasmas: A New HBO Series on Max”. According to his producer, he was specifically selected to provide a “higher pitched bilingual Spanish-speaking Latino” who could capture the quirky essence and cultural heritage of the show within the spot.
This direction helped Guzmán be recognized by the Society of Voice Arts Awards & Sciences (SOVAS), as they nominated him on their annual entertainment industry awards show for Outstanding Radio Promo – Best Voiceover. The awards ceremony was hosted at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles in December 2024, and Guzmán ended up winning an award for his work, his first SOVAS win.
“To know that I was selected precisely because of my Mexican-American identity and non-stereotypical mainstream male voiceprint was so surreal to me,” Guzmán says, looking back at when he got the award. “We can usually be our own worst critic, but the truth is that people actually want variety in their voices.”
He continues, “Companies look for all sorts of specific voices for their projects, like maybe they’ll need an Asian voice, or a tech-geek one or a deep gravelly sounding one… long story short, there are all sorts of opportunities for people aspiring to be voice actors. Besides, if everyone has the same type of voice, we wouldn’t have any diversity and nothing would stand out.”
During Spring 2025, Guzmán has plenty of voice acting opportunities lined up, especially as a Live Announce voice actor, which is work usually heard during awards shows and conferences. He looks forward to finding more voiceover projects that allow him to expand his range, including collaborations with other voice actors as well.
Check out his work on his official website at www.jrguzmanvo.com and social media platforms like X or Instagram under the username @jrguzmanvo.
