How to Audition for an Animated Series or Cartoon Voice Role

The audition arrives as a single page. At the top there’s a drawing of a small, round creature in goggles that are far too big for it. Under that, a one-line description, five lines of dialogue, a file-naming rule, and a deadline of tomorrow at noon. Nobody tells you what the show is about, who the other characters are, or what happened in the scene before.

That’s an animation audition. It looks like commercial voiceover, because you record it alone at a microphone, but it asks for something different. You aren’t selling a product to one listener. You’re creating a character who doesn’t exist yet, inside a scene you’ve never seen, from a drawing and a handful of lines.

The short version: read everything in the packet, including the lines that aren’t yours, and treat the drawing as a director’s note. Build the voice from the character’s truth, not from a funny sound, and make sure you can keep it up for hours. Play it bigger than you would on camera, but keep it honest. Add the breaths, efforts, and reactions the scene implies. Then follow the take, slate, and file instructions to the letter, and send takes that are clearly different from each other.

Why animation isn’t the same as commercial voiceover

A commercial audition is about the copy: what it’s selling and who it’s talking to. Our guide to voiceover auditions walks through that process with one script. An animation audition is about a person, or a mole, or a talking teapot, and what that character wants in this moment. It’s acting first, with your voice as the only tool.

The voice casting director Linda Lamontagne, whose credits include Invincible and Family Guy, told Variety that animation is different casting because she has to rely so much on the voice. She also said she tries to stay true to what the script says first. So your first job is the same as in any scene: understand the character on the page.

Speed matters too. In a write-up of her Variety interview, Lamontagne explains that TV animation is largely cast by offer, because the cast has to be set quickly: the animators work from a recording of the voices, like a radio play. So when a role does go out for auditions, the people listening may be filling several parts from the same pile of reads.

Read everything in the packet, not just your lines

Animation sides vary wildly. A SAG-AFTRA Foundation workshop description by the voice actor Steve Tardio, on cracking animation audition sides, notes that some sides come with character art, a project summary, tone notes, and a bio, while others give you a few lines and one sentence of direction. Either way, you’re hunting for the same clues: personality, age, emotional life, rhythm, point of view, and where the voice sits.

Read the whole packet before you say a word. In a guest post on Cathy Riso’s blog, the voice actor Julie Maddelena Kliewer, whose credits include Monster High, advises reading everything you’re sent, including the other characters’ lines and any notes from producers or casting. Details outside your own lines often tell you what the scene is. She also suggests circling the words in the description that build the character’s frame.

When something important is missing, ask. The voice actor Dee Bradley Baker, on his free site’s page about auditioning well, says to ask before you audition if specifics are missing. If you can’t get answers, he says you have to make your best guess about context and timing. Our advice: once you’ve guessed, play that choice fully rather than hedging.

For a fuller method on any set of sides, our guide to breaking down audition sides covers objectives, beats, and what to mark.

Treat the drawing as a director’s note

When the packet includes character art, it’s the closest thing you have to a director standing next to you. Kliewer suggests comparing your voice to the character picture before you choose a sound. Look at it the way a designer would: size, age, posture, the shape of the mouth, how the character holds its weight, and what the costume says about status.

Then let those details point you to choices. Baker’s page on bringing your read to life lists the dials you can turn: age, status, accent or dialect, your relationship to the other characters, and where the sound sits, in the mouth, throat, or nose. A tiny creature in huge goggles might suggest a quick, forward, slightly nasal placement. A hulking guard might sit low in the chest. These are starting points to test, not rules.

Truth first, sound second

The trap is building the voice from the outside. The voice actor Steph Lynn Robinson, in a trade-magazine column she later reposted on her own site, warns against “acting”: a funny voice that isn’t rooted in truth. A useful test is to say one line in your own voice and play the intention fully, then add the character’s placement on top. If the line goes dead when the voice arrives, the voice is in charge, not the character.

Pick a voice you can keep

Kliewer adds a practical warning: choose a voice you can sustain over long sessions and still vary for emotion. A strained gravel or a squeak at the top of your range might survive five lines but not a four-hour record. Before you commit, read the sides three times in a row in the voice, then shout one line and whisper another. If your throat complains, or the voice disappears when the character gets upset, move the placement somewhere easier.

Size it for a cartoon, and keep it honest

It’s easy to under-play a first animation read, especially if they’ve trained for the camera. The interview write-up says to project more than you usually would; in Lamontagne’s words, “use your theater voice.” A post by the voice actor Lisa Foster on character voice auditions, passes on advice from Disney Television Animation’s Sara Sherman: directors would rather you go too big than hold back.

Bigger doesn’t mean louder all the way through. It means the emotional changes are clear and fast, the reactions are full, and the physical life of the character is in the sound. Baker’s list includes vocalizing the action, so a listener can picture the movement, and building escalation toward a payoff or “topper.” If the character is running, the line should sound like it’s being said by someone running.

Pace is part of size. As Lamontagne puts it, “I always think faster is funnier.” Comedy in animation often lives in quick cue pickups and sudden turns, so try at least one pass where you come in a hair earlier on every cue than feels polite.

For the house style, listen to the show or to the network’s similar shows. Lamontagne suggests listening blindfolded, so you hear the rhythm, the projection, the delivery, and the speed without the pictures doing the work for you. Foster’s post makes a related point: networks have different styles and audiences, so find out where the show will air.

Efforts, reactions, and one small gift

Animation scripts are full of moments that aren’t words: a gasp, a grunt as the character lifts something, a laugh, a yelp when something explodes. Baker lists effort sounds, pre-lifes (the breath or small sound right before a line), laughs, and pauses among the things that keep a read from going flat. If the sides say the character is straining, falling, or eating, the sound of it belongs in your take.

Robinson suggests leaving the listener at least one “gift”: a distinctive touch that makes the character yours, such as a giggle, a lisp, a dialect, or a quirky rhythm. She points to SpongeBob’s laugh and Porky Pig’s stutter as the kind of thing she means. Keep it small, keep it true to the character, and don’t rewrite the copy to fit it in.

Her craft tip is worth copying exactly: leave about half a second of space before and after anything you add. That way an editor can cut it cleanly if the producers don’t want it, and your read still works without it.

Here’s a short set of sides written for this guide, with one way to mark it:

PIP (a small, round mole in oversized goggles; anxious, trying to be brave): Okay. Okay okay okay. Nobody panic.

GRANDMA BURROW: Pip, the tunnel is caving in.

PIP: I said nobody panic! Just... help me... hold this beam!

(Sample sides written for this article)

• Put a quick, sharp intake of breath before the first “Okay.” Pip has just heard a crack overhead, and the pre-life tells us so.
• Speed up through “Okay okay okay” and land “Nobody panic” as an order Pip is mostly giving himself.
• Come in on “I said nobody panic!” the instant Grandma’s line ends, louder and higher, because he’s now plainly panicking.
• Under “Just... help me... hold this beam!” add the effort of holding something heavy: the words squeezed out between grunts, getting tighter on each pause.
• If you want a gift, add a tiny squeak after “beam,” with half a second of air on either side so it can be trimmed.

Notice that Grandma’s line drives Pip’s second line. That’s why you need to hear it, not just read it. More on that below.

Takes: how many, and how different

The rule that comes first: send exactly what the instructions ask for. If they say one take, send one.

When you have room for more, make each one a real choice. Kliewer’s view is that two takes should be enough when there are no directions, as long as they differ enough. Robinson’s habit with two takes is to record the first as written and the second as her improvised version. Foster’s post adds that being able to take direction matters, and suggests having a second version ready rather than insisting a character can only be done one way.

Animation has one twist commercial work doesn’t. Lamontagne explains that budgets often have one actor voice two or three characters, so she lists several roles on a spec. Her advice, in the same write-up, is that even when you’re auditioning for one role, you send three takes in different voices when the instructions allow it, which, she says, increases your chances of being cast.

Very short sides change the math too. Jason Leadingham, in a post on how many takes to record, suggests at least three takes when multiple takes are requested, and four or more when the audition is only one or two words. Our guide to how many takes to send covers the on-camera side of the same question.

Slate and send it the way they asked

Lamontagne calls unlabeled files a pet peeve: a file that’s just called “m4a” doesn’t tell her who you are. She asks actors to follow her labeling and slating instructions exactly, so she can sort submissions faster; the write-up adds that it shows you can follow direction. Copy the file-name template character for character.

Slate in your own voice, not the character’s. Lamontagne treats the slate as its own small audition and has cast people from their slating voice. When a slate is asked for with no set wording, Kliewer’s approach is your name and the character at the top, then “take two” before the second take. Our guides to slating and naming and sending a self-tape cover the rest of the delivery details.

You don’t need a studio to do this well. Lamontagne has called a car “an incredible booth” and considers today’s phone microphones good enough for auditions. If you record in the car, she suggests keeping the windows up and sitting in the back seat, away from the glass.

Rehearse the scene, not just your lines

Animation sides usually come as dialogue, and most of the cues are other characters’ lines you’ll never hear. That’s how actors end up with a read that sounds good alone and wrong in context: Pip’s “I said nobody panic!” makes no sense unless something just happened on Grandma’s line.

So rehearse with the other lines out loud. Upload the sides to Offbook, pick your character, and realistic voices read every other part, then wait for you. You can set how fast your scene partner talks, add a beat before a line for a reaction, and let the scene move on after a silence. Speed the other voices up so the scene moves at a comic pace, and practice coming in the instant a line ends.

When you record, you’re alone again, but you’ll be answering a line you’ve actually heard. If your character has to react to a long speech, Offbook’s Listen mode plays the whole scene aloud, including your lines, so you can hear the shape of it once before you go to the mic.

A run sheet for one animation audition

1. Read the instructions first and write down the file name, format, slate wording, take count, and deadline.
2. Read the whole packet, including every other character’s line and any producer or casting notes.
3. Study the drawing and circle the words in the description that tell you age, size, status, and mood.
4. Say one line in your own voice with the full intention, then add the character’s placement.
5. Read the sides three times in a row in the voice, then shout a line and whisper one, to check you can keep it.
6. Mark the breaths, efforts, and reactions the scene implies, and choose a gift or two.
7. Rehearse with the other lines read aloud, at a quicker pace than feels comfortable.
8. Record more than you need, then pick takes that are clearly different.
9. Slate in your own voice, name the file exactly as asked, and send it.

Once it’s gone, let it go. Baker’s page on auditioning from home makes the point that projects aren’t always cast on talent or performance, and that a strong audition can earn you future requests even when it doesn’t book this role. If you track your submissions, the free audition tracker keeps the details in one place.

Questions actors ask

Should I use a character voice or my natural voice?

Whichever the character needs, built from truth. Foster’s post quotes Sara Sherman as not wanting impressions of characters she already knows, Foster stresses strong acting, and Robinson warns against a funny voice with nothing under it. Some roles sit close to an actor’s own voice; others need a big transformation. Read the drawing and the description, and let them decide.

What if there’s no character art?

Build the picture yourself from the description and the lines. Decide on age, size, and what the character wants in this scene, and commit. Baker’s advice for missing details applies here: ask if you can, and if you can’t, make your best guess and play it fully.

Can I improvise or add lines?

Only a little, and only where it doesn’t break the instructions. Kliewer notes that recording time costs money, so stick to the script unless you’re told to improvise; a short addition at the top or end is usually fine. Leave half a second of space around anything you add so it can be cut. Our guide to improv in auditions has more on when it helps.

Do I need to be off book for an animation audition?

No. You’ll read from the page at the mic. But know the sides well enough that your eyes aren’t working harder than your acting, especially on fast exchanges where you need to come in on the cue.