Shelby Young, one of the most sought-after voiceover artists, is also a viral content creator with a fan base of over 7 million followers and subscribers. She has voiced beloved characters in fan-favorite franchises such as Star Wars, Final Fantasy, Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Ghostbusters.
Shelby’s vocal range and character work have earned her over 4.2 million followers on TikTok, 2.2 million subscribers on YouTube, and over 650K followers on Instagram, where she blends performance and comedy in a way that deeply resonates with Gen Z and millennial fans alike. Shelby got her start in the entertainment industry as a child actor, appearing on Days of Our Lives, Everybody Hates Chris, and American Horror Story: Murder House. But it was her transition into voiceover and motion-capture work that launched her into a new league, voicing Princess Leia in Star Wars: Forces of Destiny and multiple Disney Plus LEGO specials, Soph Blazkowicz in Wolfenstein: Youngblood, and working on major titles like Persona 3 Reload, God of War: Ragnarök, Horizon Call of the Mountain, and more.
Raised in Florida, Shelby began performing in pageants and theater by age three and was already landing TV and film roles by the time her mother relocated to Los Angeles to support her acting career.
What was your first voiceover gig, and how did it go?
Shelby Young: When I was a kid, I had done a bit of voice-over work for some animated commercials and some loop groups. But my first big voiceover job was fora video game that came out in 2013 called Dead Rising 3. It was an audition I got through my on-camera agency. It wasn’t solely a voice over project, the game would be filming performance capture as well. I booked the job and we filmed on the mocap stages for the cutscenes, but the in-game performance was all in the recording studio. I fell so in love with it. It was a dream come true. And I knew then that I wanted to pursue voice acting.
Do showrunners/directors advise you on voice pitch, cadence, accent, or style?
Shelby: It depends on the project and the genre. For a lot of video game projects, many are more naturalistic. They just want your voice—maybe a little pitched up or down, depending on the character’s age. For animated characters and stylized video games, adjusting your sound can come into play more often. I’ve voiced little aliens, children, elderly women, and everything in between. When you get an audition, you’ll get sides (little snippets of the script) Along with descriptions that mention the age, vocal quality, etc. Sometimes I’ll audition with a character voice in mind, but I’ll slate my name in my natural voice and get booked for that!
Is gaming voiceover work faster-paced? How is it different?
Shelby: Actually, animation is faster-paced than games. In animation, you have less time to tell the story— about 22 minutes per episode. Another reason comedic animation is “faster” is that you can have lots of those quick turns in the dialogue which speeds things up. With games you’re allotted more time to tell the story. The process is often slower as well. I’ve worked on games that haven’t come out until three years after I’ve voiced them. It’s like a little time capsule. Animation takes one to two years, depending on the project. The hardest part of VO work is waiting years before you can talk about what you’re working on (laughs).
For animated characters, how do you time your read to dovetail with a character’s lip and mouth movements?
Shelby: Most of the animation VO work I do is considered pre-lay, which means that I record first and then they animate to my voice. Now, for anime or dubbing, which I’ve also done, it can be more of a timing challenge, in the sense that you still need to be acting with a believable performance, but you are under those time constraints by syncing to picture. There are different ways we record dubs: there’s the three-beep system where you’ll hear three beeps, and the fourth imaginary beep is when you start speaking. The other way is almost like karaoke, where the dialogue is on the screen with a line through it that shows when you should be saying certain words. You’re focused on several things: performance, staying on voice, and timing.
What’s the longest nonstop voiceover sequence you’ve ever had to act out?
Shelby: It depends on the project. Most animation and game sessions are four hours a day. But for the longest sequence without a cut, I’ve probably recorded five or six pages of dialogue in one go.
When you voice an action or dramatic scene, do you physically act it out?
Shelby: Oh yeah, there’s so much you don’t see when I do VO work. It’s similar to on-camera work. I act out scenes, crying, laughing, and waving my hands.
What Disney character voice do you enjoy doing the most?
Shelby: I love doing impressions of the princesses or Megara from Hercules.
And how about your favorite on-camera character’s voice?
Shelby: I love doing Emma Watson as Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. She has such a fun accent and vocal quality to play with!
How many practice run-throughs do you do before the final recording on an animated character?
Shelby: Every so often, you can do a table read, depending on the scale of the project. For animation, I’ll get the script ahead of time, which allows me to work on it at home. I’ll read it a few times, but I don’t like to overdo it because I want to be fresh when I get into the booth. For video games, you rarely get a script ahead of time. So those sessions are usually considered a cold read.
You’ve done a wide range of voiceovers for films, games, and animation. What have you learned that surprised you about this industry?
Shelby: How cool and nerdy everyone is in the VO field. Like everyone is such a fan of the project that they’re working on—whether it’s the actors, the producer, or the director. There are no egos. Everyone just loves what they do in the VO space. I had a really good experience on camera as well.
Any advice for those eager to start in voiceover work?
Shelby: My advice is to pop into acting classes, learn the pillars of acting—scene study, improv, and cold reading. Those are the skills you’ll need to develop if you want to be a voice actor. If you’re interested in animation, read everything and practice different character voices and accents. Just play, practice, and focus on the acting. I remember I was doing impressions and working on changing my voice all the time as a kid. I had this little digital camera, and I would film scenes of Lilo and Stitch and The Lion King. Then I would mute the sound, and I would record my voice, trying to sound like the characters and match the timing. I didn’t realize at the time I was kind of “training” myself while playing. And’ yknow, I never lost that sense of play, which is also important if you want to be an actor.
What were you like in high school? The girl most likely to…?
Shelby: (laughs) OMG, I was home-schooled and already acting as a kid. My mom probably would have voted me most likely to succeed in acting.
Alex A. Kecskes is a published author of "Healer a Novel" available on Amazon. He has written hundreds of film reviews and celebrity interviews for a wide variety of online and print outlets. He has covered red carpet premieres and Comic-Con events for major films and independent releases.
