John Drew

I’ve performed character voices as a cartoon actor since I was a fourteen-year-old American boy growing up in the North of England. I was mercilessly teased about my accent, but rather than defending myself, I began imitating the voices of my schoolmates, then television personalities, characters in commercials, and politicians, particularly Harold Wilson.

I’ve been imitating voices ever since and have done so for an international clientele, even AT&T.

More important than getting the accent and pacing just right, the key to creating a voice performance is to find the beating heart of the script and to inhabit it.

I work from a beautifully constructed, 1,000-pound voice booth through a fully-restored Neumann U 47 — serial number 485, constructed in 1951 — into a PrismSound Lyra II AD/DA converter. Every audio track I deliver is pristine, processed through iZotope RX8 to eliminate pops, clicks, and any ambient noise.

For directed sessions, I prefer SourceConnect Standard — johndrew2 — but can also patch Google Voice, Zoom, or Skype into my system.

A few of the voices I’ve created or impersonated:

James Earl Jones
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Liam Neeson
Morgan Freeman
Lonesome Old Dog
Infant Mobster
Brooklyn Cab Driver
Sam Elliott
Salty Pirate
Radio Evangelist
Geoffrey Holder
Santa Claus
Bogart
Numerous Cowboys
Forrest Gump
Southern Gentleman

As a cartoon actor and character voice talent,  my voice demos can be heard on my website — johndrew.com — or more quickly on SoundCloud — soundcloud.com/johndrewvoice/sets/voice-demos