Which corner of the VA Globe has the best talent?

C

ChristianR

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So there I was, watching Tara Strong perform "Lay Down Your Arms" on YouTube, and a thought occurs in my head. Basically, there are three major locations where VA talent exist: Los Angeles, Canada, and New York City. So out of all those three, why does L.A. get most of the cartoon love whereas New York handles most of the anime and Canada is, well, in a class of itself? Speaking as a New Yorker, I can't help but feel slighted that we don't have talent like they do on the West Coast, but I could be wrong about that.
 
And Canada is pretty big, so I'd say it's actually split between Vancouver and the Toronto-Montreal axis.

So you got all these locations:

L.A.
Vancouver
Texas
Toronto
and New-York

I'd say the West Coast got the others beat. L.A. and Vancouver offer the best actors.
 
Good actors can come from anywhere... it's just a matter of where they end up going for their career work.

I don't really follow the whole Voice Actor thing, but I guess the only ones I know of, have their work in the Los Angeles area I think.
 
Once upon a time, during a Q&A session with Greg Weisman at one of the Gatherings (I think it was the '99 Dallas con), Greg suggested to someone looking to break into "the business" of animation that they move to Los Angeles because that's where it mostly is.
 
I'm tempted to say Toronto, simply because I live here, but honestly I really don't think any place has 'better talent'. It's likely that LA has more talented people in it simply because it's considered the place to go if you want to be an actor, but a good number of them are from other places. For instance, most of my favourite LA voice actors are actually from Toronto... Which ties back to the first sentence. :D

For instance, off the top of my head, Tara Strong, and Maurice Lamarche.
 
Exactly. It's true of any labor: you go where the work is, and the bulk of US animation is produced out of LA. And thus why the talent primarily settles around that area.

And if we were doing a "top 5", Atlanta would probably come in 5th due to CN/Adult Swim being headquartered there. Several of the [as] regulars live in the Atlanta area like George Lowe, Andy Merrill, and Clay Croker.
 
Actually most ADV Films dubs are done in Houston, and most FUNi dubs are done in Ft. Worth. While some VA's work for both companies, most do not, so I would divide Texas VA's up between Ft. Worth and Houston as well.

As far as ranking them though, I'd put it in this order:
1) LA
2) Ft. Worth
3) Vancouver
4) Houston
5) New York
6) Toronto

The main reason I put LA first though isn't because they do the most series. I put them first because they use their VA talent pool and also draw VA's from Vancouver, Ft. Worth, and New York for occassional guest VA cameos.
 
New York doesn't handle most of the anime anymore. Since 4Kids has quit anime for the most part, and CPM isn't all that active anymore either, New York doesn't do much anime now. It's mostly gone to LA, Vancouver, and Texas.

Personally I'd say LA and Ft. Worth are the best, only because I think they have the highest level of talent. Kate Higgins, Kari Wahlgren, Mary McGlynn, Colleen Clinkenbeard, Laura Bailey, Cynthia Cranz, and Stephanie Sheh are all big favorites of mine, the only ones outside of LA or Ft. Worth that come close for me are Moneca Stori and Kelly Sheridan in Vancouver, and Veronica Taylor in New York.

This thought just occurred to me when Craig mentioned Atlanta - does Williams Street have any female in-house VAs?
 
Marsha Crenshaw is an Atlanta-area resident, although I don't believe she's exactly "in-house" as a Williams Street staffer. Definitely an [as] regular though. She's voiced both supporting and incidental characters on The Brak Show, Frisky Dingo, and Sealab 2021.
 
I guess LA makes more sense, since some Texas based VA have been apearing in a Bunch of Viz dubs, and some VA switich between Texas and LA from time to time.

I think the worst place is New York since what Lutochris previously stated, and the recent annoucement that TAJ doesn't appear to be helping PUSA with the dub of Pokemon anymore, is another nail unless they go in-house.

For both major Canadian city, since I think they have there own original animated programming there, and dubbing for animes, I think they fare well. I just don't pay attention of which side the voices come from in Canada for some reason, and I thinks it's because we rarely get shows that feature Canadian VA that aren't dubs of anime that Viz or some other company liscenses.
 
I think that Ft. Worth and Houston would be much stronger if they didn't do primarily anime dubs. I know they've both done a small number of video games, but in order to become the best you need to be universally recognized as the best, and Texas isn't quite there yet. Still, with LA talent crossing over to voice in some Texas productions (JYB for Beck, Carrie Savage for a ton of series) and plenty of Texas talent cameoing in LA productions, Texas' star is rising as a whole.

New York is in trouble. 4kids and PUSA is pretty much all that's left with CPM in financial trouble and Media Blasters . . . well, being Media Blasters.

The amount of material Calgary does is also slackening. It's too bad, because two or three of the Calgary VAs (Carol-Anne Day, Carol-Anne Day, and Carol-Anne Day) deserve better.

Vancouver is pretty strong, as they handle both domestic series and anime series and has a talented VA, directing, and writing pool. Toronto is much weaker in the anime department but they also handle a lot of domestic series to make up for that.

LA is on top. A lot of their voice work involves screen and stage actors, and their pool of voice talent is staggering and so is the amount of work they do.
 
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