The Story of Hanna
I make the joke that I started performing at 3 days old. But is it really a I was born on a Wednesday and I was at the Renaissance Faire in my mom’s business that Saturday. I have never looked back. Growing up I spent a lot of time performing and kind of honing basic improv skills by working at the renaissance faire and various youth theatre groups. Being homeschooled I had the flexibility to audition through Backstage West and did a bunch of student films.
In those early years I worked with some amazing theaters and projects:
Hilari Scarl and The Young Players Ensemble and the Northern Ireland PenPals Project, two original songs featured. They brought us back the following year as part of the Edge of the World Theater Festival
I originated a role in an Original musical entitled “Somewhere in the Dark”. It tells the story of the Irish Robin Hood.
Granada Theatre, working with Gina Alkazien, one of the best directors I have worked with. She would always direct the first show of the year for the children’s production.
After taking classes at the local junior college, I made the trip to New York to join a cohort at AMDA. I learned so much technique including Fitzmaurice Voicework®.
Returning to California after AMDA, I auditioned for a return to the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire and was placed as the Queen’s understudy. I remained as understudy for two years before moving into the roll of Queen in my third year. It was an incredible experience serving as a brand ambassador and historical figure at the same time. The role was intense and rewarding giving me the chance to elevate the performers around me and build the excitement of the audience all day long. As brand representative I also got to appear on episodes of Cupcake Wars and Sandcastle Wars. I did interviews in and out of character for local television and radio as well. Eventually, I felt the need to stretch my muscles and leave the comfort of my hoop skirts and crown.
It has actually been a long journey from California. I left for Washington DC then Texas before going back to California. I was at a crossroad.
What did I want to do?
I was working with children and I’d be reading books and interacting only to hear form the children, their parents and people at the park alike, “Oh my gosh, you do such good voices. I just want you to read me a story, I want you to read me a book.” My voice is just in that place from years of training and technique and performance. It’s like when you’re actively working on singing and everyone’s like, “oh my gosh, you’re a singer. It’s so beautiful. Have you gone for American Idol?” Everyone and their mother tells you that, right? So, it’s the same thing. Voiceover makes sense. I’ve built this skill set. I know it.
For myself, personally, what I was drawn to and what I’m excited about is animation. I wanna do cartoons. I wanna be ridiculous. I wanna do the things that I get to do as a human being performing on stage and making people laugh but more extreme because I‘m a freaking cartoon and I can do everything. So, in my quest for that, I hopped online and I was looking for a school. I am a guru for education. I like to learn things in a school environment. I eat it up. That is how I found Del Mar Media Arts. They’re a full production house and school for everything related to voice over and production of commercials and industrials and all that kind of stuff. I went in and went to their free hour long intro to voice over and what it is and thinking about it and just was like, yes. This is what I want to do. All of the training that I have had for singing, voice production and speech, for musical theater, for working at renaissance faires for improv, everything that I have done has led me to this moment. I went through DelMar’s entire curriculum introduction to voice over, animation advanced animation, long form narration, commercial, ear prompter, teleprompter. I also did voice over boot camps; weekend long seminars with producers and directors where you sit there and read all day reading shit-tons of copy and get feedback on it. So, here I am at the cusp of this new branch of my career.
I am ready. Ready for audiobooks, animation, video games, radio… you name it.