Today we’d like to introduce you to Dominique Viard.
Hi Dominique, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hello, thank you so much for having me! My name is Dominique Viard and my story starts from childhood where my love for cartoons formed from watching them with my dad. He introduced me to all the classics from “Popeye,” “The 3 Stooges,” and “Betty Boop.” He even went as far as buying the “100 Classic Cartoons” DVD set for us to watch together and from there, I was enamored with the world of cartoons and all the voices… but I didn’t know there was a career path for voicing cartoons just yet.
What I knew for sure was that I wanted to be an actress. There seemed to be a freedom in the world of acting that I had to get my hands on, so I would look up anything involving open calls and auditions and would have my mom bring me around Atlanta to participate. All the open calls I found ended up being the ones where they have you read a general script and the company tells you and your parents that you’re a star, but you just need these classes that cost $x,xxx amount. There was nothing wrong with that, but my parents couldn’t commit to that amount at the time or to driving me an hour out to Atlanta every week for acting classes.
After sometime, I pushed the idea of acting to the back of my mind cause it just didn’t feel attainable to me anymore and although my parents were supportive, being the child of Haitian-born immigrants, the career choice of “acting” was not the answer our extended family wanted to hear. So, I entertained the idea of being a nurse, lawyer, or really anything that felt more so acceptable for sometime and then I went to college and everything changed.
I went almost two semesters of being undecided for many reasons, one of them being that: I didn’t want to attend college in the first place; I only applied because I allowed myself to feel as if I would not amount to anything if I didn’t go and due to what everyone around me was saying. If you can’t tell… I used to be a people pleaser, lol!
Fast Forward, I made the decision to listen to myself while still respecting my parents’ wishes of being in college. I chose to major in film and media and through choosing that path I got a life-changing opportunity to study abroad in Budapest, Hungary to create short films with some of my classmates. I was so grateful to be on the trip because I didn’t qualify to go out there “on paper,” but God qualified me!
On the trip, I ended up working closely with sound and discovered that maybe I would get into sound design. This led me to taking a sound design course at Georgia State University with Professor Robert Land. We got to a point in the course where we were learning about ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement). This is a process where we strip all the original sound from a clip and recreate it from scratch. This process also involves reenacting the performance of the characters by having to match our words with the characters’ lip movements.
I chose the Powerpuff Girls and my professor didn’t know if it was the original voices or mine and proceeded to say, “You should look for a career in voiceover work.” That’s the moment where he tied in my love for cartoons and acting in one simple word, “voiceover.” Now, me and my sound design professor both knew I was horrible at sound design and I’m sure I only passed the class because I worked really hard but mostly because he enjoyed my voiceover work and impressions!
Almost a year later, I got an internship at Atlanta Voiceover Studio under Heidi Rew Productions which absolutely changed my life. Mike and Heidi Stoudt truly invested in me and my career and allowed me to train there and eventually get my demo. This was a priceless experience and I will forever be grateful.
Now I’m in the process of going full force in the voiceover world by building my business and supporting myself by working a 9-5 and learning profitable skills to invest in my voiceover work.
I’m so thankful for the way that God curated my steps to placing “voiceover” onto my path and a safe place to learn and grow my craft.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I would say one of the main obstacles are finances for a lot of creatives and actors. So, no the journey hasn’t been smooth but God has placed individuals like Mike and Heidi from Atlanta Voiceover Studio that decided to believe in me early on in my journey.
One thing that I allowed to hold me back for a while is the cost of classes. Acting classes and subscriptions can get pricey, so you really have to hustle and not only invest in classes/training but create opportunities for yourself whether that’s creating your own content or trading your skills in exchange for someone else’s services.
My second obstacle was the uncertainty I would get from others that I once allowed to take up real estate in my mind. Although I am very fortunate because as a Haitian American young lady, my parents supporting my decisions is an amazing feeling, but other family members, elders of our Haitian community, and even some friends weren’t so supportive in the beginning… and that was really hard to digest.
This is a common story for children of immigrants, but I will continue to believe in myself and have faith that as I continue to put in the work, the fruits of my labor will become apparent.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I train in commercial and animation voiceover work. Right now, I am still building who I am in the realm of voiceover and doing a lot of projects for people I know and now starting to work with growing companies like CurlMix and amazing non-profits such as Project Orphans, Tulsa Girls’ Home, and My Sister’s Keeper (MSK).
I am most proud of my resilience and resourcefulness, which I believe plays a large role in what sets me apart. I am no longer afraid of being told no… I will just continue to grow, network, and create content that will place me in the rooms with the people I desire to work alongside.
Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Watching Saturday morning cartoons with my dad and sisters. Seeing my dad’s love for cartoons grew my love for them as well. That was the main way I connected with my father as a child, and still till this day. My dad is always down to watch a classic cartoon.
I truly believe the nostalgia, joy, and peace I feel while watching cartoons, creating voices for characters, and doing voice overs are rooted in those memories from my childhood following into my teenage years.
Contact Info:
- Email: dominiqueviardvo@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.voicedbydom.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/voiceover_dv/
Image Credits
The main image with the purple background and mic was taken by Calvin Maurice Media (IG- @calvinmauricemedia) I would love for his credits to be there. Thank you in advance. Calvin Maurice Media
