Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Pratt & Trevor Goble
Hi Allison Pratt & Trevor Goble , so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Trevor Goble and Allison Pratt were both theatre kids who went to school for the arts, Trevor for Theatre and Performance Studies at Kennesaw State University of Kennesaw, Georgia and Allison for Musical Theatre at Hope College of Holland, Michigan. Trevor and Allison crossed paths and quickly became friends working at the Children’s Museum of Atlanta as Imaginators, where they were involved with the production of “mini-musicals” and educational programming for kids. Realizing a shared loved of kids programming and family entertainment, Trevor invited Allison to partner with him on a project that he first envisioned in college regarding a reindeer named Abby who offers advice to animals during the holidays. This concept evolved into a deer who offers advice to animal callers year-round with the help of her best friend and bunny producer, Hopper. With Trevor voicing Hopper and Allison voicing Abby, they set forth on a creative journey that has spanned 4 years now. Experimenting with different art mediums, “Ask Deer Abby” began first as a podcast but has now grown to primarily being a YouTube show consisting of 4-minute long video animations where viewers can join Abby and Hopper on adventures while learning fun animal facts.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
“Ask Deer Abby” has definitely been a passion project for Trevor and Allison. It’s been a creative outlet for writing, acting, and directing. It’s been a chance for them both to do what they love while also learning new skills, such as animation and sound production. But it is definitely a project that takes a lot of time, from writing scripts, to casting actors, to having recording sessions with those actors, to editing the audio, to animating the videos for YouTube – it’s a lot! But Trevor and Allison have been extremely fortunate to be surrounded by such supportive and creative artists in Atlanta, such as: Marcus Grimaldi of Grimaldi Sound Studios and Greg Cooler of John Marshall Media who did sound mixing and mastering for our podcast episodes, Emily McClain who wrote the scripts for many of the podcast episodes, Connor Lynch who designed the logo and did the makeup design for live appearances, Daniel Trumble at Marietta Video Productions who animated the Ask Deer Abby theme song, and countless actors from Atlanta and beyond who voiced numerous characters for Ask Deer Abby. Creating a kids show also comes with many expenses, and Ask Deer Abby truly would not be what it is without the generosity of their incredible community of artists who’ve been willing to give their time and talent to Ask Deer Abby for hugs and gift cards! Trevor and Allison aim to have the means one day to pay all of these incredible people what they deserve, but in the meantime, they love to promote their artistic endeavors on the Ask Deer Abby socials (check out the Ask Deer Abby Instagram page to learn more about these talented folks!)
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Upon meeting Allison, people tend to notice either a) her high-pitched voice or b) that she’s always smiling! These traits, along with passions for acting and working with kids, have led Allison through many exciting adventures. Originally from Michigan, she moved to Atlanta, Ga with her spouse, Cam, in 2016 to pursue acting while he went through Graduate School at Emory University. In 2017, Allison would begin working with the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, a foundational job in her personal and career growth as it opened her eyes to a love for creating educational programming for kids in an informal environment. This path would eventually lead her to the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where Allison has worked as the Family Programs Coordinator for 3 years. This has truly been a dream job for Allison, as it combines her love of working with kids with performance (check out the Storybook Time and Garden Grooves that Allison leads for kids at the Garden on Wednesdays and Thursdays!) When not at the Garden, Allison continues to pursue acting, particularly theatre and voiceover work. Some of her favorite roles since moving to Atlanta have been with OnStage Atlanta in Scottsdale, GA and include: “Piggie” in Elephant and Piggie’s, We are in a Play; “Maleficent” in Disney’s Descendants; and “Junie B. Jones” in Junie B. Jones is Not A Crook! You can catch Allison this holiday season in She Loves Me at OnStage Atlanta as “Ilona.” Allison is represented by People Store Talent Agency.
Trevor Goble is an actor in Atlanta, GA known for his ginger hair, love of all things 90’s and considers himself to be an ATL native because he has ridden on MARTA several times, seen at least one game of every Atlanta sports team (except for the Thrashers) and well, he’s lived here his whole life! Trevor is a graduate of Kennesaw State University where he got to hone his skills as a performer and storyteller for the KSU Tellers. Some theaters that Trevor has been fortunate to perform at are: Georgia Ensemble Theater (The Man Who Came to Dinner), Center for Puppetry Arts (Xperimental Puppetry Theater) and the Alliance Theater (Edward Foote). It was during his time in the Suzi Award winning show Edward Foote that Trevor, with the help of his friend and mentor Steve Coulter, would unlock a whole new world of performance that he was always eager to get into, Voice Acting. Since signing on with People Store Talent Agency back in 2015, Trevor has been pleased as punch to lend his voice to a few movies and shows for Elf on the Shelf (Elf Pets: A Fox Cub’s Christmas Tale and Elf Pets: Santa’s Reindeer Rescue) and has narrated numerous audiobooks including the My Life as a Book series, Tribulation, and the Grumpy the Iguana series. Trevor also enjoys coaching his peers in voice acting and those interested in getting started in the industry and makes voiceover demo reels. Coming from a family of teachers, Trevor loves being able to combine his passion for performing with education and is honored to have worked with the Children’s Museum of Atlanta, the Alliance Theater’s education department, and as a Standardized Patient for various nursing schools around Georgia. You can catch Trevor this holiday season as a singer with the Tinseltones, a Christmas quartet group that performs in several venues in and around Atlanta such as MARTA, the Georgia Aquarium, Six Flags and the Atlanta Botanical Garden. When Trevor is not performing, you can find him at Target as a Tech Specialist or making/playing board and card games.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
Creating a kids show, or any show rather, does inherently come with certain risks, particularly when you are investing your money and time into a project. With “Ask Deer Abby” specifically, Trevor and Allison have had so much support from their friends and artistic community that they don’t necessarily feel like they’ve had to take huge risks yet at this stage of their show’s journey, but when you’re creating a new piece of art that is personal to you and you want people to enjoy it, the many decisions you have to make along the way can feel a bit like jumping into the unknown. For Trevor and Allison, making that first leap to book a studio space and get episode 1 of Ask Deer Abby the Podcast recorded stands-out as a core memory. Trevor and Allison had spent many Zoom sessions writing scripts, editing, and strategizing while the world shut-down in early 2020. While the time spent planning was very important to establishing what the show would be and how Trevor and Allison would collaborate, it gets to a point where it’s time to stop planning and put things into motion. So when the world opened-back up, Trevor and Allison chose to bridle their anxieties about whether they were ready and believe in themselves. They recorded their first podcast episode with a few of their “deer” friends and haven’t looked back since!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.askdeerabby.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/askdeerabby/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/askdeerabby/
- Twitter: https://x.com/askdeerabby?lang=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@askdeerabby
- TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ask.deer.abby
