We learn to speak by listening

The voices inside my voice

There’s something I’ve come to recognize throughout my career as a voice actor: no one finds their voice entirely on their own.

Long before I developed a voice of my own, I was already shaped by others. Voices I grew up listening to. Voices from radio, dubbing, commercials. Voices I admired, and voices I unknowingly imitated while I was still learning how to read out loud, how to interpret, how to listen.

For a long time, I thought finding my voice in this industry was mostly about technique. Practice. Time in the booth. And yes, those things matter. But over time, I realized it also has everything to do with memory. With everything I listened to before I ever stepped into a recording session. With the people who taught me how to listen before they ever taught me how to perform.I learned how to speak by listening.
I learned how to read out loud by listening.
I learned how to interpret by listening.

And in this line of work, listening is also a form of inheritance.

We don’t usually think of inheritance this way. We think of it as something tangible, something we receive and keep. But in voice work, what we inherit is often invisible. It shows up in how you breathe before a line, how you approach a script, how you show up to a session, how you collaborate with a director, how you understand that this job isn’t about performing for yourself, but about communicating something for someone else.

I can hear the people who shaped me in my voice. The ones who directed me, corrected me, pushed me, and gave me the patience I needed when I was still figuring things out. The ones who taught me that voice over isn’t just about sounding good. It’s a craft. A discipline.

Over time, I’ve also learned that inheritance isn’t about repeating what you received.

It’s about transforming it.

It’s taking everything you’ve learned — from radio, dubbing, directors, other voice actors, every session, every correction — and turning it into something that is finally your own. Something that carries your voice, but doesn’t forget where it came from.

That’s why I don’t believe anyone truly speaks alone.

Every professional voice carries many others within it. The ones who taught, directed, corrected, inspired.

Before I found my voice, life lent me many.

And even now, every time I step into the booth, I know I’m not speaking alone.

— Vero López Treviño