Ask John: How Much Do Voice Actors Earn?

Question:
I hope to one day work as a voice actor for ADV and Funimation. The problem is I don’t know the following. Despite being told about crap pay, how much does a voice actor earn in a single session? And how long does it take to dub an anime?

Answer:
Ironically, even though I work for a company that produces English language adaptations of anime, I’m not personally familiar with the voice acting industry and its technical specifics, so I can’t provide exact, specific figures. But I can provide some useful information. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) national trade union dictates the average pay scale for the anime voice acting industry. Many of the professional actors that work in anime dubbing are members of SAG, and earn SAG rates. Non-union affiliated voice actors may earn less. It’s not necessary to join an actors union to work as a professional voice actor, but opportunities for non-union workers may be limited because television networks frequently won’t broadcast programming made with non-union talent. Anime companies that want their titles to have a potential for television broadcast may insist on using only union affiliated talent.

The pay scales for SAG members are tremendously complicated, and not all of the SAG pay scales are commonly accessible to the public for review. According to the Voice Over Resource Guide, actors who work on original American TV animation earn a minimum of $716 per four hour recording session plus negotiable residuals. But in a 2004 interview with anime critic Fred Patten, voice actor Bob Bergen explains that union scale for modifying foreign animation pays only $60 per hour with minimal risidual payments. Bergen says, “This is why you don’t see as many mainstream American animation actors doing anime, with the exception of some features. I myself would do much more anime if the pay was better. It actually should be just the opposite. In American animation you don’t have to match sync.”

Since my knowledge of the financial aspects of voice acting is so limited, I sought some assistance from an authentic expert source. Bang Zoom! Entertainment explained, “It takes anywhere from 2 days to a week to record an episode. I understand they spend no more than a day per episode in Japan. And that’s what is spent on original animation (ie, non-anime) here, too. Actually around 4 hours to record an entire episode.” So voice acting may not provide lengthy or constant work. Many American voice actors are full time actors who only perform some of their work in voice over recording. There are also many American anime voice actors that supplement their periodic voice acting work with other full time jobs because voice acting alone doesn’t provide enough income to live on.

Bang Zoom! also had to say, “…actors who do original animation may tend to feel a sense of superiority over ‘anime’ voice-over actors. They make a lot more money, too. (There are a handful who bounce back and forth comfortably between the two areas of the business.) While most agree it is actually much harder to do voice acting for anime, the budgets just aren’t anywhere near as high.”

I don’t think anyone involved in the professional anime industry wants to discourage any anime fan from seeking a career in the industry, but anime fans that are enamoured with anime may be well served by knowing some cold, hard facts. I believe that the anime industry will always have room for new employees who are motivated, contientious, and skilled. Knowing what to be prepared for in advance can help both prospective voice actors and the established anime industry that’s seeking new talent.

Article revised April 12, 2006.