MinaRose2023 here interviewing Meredith Nudo Comedian Voice Actress and Writer excited !
Meredith how are you doing today? By the way love your name.
Hello, Mina Rose! Thank you! Sometimes my name bothers me because I don’t get to find it on kitschy little souvenirs. I’m glad you like it! How are YOU today?
How did you end up voice acting from being a comedian and writer ?
I’d always wanted to have voice acting as part of my overall performing arts mix, but didn’t really have the money to set up a booth or get demos made until the pandemic. At that point I’d done only one voiceover project – the audio drama Splintered Caravan – and enjoyed the experience immensely. Doing the show definitely confirmed that I did, in fact, want to continue doing voiceover work. But I didn’t exactly have the funds to make it happen.
When COVID hit and I had 18 improv shows canceled, I took what was going to be that year’s vacation money and invested in a booth, equipment, and demos. I also took a few voiceover classes and worked closely with my demo producer, Amanda Hufford, for a full year before starting to audition in earnest. If you have a chance to work with Amanda on your demo, do it!
When did you start writing? How does writing help you with voice acting and comedy?
This is a total cliché, but I started writing pretty much as soon as I could write. I grew up in the suburbs where we had to make our own fun because the only thing to do was run feral in the forest. And my parents wouldn’t let me because of all the copperheads. So I spent a lot of time filling up spiral notebooks with stories and drawings.
Trust me when I say I am much better with making words than making pictures.
Writing helps with comedy because these days I mainly work in sketch and video games. Aside from the obvious benefits (understanding how people talk, rhythm, flow, etc.), something a lot of folks don’t realize is how interdisciplinary the most effective sketch comedy is. Strong comedy, no matter how absurd, still rotates on a fundamental axis of truth, specificity, and familiarity. That’s why hateful or otherwise punching down comedy doesn’t work. It isn’t honest.
On the voice acting side of things, a writing background helps a lot with script analysis. It isn’t a 1:1, though. I don’t think taking a few writing and English lit courses are going to automatically make you a crackerjack script analyst. If that’s what you’re seeking, go directly into a script analysis class instead. But I do think writing and English lit courses are a benefit in terms of giving you a different set of concepts and terms to apply when exploring a script.
Looking back on things, it’s kind of funny that my entire career trajectory was predicated on my parents not wanting me to get bitten by snakes.
Did you act in school plays when you were younger ?
I did a few, and was even one of the leads (Mrs. Withers) in the slapstick comedy Lagooned. But after freshman year of high school everything got pretty negative and discouraging pretty fast, so I only got on stage sometimes with the local children’s theater. Aside from a few student films in college, I quit acting for almost a decade out of frustration. Had nothing to do with getting roles or not, mind. Rejection is part of the process, after all. There were other factors I don’t want to discuss at this time.
Obviously, I found my way back eventually. If I can stress one thing to performing arts newcomers, it’s that if your high school theatre experience sucks, then you can still go on to be a successful and happy actor on your own terms.
How was it voice acting for Dooro Bear and AFK Arena Just Esperia Things?
ADR is an awesome challenge! I love how it makes me balance the technical with the creative, so working on both Dooro Bear and Just Esperia Things! were real delights. Plus, I got to voice the moon in the former, which checked off one of my major voice acting goals to voice an inanimate object. And Ladybug is great because he’s a little boy who loves flowers. Nobody shames him for it! I think that’s wonderful!
Just Esperia Things! was a different experience in that I started off as part of a walla team along with Jamil Burger, Ashley Woods, Arthur Pelino, and Steve Landes, with John Wang directing and Jose Sandoval as our engineer (all the appreciation and credit to directors and engineers for dealing with voice actor shenanigans). So we got to do a lot of improv that we wouldn’t have otherwise gotten to do if we needed to match lip flap. You know I love improv!
I also got to listen to Arthur and Steve voice the character Rosaline’s broom, who fights like Bruce Lee, during a session. We nicknamed him “Broomce Lee” amongst ourselves, and Lilith Games actually let John include that in the credits. It’s probably my most memorable voiceover moment so far. I laughed so hard I cried. Good thing I was muted!
That said, I also voiced my first named anime character in that show: Dolly! She’s the most prominent NPC in the game, so it was a real honor to play her in the anime. Every time I see fanart of her, it brings me all the joy! In fact, there was an official fanart contest for her recently. AFK Arena has some amazing talent among its fans!
How was it moving to Texas to continue to pursue your voice acting journey?
I actually didn’t move to Texas for voiceover! My dad’s job transferred us to the Houston area a few days before my 7th birthday and I haven’t been able to afford to move out of state (much less country) since! It’s a silver lining that I happened to get trapped in a hotbed, I guess.
What plans do you have to continue to pursue your various creative endeavors?
Well, if I don’t continue, I don’t eat or keep a roof over my head, so I definitely have plans! Right now, I’m working on earning enough money to take more classes, more workshops, and spend more time training with my amazing coaches Sara Gaston and Lindsay Sheppard. Learning is one of my favorite parts of the process. I think as long as I’m doing that, I’m happy, and I’ll know I’ll end up wherever I’m meant to go.
