Greetings and salutations! My name is Eliza Andrews (my friends call me “Zee”) and I am a voice actor from Hertfordshire, UK! (That’s North of London for anyone who isn’t local). I am best known for my role as ‘Moonstrike’ in My Pride, ‘Bella Ruby’ in New World and currently have a few undisclosed roles in Forgotlings by Throughline Games!

1. Tell us about being a voice actor? What inspired you to start?

Being a voice actor is amazing! It is something I never thought I wanted to do but now it’s so ingrained into my soul and the person I have grown into that I can’t see myself doing anything else.

As for how I got started, it’s a bit of a story. As a teenager, I was a lot more introverted, was in my shell all the time and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I was 15 going on 16. It then hit me that I wanted to go into acting. My parents were initially sceptical, they wanted me to pursue drawing and painting… funny in hindsight as I can’t draw to save my life! Anywho, they wanted to see that I was serious about acting, so I signed up to join my local Pauline Quirke Academy, which is a drama group for children aged around 4-17. Whilst I studied art at college, I was spending my Saturdays with PQA, learning different crafts: singing, dancing, acting, TV and film and I started becoming more confident and came out of my shell, performing in front of Pauline Quirke herself and singing a verse during a musical at the Alban Arena. It was around this time that I discovered VO Buzz Weekly with Chuck Duran and Stacey J. Aswad on YouTube and this was my first taste of voice acting, voice actors and hearing their stories. They all fascinated me and it then became clear that this was the kind of life I wanted to live. After my first year of studying art, I switched colleges, started studying Drama at West Herts College and for my 18th birthday, my mum bought me a year of VO coaching with Gary Terzza. He got me my VO legs, my first demos and how to audition and where to go. Whilst studying in college, I was also auditioning on Casting Call Club, got my first big gig on Pokemon Sun and Moon Abridged. I didn’t really get anything big for another couple of years but it was mainly no-budget stuff at this point.

After I graduated college 5 years ago, my VO career hit a bit of a dry patch. I attended a workshop in London just before lockdown and this is what turned things around for me. I was a nervous wreck and it gave me a lot to think about. I then picked myself, invested more in workshops, upgrades and demos and thought outside the box of where to audition, got loads more gigs onto my portfolio and here I am now, 3 years on!

2. What has been your biggest success story as an actor?

My biggest success has to be getting the role of Bella Ruby in New World. I had been wanting to work with SIDE PTW for my whole VO career and when my agents told me they were casting for a trans character, I had to audition! Me and the casting director met over Zoom, I delivered the lines in two takes and half a week later, my agents told me I got the role and then recorded at SIDE the following week! A while after recording, I decided to Google keywords from the work we did and then it all led to New World by Amazon Games. Keep in mind that everything was still NDA at this point so I had no definitive answer. But, looking at the IMDb cast list, I was hoping this to be it. I then found my work as Bella Ruby out on YouTube where it was 100% confirmed to be New World this past July! I then got the go ahead to announce the role on my 25th birthday this year and add my credit to IMDb! The thing that really sticks with me is that I was A) representing trans people in a fantasy RPG and B) I was finally good enough to be in the same cast with the likes of Keith Silverstein, Cindy Robinson and Kellen Goff, just to name a few. I could finally sit back and tell myself “you ARE good enough”.

3. Goals for 2024?

I currently have a few things in the pipeline for next year. I need to finish my screen acting reels and get more MOCAP material, hopefully Creature Bionics for creature MOCAP. In terms of goals I have, I would love to:

-Audition for a soap opera (something like Hollyoaks or Eastenders)

-Audition for an indie/short film

-Audition for a MOCAP/PCAP gig

-Get cast in an indie game Get cast in an indie animated series/pilot

4. Tell us about a fun experience you had as a voice actor?

Last year, I recorded for an indie short film, Personifunctions by Cranberry the Cat on YouTube, which should be out towards the end of this year! I coincidentally was cast along with a fellow My Pride cast member, Hillary Taylor and I only realised this halfway through recording when she told me and we had a little laugh about it! Overall, the experience of this recording session was fun, laid back and we all just made each other laugh and that’s all you really want from a session: everyone to have fun, be kind and friendly to each other and have good chemistry with your castmates!

5. Dream role?

The role I would give an arm and a leg for is Elsa Bastion in Lackadaisy. I have been fascinated with the comics since the pilot came out this year, also, I have many friends in the cast (shoutout to Bel, Val and Jason!) and I discovered Elsa when researching the world and story and I just fell in love with her. I have some comic dubs on my YouTube page where I share what I interpret her voice to be like and I would be on cloud nine to be her official voice.

6. Advice for new actors?

Never stop being creative. If you’re not getting a lot of castings, make your own stuff, make comic dubs, make an audio drama, write an animated pilot script for example. Keep putting your work out there and the right people will find you. Also, be willing to invest, go to as many classes as you can, be willing to upgrade your recording space and do things that will expand your skill set. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but: be kind to people. This industry is all about supporting each other and helping each other out and you never know, your friends may just refer you to an audition you didn’t know about! Just know that if you’re not cast in something, that’s okay! There are many opportunities out there and something better is right around the corner! You just need to find it!

I would also like to round this off with an anecdote. Don’t say “I’m going to improve my craft someday”… instead, say “I’m going to improve my craft tomorrow”.

7. Where can people support your work?

You can follow me on Twitter/X, whatever you want to call it, at (at)ZeeAndrewsVO. I’m also on Instagram and Threads as zeeandrewsva. I also have a YouTube Channel, which I have affectionately called “Zee Andrews – Voice Wench” – you can find my demos, samples of my work and my Lackadaisy Dubs here. And last but not least, my website is http://zeeandrews.com!