Before you Z-Gen babies get bored, just know you get to interact with shit at the end of this post.
In March of this year, I celebrated my 40th year in Los Angeles! And when I say celebrated, I mean I went down to the local pub and had a drink.
Since today is Thanksgiving (and I’m not really a fan of the holiday as it’s celebrated nationally) I thought I would do my own version. One completely disconnected from jingoism and perverted colonial history.
Honestly, the real reason I’m doing this is because I discovered that the AI platform I’m using can make interactive charts. This sent me down a rabbit hole of all my past credits, and it’s funny: the career I set out to get and the one I actually have are very, very different. My original dream was based on a Hollywood business model from the 1970s and for a long time, that depressed the hell out of me!
But over the last 15 years, I’ve gained much respect for what my career is, rather than what I wished it could have been. Two things from my original plan actually did happen: I wanted to make all my money from acting, and I wanted my work to fly me to places I had never been.
Those things came true. If not for Voiceover, I would have left LA by 2002. If not for Voiceover, I wouldn’t have traveled the country and the world. So, this post is my 40-year declaration of gratitude.
Now, back to that rabbit hole! (Monotropic Focus throbs!) Below is a chart of the different types of acting work I’ve done over the last 40 years.
A few notes on the “clown mirror” reality of this data:
- Commercial/Promo/Corporate: Finding the exact number of jobs over decades is waaay too complicated, so this is an estimation based on monetary impact.
- Film & TV: These are based on projects or episodes, not days worked.
- Cartoons vs. Anime: Union cartoons are listed by episode. However, I compressed the Anime data. You can work 10 sessions recording a full season of Anime and be paid the same as one day on a Union cartoon! If I included every Anime episode, the chart would look ridiculous.
- Theater: This is my best recollection of shows. While I might spend 5 to 12 weeks on a play, the pay was surely not even enough to cover two nights out at a fancy restaurant. That’s Equity Waiver Theater in Los Angeles for you!
Also, the chart shows “survival jobs” for those years I slummed it. For you curious cats, those jobs included:
- ‘85: Strip-A-Gram phone sales (early VO training)
- ‘86: Denny’s host, Cafe L.A. waiter
- ‘87: Telemarketing & data entry
- ‘88: Bagel Nosh cashier
- ‘89: Acting school bookkeeper
- ‘90-‘95: Assistant to a weird rich guy
- ‘95-‘02: Planet Video actor demos manager & editor
Right now, only my ‘survival jobs’ are visible for the years I slummed it. Click on the acting categories below the chart to add them in, or use the toggle at the bottom to add all categories back at once. It’s interactive, baby! Have fun with it! I certainly did. And remember – most of the Film & TV gigs can be found in the “Face” playlists page and the voice over on the “Voice” playlist page.
Best viewed on desktop.
