Accent and dialect coaches are often crucial for character voice over work, as they can help a voice actor accurately and authentically portray a specific accent or dialect. In today’s video games and animation, you have to be spot-on with an accent and/or dialect. Being merely “good” won’t cut it. Having an array of great accents at the ready can help you book more character work, as you become more valuable to the project directors of a video game or cartoon.

Accents and dialects are usually nuanced and complex, and it can be difficult for someone who is not a native speaker or who has not grown up in a particular region to accurately replicate the way people speak in that area. An accent and dialect coach can help a voice actor understand the phonetic and linguistic features of a particular accent or dialect, including the specific sounds, rhythms, and intonations that are unique to that way of speaking.

Working with an accent and dialect coach can also help a voice actor avoid common mistakes and inaccuracies that can detract from the authenticity of their performance. For example, an actor who is attempting a British accent but uses an incorrect vowel sound or stresses the wrong syllable in a word may sound unnatural or unconvincing to native speakers of British English.

In addition to helping with technical aspects of accents and dialects, an accent and dialect coach can also provide cultural context and insights that help an actor understand the motivations, attitudes, and behaviors of people from a particular region or cultural background. This is particularly important for character voice over work, where the actor may need to inhabit a character from a different time or place than their own. An accent and dialect coach will considerably up your game in booking roles of foreign characters.