Canada has many talented actors, writers, directors, and other content creators. To help our industry grow, we would like to introduce you to some of those talented folks that have managed to capture that magic on screen.
This week we spoke with Vancouver voice-over artist Ian Hanlin.
You may have heard Ian Hanlin as Red in Angry Birds, Biff in My Little Pony, Owen Grady in Lego: Jurassic World, and Beet in Sausage Party.
HNMAG: Where are you from?
Ian Hanlin: Originally I’m from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia (Halifax). I’m from Coal Harbour, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia—home of Sidney Crosby.
HNMAG: and the Trailer Park Boys.
Ian Hanlin: Oh yeah, (laughing) the prides of Dartmouth. Absolutely.
HNMAG: When did you get interested in voice-over, and or acting?
Ian Hanlin: I was always the kid who was doing the voices but I didn’t quite put it together that I was performing necessarily, I always just liked doing that. I enjoyed the reactions from a parent or a friend.
HNMAG: Did you impersonate teachers?
Ian Hanlin: I’d occasionally do a teacher here or there but it was mostly parroting cartoons and movies. I would imitate Jim Carrey from The Mask, as well as Ernest and the Simpsons and South Park.
HNMAG: How old were you when you started mimicking cartoons?
Ian Hanlin: I was close to seven. I was taken to a Halifax Mooseheads’ hockey game. My dad took me and my younger brother, who was around five, we were sitting there and I was rattling off all these Simpson’s quotes. I think I kept saying “Homer cares not for beans” which I saw on television the night before. There were two college guys behind us, they were just laughing their asses off that this seven-year-old was doing all these Simpson jokes that they were just watching in their dorm rooms. I remember getting a reaction out of strangers for the first time. That was cool. That sent me spiraling into this lifestyle.
HNMAG: Did you do any on-stage performances?
Ian Hanlin: My aunt signed me up in Junior High for an improv comedy class. I hadn’t tried to formalize, sharpen, understand, or put it into anything before that. It was very eye-opening and very fun and I had failed it. It made me realize there was a way to do this more effectively. It was really fascinating. That was my first dip into any kind of formal comedy. Later, I studied drama at Bishop’s University in Lenoxville, Quebec. I got invited to participate in a sketch comedy class. It was a semester of independent study for credit. We wrote a show and put it up.
HNMAG: How important is it to fail?
Ian Hanlin: The first show I ever did was auditioning for the high school musical. Me and a buddy auditioned thinking we’d be tree number two and three but we were cast as the leads, ValJean and Marius. I never sang before that. I very quickly realized that I had to fully sing out with my whole chest because if I try and protect myself, like not trying one hundred percent, it was not going to work. I had to throw myself at it and if it doesn’t work that’s fine. That was a good lesson to learn early on, you have to risk it not working, it’s ok if it doesn’t. As we get older we become more calcified in our behavior. If you get used to not taking chances, you become more apprehensive when it comes to taking creative risks. It’s important, especially for younger performers to embarrass themselves. I was in a singing class and I went for a note but missed it. My voice just cracked. I just started laughing. The teacher said “That’s exactly the reaction I want. You’d be shocked how many people shut down.”
HNMAG: How did you start performing as a career?
Ian Hanlin: After we graduated, a chunk of us from Bishop’s all moved out to Vancouver. We had one friend who was from here. I also noticed that many movies credited Vancouver as a shooting location. I graduated and then did a Season by the Sea in Halifax. In 2008, two days after closing the summer season, I hopped on a plane and came to Vancouver for the first time. To get an agent we wrote, performed, and directed three one-act plays.
HNMAG: What was the venue?
Ian Hanlin: We rented the Havana Theatre for two weeks, which was insane.
HNMAG: How much was that?
Ian Hanlin: A lot. More than we had. It was mostly for a scattered crowd of two to seven people but there were a couple of decent nights. A friend of ours from back East, Will Vaughn, who is a great actor. He studied acting at the Vancouver Film School and he had representation. We pleaded for him to invite his agent. In the last of the one-acts, we needed an older man. We had no money and knew that we would not be able to get an established older actor, so I sat in a rocking chair, turned away from the audience and I just did an older voice. After the show, I got a message from Will’s agent and he met with me. He noticed my voice in the last one-act and he asked if I would be interested in being represented for voice-over work in animation. I said sure and that was the side of my career that ended up catching on.
HNMAG: That rocking chair performance from necessity lead to your career?
Ian Hanlin: It opened up a door that I didn’t even realize was there. I hadn’t even considered voice performance as a specialization to even be an option. Which was crazy considering how much I loved cartoons and that being the spark from the beginning.
HNMAG: Did your agent ask you for any voice-over demos?
Ian Hanlin: Yes. I was so green and broke since we spent everything we had on those shows, I didn’t have headshots, demos, or money to get them. Very kindly, my agent wanted to get me into some rooms, so he paid for some demos to get done. I didn’t know what I was doing but I went to a studio to record an animation and commercial demo. For anyone interested in starting a voice-over career, I recommend doing commercials first because that’s where I learned to do the job. It took me a few years of learning through trial and error. The owner of the agency sat in on one of my auditions. I wasn’t really booking and unbeknown to me, was deciding on whether or not to keep me. They were nice enough to stick with me.
HNMAG: Then you did book voice-over work?
Ian Hanlin: I started getting the odd bookings here and there, mostly commercial work. Chipping away at it. I signed on in 2009 and began working regularly in 2014. The first show time I got a show as a regular voice-over performer was in 2014. I got a job on Lego Nexo Knights. I did the audition in a rental car, in front of my parent’s house in Dartmouth for my brother’s wedding rehearsal dinner. I recorded it on my phone with the script in my lap.
HNMAG: How long did it take before you joined the Union of BC Performers (UBCP)?
Ian Hanlin: I joined right before Nexo Knights. I wasn’t sure at first since it meant I would no longer book the non-union gigs but I really wanted to do cartoons and they were all union. I kind of knew, that besides paying the odd permit, I really should join the union to get that work. Voice-over is a weird technical skill. There are odd intricacies that you have to learn by doing it for a while. Productions can be cautious about giving a big part to someone whom they don’t know as being established.
HNMAG: So it’s not even being UBCP, it’s just being established?
Ian Hanlin: I think that to a lot of productions, seeing that someone is in UBCP implies that they are more established. That performer is taking their career seriously. With preference of engagement, productions are supposed to look at Union first.
HNMAG: What about on-camera work, did you start booking that as well?
Ian Hanlin: I’ve done a little bit of it. I did shift my focus toward voice. I figured out that was where I was having success and if I dedicated my time on that, it would lead to more work. I do some camera work here and there but the voice work is more robust.
HNMAG: On-Camera work in Vancouver has almost come to a halt due to the labor issues in the US. Is it the same with voice?
Ian Hanlin: It’s cooled down. There is stuff going on but it’s more of a pitter patter. There are some ongoing shows that have been going on for a while. Canadian productions that are ongoing things and the odd commercial work. We have seen a nice uptick in union video games. There are so many awesome voice-over audio houses in Vancouver that now UBCP talent for voice-over work, even for smaller video games. One such company is Power Up Audio which won a BAFTA award. It’s nice to see Canadian projects, created by Canadians and worked on by Canadians.
HNMAG: Are there more on-camera Canadian content productions as well?
Ian Hanlin: I know that many people are now using this downtime to work on scripts that they haven’t had the time to go over before. Some crews are also working on micro-budget indie shoots as well. With Canadian animation voice work, that happens more in Toronto. That’s where the grants tend to go.
HNMAG: Is there a way to convince producers to make more Canadian content?
Ian Hanlin: I’d love to see that. I’d love to see us take more chances on ourselves. It would be nice to see some more homegrown stuff. It would be really nice if Lionsgate would fund a British Columbia production but I don’t know how we go about doing that or who we talk to but I’d love to see it. I was always so proud growing up, seeing that Lionsgate logo at the beginning of a movie. That’s here! We’re part of making movies happen.
HNMAG: Yes! Vancouver, the Lions Gate Bridge.
Ian Hanlin: It made me really excited as a Canadian.
HNMAG: How do you feel about working in Vancouver in this industry?
Ian Hanlin: I really am very fortunate that I have gotten to pursue this line of work in this City. There is a really deep industry here in Vancouver. There is an incredible well of talent, creativity, passion, and drive for every aspect of filmmaking and animation. There is a strong current of art and entertainment in this city. I’m so grateful that I have been able to participate in it as I have. I get to be on things that my young nephews think I’m cool because of that. They don’t think I’m cool in real life but they think I’m cool on the show.
Ian Hanlin grew up having fun doing voices he heard on TV. He went on to study acting, perform theatre and take a big chance by moving to a city he has never been to before on the opposite side of his home, in the second biggest Country in the world. His big break came by accident and with some incredible generosity from an agent that went above and beyond. Now Ian Hanlin is one of the best voice-over performers in the industry. He was a natural but the world would not have known that without dedication, hard work, and determination. There are many more talented performers, writers, and industry professionals in Vancouver. We just need to give them a voice.