Valeria Zunzun
Actress, Voice Actress, Voice Director and Producer
This week we are highlighting actress, voice actress, voice director and producer Valeria Zunzun.
Valeria has been directing and voicing animation for about 15 years.
Valeria began directing children’s theatre in Cuba after obtaining her master’s degree in art and literature. Her voice over career began after she started directing her own radio show in France. In 2005 she moved to Miami, “I just randomly fell into dubbing.” Then, she quickly began directing dubbing and animation as well.
She currently has her own company (and recording studio), Zunzun Entertainment, where she directs voice actors and creates original voices for animation, games, dubbing, and commercials in multiple languages, specializing in English, French and Spanish.
Valeria is from four different countries: France, Spain, Cuba, and the United States. While fully fluent in English, her native languages are French and Spanish, which gives her an authentic accent. She says she tried to fight it for a few years, until she decided to embrace her uniqueness. “In a time where Hollywood and the industry in general are beginning to see the importance and the potential of authenticity and diversity, I hope my unique accent can find its place. I can also do an authentic French or Spanish accent. And accents and languages should never be faked”. Being a trilingual has helped her greatly in her career.
As the Vice-Chief of The Creators Society Voice Actors Branch, she enjoys helping fellow voice actors, as well as meeting new people in different fields of animation. “It’s like a mix of having more relationships in my own niche, and having new relationships and discovering more about animation and creating it,” she said.
Valeria describes her theatre background as being a great part of her career foundation, as well as her international history, “It allows me to vision multiple layers of what a human can be and how I create characters.” She believes that the best voice directors are also actors or voice actors themselves. “It helps to be able to do yourself what you’re asking the actors to do”.
As a director, she always imposes to do the casting. “Casting is a big part of directing. There’s a lot of details and I get a little vision of how it can come together from the beginning. I find a voice, choose the cast, and we create the character together,” she said.
For aspiring voice directors, she says that you should treat every actor as an individual, because everyone reacts to direction differently, “Some just need one word, but other actors need me to explain what I want.” For Valeria, understanding how different actors need to be directed is important because it’s all “teamwork”.
“It’s important to develop a creative relationship with the actors, as well as the sound engineer”.
In terms of networking and making connections, Valeria says that developing a natural relationship is most important, “A lot of actors send regular unsolicited email updates, and it’s pretty annoying. They should develop a natural relationship with the casting directors rather than bombarding them with emails.” She says that getting to know a casting director is how you end up working with them. That and being nice, she likes to work with nice people.
Outside of work, Valeria is a dog lover who enjoys painting, walking, hiking, and socializing. She also writes and describes herself as, “a fan of the original and unique,” taking inspiration from the works of Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Pixar.
One project of Valeria’s that she wants to shout out in particular is the English dub of the long running Japanese children’s series “Shimajiro.” Debuting in 1993, the series follows Shimajiro, a young tiger boy who explores his island with his family and friends as he learns about the world.
“It isn't an educational show, it’s very entertaining and well written. Kids learn values and friendship through a lot of adventures and their own weaknesses. I really like it and I love working with the actors on it.”
You can check it out on YouTube: Shimajiro
Valeria and her team at Zunzun Entertainment also produced the Spanish (Latin American) version of Wild Brain’s “Kidyzuzaa Land”, “a very cute and entertaining series for kids –mostly girls- between 6-10”.
You can check it out here (season 2 only/temporada 2):
Valeria is currently writing –and drawing- her own animation series. “Short one minute or so episodes, aimed to adults (but PG and super cute), inspired by my dog, Lela Duende. I’ll soon be looking for animators and building up the creative team”.
A new original executive producer hat she’d like to be wearing soon.
