We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kerem Erdinc a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kerem , thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?
I strive to keep my creative flame lit by brainstorming ideas I haven’t tried before. Half the battle with any creative endeavor is the headspace you’re in going into it. Keeping myself open to new ideas and consciously challenging myself instead relying on familiar patterns. When I voice something like a dragon, for example, I imagine how its anatomy would work, the way it breathes, how it moves, and how a dragon would present itself and its authority—all through just my voice. Putting myself into a mental space where I can freely generate ideas that spark my excitement helps keep stagnation and burnout at bay.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Growing up as a young boy born in Pittsburgh, PA in the 1990s, I was fortunate to be mesmerized by the storytelling in animation and video games. I was fascinated with the performances of legends like Frank Welker, Kevin Conroy, and Keith David. I wanted to be a part of every cartoon I saw on TV. I would practice voicing scenes with my action figures all day long, frustrated when a small child’s voice came out instead of Batman’s. I believe it was that obsession with sounding “right” while at play that served as my first step in becoming a voice actor.
As an only child from a close-knit Turkish family where everyone pursued traditional career paths, I felt a self-imposed responsibility to follow in my family’s footsteps. Unable to let go of my creative dreams, I opted to follow both paths simultaneously, studying hard to become a businessman while always keeping one foot in the creative world. Just before finishing college, I began dabbling in voice-over, honing my skills for years by taking on indie projects, attending training workshops, and making YouTube videos.
When the Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns began in 2020, like many others, I found myself working remotely with more time on my hands. I chose to take voice acting more seriously, upgrading my equipment, investing more in classes, and forming lifelong friendships in the acting community. Simultaneously, studios began opening their rosters to voice actors without agents and allowed for remote recording. More opportunities became available to newer talent than ever before, and I was fortunate to be in the right place, with the right training, at the right time.
The role that I felt charted my path from hobbyist to working professional was playing both Batman and the Joker in the Winter Soldier vs. Red Hood episode of the web show, Death Battle. Inhabiting those larger-than-life characters to that capacity was an indescribable feeling. From then on, there was no turning back. By 2023, I joined my dream agency and began auditioning and working with studios and teams that create my favorite games, movies, and shows. I’ve had the good fortune of performing across a multitude of mediums, using only my voice and, at times, motion capture, to help create fully realized characters that people can connect with across the world.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. Patience is the first quality I would impart to those starting their journey in any creative space. Opportunities don’t present themselves when you’re ready; they arrive when they arrive. All one can do is commit to behaviors and decisions that bring you closer to the possibility of those opportunities presenting themselves. Take classes, talk to your peers, make genuine friendships with people who have similar dreams, and keep improving your skills. In voice acting, nobody’s path is the same, and there is no single way to “break in.” Patience with yourself and your journey is paramount in building any career.
2. Being fun to work with is a skill not many people think about, but it can be honed. Bringing a kind and collaborative energy to work is, I feel, a requirement, but being fun is more about connecting with the people you are working with. Booth directors and sound engineers often work 12+ hour days, and my sessions with them are frequently their 4th or even 6th session that day. If you are enthusiastic and passionate about what you’re delivering, that passion can’t help but spread through the whole team present. As the talent, you have the power to set the tone for the entire session. If you’re fun to work with, studios and clients will pick you over and over.
3. Over the years, I have learned to consciously try to take a measured approach to analyzing things across the board. You will meet all kinds of people in your life, and some of them may have opinions that may even go against what you believe to be right, so taking a magnanimous approach to people, treating them as the sum of their parts can help you build more productive relationships and help build your good reputation as a working professional. Don’t get me wrong, there are times where people can be cruel or have malicious intent, and you’ll need to respond accordingly, but trying to see people or situations from another angle being my default setting in life helps in both dealing with unfamiliar situations and also in creating layered, nuanced characters. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve booked a character who seemed paper-thin on audition sides, yet by chasing the idea of “what if they weren’t so simple?”, I intrigued a casting director and secured a booking. Applying layers, subtext, and contradictions are what make characters interesting in my eyes. All this to say, sometimes, a character really is just the one note, “Lord Badman The Terrible”, and I just do the thing, that’s fun too.
Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
Well, my handle on all social media platforms is “KeremIsWhelmed” for a reason. Beyond referencing my favorite character in fiction, Dick Grayson aka Nightwing, it also represents the state of mind I try to set as my default. I’ve experienced staggering highs and crushing lows throughout my life. Brimming with happiness and positivity all the time is an unrealistic expectation to place on oneself, so I find a good and steady baseline is to be neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, just whelmed—it’s okay to be just fine. We battle feelings of anxiety or dissatisfaction all the time, but finding a baseline to return to and spend most of your time in is crucial. Escape functioning dysfunctionally, if for no other reason than your health.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.keremerdincvoices.com
- Instagram: @keremiswhelmed
- Twitter: @keremiswhelmed
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