We recently connected with Liisa Lee and have shared our conversation below.
Liisa, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
Easy answer: The Hard way. Honestly, confidence can be a fragile thing for anyone, especially artists, and one bad teacher or coach can destroy it for years. So in my coaching and directing, I make a real effort to “find the good and praise it” as acting coach Richard Lawson has said, while still being pragmatic and real about the work and what’s required.
Growing your skills should be supportive and fun, not stressful and shame producing.
The short cut: stay interested in the Work you’re doing, and let the confidence busters yap into the wind
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After many years of having my original confidence in my skills bashed by cruel teachers, condescending agents (like casting agent Vinny Liff in the NYC broadway circle), lovers and bullies, I finally learned the lesson:
Any teacher/agent/coach/professor/ relationship that speaks down to you is leading with ego and bad control, and that’s a Them problem.
Statistically our brains believe negative talk 3 times more than positive comments. So you have to be vigilant.
Milton Katselas called the naysayers “snipers on the roof”.
Go find a class with coaches/ a relationship etc. that respects you and keeps their influence a safe space
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Another good lens is: Don’t consider the opinions or bad mouthing by people you wouldn’t want to take advice from or whose life you wouldn’t want to emulate.
I was always a “front center dancer”, so at a young age I was noticed early, and that was both a boon and burden. It put a target on my back from people that didn’t wish me well.
I’m my early years as a professional dancer/ singer in NYC, Vinny Liff was extremely antagonistic to me (and a select few others) at auditions and callbacks, but he was the gate keeper to the biggest broadway shows.
It always got down to me and one other girl for a role in a broadway musical and the other girl always got the role. He’d quip at me during the process and sneer at my efforts.
During my 15th callback for Cats (yes really), from my spot, singing on stage at the WinterGarden theater, I saw him in the pin light in the seats, roll his eyes at my headshot. I stopped singing and said, “Do you want me to keep singing?”.
He realized I’d seen him and stammered, “uh.. uhh yes.” But the jig was up. I knew he wasn’t going to cast me. The rest of the dancers gasped softly from the wings. But just knowing I’d stood up to him in a small way, in front of other dancers, was a win for my self esteem and righteous indignation. It still crushed me and I moved to LA.
It took years of study, of acting class with good coaches, self awareness and learning communication skills to finally have a clear, longer lens on that kind of catty behavior.
I’ve watched highly regarded coaches in VoiceOver make grown men cry, or tell actors they’ll never make it, while I’ve had to hold space for my acting clients as they re-live a bullying incident from mean coaches, before they can work and learn safely. So, my self confidence was strong before it was crushed, and it’s been a long road back to heal those scars and find a peaceful place to stay interested in the work, while side-stepping the slings and arrows of others’ projections, and not letting them land.
An old friend was a master of parrying insults from hecklers in his act. My favorite comeback he’d say was:
“Alright, come on… heckle me and insult me all you want. Bring it on, Heckle-boy.
All I ask is this…. IMPRESS ME.”
It always got a cheer from the crowd and silence from the Heckler.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I’m a voice actor, director, and voiceover coach based in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
I help actors find their authenticity in their reads and turn it into bookings. I also consult on casting and direct sessions for studios and indie teams.
My coaching is actor-first. Practical. Fun. Results-driven. I teach script analysis, acting, mic technique, stamina, and the business side so students leave with tools they can use and a clear roadmap of career steps.
My clients range from brand-new actors to NFL athletes, contestants from The Voice, and Emmy winners. The best part of my week is the “YES, that’s it” moment when a read clicks and the room lights up.
As a performer, you can hear me in national campaigns and games like Devil May Cry 5, Dying Light 2, Evil West, and Hunt: Showdown 1896. That on-set and in-booth experience shapes how I coach. I know what directors listen for. I know how sessions run. I teach the craft and the workflow so my students feel ready and prepared to do their best work in a session.
I’m multi-hyphenate by design. Alongside VO, I’m a PR and marketing director for live events and destination brands, and a food photographer at Sugar Studios Inc. Storytelling is the through-line. Whether I’m shaping a campaign, plating a dish for camera, or coaching a session, I’m building a clear story that connects.
What’s special about the work? Two things. First, authenticity. Audiences feel truth. We train for that. The secret is, actors really are enough, I just help them set considerations and fears aside to find the heart of the work.
Second, the business of the business. This career is a marathon. There’s a lot of aspects to know and be aware of.
We build stamina, mindset, and systems so actors can book, re-book, and keep going.
A few of my favorite coaching mantras: “The Real in your Reads.” “Mistakes can be gold.” “No one should learn from anyone they have to heal from.”
What’s new: I run weekly VO workouts and targeted audition preps, plus pop-up intensives for character, script analysis, and the business side of VO. I’m also expanding my game-centric coaching tracks and continuing to write, collaborate, and develop fantasy RPG content for an original setting.
Sugar Studios Inc. is rolling out fresh photography packages tailored for restaurants, national brands, and social media.
My latest VO character, StormSeer is now live and playable in Hunt” Showdown- Web of the Empress.
I’ve just completed an interview on my RPG experiences and performance for an upcoming book.
I’m in talks with favorite clients for Holiday food photography shoots.
VO Coaching: I’ll be teaching a class at Voice One in San Francisco in November.
If you’re VO-curious or ready to level up, come train. You’ll get clear feedback, specific drills, and a plan you can follow. Teamwork is my favorite word. Let’s get you session-ready.
Find me: liisaleevo.com for VO and coaching.
sugarstudiosinc.com for food photography.
Socials: @liisabelle on X, @liisalee on Bluesky and LinkedIn.
Classes available in LA, SF, and online worldwide.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Three things: Listening. The intrinsic advanced education of Being a Theater kid, and being curious
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As a kid I was the youngest in the family, and I learned to be small, out of the way and listen to conversations.
I paid attention and learned from my older siblings whether it was painting, riding bikes, learning to read, or swimming and skiing.
Listening, as an actor, dancer, director or coach is a hugely important tool for great work and great teams.
I can’t stress enough how listening really makes the work.
I believe that theater kids get an education boost in language, vocabulary, history, teamwork, communication and life skills from their time reading and learning from scripts, rehearsing and being part of a creative community outside of school and family.
Sometimes learning to lead, learning to teach what you know, helping others, learning music helps all other learning, and the wins of achieving a performance helps self confidence and self esteem.
Being curious and helpful has also gotten me into the right place at the right time often- more often than simple auditions, perhaps. Striking up conversations with people, giving compliments, or helping take pictures for people at theme parks- a favorite way to be helpful.
Helping Dick Van Dyke find his table at the Tony Awards became a favorite moment of celeb chatting.
Being a lady and chatting the night away with Martin Landau about old Hollywood were my favorite moments of parties and movie nights at the Mansion. (another story)
Making the most of new experiences as well as being authentic, thanking agents, director and producers kept me in good standing when Industry mishaps went down in my circle of people.
Losing friends and family has also made me wish I’d asked so many more questions, so it stays with me to ask, and ask about more, while I’m able.
I’ve had the most wonderful spontaneous conversations, learning about the world and travel over Disney resort cocktails with folks I’d just met.
My father and my favorite people loved the magic of new experiences.
My best advice for actors or artists early in their journey is to keep living life. It’s more important than anything else for your work. Read. Read a lot. Read a bunch of different things- books, scripts, autobiographies, screenplays, children’s books.
Experience new places and people. Go eat at places you’ve never been, try new foods.
Be bad at a new thing and make it fun.
Be a reader at the table in casting if you can. It’s a crash course in seeing who’s ready, who understands in the moment or doesn’t, and who really embodies a part.
Stay respectful. Make listening a deliberate focus in all things. Watch movies, theater and tv with the eyes of an actor.
Make time for FUN and Joy. Yes, seriously.
Take your fun as seriously as your work and vice versa.
It’s so deeplyimportant.
You’ll get farther in every avenue of your life if you include a sense of play in it.
And Stay curious.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Now, I’m a Lit Major, so you know there can’t be just one. As a person with a portfolio of skills, I think reading a lot of different things is so important for a well rounded person and artist.
Before there was the impactful “less is more” writing of Stephen King, as discussed in his book On Writing,
there was Twain and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Cross Creek is one of my favorite books for her simple yet immersive style, in places near where I grew up.
I love how Twain could immerse you in a few words about an entire storm on the river.
“It was one of these regular summer storms. It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby… dark as sin again in a second, and now you’d hear the thunder let go with an awful crash, and then go rumbling, grumbling, tumbling, down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs…”
If I dive into bits of The Silmarillion, I come up out of that gorgeous writing and it seems to enhance the color of my whole world. Magic seems to glimmer everywhere. That’s the alchemy of great writing.
For actors, I’d suggest 2: Dreams Into Action and The Acting Class Book, both by Milton Katselas.
Simple concepts, easy to grasp, but profound to dig into in life and in your work.
Read a lot. Read a lot of books and Talk about books with others.
There’s the magic. I just had a fantastic conversation with a great actor I admire about What is spooky and Why, and what is enticing about scary or spooky books and films, and where do some fail.
Twyla Tharp’s book “The Creative Habit” is fantastic for artists and nurturing (sometimes validating) your creativity.
I always recommend to friends, “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson, and “A Walk in the Woods”by Bill Bryson, the first for page-turning historic fiction, and the latter for a great big grin and laughs as you read about shenanigans on the Appalachian Trail.
Books teach us about ourselves, about other worlds, about what not to do or be, grief, joy, travel, food, history, victory, ethics, and living in another skin for a while. Books show us sometimes, how the bad guys don’t win.
Simply put, Books move me and I love them.
The more I read, the more I want to write.
My time recording audiobooks has shown me a huge spectrum of good and problematic writing.
There are also a handful of classics that I think are horrible books that are popular for weak reasons.
(The Giving Tree teaches martyrdom. Catcher in the Rye is toxic masculinity and the absence of love.)
And a few books I’ll defend as great fun while others condemn.
I was the kid who checked out 12 books at a time from the library.
And a big thanks to Mrs. VanArsdale and Mrs. Henry for nurturing us with great books and creative writing classes.
More? Here’s a small set:
The Hobbit
Cross Creek
Dragon Riders of Pern
Life on the Mississippi
Devil in the White City
A Walk in the Woods
Ghost Road Blues
The Creative Habit
On Writing
Freakanomics
Dreams Into Action
The Acting Class Book
Interview with the Vampire
Red Seas Under Red Skies
Gumbo Tales
American Food Writing (2007)
High on the Hog
The Cooking Gene
The Deepest Well
Stiff – The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
RPG – Cruse of Strahd, & Blades in the Dark, for their immersion and fantastic ideas that delve into uniquely lived environments.
Graphic Novels – Skeleton Key, & Hero Bear and the Kid.
Children’s – Mole Music. Also read the story in the margins, that truly makes this book special and a treasure.
In closing, a quote that colors all my work, everywhere:
“Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.”
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Airman’s Odyssey
So, go read a good book, let it color your world, and let it take you wonderful places.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.liisaleevo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liisalee/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LiisaLee
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/liisalee
- Twitter: https://x.com/Liisabelle
- Other: https://www.sugarstudiosinc.com
https://www.champagneandpajamas.com
Image Credits
Liisa Lee
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
