Meet Roo Ryder

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Roo Ryder. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Roo below.

Roo, thank you so much for making time for us. We’ve always admired your ability to take risks and so maybe we can kick things off with a discussion around how you developed your ability to take and bear risk?

Growing up, I was definitely a child who was more cautious and preferred to do things on the safer side. When you become an adult there are many times where you have to start taking risks to further your career, advance relationships, etc. so I had to try to start adapting. I found it really difficult at first because of all of the “what-ifs”. What if I don’t get the job? What if the relationship doesn’t work out? That simple phrase “what-if” is what stopped me from pursuing some of my dreams. It wasn’t until I met my husband when I was still a very young adult that I started taking more risks and putting myself out there. My husband was the one who told me “Why don’t you try anyways? What could happen? They tell you no?”. With his help I was able to get the courage to be able to try to achieve things I never would have thought possible a few years prior. Now I will audition for things that are intimidating at first glance. I will reach out to people who I have been nervous to reach out to.

One of the big takeaways from taking more risks is that I never have to regret never trying. There are a few things that I have done in the past that I would have regretted not trying. Did those things end up working out? No. But, now I never have to wonder what the outcome would have been. I can move forward and keep working hard towards my new goals. The “what-ifs” are still in my mind, but they have taken a backseat to my determinations and dreams.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

When I was in elementary school all the way through high school I was an athlete. I did all kinds of sports: soccer, basketball, volleyball, flag football, cross country, swimming, track & field, triathlons, you name it. While I absolutely loved sports and the competitiveness of them, I was also really into Disney movies. I loved pretending I was the different princesses and singing their songs in my room. In other words, I really liked to perform, but it was usually in my room by myself as I was too shy to perform in front of people. In middle school, one of our fieldtrips that we went on was to see a musical production. During that production there was one part that particularly stuck out to me. I was so hooked on this one scene and song in the show that I was thinking about it for weeks. A few weeks later I met a girl who I found had experience in music theatre. It turns out that she was the one who sang the song in the scene that I was so enamored by. This friend told me that there were auditions the next day for a musical and I really wanted to try my hand at it. My mom had to talk to me about the potential challenges of being in the musical and also being on the volleyball team, she mentioned I may have to split my time if I get into the show.

The next day I went to the auditions and partially prepared a monologue and a song (as I had the shortest heads up about the audition) and I did my best. When the cast list came out I looked over it so many times, but to my disappointment, I didn’t make it on the list. I didn’t even make the list for stage crew. I was really upset, but kept doing my various sports over the years and hadn’t tried to audition for another production since.

Years later, I found out that there are companies that provide entertainment for children at parties by having their actors dress up as characters and perform. I decided to find one near me and I auditioned. I got accepted into the company and started living my princess dreams while also providing unforgettable moments for the kids. It was a lot of improvisation work as you can’t always script what questions the kids will ask you at parties, so I had to be prepared with my best answers. During this time I had not continued my sports and was more focused on working. I continued being a party character entertainer for a few years before I ultimately started my new journey. Cosplay and voice acting.

Cosplay started out with my love for dressing up and getting to play around as characters. I started crafting my own cosplays and styling my own wigs and the passion grew from there when I started watching anime. Anime opened up so many more options for characters and designs. I started watching it in 2020 during the pandemic and have since found a love for the medium of entertainment. While I watched dozens of shows I took note of how a lot of the younger male characters were voiced by females, which was something I thought was really cool. I then met someone who was starting their voice acting career and they told me about how they were voicing in indie games. I had no idea that it would be possible to pursue a career in voice acting from where we were located. It sparked a bit of interest in myself and it became something I wanted to look into.

My husband had come across a video on YouTube that talked about how to start voice acting from home. I watched the video and started researching into some of the tips and tricks they had given. In 2022 I had really started to get the ball rolling on voice acting and auditioning as much as I could. Over time I started networking with other voice actors who were on a similar path as myself. To this day we still help each other out. Now, after thousands of auditions, a lot of networking, and tons of rejections, I am on a completely new path that I am always eager to keep pushing forward on.

Voice acting has quickly become my passion between voicing really cool characters, to being able to give advice to newer voice actors that are looking for it. I always find it really cool to be able to help connect the bridge emotionally between the creator of a project and their audience. Along with being able to provide my voice to characters I also enjoy the connections I get to make with not only other voice actors, but animators, artists, game developers, audio engineers, and so many others. It is always amazing to see the final product come together after the team has put their passion and love into it.

Going forward, my goal is to be able to connect with many people who enjoy the content I am working on as well as be able to voice roles that are very emotional. I want to guest at more conventions and host more panels to share my passions for voice acting, cosplay, and streaming. So far I have met so many wonderful people doing so many different things and it has been such a highlight of my career.

I am going to keep auditioning for voice acting as well as crafting my cosplays! I also stream on Twitch (RoostingRoo) weekly at 8pm Eastern on Saturdays and play a bunch of fun games with my friends. I would love to chat with any newcomers on my stream! I am also working on more art prints of the various characters I voice, along with my streaming character.

I am so grateful for all of the opportunities my passions have brought me!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

The first thing that was important for me to learn was rejection and how to handle it. Especially for a career where you can audition for hundreds of roles and possibly only get 10, it was an eye-opener how much I would get rejected. I think being able to handle it in a healthy way will overall allow you to move forward when something doesn’t quite work out.

The second thing would be to be your honest and genuine self. It is so much easier to create lasting friendships and relationships by being who you genuinely are. There will always be someone who doesn’t like you for one thing or another, but it something you just can’t focus your time and energy on. Be present to the people who are there because they enjoy being around you.

Lastly, networking is something that I think can be valuable in most aspects of jobs. It helps you form a community of people who can help each other and lift each other up. Being able to network with others has been rewarding for pretty much everyone involved. I always enjoy helping others and I am glad to work with people who feel the same.

What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?

My biggest area of growth over the past 12 months is gaining confidence in my abilities. It is always a good feeling after an audition to know that I did my best regardless of the outcome. Also understanding that most roles in voice acting only require one voice actor, so it is not necessarily that they didn’t like you, but perhaps you just didn’t fit the current part they are looking for. I always keep an open mind to new ideas and feedback from others as well to help further my confidence in myself.

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