Today we’d like to introduce you to Cam Cornelius.
Hi Cam, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I grew up between Nashville and LA. My parents were in the entertainment industry. My dad was a record producer and discovered Alan Jackson, Sawyer Brown, Collin Raye. He also produced other legendary acts like Johnny Paycheck. My mom was a singer/songwriter and had music cut by several artists including Tom Jones. As a singer, she was signed to RCA Records Australia for a time.
Growing up in music studios formed my interest in the arts and technology, and being in a musical family I also developed my singing. When I was 5, I had an album out with Sonny “Enos” Shroyer from the Dukes of Hazzard. We were one of the first music videos to show on a new little network called Country Music Television, or CMT. If yo search the internet hard enough, you can still find the music video 🙂
My interest in acting and music led me to a career in radio where became an air personality on stations like the legendary Y107-Nashville, WAY-FM, and 102.5 The Party. Once a producer heard me on the air and called me up to do some voiceover work…I got the check and said “WOW! You really can make money behind the mic!” While in radio…and now VO, a friend of mine from college sent a video reel I had made to WSMV-TV here in Nashville. They ended up hiring me as an investigative photojournalist and producer….and my professional career behind the camera began. My time in news led me to start exploring other areas of video production, and I soon became a Director of Photography on the side, working on music videos, commercials, etc.
The Dave Ramsey Show eventually hired me as Director of Photography and I was blessed to have produced many projects during my almost 10 years there that have changed people’s lives for the better. All that time behind the camera gave me a great understanding of what it is like to direct actors.
One day while at the Ramsey Show, a producer (Joe Loesch) I had worked with several years earlier asked if I could come back in to the studio and record a few missed pages of copy from a session I had done something like 12 years earlier. They had never released the project and when they decided to, they realized some of my dialogue was missing. I went to the studio and forgot how much I really loved being BEHIND the mic. Joe, then kept asking me…for almost a year… when was I going to get back into VO seriously?
The business had changed a lot, so I did some coaching, got new demos, and hung my shingle as a voice actor while still working at The Dave Ramsey Show. That continued for a while until I had to make a decision to cut back on some of the voice work or just go do it full time. So about 6 years ago I decided to pursue VO full time. VoiceOverDude.com was open for business!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
You know, life is interesting. I don’t think anyone necessarily has a smooth journey. Earlier on, things would sometimes become slow and I began to question my decision to go full time VO. I actually at one point felt like I was going backwards. The way my brain work, I kept thinking of the word “backwards,” and a vision popped into my head of me playing with one of those spring loaded cars when I was a kid.
You know, the kind you pull back to build up energy and then let race off to jump, crash, etc. I thought to myself then “if I’m going backwards…like the car… then this time should be preparing me for the fun part…the race! I took a closer look at myself and realized that instead of throwing myself a “pity party,” I needed to find out WHY things were slow. Did I actually need a rest, was there some chore around the house that needed to be done that I was procrastinating on and that pressure was affecting my creativity, was there an educational opportunity I could take advantage of that I couldn’t if I were really busy at the time, did I need to do some more marketing? All of those questions flooded my mind. Then I looked out the window and it was winter. The trees looked dead. Were they going backwards?…no… invisible to us, their root systems were growing to make them stronger and find more water and nutrients. The animals were no where to be seen… I knew they were resting so they could get going in the spring.
It was then I realized that the busy times AND the slow times are all part of the creative cycle of life. You can’t have one without the other. It is what you do with the slow times that makes the difference. Don’t feel sorry for yourself during those times..invest in yourself and your goals. During the slow times, you are pulling back on the car of your life and building up the energy for the next big thing!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I work across many areas in the Voiceover industry. Commercials, video games, animation, promo, radio imaging, e-learning, audiobooks, and the list goes on 🙂
Some of my favorite work is in the animation and video game world. I voice Wilbur in Crayola’s Scribble Scrubbie Pets cartoon, I voice game trailers for Nintendo and MARVEL, I got to be a “retro announcer” for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and have been multiple characters in video games from Payday 2, to more recent titles like STARSEEKER: Astroneer Expeditions.
I’m honored to be the 2025 OneVoice Award winner for best Movie or Game Trailer Performance.
I have also voiced projects for companies such as LEGO, Dollywood, pandora, Cirque Du Soleil and am in the dubbed “English” cast of several shows on streaming services like Netflix.
I treat every project like it is my first one and I hope I stand out for over serving and over delivering.
I’m also thrilled to be able to host a video podcast with my buddy and fellow Emmy winner, Jason Crossman. He is a film director with Nashville roots that currently lives in Los Angeles. We have conversations entertainment industry professionals and also share our own journey, faith, and experiences with our viewers. Our goal is to help others learn, achieve success in the entertainment industry, and become the best person they can be.
Mostly I’m proud my wonderful wife, Leian. I couldn’t do half of what I do without her talent, support and experience. Our shared faith makes us a strong team.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
To be honest, many people in voice (and other industries) are scared of AI. During the next 5 or so years, yes the industry will have to adapt, but it wont change as much as the media is leading us to believe.
I work with producers every day that have tried various AI platforms for voice and the common theme is that AI is not direct-able on a granular level like a human is. Sure, you can prompt an AI to sound sad, or happy, fast, or slow, but can an AI deliver 30 kinds of sad or happy and understand the nuance BEHIND why that emotion is there?
AI may be useful for temporary placeholder recordings… and many people used to make some money voicing those kinds of recordings… they are called scratch tracks. Historically a scratch track would be recorded for timing, etc. by a person… maybe hired on fiverr or upwork….and then when ready, they would seek out an actual voice actor for the final read. AI is affecting workspaces like fiverr. Now a production company can build a scratch track in AI. BUT! there is also an upside to this. If you create your own AI voice clone with a reputable company… a voice clone that YOU retain control of, you can now also be the scratch track voice…and if they like your AI scratch track, they might just hire you for the real recording. I never really recorded scratch tracks before… now an AI can do it for me, pay me a little bit for it, and it might even bring me more actual VO work!
Another place where AI excels is for short fixes in a script or repetitious things like customizing the city or market name in a commercial. Before, you would have to record 20, 30, 50 markets…”Hey Chicago, Hey New York, Hey Peoria!” and now AI can do that for you. AI tends to fall apart on the longer projects…anything over a few seconds. That “uncanny valley” always shines through in a longer recording.
So short fixes and lower budget needs is where I think AI is going to really change the industry. One thing to remember… AI will ALWAYS need human input. They have tried many times to train AI input on AI output and it always ends in something called “model collapse.” The AI utterly fails. Human innovation, will always be needed, so I don’t think we are headed for a “Terminator” scenario 🙂
Pricing:
- VO pricing can be more reasonable than you think.
- I am a small business, and I parner with businesses both big and small.
- I try to work within my client’s budget and be a helpful resource.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.VoiceOverDude.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/videocam
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheVoiceOverDude
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/camcornelius
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/VideOcam
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@entertainmentdudes
