Finding Your Voice (and Getting it Work!) with Walter Gray IV
After graduating with an MFA in Acting from UCLA in 2011, Walt found himself working for Sony on their Motion-Capture stage as the Key Set Production Assistant. Although his years of training pertained to acting and directing for theater, he found adjusting to the world of on-set video game production to be second-nature, and likens it to “theater in the round”.
Throughout his eight years with the company, he was fortunate enough to help shoot motion-capture for such AAA titles as (but not limited to) The Last of Us, Uncharted 4, Uncharted: Lost Legacy, God of War, Days Gone, Marvel's Spider-Man, Death Stranding, Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order, Marvel's Avengers, and The Last of Us Part 2. Having offered his services as an actor to anyone that would listen, he was also occasionally hired as a reader for auditions for some projects, as well as (through auditions) booking some voice-over and motion-capture roles.
He retired from Sony in October of 2019 and has started work as a director in the VO booth for video games; working directly with the talent on in-game voice-over roles. Most recently he has been directing voice over for several projects, including helping out on Cyberpunk 2077, Halo: Infinite, The Walking Dead: Survivors, and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to name a few. Walt is very thankful for the unique experience he has had so far; being able to learn from his PA work just how a mocap stage is run, what you need to know as an actor on said stage, and just how important the communication and collaboration with the director and animators (and all departments) on a shoot can be.