#5 Jennifer Aquino - Audiobook Master, Actor, Producer, Director and Entrepreneur

I don't know how she does it, but Jen is an accomplished actor, voiceover artist, director, producer, entrepreneur, mother and wife.  She must have amazing organizational skills and boundless energy, and I want to know her secrets, lol.  

In this episode we talk about how Jen got into acting, and the challenges she faced as a woman and an Asian actor in the industry.  We also chat about forming her own production company and creating her own content.  In recent years, Jen has forged a very successful audio book career, and we dive into how to make the leap to audio books for actors, technical nuts and bolts of the business, and how to get work in the industry.  

Fun Fact: Jen is one of the doctors who killed McDreamy on the ABC medical drama "Grey's Anatomy." Jennifer has narrated titles with Penguin Random House, Hachette, HarperCollins, Simon & Schuster, Audible Studios, Blackstone, Podium, Dreamscape Media, and Tantor. Jennifer also directs audiobooks, and is on the directing rosters for Hachette and Macmillan. She is honored to have recently won two Audiofile Earphones Award for narrating the memoir “My Life” by CAPE, and the horror book "A History of Fear" by Luke Dumas, both books produced by Simon & Schuster.

 

Jen is on FB, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, Tiktok
Instagram, Twitter and Tiktok: Jennaquino25
Email: Jennifer@jenniferaquino.com

 

0:00 Intro
0:56 Where are you from, where did you grow up?
1:48 How did you get into acting? 
3:21 Husband and daughter - entire family involved in performing arts
4:19 How did your daughter Sydney get become involved in acting?  
6:10 What was acting like when you first got started?  What were some of the challenges?  What was Hollywood like for a female Asian actor?  
9:14 Starting her own production company, creating your own content and being creative with audiobooks
10:53 What do you wish you had known when you started?  
11:47 What kind of projects did you like to produce?  And would you prefer traditional film productions, or social media?  
16:01 Recent voice acting / audio book work
17:48 Making the transition from acting to audio book work
21:22 Technical issues - what kind of microphone, building a studio, recording, post processing? 
26:04 Are most audio books SAG-AFTRA?  
27:19 How do you find work in the audio book industry? 

 

Recommended Class / Coach:
Elise Arsenault - The Great Audiobook Adventure

Jenn’s Equipment:
Jenn’s  Microphone - AKG  C1000s
Interface - SSL 2
Pre-Amp - Triton Audio Fethead Phantom Preamp
Blanket booth with Producer’s Choice sound blankets
Software/DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)- Audacity