Introduce Yourself : Stephen James - voice actor and award-winning coach; director and producer by Stephen James Smith

Founder and CEO of The NOLA Voice Talent Foundation, Stephen James is a professional voice actor and award-winning voice coach who has dedicated his talents to helping other performers in the movie and related industries, and to encourage others to use their talents in support of the performing community and the community-at-large.

Also a prolific writer, Stephen studied English, Art, and Drama at college, where he trained to be a teacher, and he has been involved with voice-over since the mid-70's. Stephen emigrated to the USA in 1997 at the culmination of an illustrious career in public relations and marketing, and decided to develop his abilities as a performer by concentrating on voice acting. He was an active member of Media Guilds International in Las Vegas and became a Member of the Royal Society for the Arts.

Following his move to New Orleans, where he subsequently married his wife Deborah, Stephen formed The NOLA Voice Talent Foundation in 2009; dedicating his work to providing affordable coaching to actors and voice performers in the New Orleans region, and to encouraging them to use their talents in support of the community.

Since then, Stephen has developed the non-profit Foundation on a volunteer basis, by providing hugely-popular workshop programs across the length and breadth of the Gulf coast states, and has raised tens of thousands of dollars for local communities from productions such as the annual radio-play production of "It's a Wonderful Life" (now in its NINTH year) and the annual NVT Awards (now in its FIFTH year and re-branded "The Hollywood South Awards" in conjunction with the Background Actors Guild).

Louisiana's favorite voice coach

Stephen has worked with hundreds of students across the USA, not only along Gulf coast states but also for students as far apart as New York and Los Angeles and, in 2015, was voted "Louisiana's Favorite Voice Coach" by the USA entertainment industry publication "Backstage".

In 2016, Stephen was appointed to the Board of Governors of The National Association of Non-profit Organizations and Executives (NANOE) for 2017 and has been re-appointed to the same board for 2018. In 2017, Stephen also earned the credentials Certified Non-profit Executive (CNE), Certified Development Executive (CDE), and Certified Non-profit Consultant (CNC),

Stephen believes strongly in encouraging people and communities to help each other and is enjoying developing The NATIONAL Voice Talent Foundation as a resource through which organizations and individuals can participate in helping to meet his visions of supporting the community while providing opportunities for performers young and old.