Meet Brad Grochowski: Shakespeare to eLearning, One Authentic Read at a Time

From the Stage to the Studio

Brad Grochowski, based in Baltimore, Maryland, has spent his life performing. As a classically trained actor, he has done Shakespeare, musicals, straight plays, and years as a vaudeville-style variety performer and musician. Voice acting was a natural evolution, offering the creative fulfillment of performing with the flexibility to work on his own terms.

But acting was not his only career. Brad also spent 15 years as a Director of Customer Services for a high-touch web SaaS company, helping nonprofits raise awareness and funds for their causes. That combination of theatrical training and deep customer service experience makes him unusually effective at connecting with audiences through a microphone.

Friendly, Engaging, Knowledgeable

Brad describes his voice as friendly, engaging, and knowledgeable. He specializes in eLearning, children's audiobooks, and audiobook narration, genres that demand clarity, warmth, and the ability to hold a listener's attention over long stretches.

His preparation process reflects his classical training. "I read a script several times, do the needed and all-important script analysis," he explains. He asks himself who he is, who he is speaking to, what message he is really trying to get across, and what happened to prompt the words in the script. "Whatever I need to do to really create the emotional scene that's going to allow me to step into the script from an authentic, emotionally-grounded place."

Making Welding Interesting

Brad's most challenging work involves something most people would never associate with voice acting: technical certification training courses for tradesmen. Welders, masons, engineers, site and equipment inspectors all need training materials, and those materials need a voice that can handle dense technical language while remaining clear, understandable, and engaging.

"Approaching the technical language in a way that speaks to the learners from a perspective that they can relate to is very challenging," Brad says. "The fact that some of the modules are hours long certainly adds to that." But the reward makes it worthwhile: "I know that I'm helping a new generation of tradesmen prepare for success in their careers."

Dawn of Madness

Brad recently finished a project for Dimension Games' tabletop game Dawn of Madness, recording voice for audio components. "It's a really cool game, and I got to really dig into the moody, broody, spooky world of the game," he says. "I really had a lot of fun with it."

More Than Talking into a Mic

The misconception Brad encounters most often is familiar to every voice actor: "You're just talking into a mic, right?" His response captures the paradox of the craft perfectly: "If we are doing our job well, it seems like we're just talking into a mic. But there is so much more to it than that."

The strangest project he was ever approached about involved a hypnotizing wizard, non-consensual scenarios, and grown men in diapers. He turned it down.

Sci-Fi, Board Games, and Family

When not recording, Brad travels with his wife, hangs out with his adult son, plays tabletop board games and role-playing games, and collects vintage sci-fi ephemera. The imaginative worlds of his hobbies feed directly into his ability to bring scripts to life.

The Inner Life

Brad's perspective on what makes the human voice irreplaceable is deeply considered. "Humans have the ability to form an emotional connection to a script. We have experiences, we have thoughts, we have subtext and motivation. When we speak, we deliver worlds of understanding and human connection. Speech-to-text can emulate that roughly for moments at a time, but simply can't replace the inner life that we all, as living, breathing humans, come by naturally."

Advice from a Veteran

Brad coaches and mentors incoming voice talent, and his advice applies equally to people hiring them: "Set your ego aside so that you can learn, invest your early money in coaching not equipment, and hold on because it's a long, difficult ride. Also, be prepared to hustle, hustle, and hustle."

Voice acting is, he believes, "one of the most technically demanding forms of acting," and the people who do it well deserve recognition for how much truly goes into every performance.

Hear Brad's demos and explore his full profile at RealVOTalent.com. Ready to bring his experience to your project? Hire Brad today.