Octavio Villena is a Peruvian bilingual voice actor and Queens College student based in New York. Born in Lima, Peru, he has built a growing career, mostly in video game voice acting while completing his studies.
He is known for voicing Jack, the deuteragonist in the indie horror game The Stalked 3, a project whose demo went viral, drawing widespread attention online, as well as for his work as The Clerk in Buried Below. His performances have been recognized for their intensity and range, from Jack’s chaotic personality to The Clerk’s grounded, unsettling presence. He has also received national media coverage back home in Peru for his work as a rare emerging Peruvian talent working internationally.
In addition to his game credits, Villena has been featured by CUNY and maintains an active presence as a professional voice actor working in both English and Spanish. He continues to develop his craft while balancing his academic and professional commitments.
Villena’s connection to Queens runs through Queens College, where he is pursuing his studies in theatre and building his career from New York. The borough has become the base from which he works on international projects, and a place where he has always felt welcome.
NB: Other than the amazing diversity, what do/did you love most about living in Queens (or Queens in general)?
OV: I don’t just love the diversity in people here but also the food diversity. Coming from Peru where we also have a lot of food diversity in awesome qualities, I think having come here was a good choice to make me not miss that aspect of home too much. I still love going back, but at least I’m not losing my mind over there being less food choices. And I can still get the taste of home in some restaurants too which is great. Shoutout to Sabor Peruano, you guys know what you’re doing.
NB: How does Queens inspire you? What are some of your favorite places to be inspired in Queens?
OV: This one’s kind of a weird answer I guess but…the subway and the people in it. And I know it’s a New York City thing in general but there’s more diversity in the Queens lines I feel. Queens and its people inspire me, there’s so many cool characters and so many people seem surprisingly open to talk in the subway, especially if it’s about what they love. So, plenty of times I’ve opened with “What’s in your bag?” if they have like, an eye-catching bag or just one that’s visibly full of specific stuff. And those chats usually end up with knowing where the person’s from, what they do, a glimpse of how they feel and think about things which can always be great inspiration for characters. I get that knowledge while they get to talk about what they love and be happy someone cares. It’s a pretty cool trade.
NB: What advice do you have for readers who are hoping to develop their voice acting or artistic practice? Is writing or artistic talent innate and/or can it be taught/developed? How important is daily practice? Do you ever get stage fright/camera shy/performance anxiety or have advice about overcoming it?
OV: I think the best advice I have for anyone is to just keep at it. Especially in an artistic path. And actually with the addition of “keep at it more than what you’d expect anyone else to.” The arts in general are an area where there’s thousands of people giving it a shot trying to be one of the few to make it big. And for acting, you really gotta give it a shot more than anyone else. You gotta work harder than anyone else. I see a lot of people who just get into acting school and think things will sort themselves out after graduating. All they do is a couple college plays, maybe a student film. Which, there’s nothing wrong with that, you know? It’s a start. But that’s all it is. There’s at least another thousand people across the country doing exactly that. Acting school, a couple of plays, student film. And to make it big you have to get into an agency at some point, and agencies aren’t looking for someone who looks exactly like another thousand people.
I think talent is a mix of natural and developed. And in my opinion daily practice is really, really good to get the developed side of it to its best. Last year when I really started my push to break into the industry, I was reaching out and auditioning for a project at least once every day for around 200 days in a row. And I could feel myself getting better at coming up with voices for characters on the spot and mannerisms, voice textures, intensities, everything that goes into voice acting. And when I couldn’t find anything, I tried my hand at cold reaching out which I’ve also got quite good at, and then after that worked, I’d have another audition. Double win.
I used to get a little shy when it came to live recorded or live directed sessions. Most of indie work is done asynchronously and remotely and you just kind of do yourtoo,n thing and work on notes and retakes you might get a little while later, and I know some people who get shy at that way of doing things too but I think it’s just something you get used to, and then the weird feeling about it goes away. So my advice for that is to also just keep doing it and practicing.
NB: How important is personal connection and communication (networking) in your industry?
OV: I’d say it’s pretty important. I’ve already had a couple people reach out to me over being friends with previous directors I’ve had, and it’s usually like, ‘Hey, I saw this other thing my friend directed and thought your performance was pretty cool! We talked about you and I’d love to have you in one of my projects!’ and from there another friendship begins built on mutual friends as well as an acknowledgement of each other’s talent, which I think is sweet.
NB: Who are some of your favorite voice actors, actors, artists, poets, event hosts, writers, models, performers, professors, and other creatives with a Queens connection?
OV: I appreciate all of my Queens College professors. I feel like they all have inspired me and they’ve always had interesting things to say and teach, and I’m always thankful for that.
NB: What are your favorite restaurants, cafes, theaters, book stores, exhibits, museums, communities, and venues in Queens? Favorite places to record?
OV: As any Queens College student, I definitely love Gino’s of Kissena. Gino’s Pizza. I’ve kind of made it a habit to celebrate there whenever I do anything worth celebrating. Partly ‘cause of the student discount, partly ‘cause it’s next to campus, and also partly ‘cause the food is awesome.
Favorite places to record? I find that a little funny, us voice actors usually just work from our home studio, usually a pretty decently audio-treated space. My microphone picks up anything, like, anything at all. If I can hear it, it can hear it and also record it crystal clean, which is great for emotional scenes, but not great in like, an echoey room or a room with random people chatting about, so we don’t really go to our favorite restaurants with our booth and equipment, set up and start recording there for the vibes. Especially as a horror actor with a couple games I have, let’s say, ‘loud’ moments in, I’m sure I’m doing my favorite places a favor by not going there to record death screams or jump-scares hahah.
NB: What do you wish more people knew about being a voice actor and college student? What is something you wish you knew before you became a voice actor and college student?
OV: It definitely takes a lot of time management to be a mix of the two since you then have to manage when you have enough projects you’re working on at a time. Or on a day to day basis, when you want to audition for new ones, when do you want to study for class, when do you want to record what you’re actively working on, when do you have to stop what you’re doing and actually go to class, even when and how much you want to eat and sleep becomes a question when you deal with a lot of stuff at once. It can be a lot of pressure. If you get stressed at deadlines, which I thankfully don’t, voice acting’s not a particularly friendly choice, since chances are you will have deadlines, at least, again, in the indie stage where instead of making a scheduled recording session, you’ll just be asynchronous and be allowed to do it whenever you want as long as it’s before a deadline.
NB: What is something you wish I had asked? Please let me know what that question is and answer it.
OV: What is a memorable moment you can talk about? For The Stalked 3, it was such a weird full circle moment when I saw it go viral. I remember sitting at my desk and receiving the callback for it, and I hopped out of my seat with a loud celebratory ‘YES!!’ knowing it was a huge step for my career. And then just a few months later I was sitting on my sofa, scrolling Instagram, just my feed, and I stumbled upon a reel of a content creator, a streamer, KingWoolz, playing the demo version of The Stalked 3 and I’m like ‘Wait a minute- I KNOW THIS GAME, I’M IN THIS GAME!’ which, it was crazy ‘cause I had actively been in the chat of that stream when it happened, there was a bunch of people there, but then I bump into the clip of the game just completely randomly in my feed and I know it’s going big. I check the reel’s view count and it was 20 million at the time, now it’s about 41 million. I mean, that’s more than the population of Peru as a whole, that’s bigger than my home country, it went huge. And then that night it felt like everyone was streaming the demo to the game, saying they saw it go viral on TikTok and Instagram and wanted to give it a shot themselves. And it was such a full circle because I knew it was gonna be great back at my desk, then saw it was being great on my sofa, and both times it led to me hopping out of my seat and celebrating in disbelief.
NB: Do you have any events or projects coming up that you’d like to promote?
OV: The Stalked 3 releases August 20, and Buried Below is expected to follow a few days later.
NB: If you could choose only one video game to represent Queens, what would it be and why?
OV: I feel like Queens in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for PlayStation is really pretty. I wish there was more of Queens in the game but what they got of it is cool nonetheless. Spider-Man’s always been more Manhattan focused despite his Queens origins; anyway it’s fair, mostly cause of the tall buildings and all. Still, maybe they’ll expand the map even more in the upcoming third game. I hope so at least!
NB: Can you tell us more about your work as a voice actor? What are the most difficult aspects of your job? How is voice acting similar and different to “regular” acting?
OV: A lot of voice acting is not just in the mind like it is for all acting and the physicality, but the imagination. I mean, you’re just in a booth for simple voice acting. You may or may not be in a call with your castmates and scene partners. Yet you have to picture all the things that are going on and be able to play them out realistically. You have to be super in tune with the voice you’ve picked for the character and just with noises in general to make things like effort grunts, pain groans, etc. while still sounding as the character you’ve fleshed out. At first it’s for sure the weirdest thing in the world but after that it’s actually pretty fun.
NB: How do you know when something you’re working on (or piece, or any type of art) is “done” (finished editing, complete)?
OV: I feel like my takes are done when I can just listen to them and kind of mentally check things off a list. I don’t actively think of this list, it’s kind of just in my instincts by now, but, I’ll listen to what I’ve done before sending and ask myself things like, ‘Does it all sound like the character?’ ‘Is it interesting-sounding and/or does it achieve what the line and scene is trying to achieve?’ ‘Does the build-up of the lines and emotion make sense? Does it sound believable for the scene?’ Things like that. And it’s obviously reassuring when a director comes back with a reaction of genuine surprise or appreciation for the quality.
NB: Can you tell us more about receiving national media coverage back home in Peru for your work as a rare emerging Peruvian talent working internationally?
OV: It feels surreal. I mean I keep saying this but it always does and keeps doing so. The going back home and being on the news, as well as just being, like, someone who represents my country? The other day I googled “Peruvian Voice Actor” just to see what would show up. The first three results were all pages about me. And it’s like this weight on my shoulders but it’s also something I’m so proud of that it becomes a weight that energizes me somehow. It’s really satisfying to see my efforts paying off, while I also feel so blessed and thankful for it, as well as for the media coverage and support I receive. It’s such a weird feeling where I’m completely over the moon but I also feel like I could cry at any moment.
—Nicollette Barsamian
The Local-Express interview series was originated on July 3, 2013 by Nicollette Barsamian.