Jack Malcom Sanders is just getting started.
Just three years ago, he was playing semi-professional soccer and attending university in Paris. Now, he’s a full-time voiceover actor taking the industry by storm.
Jack is a true artist, and his passion for acting has propelled his career to exciting heights. His shift in focus from athletics back to acting came after years of people telling him he should get into voiceover (and when you hear him speak, you’ll know why!)
He discusses his brand, Right About Now VO, making the move to LA to pursue VO, what inspires him, and his career goals in the following Q&A.
How did you decide to make the shift from soccer to voiceover?
I was involved in theater as a kid. Then when I found soccer, I just put on blinders and stopped doing anything creative for a while. Soccer was my main focus. I played two years in college in Rhode Island, and then I moved to Paris to play for a team there. Then, the pandemic hit and I started doing voiceover as a side hustle. I did have a foundation in acting and the arts from the school I went to growing up. Since we had to stop training when everything shut down, it gave me time to focus more on VO and reconnect with that creativity. Then once training resumed, I just woke up one week and knew that I needed to shift to really lean into voiceover.
Paris to LA is a big jump – how has your decision to make that move impacted your career?
I’m from New York, so for me I knew that coming back to the U.S., I would either want to be in New York or move out to Los Angeles.
I decided I really wanted to jump in head first and see what kind of connections I could make being in the hub of L.A. I’m the kind of person where if I’m going to do something, I’m going to go all-in. I do think that it helped me build momentum, a lot started to really take off once I made the move. It feels like I’m definitely in the right place.
With such a broad scope of work under your belt already, is there a project that resonated with you or that you were most proud to be involved in?
I was one of the voices for Big 10 college football this season, so that one was really cool for me. I remember getting the call that I booked it and it was a crazy feeling, because my agent let me know that it was between me and an actor that was a promo voice that I really admired and looked up to.
To know that I was in the running and then eventually chosen among that company was a really great feeling. It felt like Okay, making the big move really is paying off.
You branded with Celia — what does your brand Right About Now VO mean to you? How has it impacted your business?
I think the professionalism of having a really polished website sets the tone. People see that and think ‘Okay, this guy knows what he’s doing and he means business.’
If someone has clearly put a lot of thought and resources into their brand, then you know you can expect them to put that same thought into your project. I think my brand helped elevate me in that way. It just outlines who I am and what I can do in a way that feels authentic.
You’ve found so much success so far in your career. What keeps you motivated? Where do you have your sights set now?
To be honest, I don’t find it difficult to stay motivated. I just really love doing this, so I think that’s motivating enough for me. I don’t stress about hitting a certain number of auditions per day or quotas like that.
Staying creatively fresh is really important for me. I do believe that there is a certain amount of bandwidth that you have in a day, so I’m not going to try to force it when it’s not there. Otherwise, I think it’s important to have a good perspective. I get to wake up each day and make funny voices into a microphone – that’s something I feel lucky to get to do as my career. I know a lot of people are working in more high-stress, lower reward jobs. So it’s helpful to remember that this is a really fun job to have.
What do you find to be the most difficult part about doing this work? And what do you love most about it?
Something that can feel difficult is that I sometimes feel like my best work gets lost in auditions. I think it’s because that’s when I’m really swinging for the fences and taking risks. Oftentimes, that’ll get pulled back or it won’t end up being what’s booked. That can be kind of frustrating. It’s the classic artist’s dilemma: Do you give them what you think they want, or do you deliver the performance that you want to give?
Most of the time, I lean toward just giving the performance that I want to give because that’s what’s most exciting about any art form — it’s somebody unapologetically expressing themselves. So, that is one difficult element, is that I feel like a lot of my best stuff is just somewhere out there in the audition ether.
In terms of what I love about it, I think it’s cool that something you imagine adds value to a project. Each audition, you are interpreting the script in a unique way that’s not necessarily comparable to anyone else. When that gets chosen, it’s a great feeling. Knowing that my voice and my creativity is valued at the level that I’m able to earn a living from it is very rewarding.
What do you have your sights set on next?
I want to be like somebody who’s a player in all genres. I don’t wanna be a “commercial guy,” or a “promo guy,” or a “video game guy.” I wanna be an “everything guy,” because it is all acting. So that’s my overarching goal, is to really keep honing the craft and be a major player across the board. I know that I have what it takes to be that person.
There’s some awesome cooking content across your social media. How did that start and what other hobbies keep you busy outside of work?
I have always loved cooking, ever since I can remember. I cooked a lot with my mom when I was little. Now it’s something that is super calming for me. Just focusing on the task at hand of being in the kitchen creating something is very zen for me.
Aside from that, I love jujitsu. I think when you’re doing voiceover, you’re thinking a lot every day about a wide variety of factors. You have to deal with the business side as well as the creative side, and it’s nice to have an hour in the day to just let it all go. That’s what jujitsu does for me.
What is your favorite part about being on team CSM?
The thing I really love about Celia is, if you tell her: “this is my goal,” she’ll be like, “All right, let’s make you the best person at that goal.” She’ll take it to the next level.
So I really like that, cause I don’t like when people limit you. I like to be able to just think really crazy and be able to achieve more. And she’s, really, really awesome with that. And then obviously, aside from Celia the whole team is great. It’s just nice to work with everyone, it feels like we’re all kind of growing together. Everyone is progressing together, it’s like a rising tide raises all boats, as they say.
You can keep up with Jack on Instagram and check out his demos here.
