AJ Fidalgo

Hi there! I'm AJ Fidalgo (he/him), a middle-aged, Philly-based, amateur* voice actor and all-around presence in the audio drama podcast community.This website exists primarily so that creators and producers -- and maybe even audio drama fans? -- can find out a bit more about me as a voice actor, hear demos, review credits, and contact me.Oh, and don't let that word "amateur" fool you: I have a career and a life outside of voice acting, I don't -- and don't want to -- do this for a living, but I know how to be professional and I take it seriously. Give me a shot for your project!ABOUT MEMy journey to audio drama voice acting is a bit of a meander. I did a bit of high school theater, way back in the '90s. After graduation I left it behind, but I always intended to come back eventually, once life settled down. Life never settles down, though, does it?In the mid '00s, I discovered audio drama podcasts as a means to entertain myself during a long commute -- starting with some old time radio rebroadcasts and a handful of Escape Artists anthologies. As I listened, some part of me kept thinking, "Hey, maybe I could do this?"Eventually I found my way into AD fan spaces, and before long I was running fan communities on Reddit and Discord. I ended up befriending a handful of AD creators as a result, and I got a good peek behind the curtain at the production side of things -- and it interested me greatly.A few years ago, a creator friend invited me to do a small cameo on an episode of his show. I had no equipment, no experience, and no clue what I was doing. Still, it was fun and I decided to take the plunge and do more.Since then, I've been steadily upgrading my equipment, experience, and knowledge, and I may even be starting to have a clue, finally. In just a couple of years, I've had parts in dozens of AD episodes (55 credits on 22 feeds, at last count, though some are repeats or trailers), playing a range of characters from mean to pathetic, noble to sinister, background to fore. I was even selected once as a finalist for the Audio Verse Awards! It's been one hell of a wild ride, and I'm still hanging on and growing! In fact, I'm building a new recording booth right now, and documenting the process here!Outside the AD world, I keep extremely busy as a good husband, a great toddler dad, and a halfway-decent professionally-licensed arguer. Life never did settle down, although I really can't complain!

Here's a demo reel I made to give you a feel for the types of parts I can play:

If you want to hear more, Brady Flanagan put together this reel from my submissions to the Monologue Fest on his Voice Support Community (VSC) Discord server:

April 12, 2025

So I headed over to the hardware store, as promised, to check out my options.The good news is that the 1x3s I want to get, in 8ft-lengths, are super cheap and I can get all I need (14) for less than $30. Wonderful! I did some back of envelope math and with 14 8ft-lengths I should be good on lumber. (math: 8x 7ft planks, 12x ~4ft planks, and maybe a few 6-8 inch planks for an experiment that may or may not work out for this project).The slightly troubling news is I could not find the MDT hardboard sheets I wanted to use. The website says they have plenty in stock, but all I was able to find were more expensive sheets that would drive my project cost way up.The bad news is that the rockwool or similar I planned to use for the panels' interior to help with sound absorption and treatment appears to be very expensive. I will have to price that out and see if I can source it from somewhere cheaper.As far as attaching the panels together, so far the best option I can find is door hinges. I can buy a multi-pack for $32, and that should be more than I need. I may want to explore other options, as hinges are quasi-permanent and I may want some kind of solution that is easy off easy on.The experiment I mentioned above with the 1x3s involves building in a spacer between two sets of two panels. The plan, as you know, is to build four panels and attach them together to act as the four walls to a booth (with one wall doubling as a door). The part that's giving me pause is getting wiring and boom arms and so on into the booth. I also want the booth to fold up and away, and with four panels hinged to fold in on each other, that won't work efficiently. The two end panels will fold in well, but then it won't be able to fold any further. However, what if instead of attaching the second and third panel together panel-hinge-panel, I instead attached them panel-hinge-spacer-hinge-panel. If I made the spacer wide enough (roughly 7 inches), there would be space for the two sets of two panels to fold into each other so that, when folded completely, the booth would have a footprint of 7'x4'x1' and could just sit in a corner, out of the way. Also, the gap those spacers build into the booth, while minorly mitigating the sound treatment, would allow me to run cables, boom arms, and so on, into the booth without having to make ports or holes in the process.

April 11, 2025

I think I'm heading over to the hardware store to look at options for connecting the four panels together. As I believe I have mentioned, I would like to connect the four panels in such a way that they can fold away when not in use. Not that I'd do that, personally, but if I'm going to design something like this I like to give it a versatile functionality.
I also want to see what they have as far as materials go, and maybe get some ideas on how I'm getting this all home when I actually buy it.I'll be borrowing a Sawzall, which saves me the trouble of buying one myself. I might need to procure a couple of sawhorses too. I have a staple gun and a hot glue gun, which should cover me for the fabric. I have some rockwool but need to get more, and I may need some spray paint (I'll need some for other purposes anyway, so might as well pick some up).

Cost So Far
• $115 (17 yards of fabric at Joann, 50% off)

• older posts...

April 9, 2025

My friend, voice actor Pandora Beatrix, suggested that instead of surfacing the booth with cloth inside and outside, I use some sort of hard surface on the outside. She suggested dry wall, but I think it would be easier (and cheaper) to use MDF hardboard panels instead. If I switch to a hard surface exterior, I should have enough fabric and I'll probably cut at least $50-75 off my final cost, since I'd need to spend over $100 on the fabric but the hardboard would probably cost me $30-40 tops.I shared this blog on BlueSky, where there seemed to be some interest in following my progress. I have to stress, I'm making all of this up as I go, but I'm happy to share the experience in the interest of transparency and common progress. Whatever I end up with, if someone copies me and iterates on my ideas, they'll end up with something better. If they share that, we'll all be better off for it.

April 7, 2025

I'm working on building a new recording booth, and I am documenting it here in case others would like to follow along and learn what to do (or what not to do).First, a little history about my current booth. About a year or two ago, I made my current recording environment using an upcycled playpen frame that my daughter had outgrown, hanging old moving blankets my parents had lying around for the walls. It was a fun, low-cost (in my case, practically free) project, and if you need a recording booth on the cheap I highly recommend it.If you wanted to build a reliable, standalone cheapo booth like the one I currently use, you can buy a similar playpen, brand new, on your online marketplace of choice for as low as $45. Just make sure to get the XL (65" x 50") variety so you have enough length to frame out your booth. From there, you can get three heavy duty moving blankets for as low as $25. Zip ties to hang the blankets and you're good to go, $70 all in. I doubt you'll find a cheaper way to build a standalone, dedicated 7'x3.5'x3.5' recording booth.You don't really need detailed instructions because the construction is simple. The playpen comes with a metal frame with plastic joints, which you assemble and then stretch the fabric playpen overlay over for your kid. What I did was take the metal pipes and plastic joints, and reconfigured them to make a 7' x 3.5' frame. Four corner pieces on the bottom, four corner pieces at the top, and four connector pieces around the middle. I taped some bars together around the middle for structural support. I'll update this with more pics when I can, to illustrate.Once the frame was set up, I hung three blankets from the top with zipties. I set them up so that two blankets came together in the middle of one side, to make an entryway, and I folded up the third blanket for a double thick layer of blankets behind the mic (in front of me when sitting). The way the blankets hung, I could reach in a microphone boom arm or wires without worrying about angle or space. I'm going to miss that in the new booth, which will be more rigid in structure.

As for the new booth, the plan is to build out four 7' by 4' wooden frames (similar to stage frames) using 1x3 wooden planks, with fabric stretched over either side and rockwool insulation inside for sound treatment. Then I'd connect those four frames to make a four-sided structure. I am hoping to use hinges to connect, and I am hoping to figure out a way that this thing can fold up and out of the way for storage, even though I probably don't need that option myself.This project is probably going to cost me somewhere around $500. This is still a good deal cheaper than a professional booth, but it's much more expensive than my entry-level one above. I can afford it, some folks probably can't, and that's OK. The hope is I get better sound treatment for the extra money and effort. I recently switched to using a condenser mic as my main recording device, and it's a lot more sensitive to background noise, so I need a little extra oomph in my sound dampening to get the noise out.So far, I've mostly just been planning out how I'd do this, though I went out on impulse and picked up a bit of fabric last week for the frames, since Joann Fabric is going out of business and their fabric is half-off. However, I miscalculated (or rather didn't calculate at all... again it was an impulse move) how much fabric I'd need. I picked up 17 yards of fabric, thinking that was more than enough. Turns out I'll need something like 30 or 31 yards, all told. I'll have to go back for more.The other issue I have is getting the wood home. I can buy the wood I need in 12' planks and cut it down to size, that's the most cost effective way to buy, but unfortunately I don't have the means to transport the wood to my house. Cutting it down at the store is a nonstarter because I need 7' lengths, and I can't fit those in my car either. Paying for shipping would practically double the cost of the wood, which I'm not willing to do. I may have to pull a favor from a neighbor with a pickup truck. We'll see.

So that's where I'm at for now. I'll post later with more updates. Questions? Comments? Feel free to contact me or hit me up on socials!

Cost So Far
• $115 (17 yards of fabric at Joann, 50% off)

Here are some things that don't fit elsewhere on this site:• New Booth - I'm working on building a new recording booth for myself. I'm documenting the process on this website, for educational purposes.• AJ's Place - I have my own personal Discord server. It's a small, quiet place, but one could theoretically find me and some of my friends hanging out there, if one were so inclined.• Voice Support Community (VSC) - You can also find me on this Discord server, created and run by my friend Brady Flanagan. It's much more active than my server, and the people there are very helpful to others wanting to get better at voice acting.• RQ PLEBS - Speaking of Discord servers, I co-founded an all-ages, inclusive, supportive server for fans of audio dramas (and in particular, Rusty Quill audio dramas), way back in 2021. I stepped down from my admin role in late 2024, but the server is still thriving with 2000+ members, many of whom are some flavor of neurodivergent and/or queer. It's a lovely, welcoming place if you like listening to audio drama.• Alhezar - In the first half of 2023, I participated in an online TTRPG writing exercise. Every day, I added a tiny bit to an undersea world of my own creation, for use as a setting in a roleplaying game. I shelved the project halfway through the year, but I'm proud of what I managed to make before then. Check it out!• My Portrait - I commissioned illustrator Juan Ochoa to create the beautiful portrait of me that I use as my profile pic on social media, and in the banner up top on this website. In truth, my hair is salt and pepper black, not fiery red, but Juan took some creative liberties and I'm not complaining. I've never looked so good; just ask my wife!• IMDB - Somehow, I have an IMDB page. I don't maintain it, so it only reflects a handful of my credits. If you want a more complete and accurate list of my credits, check out my Podchaser profile.

Whether you want to cast me for a new part or you just want to chat, I'd love to hear from you!

You could also hit me up on BlueSky, if that's more convenient.