Hi I'm Billy! Welcome to my website!
When I was little I loved watching movies and television, everything from Saturday morning cartoons, to after school programs, to evenings watching Kermit and his Muppet friends. I remember loving just lying on the floor in the living room, listening to my mother's 8-track tape of The Wizard of Oz. Early on I learned that I loved entertaining. Everything I heard, I'd imitate, much to the amusement and sometimes horror of my parents and family. The feeling of making people smile and laugh made me happy. I began telling jokes to anyone who would listen. I'd do impersonations and impressions of movies or characters constantly. When teachers assigned oral reports for classes, it was much more fun to shoot a video. When I was struggling to figure out what to study in college, some close family friends pointed out to me what had been evident to them as long as they'd known me... that since I loved television, films and entertainment in general, maybe that would be a good direction to chose. That struck a chord immediately and I haven’t looked back.
I studied television production and after graduation picked myself up and moved to Los Angeles to pursue my dream of entertaining. Upon arrival here in sunny SoCal, it wasn't long before I found myself taking acting classes around the city; improv at the Groundlings and various audition and acting classes and workouts with several prominent acting teachers. Quickly I landed an agent and began auditioning.
One day I found myself looking around at entertainment jobs on Craigslist when I came across a posting. They were auditioning voice actors for an independent animated pilot project. Because of my love for cartoons, it sounded like tons of fun, so I submitted my resume. I was called in to audition for one of the main roles, a very happy, athletic dog by the name of Red. After my initial read, I looked at the casting people and the producer, and waited for some kind of response to my acting. When they spoke, I was rendered speechless..... "All I could think of as you performed that part, was John Candy." Never have I gotten such an amazing compliment in my life. John Candy has been one of my comedy and acting heros from as far back as I can remember. They ended up casting me in not just the one part, but three roles... including Red's arch-nemesis Melman the mailman, and thug #3. The day we did the recording, I knew that voice acting was something I wanted to spend a lot more time doing. In that studio, behind that microphone, with those other actors, just playing pretend, was the most enjoyable acting I'd ever experienced. And to top it all off... they paid me!
From that moment, I have spent my time taking not just acting classes, but voice classes. Studying with some of the greats of our time, including Bob Bergen and Richard Horvitz, as well as workshops with various others including Rob Paulson, Maurice Lamarche, Charlie Adler, Gregg Berger, has been not only been educational and informative, but as a fan of their work from earliest childhood, I geek out when they go into a classic character voice.
Since the start of my professional acting career, I've gotten to play some really fun roles. I've played a mafia hitman on Son of the Beach and appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno several times, playing everything from "Miss Romania", to "the body of Chris Christy". I've been shot and killed on "The Mentalist" and run naked through a high school on "Boston Public". I've even played dodgeball, in Time's Square, with Diane Saywer on Good Morning America. Not many people can say that! I've been the voice of squirrels, dogs and various other wildlife. I've gotten to meet several of my inspirations and heros, including Hank Azaria (who requested to follow me on X, formerly known as Twitter!!) and the amazing Bronson Pinchot!
I love voice acting. I love entertaining. I love playing for a living.
Thank you for visiting my page!!
-Billy Acquaviva
