Hi! I’m Kristin James, but you can call me KJ. I was born and raised in the Nashville, TN area, and have since moved to sunny LA, CA. Acting has always been a passion of mine. I started on the stage as early as preschool, and pursued that passion into college where I refined it and received a BA in Communication with a double emphasis in Theatre and Public Relations from Mississippi State University. After college I found myself more and more drawn to voice overs. Afterall, people had been telling me my whole life, “you’ve got a cool voice, you should do something with that.”
So I did.
Several classes, coaching sessions, seminars, research, and conferences later, and I now record and produce audiobooks full time. Employing an engaging style with unique voices for each character, listeners often comment on how they really felt the story come to life through my narration. Nothing makes me happier than a happy client with happy listeners. What can I say? I just love stories and characters.
When I’m not in my booth, you can find me crocheting, playing video games, or running agility with my dogs. If you’re unfamiliar with the sport, check out the video!
​As a huge Rick and Morty fan, I was inspired to make the video below as in introduction to the plumbus.
About Me
Want a Deeper Dive? Check out This Story:
A question I get asked a lot is, "You're a voice actor? How do you even get into something like that?" Since you’ve read the standard, "went to school for theater, continued taking voice specific classes after graduating, ect" answer, I thought I'd get a little more personal.
When I was ten years old I had a heart attack. Thankfully, I was in the hospital when it happened. I was receiving treatment for KawasakiDisease, which Wikipedia defines as, "an autoimmune disease in which the medium-sized blood vessels throughout the body become inflamed. It is largely seen in children under five years of age. It affects many organ systems, mainly those including the blood vessels, skin, mucous membranes, and lymph nodes. Its rarest but most serious effect is on the heart, where it can cause fatal coronary artery aneurysms in untreated children. Without treatment, mortality may approach 1%, usually within six weeks of onset. With treatment, the mortality rate is 0.17% in the U.S."
It turns out I was in that unlucky "rarest but most serious" category and had 2 aneurysms on the arteries in my heart. (Don't worry, as seen in the before/after photo they're gone now and have been for some time.)
During the attack I was rushed to the ICU where I spent about 5 and a half days of my 11 total days in the hospital. I don't know how much experience you all have with the ICU, but patients aren't really allowed to do much of anything except to rest and focus on getting better.
Fortunately, I had some very good friends who not only visited me, but also brought me a very influential present. I was given Lois Lowry's "The Giver" in audiobook form (on cassette!) performed by Ron Rifkin.
Listening to that story I was able to forget for a little while that I couldn't play soccer or softball anymore, that my days would be dominated by a medication schedule, or that I didn't know when or if I would be able to go back to school. I was able to just get lost in the world that Lowry created and Rifkin brought to life.
I still have that copy.
That experience has always stuck with me. I don't remember that time as blood tests and IVs, but rather as the first time Jonas ever saw color.
If Lowry and Rifkin could do it for me, then maybe, just maybe, I could do it for someone else.