You probably don’t know this Bluffton mom, but you might have heard her voice on TV
If you frequent Old Town Bluffton, there’s a good chance you’ve seen Alissa Zea rolling by on her golf cart, taking her son to the playground and hanging out at Calhoun’s.
But there’s an even better chance you’ve heard Zea before, in the comfort of your own home, as the voice behind major brands such as J.C. Penney and Instacart. A voice actor, this Blufftonian has been narrating radio and television ads and audiobooks for 15 years.
On Sunday, Zea will make her foray into TV narration when “Mastermind of Murder” — a true-crime series about those who manipulated others to kill — premieres on Oxygen. The show, produced by Mark Downing and David Cargill of Glass Entertainment Group, airs at 8:30 p.m.
Zea is originally from Newark Valley, New York, a rural town between Ithaca and Binghamton. She moved to Bluffton with her husband and son in 2019 after living in New York City and surrounding areas for 16 years.
The Island Packet called Zea to chat about her work, life in Bluffton and her tricked-out recording studio.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
IP: Tell me about this padded room of yours.
AZ: I have a broadcast-quality recording studio in my home. It is a 6-by-6-foot sound booth. That is where I spend most of my day. It’s got a window, it has a door, it has a computer screen, and then my microphone and preamp, as well as a wireless keyboard and mouse so that I can control my computer from inside my booth without the computer creating any sounds that might get picked up by the microphone. ... When I’m in my booth, the only thing I can hear are lawn mowers.
IP: What are some of your favorite projects?
AZ: In 2012, I got to do a Paramount animated film called Wonder Park. I was the voice that the animation was drawn to. Jennifer Garner actually replaced me in the final movie, but it was really interesting knowing if nothing else, the picture that you see on the screen, that’s to me talking, not to Jennifer Garner.
IP: Who is a voice actor or actress that you admire?
AZ: Kristen Bell because she just seems like one of the most regular celebrities. She leads a regular life, she has kids, she’s married to another celebrity, and she just seems really down to earth, but she’s had this amazing career, both on camera and as a voice actor. I didn’t even know it, but she was the voice of Gossip Girl. At the time, I had recently started doing voice-over when Gossip Girl was out, and I thought, man, that would be such a cool gig. How do I get that gig? And then I found out it was Kristen Bell. I thought oh OK, I become a celebrity, and then I get that gig. But she has really made a name for herself on both sides of the industry.
IP: Why did you relocate to Bluffton? What do you like about it?
AZ: Everything. We have friends that moved down here in 2012. We had been here several times to visit them. We’d always considered, my husband especially, moving South. At that point, my career had become mostly remote. I was working more and more out of my home studio and didn’t need to be in New York City anymore. My husband works in construction, so this area made a lot of sense for him as well. Obviously we love the weather, not having snow. Especially considering where I grew up, we have lake-effect snow, so being in a place where there’s never snow is amazing. We love that it’s the perfect combination of a small-town feeling but still having so many things available to us in larger surrounding areas. We love the restaurants, we love downtown Bluffton, we love that we know our neighbors, and that everyone is so friendly. A lot of people are from the Northeast, so that’s a similarity to home.
IP: What’s next for you?
Most of my bread and butter, which is my daily in-and-out, are commercials and corporate videos. I have a couple of big accounts that I work on regularly. Synovus Bank, I do television commercials for them. Right now, I’m currently the voice of J.C. Penney on TV, as well as Instacart. So much of being a voice actor is not booking the big jobs, like this one for the Oxygen Network, it’s just the consistency of regular clients, whether they be a corporate client or e-learning or a commercial campaign that books again and again. Getting up, getting in my booth, submitting auditions, and then doing it more the next day.
This story was originally published April 17, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
