Whether on a set or in a recording booth, Canada’s Jesse Carroll knows how to create a compelling character that captivates audiences all over the world. As a seasoned actor and voice actor, he brings his life experiences into each role, combining his own talents with the writer and director’s vision. He takes words from a page and transforms them into a living, breathing person, bringing the audience along for the story in this new world. That is what acting is for Carroll, that is what entertaining is, and that is why he loves what he does.
“I think the most powerful thing you can bring to a role is your full life experience, warts and all; your triumphs and failures, your wins and regrets, all of it. That’s how you create a three-dimensional character. In real life people are never perfect, neither should your character,” he said.
Many fans recognize Carroll from hit films and television series, including Hallmark Channel’s Hailey Dean Mysteries, My Summer Romance and Mingle All the Way, one of Hallmark’s most watched Christmas movies of 2018.
With the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic putting a hold on so many productions, many actors found themselves wondering what the future held. However, Carroll had his voice acting to keep himself busy. Previously, he had worked on many commercials, including a USA national TV, radio and internet voiceover campaign for Fort Lauderdale tourism, Sunny.org, that ran for two years with 12 different ads that he voiced. This experience has come in handy for 2020 and 2021, where Carroll can work from the sound booth in an isolated studio.
Last year, Carroll began his work as the lead voiceover for History Channel’s newest documentary series Backroad Truckers, which premiered March 4th, 2021. The show focuses on the crazy world of “hot-shot truckers” – a special breed of independent truckers who will haul anything, anywhere, at any time. This unscripted series follows two rival families and their crews as they tackle some of the most harrowing roads and dangerous off-road locations of northern BC in their custom ‘monster’ trucks. These bands of maniacs will do anything to get the job done: delivering and recovering urgent and vital cargo. And if they don’t have the right truck or tool for the job, they simply “git’er done”, because for them, it’s more than a day’s work-it’s a lifestyle.
“I love how these hot shots deliver important cargo through rough terrain, and even risk their lives. They are extremely brave. Also, it’s about time that smaller communities get represented on mainstream TV. They have some important stories to tell that everyone can learn from,” said Carroll.
Carroll won out the nationwide search in Canada over thousands of other voice actors to get the Backroad Truckers gig, and he could not be happier. From the moment he read the script, something just “clicked” for the actor and he knew exactly how to voice the series. He sent a studio test in right away, and the producers were so impressed that his studio test now opens the show.
“This was a dream job, they put a lot of trust in me and gave me a lot of room to play around with the script. I’d get the scripts for each episode a couple days in advance and I’d go through it a few times to get the rhythm of the episode and text and to really gain an understanding of what was happening in each episode. When I’d arrive to record, we smashed them out super quick. They’d let me blast the show’s music in my headphones while I recorded my lines and it really helped me get into the mood of the show, and now having seen and heard the episodes I really think how much fun we had making it really came across,” he described.
The show details a world of trucking that many viewers won’t be familiar with, but what truly makes it so entertaining is the remarkable characters, the real people that the show follows. They can be described as “rough around the edges” and therefore the whole concept was based on a young and high-energy style, and Carroll brought that energy with his narration, tying everything together. This level or preparation takes a lot of time, but Carroll keeps a high attention to detail throughout the process. Voiceover actors are in high demand, and he is a top talent.
“I loved how much fun everyone was to work with. Coming in to record each day was such a gift. And while recording I got to watch each full episode and they are extremely entertaining. At a few funny moments we all had to stop for a second to get the chuckles out of our system. The show is so good,” he said.
Backroad Truckers is currently airing on Canada’s Global TV, one of the country’s largest networks, and is available on their app as well as Amazon Prime’s STACKTV for streaming in case you’ve missed the first few episodes. It’s a can’t miss, and Carroll is proud to be a part of its continued success.
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