Comona Lewin answers questions about Voice acting and Commentating Video games professionnally

 UNT theatre alumnus Comona Lewin is a Smash Brothers tournament commentator and anime English Dub voice actor. They have traveled the country as a Super Smash Bros commentator, becoming well known, and have started to take on bigger roles in anime voice acting that has taken him as high as playing one of the main supporting characters in a show that started in January. As a voice actor and commentator, they have been on a journey to establish themselves as a  

What do you consider your job or position to be?

As far as jobs go, I'm a voice actor. Almost all of it at current is done with Crunchyroll. So it's anime dubs. Yeah. And there's some independent voiceover work,  I'll do indie projects occasionally, you know, sometimes I'll be doing voiceover work for, you know, like a YouTube content, you know, recaps and stuff like that.

In theory, I do commercial voiceover work as well. I haven't been hired for anything like super official before. And if I had to lean towards one thing in particular that I do, I'd probably say anime English dubs.

What do you do for Smash Brothers tournaments?

Most people know me as a commentator and that's, you know, that's, that's the thing that I enjoy doing most. I think, you know, aside from, you know, just like hanging out with people I think that's a valid thing to do. I don't think everybody has to be doing something.

And that's that's commentating and casting for me. So, yeah, that's that's sort of just another one of my my passions. It's something that,  it'd be cool if I were able to make an extended career or anything out of it. But, you know, voice acting is my priority. And that's, you know, sort of secondary. But, you know, I do take it seriously because I love doing it 

So how did you get into commentating at Smash Brothers tournaments? 

Um, I, I started by just. I went to the locals (tournaments). I went to Shockwave (A popular Dallas weekly Smash Bros tournament) back in Smash Four, and I just. I saw that they had commentary and I didn't really, immediately consider it as a thing I wanted to do, even though it's, you know, sports broadcasting and commentary. That's what my dad does. So, you know, that's always a thing that I notice when it's being done somewhere.

But, I was like, cool. They have that here. That's that's pretty sick. But I didn't really think about doing it until, one day I was, listening to a tournament at home, and I was watching a bigger tournament. I just thought that it would be really cool if I did that.

 At that time, I already knew I wanted to be a voice actor and I was, you know, starting to do stuff with that. And I was like, that's another thing I can do with my voice. I wonder if I'd be I'd be any good at it. And I wasn't at the start.

 But you know what? 17-year-olds are good at something that they pick up for the first time when they start. But yeah, I just kind of saw it at the locals and saw it on Streams and it was like, that's a that's a cool thing. I wonder if I can do that and if I'd enjoy it because my dad kind of does that too.

What was your favorite place that you visited to Commentate Smash Bros. tournaments?

That's a really good question because I like a lot of the trips, especially because of the nature of it I'm going to do a thing that I enjoy for a competitive video game and I like it. A lot of times I think that some of my favorite trips are made because of the people that I get to go and see. So at Genesis the biggest smash tournament of the year, for example, this last year was amazing since I was just within a three-block radius of San Jose pretty much the whole time. But I got to see a lot of people that I don't normally get to see and stuff like that.

 I also got to commentate Get On My Level in I think, 2022. But that was, that was cool because that was the first time that I'd ever traveled internationally alone. I love Toronto where the tournament was. I have a friend who lives up there and hanging out with them was great. I hadn't commentated too many out-of-state tournaments and I got to do this one and a college tournament. 

 So what kind of opportunities ended up opening up first for you in voice acting? 

When I started, it was incredibly sparse because it was just back when I was in high school around that time, Funimation, because they also existed at the time, they had open auditions, to a degree, you would be able to submit to get on a list.

They were in-person auditions so there would be a certain amount of slots for people to come in and audition, in a given season and such. And they would just kind of cycle through that. And when your turn came up, you'd be able to do that And yeah, I just got called in once a year because they'd kind of go down the list and be like, oh the director is looking for somebody to fill in, like background parts and group shots and stuff.

You know, they just go well, who can fit that demographic? And then from there, they can arbitrarily choose whoever sounds like they would be a good fit. So it's really cool that Joel McDonald was the first guy that brought me in for a couple of those. One Piece was one of them. I mean, everybody who's gone to work at Crunchyroll has had a bit part in One Piece.

At some point, it's just unavoidable. There are so many bit parts to fill in in that show and yeah, like a couple of other things but when I got things rolling I applied for and got an internship with them in 2017, just as like a summer thing while I was in college and while I was there near the end of it, my supervisor for that internship was just like, Hey, this Tyler Walker is doing auditions for this show. Do you want to go in and record it? You know, record auditions? Are you going to be free? Because I heard that you're, you know, interested in being a voice actor, and I saw that you're, like, on the roster. And I was like, Yeah, I'd love to.

And, whenever I recorded an audition the next day and I didn't get the part that I auditioned for, Tyler had another show that season that he was directing, and he cast me as the lead in that show, which is called Kings Game, and that was like my first.

I went from having only done like, you know, maybe a couple of background and bit parts and people you couldn't even see me on screen or anything to Suddenly I have a role where I have 100 lines an episode and, you know, then people like kind of turn their head and like noticed that I was they were just like, Oh, I wonder if this person can provide anything for me and it's just kind of been slow, you know, roll from there to kind of keep getting booked and stuff. 

What's your favorite character you have played in a dub?

That's a great question!

There are two that come to mind and they are both young men that wear armor and swing swords. I really enjoyed playing Climb from the Show Overlord just a really fun show to work on. 

In the current season at the time of the interview, I was cast as a character called Van in Banished from the Heroes Party. I decided to live a quiet life in the countryside, which is the full name of that show. And yeah, that one's also been a ton of fun. Probably the most fun I've ever had so far. I like digging into just a character and what makes them tick like understanding them and then being able to apply that in the booth. It's been just a ton of fun.