Tiana Camacho

A voice actor's reflections on how growing up in Coney Island in the 1990s shaped her imagination

Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Tiana Camacho
Interview Date:
October 4, 2019

Languages

Tiana Camacho is a professional voice over actress for video games, anime, radio plays, and commercials who grew up in Coney Island in the 1990s.  When her family moved from Gravesend Houses to a house on West 19th Street next to the Coney Island Library, Tiana read to the kids there. She credits the experience, along with her love for the craft of voice over, for inspiring her to become a voice actor. She talks about her Linklater vocal training at  Binghamton University, where she majored in theater, and demonstrates her vocal range.  "Your voice can be a million different characters," says Tiana, who adds that Coney Island shaped her imagination and gave her a constant relationship with loss and change. Among the places she remembers is Animation Odyssey, a Surf Avenue destination for gamers which closed permanently after Hurricane Sandy. The store hosted video game tournaments with Japanese collectibles as prizes and was popular with teens.  “I still have friendships from that place that mean the world to me and I still talk to those people even though I’m on the other side of the country now,” says Tiana, who lives and works in Burbank, California.