This website chronicles the acting and teaching career of David H. Lawrence XVII – and the readers of a legendary industry magazine have named him their favorite in two categories: best VO demo producer and best VO class or workshop – for the 4th year in a row.

I am absolutely stunned that the LA readers of Backstage have decided I’m the best guy to go to for a voiceover demo and for a VO class or workshop. I get to work in the entertainment capital of the world, with the best actors and VO artists in the world, and I get to teach and mentor actors headed for success. To get these two honors is icing on the cake.

An extraordinary number of votes came in this year. Jamie Painter Young, the national editor for Backstage, wrote:

This year marked a record in terms of the number of voters: More than 5,300 of you took the time to share your L.A. favorites in more than 20 categories—including favorite headshot photographers, teachers, and places to work out. [On our] website, you’ll find additional categories, such as favorite casting directors.

To the people that voted for me, I thank you so much – I had my head buried in personal matters this week, and planning for upcoming classes and a film shoot with my buddy Bob Pondillo. This was a delightful, and unexpected, pleasure..

Reading what they wrote about me (they called to do an interview a couple of weeks ago should I win), Sara Kuhn took the juiciest parts of what I had to say and, far from leaving out the best parts of our interview, chose the very words I hoped she’d remember, and made me look great in print:

Lawrence still counts teaching as one of his greatest joys. He helms classes that cover a multitude of topics, ranging from social networking tools for voiceover talent to voicing audio books. He says, “Here’s the joy for me: the pleasant surprise, the inordinate joy that you get when one of your students comes in and says, ‘Yeah, I just booked this $3,000 job.’ Or ‘I’m the voice of so-and-so on Adult Swim.’ It’s the success of my students.”

I promise to keep up the standards in the class and workshops, and with my demos, that I try to pass on to my students. I look at this as a business, plain and simple, and whether it’s acting, voiceover work, creating Rehearsal, classes or demo production, I won’t settle for less than the best.

And apparently, Backstage’s readers agree that’s the right path, even letting me give a shout out to my acting coach hero, Howard Fine:

Lawrence—who notes that his own acting coach, Howard Fine, is his hero—is passionate about enlightening aspiring voiceover actors about craft as well as the ins and outs of the business. “If you come to my class, you’re going to work; you’re going to come away with an MP3 file of your work,” he says. “I teach all my students to treat their voice practice the way doctors and lawyers and accountants treat their practices. We’re professionals, and we should treat it that way.”

And if you want to read the rest of the article, pick up a copy of Backstage this week, or head over to read it online at their website,

So thank you. And if you want to know what all the hubbub is about, you can get more information on my voiceover demo production services or my voiceover classes – or you can ask me questions below.

What’s your answer to this acting question? Let me know in the comments below.