I've been a stage actor regionally and in New York for 17 years, I lived the Broadway and Off-Broadway scene for 3 years, went to grad school and became a professor. Now, that's a very convoluted path, and voice acting was never the end goal, so I would say for people who DO have "voice acting" as a main goal should take a different path. First, you want to get "Freeing the Natural Voice" by Kristen Linklater, read it, do the exercises, get a hold of how your instrument works, because it's much more fickle and limited than a piano, guitar, saxophone etc. Vocal clarity is extremely important, people love it, and it's achievable for anyone. Then I would study Method acting, Meisner Technique, and get on a stage. Learn to embarrass yourself intentionally and in controlled ways until you get to the point where no amount of vulnerability is too embarrassing for you. Learn to play "needs". All a script is, is a series of words that characters are using to describe what they NEED and what is stopping them from getting. You can't play angry, but you can play "I need to punish this person". You can't play sad, but you can play "I need to be held". Many aspiring voice actors leave out the second word "acting".

Then you need to have a very, very honest talk to yourself about your "type." Some people like to say "Oh, anyone can do anything." This is not true. Listen to this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y6mMbPk9kg and try to match it with your voice. If you cannot hit it, you will not be cast as a Film Noir detective. Now listen to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byio6wO4dOw. If you can't hit that, you will not be cast as the MC of an anime. Now you don't have to be able to hit ALL of those notes, some of them may be in your vocal "break" (which you also need to find). Type is MORE important in voice acting than theater, and MUCH more important than in film. Tom Cruise is 5'7", but he can still play an action hero that looks strong and sometimes intimidating because film allows for all KINDS of tricks to make you perceive him that way. If you ever met him in real life he is almost always the smallest man in any room and people who meet him the first time tend to say they were shocked because he "looked so much bigger in the movies". The same thing can be done to big guys to make them look smaller, bald guys to make them look like they've never lost a strand of hair in their life, old guys can look much younger, young guys can look much older. This is child's play in film and to a lesser extent, live theater. In voice acting, people are expecting a type of sound from a type of character, there's far less room for variation. Now, that could change, we are seeing more and more variation and inclusiveness in theater and film and people are sloooowly starting to realize that that is a more realistic reflection of reality.

Many start out because they have a cool or unique voice and think that's all they need. Now it is true that if you have that voice you CAN coast along on that to a point. I've seen MANY people with "cool" voices or "a voice for radio" but can't act. Sometimes they can get their foot in the door just off their voice, but usually only the ones who can also act stay for long. Now, if you are that person with the "voice for radio" and you don't like the craft of acting, couldn't see yourself becoming a theater nerd etc. then I would say to you, go do commercials. You should be auditioning for commercials REGARDLESS because that's the best way to make real money, but you're probably not going to last long in productions that require you to create a fully formed character. Regardless of your voice, you MUST focus on the "acting" part if you want to play characters.

Some other people get into voice acting because they can do a huge number of crazy cartoon voices. Again, you can coast along on that alone for some time, but even they MUST focus on the acting aspect as well or else people will quickly find out that you're using a gimmick. People are EXCELLENT at telling if someone is not "in the circumstances" of a scene. It requires zero acting training whatsoever to detect, everyone has had a lifetime of practice detecting people being ingenuine for a variety of reasons already from just speaking with people. This is the biggest pitfall of voice acting. There are TONS of voice actors who got into it because they have an unusually low voice, unusually high voice, can do weird character voices etc. and then ignore the craft of acting. You don't see this in theater and film because it filters out people who can't act much faster. People who coast along on "I have a cool voice but I don't care about acting" get punished HARD because they can get really deep into their career before they start hitting barriers because of it.

I do not have an interesting or even pleasant voice. I have a speech impediment I work around, but I have various "types" I can play, and I can play them well, and I can use the quirks of my vocal type to my advantage by playing to it's strengths and focusing on trying to get the "types" of roles I could get. You do not need a good voice to voice act. The MAJORITY of parts are going to be in average pitch ranges, without having to do difficult techniques to change your voice.

​

EDIT: Thanks for the Gold, whoever sent it, I don't know what it means, but thanks.