New Member Spotlight - Ferdelle Capistrano
Ferdelle Capistrano was born in Toronto, Canada and is a proud Second City Toronto alumna. Growing up Filipina-Canadian, she noticed how underrepresented she was in the entertainment industry. Determined to change that, she began the pursuit of being the best version of herself, and she discovered that it began with her voice. Ferdelle has worked as a professional snowboard instructor, singer-songwriter, teacher, comedienne and personal chef, but performing in the vocal booth was always like coming home. Her actual home is now in Los Angeles with her husband and two rescue dogs: Bruce Wayne and Anderson Pooper. Everyone in her family enjoys jazz, road trips, and watching cartoons.
APA: What are you hoping to gain from your APA membership?
Ferdelle: As a newbie to the audiobook world I'm enthralled to be amidst such amazing performers and storytellers. I hope to deepen my craft and immerse myself in this expanse of network.
APA: What cool projects are you working on?
Ferdelle: In the audiobook world, I am currently producing and narrating a series of french-language books. My husband and I also just published his first book, Chuck Masters' Body of Work on Kindle! Thanks to my marketing, illustration, and graphic design background it's been really exciting for both of us. I am also the lead in two Comedy Webseries created by a good friend and frequent collaborator, Manuel Esparza. One is a live-action/animation hybrid where I voice a number of the animated characters.
APA: Tell us why you decided to get into the audiobook profession and how are you looking to partner with other APA members and non-members?
Ferdelle: Another good friend of mine, Chuck Constant, a veteran audiobook narrator, recognized my passion for acting and voice-over, and recommended that I pursue audiobook narration professionally. He invited me to the Deyan studio to sit in while he was recording, and I noticed the timestamp was over 14+ hours of narration and I was blown away by his grit and voice talent and the teamwork between him and his sound engineer – something I missed from my music days.
I've used my voice in so many other ways that to do audiobooks seemed the next natural step in my artistic and professional development.
APA: Any interesting/fun facts we should know about you/your company?
Ferdelle: This is a little embarrassing, but the first time I was paid to read professionally I was actually dressed up like Mrs. Claus (wig, wire-rimmed glasses and all) at the Toronto Pearson Airport with a velvet sack filled with children's books. Flying during the snowy months – and especially during Christmas – can suck, and there are always a lot of families stranded at the airport. My job wasn't just to read; it was was to entertain, educate and comfort these children while their parents sorted out their lives. Sometimes I'd be reading to a brother and sister and get really into it and I'd look up and be surprised to see a dozen more children had joined me (parents would watch, too!) and I'd get a crowd. I loved it. I came back three years in a row.