Born in Luxembourg, freelance digital artist and voiceover actress Katherine “Kae” McSpadden moved to the U.S. at the age of 9 and grew up near Chicago, Illinois. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) at Northern Illinois University. Nearly a year ago, Kae relocated once again to Los Angeles to attend graduate school and further pursue digital artistry and voiceover acting.
Like many others in her field, Kae’s childhood passion was drawing. She adored the Disney animated characters and even tried to draw some of her own. Another one of Kae’s artistic influences was video games, namely Final Fantasy and Resident Evil. Kae was also inspired by the cartoon show The Simpsons, specifically the talents of the voiceover actors.
“I always thought it was so cool how the voice actors can voice one character, and then completely alter their voices and voice another character,” Kae says.
There are plenty of examples of Kae’s incredible talent in her portfolio, and she has regularly received recognition for her work. In 2018, her artwork was displayed at the Electric Forest Music Festival. Additionally, she was a two-time semifinalist in the voiceover acting contest Now Voice This.
As for voiceover acting, Kae has a wide variety of experience under her belt, including automated dialogue replacement (ADR) dubbing for HBO Max and Atlus as well as scratch voiceover work for Sesame Street.
One of Kae’s favorite projects includes her Mitsubishi Christmas Cards, in which she was able to “create a really pretty, ethereal and enchanting art piece.”
Despite her various accomplishments in digital artistry and voiceover acting, Kae has faced challenges along the way. In fact, she describes the two fields as being “extremely competitive.” Additionally, it took Kae quite a long time to refine her art skills, acquire voiceover experience and become the versatile creative she is today.The pandemic presented its own set of struggles, particularly an increase in the competitiveness of the voiceover field as more actors in need of work turned to voice acting.
For women who aspire to break into creative fields such as digital art, animation and voiceover acting, Kae advises utilizing social media as a way to “showcase your progress and how you improve your skills” as well as being adaptable and versatile.
“‘[She can be both]’ means that she can do a variety of different fields and has a variety of different skills,” Kae says. “She’s not scared to explore and try new things.”
Kae can be found on ArtStation, Twitter, and Instagram.
