Meet Salli Saffioti | Actress and Voiceover Artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Salli Saffioti and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Salli, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I am from New York…I grew up mostly 40 minutes outside of NYC on Long Island. From age 5-9 I moved all over (Long Island, Arizona, California) and ended up back in New York with my Dad from age 10 on. He was a bus driver in Jamaica, Queens and often I would go to work with him so I wouldn’t be home alone. The passengers were mostly immigrants from all over trying to get to their jobs and hard core New Yorkers.  I would ride the bus for the entire shift and was exposed to all sorts of accents and types of people and then growing up with people in Arizona and on the border of Mexico along with the Cali people…I think I was absorbing all the voices to pass time and inventing stories for everyone I would meet and talk to. I also have been working some sort of job since I was 10 and grew up fast mostly paying my own way in life. All of this has made me very resilient and driven and committed to my craft. I always had the dream of being a working actor since I was a little girl. I feel the hard work and humble upbringing has made me strive even harder to make my dreams come true.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My first love was theatre and I miss working in theatre everyday and still hold the dream of one day getting to act on Broadway. When my son gets older and doesn’t need me home at night I will surely give it a shot! I worked for years basically for free doing theatre in NYC and had a theatre company all while in college full time and working 3 jobs to support myself. It was hard and so exciting and very rewarding. But exhausting. I was also doing indie and student films and studying acting…I even went to RADA in London for a summer to study classical acting. I was having trouble getting an agent in NYC…hearing that I was ethnic but not ethnic enough, not pretty enough, not quirky enough, too short, not the type anyone wanted, etc. Eventually I followed a couple friends who moved to LA to give it a shot out here…I did the play A Few Good Men and while in the show my dad sold his house where I was storing my things so I had a decision to make. LA didn’t really feel like my scene, but I stayed and an agent reluctantly decided to sort of work with me and I booked my very first audition for the tv show In The House. That show brought me back for another episode and had me on their sister show The Good News and I booked a couple gigs a year while performing in theatre and working lots of hours in the fashion industry. Eventually I booked a small part on Tracey Takes On and the following season they hired me as a regular to play Tracey’s double and act as her characters with the guest stars and she also gave me the opportunity to play a few small roles throughout the series. That’s when I met Don Reed who was familiar with my work on the show and he got my voiceover career started. I have always been adept at accents and dialects so that really helped things get going for me in the video game industry and being so versatile allowed me to work in more areas of voiceover. I have worked with so many well known actors in so many venues and I love what I do. The hard part for me is having the gigs be more consistent, but it has all worked out so far.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh I love this! Well I would definitely take them to Malibu to the beach and to Malibu Farms or Malibu Cafe or even Neptunes Net. I mean when you are on the Pacific you have to do it! Then I would take them to the Norton Simon and The Broad to take in some art at my 2 fave museums in town. We would absolutely go see some theatre at the Pantages or Ahmanson or Taper and grab a drink or food in DTLA…Bestia is my fave or the places at CTG are fun to hang and people watch. I would want to take them on a food experience like no other so we would have to eat at Meteroa or Vespertine if it was open again. I am a huge Chef Jordan Kahn fan. Locally where I live, I love a chill hang and dinner at the Local Peasant, Black Market, Taisho, Augustine Wine Bar, Kai Ramen, Muzen. We would have to do a hike at Fryman and walk around Lake Balboa, get our nails done at X Nails and maybe visit the canals in Venice if that’s still a thing. To venture slightly further I would take them to Idyllwild to the mountains and forest. A spa day would be in order. I think we would be fat and happy and culturally on point after that week!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My voiceover career would not have happened without Don Reed suggesting that my voice needed representation and that I should be out there pursuing VO as well as all the other parts of my acting career. He introduced me to the ICM voiceover department and they took a shot on me based on Don’s rave reviews. Voiceover allowed me to keep acting in theatre and to keep plugging away at on camera auditions trying to nab a gig here and there. My on-camera agents Ellis Talent Group have also never stopped believing in me. I have not booked much work with them since I started raising my son alone 13 years ago but they still keep trying, which is nearly unheard of in Hollywood. And my current voiceover agents Atlas Talent truly give me a shot at everything and believe I can work in all genres and in any and all voices and getting that shot has been a game changer for me.

Website: www.saffioti.com

Instagram: @sallisaffiotiactress

Linkedin: salli saffioti

Twitter: @sallisaffioti

Facebook: sallisaffiotiactress

Image Credits
Joanna Degeneres Photography for the black sleeveless top. other images are mine