Ethics comes up a lot as you navigate the voice over industry.

This occurred to me recently as I was narrating a project about ethics and the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The script prompted me to realize how deeply ethics is involved in our actions as voice actors.

First, let's establish the definition of ethics. We could go down the rabbit hole of defining and differentiating ethics, morals, virtues and values - but I've got laundry to do today.

So for simplicity's sake, let's use Merriam-Webster's definition 2C: Ethics: a guiding philosophy.

What are your ethics, aka your guiding philosophy, when:

How can you be an ethical voice actor?

Establish a guiding philosophy that benefits not just you but the voice over industry as a whole.

It's easy to be unethical, but that hurts everyone, including yourself.

Being ethical can be hard sometimes, but it helps everyone in the long run.

BTW if being ethical was easy and profitable, everyone would do it.

If you booked a gig via an agent, work through that agent even when the client wants to continue with you without the agent involved.

If you audition for projects via Pay-to-Play sites, use SAG-AFTRA rates and the Global Voice Acting Academy Rate Guide so you can bid ethically. If you're a SAG-AFTRA member, honor the contracts that have been collectively bargained.

And don't pretend to be of a different race or sexual orientation that isn't your own when auditioning.