Standish913.com has been blessed to do an exclusive interview with...
"NIKETA"!
Let's get into some exclusive questions...
STANDISH: You voiced the legendary "Young Nala" in 1994's "The Lion King", can you tell us how you landed this amazing role?
Yes I was 12 years old when I got my first audition for what was called at the Time King of the jungle. I was with Harry Gold which was a big agency at the time for kids. I didn't even receive a call back until a year later and then it was called The Lion King so I didn't even remember what the call back was for. When I got to the first first day of recording, James r. Jones was leaving his session when I was coming to mine and my mom and I turned to each other and said I think this is bigger than we think.. I had to say a few lines from the film in my audition and call back and on my call back I had to sing a little bit as well.
STANDISH: Would you say working with Disney opened new doors for you?
I would say that working for Disney definitely looks good on the resume in terms of probably when my agents were pitching me for other things, but usually as a kid actor different than how I feel as an adult actor. It's a lot of auditions and a lot of opportunity between commercial TV and some film. In terms of the quantity of times I was going out and getting to be seen in front of casting directors. But yeah, Lion King definitely helped on the agent pitching standpoint of things. I didn't get me into Disneyland free or anything like that. But it did give me a big huge lion that I have and we'll pass on to my daughter.
STANDISH: What was your favorite part of working on "The Lion King"?
I think working with Jonathan Taylor Thomas and my directors, Rob minkoff and Roger allers was the best part of it because that's who I was mostly working with and the fact that we got to work together on scenes and not be in a studio by myself. Just recording lines that was very helpful. The director would come in to our booth and tell us kind of what the scene was about and kind of really explain the emotions behind it and then we would take each line about three different times. Going back and forth between Simba and Nala until the director will come back in and say okay. Great. Let's move on. I mean we did that for the whole film and I believe that other characters like Timon and pumbaa also work together and I think that that really works for the film in terms of chemistry on screen.
STANDISH: What would Niketa be listening to today?
I think besides podcast about technology and what's happening in the world on my playlist or Pandora I've been into a lot of like kind of Neil soul Christian music as well as neosil r&b music as well as old school hip hop like during the not quite like the origin of hip Hop, but like the most deaf talib quality q-tip Black eyed peas era of hip Hop as well as musical theater cuz musical anything musical theater is my jam. So definitely have defying, gravity, Snow, White, and Little mermaid on rotation with a 4-year-old but luckily we sing together.
STANDISH: Growing up in California, what's your favorite childhood memory?
I think growing up in a city and beachtown my favorite thing to do was going to the beach after church on Sundays with friends and family as well as just being outside a lot. We didn't really have seasons so there wasn't really a time to be locked up in the house. We were always either going out to friend's houses or to Disneyland or universal studios or all the kind of touristy things that people do was just like our natural playground like the zoo and and SeaWorld and La Brea tire pits. I just remember all these kind of different field trips and and outings with the family growing up.
STANDISH: if you could voice 1 role today, what would it be?
I think the troll movies are fun because it also incorporates singing so probably something in that and plus my daughter loves it. As well as some of the newly animated like Disney Junior shows like The Little mermaid Junior or things like that would be fun to do some characters doc McStuffins those kind of shows would be fun to pop in on.
STANDISH: What made you get into tech?
It was interesting because I got into Tech right before that long Actors Rider strike that ended up happening in our industry as we're transitioning to all this AI tools. But I looked at a podcast called Tech is the New Black and another podcast with Anthony O'Neill who talked about financial freedom and I always was involved in Tech from the social media side of things and from apps and and always looking at different tools and just school. But I never saw myself in Tech when I thought of tech. When I thought of tech. I thought of Steve Jobs and some boys in their garage coding so when I found out that it was possible for me to break in, I took a boot camp course called Course Careers and shortly after graduating I started doing the job to get the job as they say and started on my whole LinkedIn interview journey which was interesting because I'm coming from like the audition world. So switching gears to that was a fun learning curve and I actually turned down a roll at a university for the director of department to switch into technology which was a pay cut in the beginning. But now I'm kind of right where I would be if I had taken that director type position. So the scalability in Tech is also intriguing.
STANDISH: Do you have a favorite Comic Con you've been booked at?
I would say any Comic-Con that has to specifically deal with an animation or Disney has always been fun. I feel like those die hard. Disney fans are super fun and they know sometimes more information than we know as signers and then also getting to see other signers alongside me. We kind of fan each other and give each other autographs. I've met the voice of Wendy. I've met and become friends with the voice of Andy and toy story, so it's just been a fun industry to get into an industry. I knew nothing about until maybe about a year and a half ago, so I'm fairly new to the Comic-Con scene..
STANDISH: Did any of your voice acting roles cause you to lose your voice?
No no, I never had any voice issues on the job because I was groomed up in voice classes and dance classes and acting classes. I had kind of best practices of how to stay hydrated and how to kind of protect your voice vocal rest things like that when you're prepping and in a job if anything. I've gotten vocal challenges from like a common cold or being sick and then having to kind of get that together. If there is a gig coming up, you know kind of take the singers route of nurturing your voice when you have to preserve it for something..
STANDISH: In your opinion, what's the most unique voice that you do?
It's very approachable kind type of voice so it would be fun to get into some other type voices that are kind of further away from me, like some accents or even what a villain voice would sound like or something like that. But yeah, I usually like girl next door or the best friend. Or now I'm getting into being like the teacher or you know some of the older characters on like a doc McStuffins. Those are kind of the auditions I get nowadays, but in terms of like narration or something like that I would probably still stick with children's books and things like that to just really utilize the lightness and and breathy ease of my voice. So kind of utilize what I just naturally have..
STANDISH: What's been the most memorable work you've been apart of in your eyes?
I would. I would say that working on The Lion King has definitely been a transformative project to be a part of in that it's everlasting. It's evergreen. It's part of many many generations. I talked to grandparents. I talk to parents. I talk to kids. I talk to you know just many generations of how this movie has touched people as well as some of my on stage stuff has been very meaningful and like that's played squeak in The color purple in La so different moments on screen and on stage have really resonated with me and my family and I'm getting to pass that down to my daughter now so it's really a circle of life moment if you will..
STANDISH: Who are your mentors?
I lost my mother in 2018 and I would say that she is and will always be my number one mentor the way that she held Grace through situations. The way that she dealt with uplifting one higher than herself always an educator. Always nurturing if I could be half the mom that she was and that she gave her whole life to nurture what it was that I wanted to be when I grew up or my dreams and aspirations. She saw that at a very early age and I poured into that. So I only hope that my daughter feels the same kind of joy in her childhood that I felt in my childhood and that I'm prepping her for those lasting core memories to be a successful adult. That's all you can wish as a mom. So yeah..
STANDISH: Can you tell us more about your alumni workshops?
Well interview and audition prep and then on the tech side it's how to break into Tech how to Pivot into Tech? What courses to take? How to Prep like your LinkedIn profile, your resume, the different tools and apps, and AI that you should be using to assist in breaking into Tech and increasing your income and your family financial security..
STANDISH: Standish913 is FIRM in giving opportunity to the younger generation, what's a piece of advice for the next generation of voice actors?
As I would say the most important thing is to have fun and love what you do. If it's not something that you love and it's something that someone's pushing you into, it's probably not the best route because it is a ever-changing kind of non-secure stability type of role to to go into. Always have things outside of this entertainment work to fall upon because I will influence characters and influence history and story into your characters, as well as not living and breathing work at the end of the day. It's work. it's just work that we love so in any other job people have you know hopefully things and and hobbies and things outside of their profession that also make them this like whole well-rounded individual and then also not to take it personally. There's so much that goes into casting that is outside of your actual talent. All you can do is show up, be prepared and show up as your best self and knock it out the park. Leave it all on stage as we say and then the rest you just move on to the next thing because there's really, really so many things that are out of your control on why somebody would get a role or not get a role.
STANDISH: If you could go to dinner with 3 people dead or alive, who would they be?
Of course my mother, my grandmother and Michael Jackson
STANDISH: What are your social links?
Follow
Insta @niketacalame and my bio there has all my other links
STANDISH: Anything you'd like to include?
Thanks for having me and follow me on Instagram and TikTok for updated information.
DM me on LinkedIn if you want to transition into tech and fund your art with all this money that is to made in tech.
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