Kalecgos models and Andrew posing with Kalec cosplayers
We start by asking Andrew about his career:
Andrew:
I actually started in theater, musical theater. I toured with a musical called Jersey Boys, the Broadway version. I toured for a year and a half with them, and then I got into voice acting after that. I have since left that world and moved into the voice acting world.
Wowhead:
Wait, musical theater? Does this mean that we could have Kalec sing?
Andrew:
So the dream is that Jaina and Kalecgos could sing a duet or something. I’d love to see it.
Wowhead:
You and Jaina were once an item…
Andrew:
I know! We need to make it happen!
Wowhead:
What got you into working on games?
Andrew:
So when I was in middle school I was playing some video games at the time, I believe I was playing Guild Wars and World of Warcraft. I was playing Guild Wars more because it was free (laughs). I was playing one day and it dawned on me one day that the characters talking were actually people. It clicked in my brain and I thought oh my gosh, someone is actually getting paid to do this.
And from that moment forward whenever I played games I approached it in the mindset of how cool would it be to do that. I started learning voices, I started learning impressions, and that’s why I started in the theater – to kind of push into learning how to act. I have always had a passion for gaming I’ve played World of Warcraft since about 2005, off and on, of course, like everybody does. Oh my gosh I love it. I’ve made so many alts, it’s embarrassing.
Wowhead:
Do you even have a main?
Andrew:
I do have a main, a warrior was my main. A human warrior.
Wowhead:
Well, that’s the wrong side!
Andrew:
I know, I know, (laughs) I apologize but I do both. I like the Blood Elves, I love my Taurens, and I also love my Gnomes and I love my Humans and my Dwarves… I do have one of everything… you know the only one I don’t have is a Troll.
Wowhead:
So how did you get the Kalec job? Is that something that came up or did you go after it?
Andrew:
It’s very much a targeted, long history of of lots of work leading up to it. Working for Blizzard has always been a dream goal of mine, in any capacity. So whatever I could do to get into a game I would do. I was taking various roles, I have done a whole bunch of stuff before I got into the Blizzard stuff. I have a long track record of games prior to my Kalec stuff. I started taking workshops, I started seeking out people who work for Blizzard specifically, and I eventually got in front of Andrea Toyas who is the voice director. I got in front of Andrea a few times; she’s the most passionate and loving, caring person. When I finally got brought in through various auditions and stuff with my agent, I actually did the voice for a character in World of Warcraft, Vorath. So that was my first character, and then from there I got into Diablo and I did a couple of characters in Diablo.
Blood Elves will recognize Vorath from Ghostlands
Wowhead:
Did you do anything for Diablo 4?
Andrew:
I did, a whole bunch of just ancillary fill the world characters. That sort of stuff happened because of my work with the original character I did, Vorath. Andrea was the one who reached out to me to audition for Kalecgos. At the time I knew who Kalecgos was, and when I got the audition I thought, well maybe it’s just a reference, maybe this is the feel that they want… But sure enough it was for this whole new reimagined idea of what he is. I attribute all of it to Andrea, she brought me in, and she gave me the shot, she took a chance on me.
Wowhead:
So when you come in, do you work with the writers as well? How does the process work?
Andrew:
Yes. We work with everybody, everybody is involved. Anne Stickney was a crucial part for a lot of Dragonflight. We work with a lot of people, even Terran Gregory. We work a lot with the cinematic directing, especially when there’s a big moment like with Sindregosa and Kalec. Or the opening scene with Khadgar and Kalec when he’s walking into the library.
Wowhead:
You got some really juicy stuff!
Andrew:
So good, so many things. I got to work with such talented voice actors and so many talented creatives. And it’s not just them. I’ll often work with other people who are on the call in addition to the director and the engineer. It’s like a family you know. As lame as it is for Kalec’s voice actor to say, (Kalec voice) “…this is a family…” that’s what it was (laughs). It felt like a family, it always does whenever I go back to record, it’s like seeing your family again for a reunion. You get to talk about things that happened, things that are going to happen, and it’s just there’s so much passion and love and energy.
Wowhead:
So is there any Kalec coming up in future expansions? Do you know?
Andrew:
I hope so and I would love to do whatever is coming to Kalec’s world. I’m so open to it and it’s just such a such a magical thing. I can’t tell you how honored I am to get to play Kalec. This is so cool.
Wowhead:
And with the new models that are so good. It’s so cool that he got this focus, he got to do so much stuff this time, and now you’re an aspect!
Andrew:
It’s so cool! I know!! It’s so crazy! And I got to do a Tauran too. Just for fun they were like, hey can you do a Tauren, and I’m like Yeah! So they threw this character named Andantenormu at me. He’s in the Bronze Dragon’s area, and you can find him. He’s a bookworm.
Andantenormu can be found in the Temporal Conflux and in Time Rifts
Wowhead:
Do you have any tips for people getting into voice acting?
Andrew:
My biggest recommendation for anybody trying to get into voice acting would be to start either taking an acting class or a singing class. Or a speech and dialect class. Anything that you can get in front of people talking, that’s a great start, and you can do that anywhere. From there if you can get behind a mic in a voice acting class, that’s really great step, obviously. And then there’s obvious steps that go from there. But getting started means that you need to start just taking it seriously as something that you would want to do professionally. Which means getting into an acting class, getting to the root of it, because at the end of the day we are we are doing the same thing you do behind a camera or on stage. We are actors trying to get another actor to do something, another character to do something, to elicit emotion that is realistic, and living the human experience through another person’s eyes. At the root of all these characters is is human experience.
You saw the vast range of emotion, when we talk about family, we talk about all of the characters, the journeys that they go through. Even just in Kalec’s storyline in Dragonflight you see such a range of where he started in this very kind of unsure nervous side of Kalec into this confident, strong leader of the Dragonflight. Finding that is a real human experience and you could relate that to anything in life: overcoming a personal goal, just trying to get through that next day, to take the next step. I think that whatever you can do in your life to get to the point where you understand how to create characters like that, is a perfect step to move next to becoming a voice actor.
Wowhead:
You talk about the human experience, which is very much Kalec, of course. He grows so much. But he’s not human. How does the fact that he is a freaking dragon inform your performance? What do you bring to that?
Andrew:
Well you have to take into account his history and it’s helpful that I played the game since 2005. Knowing the history of Theramore, and knowing the battles that he’s gone through, and knowing what happened with the mana bomb, and knowing his history with Jaina, and seeing all that go through, and knowing all of the stuff with the Aspect, knowing who Malygos is and why that’s important, and what happened to Malygos. Actually Christie Golden was very helpful for this when we first started. We did our first session, and in the mail, three days later, I received two books from Christie that Christie had written. I dove into these books and read so much history, the first one being Thrall, Christie’s book about Thrall. I was like, well this is Thrall, whatever… but Kalecgos was very prominent in the book. Understanding that history and driving that into the character is what’s going to help bring out this really old young dragon, because Kalec is young in terms of a dragon, but he’s way older than any other person or human that’s on this world. Having that, and bringing that to the table, bringing the history of that, that’s what you have to bring behind the line.
So bringing that to the table and understanding that you won’t know where someone can go if you don’t understand where they came from, and that has to weight your shoulders when you’re delivering lines. We will ask questions like, “what does this feel like?” Anything that’s like when he sees Sindragosa for the first time. Like seeing somebody that you haven’t seen, a love, a mother or a father figure, or a daughter or whatever it is, you haven’t seen this person for a long time, and what does it feel like. That is going to inform your decisions as an actor to be able to produce that. I think that’s different in the sense of somebody who’s a 20 year old human. They wouldn’t have that three-hundred/four-hundred thousands of years of experience leading to that moment. We actually explore this a lot with one of the patches with Kirygosa. Kirygosa is actually character from Christie Golden’s books and Kirygosa is like a sister to Kalecgos. There’s a lot of trauma that Kiry went through. The history in that relationship has to come out. Though it was hundreds of years ago there has to be a reason why Kalec can accept the fact that she doesn’t want to come back to the Blue Dragonflight. You have to have that history sitting on his shoulders and you also have to know that Kiry’s been through so much, and we have to accept that Kiry doesn’t want to come back. And that’s that’s just something to have to play with. It’s knowing where they’ve
Wowhead:
Thank you so much for talking with us. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Andrew:
I just want to highlight how much of an impact World of Warcraft and Blizzard games in general have had on my life, not just as a gamer, but as a professional in this world, how important working for Blizzard, and working for World of Warcraft or Diablo or Hearthstone or any of these games is to me. It means so much and it is so much validation to me as as a human. As Kalec would say, it’s like I’ve come home to my family.
Andrew geeking out with the Hearthstone Dwarf at BlizzCon
You can follow Andrew Russell on X/Twitter @imAndrewRussell
Note: Anne Stickney says she’s going to get Kalec included in every patch she can – there’s job security, Andrew!
For more information about Kalecgos and the Blue Dragonflight in Dragonflight, check out our story guide:
Patch 10.1 – Blue Dragonflight Questline: Characters & Story
