🎙️048 | Rob Cairns: From Oxford Stage to Audio Page - Why He Walked Away from Acting
Release Date: 03/11/2025
🎙️057 | Rob & Helen Bee: From Solo Booths to Social Buzz
Offstage Acting
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🎙️056 | Kenneth Jay: From Backstage Patience to Onstage Presence
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🎙️055 | Kym Jackson: How To Hustle Into Hollywood and The Secret Actor Society
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🎙️054 | Todd & Jay: Motivation for When You’ve Got None
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🎙️053 | Brendan McNamara: From Child Roles to Casting Roles
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🎙️052 | Alexa Morden: Actor, Advocate & Voice of the 98%
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Today’s guest is not only a brilliant actor, but one of the loudest, clearest voices advocating for honesty and safety in the industry. Alexa Morden is best known as the co-creator and co-host of The 98% Podcast — a refreshingly unfiltered look at life for the vast majority of actors who don’t earn their full living from acting. She’s also an award-winning performer in her own right, with credits in Skins, Fresh Meat, The Great Train Robbery, and the indie feature The Colour of Spring, which earned her over 25 Best Actress awards on the festival circuit. In this episode, Alexa opens up...
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🎙️051 | Kezia Burrows: Welsh-Born, RADA-Trained, Game-Changing Actor
Offstage Acting
This week on Offstage Acting, Todd Kramer welcomes the brilliant Kezia Burrows — a Welsh actor whose career spans classical theatre, television drama, and the high-stakes world of motion capture and video game performance. Born in Neath and raised in the seaside village of New Quay, Kezia trained at RADA and now voices and embodies characters in some of the most acclaimed games out there. You might know her as Amanda Ripley in Alien: Isolation, Dr. Emma Fisher in Observation, or from Cyberpunk 2077, CrossfireX, Hellblade, and more. We dive into: 🎠Her classical training and transition...
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🎙️050 | Todd & Jay: 50th Episode Spectacular! 🎉
Offstage Acting
This week we are celebrating our 50th episode! Hurray. Jay and I talk about where we've been where we are and were going. We catch up with Jay after his month long yoga retreat to India. My experience doing amateur dramatics. And we dive into a few other fun topics all in celebration of the good times we've had so far and the good times yet to come. So here's to the first and the next 50 episodes of the offstage acting podcast! #acting #actingpodcast #actor #actors #act #actorslife
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🎙️049 | Jason Baughan: From The Old Globe to Side Global, It's a Games of Roles
Offstage Acting
Today’s guest is Jason Baughan - a classically trained actor whose journey from the West End stage to directing cinematic storytelling in major video games is nothing short of epic. In this episode, Todd Kramer and Jay Reum welcome the multi-talented Jason Baughan (yes, that’s “Baughan,” not “Bourne”) for a spirited dive into his career evolution. Trained at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama, Jason started with a love of Shakespeare and a West End run in the Olivier-winning Sunny Afternoon, where he went from guitar player to live stage drummer in front of 900 people....
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🎙️048 | Rob Cairns: From Oxford Stage to Audio Page - Why He Walked Away from Acting
Offstage Acting
Sometimes an actor goes through all of the training and all of the courses and pays all their dues and does very well and enjoys the education and the process… and then steps out into the bright lights of the industry with all its mechanisms and professional trappings, takes a long look around and says: “Meh. You know what? I don't think this is for me. I don't love it.” And today, Todd Kramer and Jay Reum talk to just such an actor. His name is Rob Cairns. But don't worry about good old Rob—he’s landed on his feet. Rob trained at UEA and the Oxford School of Drama, dove deep into...
info_outlineSometimes an actor goes through all of the training and all of the courses and pays all their dues and does very well and enjoys the education and the process… and then steps out into the bright lights of the industry with all its mechanisms and professional trappings, takes a long look around and says: “Meh. You know what? I don't think this is for me. I don't love it.”
And today, Todd Kramer and Jay Reum talk to just such an actor. His name is Rob Cairns. But don't worry about good old Rob—he’s landed on his feet.
Rob trained at UEA and the Oxford School of Drama, dove deep into the craft, and came out the other side with clarity: the acting life wasn’t his forever path. Instead, he pivoted into a life behind the mic—becoming an audiobook producer and founding Voice Reel London, where he now helps actors and voice artists craft high-quality showreels and narration work.
Jay and Todd recently collaborated with Rob on an audiobook project, and in this episode, they talk all things training, transitions, self-awareness, and sound waves. It’s a real look at how one actor stepped back from center stage—and found a new way to perform.
⏱️ CHAPTERS
00:00 – Opening
03:00 – When actors realize acting isn’t “it”
06:30 – Rob’s acting training and Oxford journey
10:00 – The “smart quitter” mindset
13:00 – What drama school really prepares you for
15:30 – Jay and Todd’s training comparison
18:30 – From actor to audio engineer
22:00 – Founding Voice Reel London
26:00 – Creating voice reels for today’s industry
30:00 – Todd’s audiobook adventures
33:00 – The joys and pains of audiobook narration
36:30 – Rob’s pivot during COVID
40:00 – The audition disillusion
43:00 – Are you cut out for the actor life?
46:00 – Measuring passion vs. practicality
49:00 – What Rob loves about sound production
52:00 – Todd & Jay riff on zodiacs & Aries vibes
56:00 – “Manifesting” your own creative pivot
59:00 – Final thoughts from Rob
đź’¬ Join the Conversation
What resonated with you in Rob’s story? Drop your thoughts in the comments — or tag us on socials with your takeaways!
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🌍 Rob Cairns: Voice Reel London
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