Thomas Hagena: A Jackrabbit Heard ’Round the Country

Now, he’s still a salesman, but he doesn’t do it through campus tours. He does it from a 4-by-4-foot booth with sound blankets, foam pads and other acoustic treatments. 

He’s selling different products to a much larger audience — and to one that he can’t see.

Hagena is a voice actor.

Admissions ambassador to an actor

As a student from Lennox, Hagena dove headfirst into several extracurriculars, but, surprisingly, none of them were theater-related. He almost joined Capers before he said he “chickened out” on the day of the audition.

Instead, he did intramurals, New Student Orientation, drumline with The Pride of the Dakotas Marching Band, The Statesmen, Cru, Oasis ministry and was an admissions ambassador. It’s that last activity that he credits with helping him the most in his current career.

“Voice acting is a lot more entrepreneurial. You have to establish relationships and go out and hustle. It’s like a sales job, as well, because you have to sell yourself like you’re the product,” Hagena said.

He spent three years as a student admissions ambassador and worked for four years as an admissions counselor after he graduated. There, he learned how to build relationships and sell the idea of college to potential students. He also did some voice work remotely on the side.

But Hollywood was calling.

Where have I heard you before?

Hagena, his wife, Heidi (Oakland) '11/Pharm.D. '13, and their kids moved to Los Angeles, California, to pursue his vocation full time in 2016. He’s voiced numerous commercials for big-name brands like Apple, Capital One, Hot Wheels, Instacart, Marvel, Petco, Toyota, McDonald’s and more.

He described narration and commercials as his “daily bread.” He said he has more fun with video games and animation work.

For example, he booked some work with the NBA 2K franchise, which he was actively playing at the time he answered the casting call.

Another project he worked on was the online game Brawl Stars. He often gets fan mail for being the voice of the character Leon.

“Every male under the age of 25 probably knows what that game is,” he said.

Video games are especially fun since he gets to collaborate with directors to create a character’s voice.

There’s a lot of variety in his work. In one day, Hagena may voice commercials at the pump for a Michigan gas station chain, narration for a STEM YouTube series or a game where he plays a 9-year-old ninja assassin.

He said voice acting is about more than having a funny voice. It’s all about the intention behind the voice.

“I could have some characters that you could argue sound similar, but it's the intention and the emotion behind them that makes them unique. So, a 9-year-old ninja, for example, might sound close to a 5-year-old teddy bear, but the intentions are very different between the two.”

Hagena is also the voice of Hasbro’s FurReal Pet Cubby, who sounds very different from Leon and won him a Voice Arts Award nomination.

Thinking outside the box

The barriers to entry with voice acting are very low, which means Hagena has a lot of competition. He said he books one out of 25 auditions, which is better than the industry standard.

For his auditions, he prefers to submit three takes — one how they asked for it, one with a slightly different intention behind it and one to stand out.

He wants that last take to be different from what everyone else will submit. He adds an additional intention behind the voice or thinks outside of the box.

It worked with an audition he sent to Bumble. 

“They wanted a casual, supportive boyfriend. It was very straightforward. On one of my takes, I ad-libbed a little bit and was a little goofier.”

He can’t say it’s what got him the job, but he did book it.

His voice in the future

Hagena said he’s seen great success in his career.

"I’ve been fortunate. I set goals for the kind of work I wanted to do, and I’ve been able to achieve some of them. Like, I wanted to voice a national commercial and be one of the leading roles in a video game. I was able to do that. But I still have more I want to do,” he said.
His next goals would be voicing the lead in an animated TV show or becoming the recurring voice of a major brand.
Those are two things he’s looking forward to checking off the list in the future.

Written by Ellen Koester, University Marketing & Communications