VOHeroes instructor Tonya Cornelisse is both an on-camera and on-mic performer, having both a thriving comedy/drama live action career, as well as a burgeoning voice over practice, with credits in commercial, narration, audiobook, animation and many other categories.
Tonya leads her monthly VOHeroes live Zoom workouts wherever in the world she happens to be…likely in Southern California or in London England – she is a resident of the world and has a home base in both locations.
Tonya recurs on Showtime’s series YELLOWJACKETS and the comedy Series HITMEN (SKY ONE) on NBC’s Peacock. Tonya filmed the feature film SLUMBERLAND for Netflix along with Nick Cassavetes’ latest GOD IS NOT A BULLET.
On Amazon Prime, Tonya stars in the short-form series SISTERS (and just wrapped its Season Two). Head on over to TUBI TV and check out the first season of THE HOMEMADE SKETCH SHOW where Tonya is a series regular and writer of this homemade SNL chock full of talent.
Tonya is an award winning voiceover artist & narrator. Her voiceover career started at the tender age of 7 when she was asked to record the answering machine message for her grandfather’s Chevy dealership … which led to the local news station asking her to do the Saturday morning cartoon line-up promos.
Tonya has recorded numerous National Commercials and has been the voice of campaigns such Dove, VistaPrint, Verizon, Hellman’s, Lipton Tea and was the “lady voice” of Lexus for many years.
Tonya has been the voice of criminals, evil queens, witches, devils, 4 headed monsters and more in many video games, the latest of which is Midwinter Entertainment’s acclaimed Scavengers, where she voices a bonkers character called “Buzzsaw.” She worked with FOX Digital Animation for 2 years and her voice has lent itself to one of this years Oscars ‘short list’ animated shorts called “My Baguette.”
Tonya has been fortunate enough to work with BBC Radio on Radio plays and scripted podcast often times from her own closet in LA! In the audiobook world, Tonya has narrated somewhere around 100 projects from NY Times Best Sellars unto Erotica to Comic Books to YA & Children’s Series for Penguin Random House, Audible and Findaway Voices among others.
A force in the theatre scene, Tonya was the recipient of the Best Supporting Actress award at The Humana Festival by the Actors theatre of Louisville and the Theatre Critics Circle Association. She worked on the Broadway revival of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.” Off Broadway, she’s worked at The Public Theatre, the Cherry Lane Theatre, Darryl Roth Theatre, Atlantic Theatre Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, The WhiteFire Theatre and more. In LA, she is a proud member of Academy Award Winner Bobby Moresco’s Actors Gym and Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Training/Education: Tonya hails from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts where she double majored in theatre and psychology. She was lucky to have the opportunity to be mentored and perform alongside Alan Arkin, and has studied privately with the late-great Harold Guskin, George DiCenzo & Stan Kirsch. She is currently is working with Margie Haber.
Tonya is rep’d by a fierce team of champs at SBV (voice – LA) , Stewart Talent (Theatrical – LA) / Vanguard Management and by Sue Terry Voices (voice – UK) & Felix de Wolfe (Theatrical – UK).
She is available for one-on-one coaching via Zoom.
You can reach Tonya via email at [email protected].
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