About
I’m Ivan Benko, a native Croatian voice actor who also works in English, recording from a booth I built near Zagreb.
I was born in Osijek, in eastern Croatia. English classes started in first grade, and cable TV and games did the rest. I watched cartoons like Samurai Jack and Avatar: The Last Airbender and shows on the Discovery and History channels, from How It’s Made to World War II documentaries. In games like Fable and Oblivion I tried to copy the characters. When my dad bought a PC, I tinkered with it more than I should have, and by I was teaching myself the Unreal Development Kit, a game engine, so I know how a line ends up in a game. I still read mostly in English, and every screen I own is set to it. I can hear when an accent drifts, including my own.
Voice acting didn’t seem like a real job, so I went into software. Then one day, in a Zagreb music shop, I ran into a producer whose records I knew. He was wearing a pink bathrobe and sounded exactly like his work. I’d thought you had to be someone special to do this, and he was just himself. I looked him up, found his profile on Project 6 Studio’s voice roster and signed up for their voice-over workshop. I’ve been training ever since, in Zagreb and online with American coaches, one of them a favorite voice actor of mine.
Off mic, I’m in two improv groups, one of which had been playing together for two years before I joined, and I’m finishing an acting course. Two of the three are putting on plays, and next I’m starting an acting course in English.
The voice
It’s a baritone. My teachers call it dark, and I’d add warm. For narration, e-learning and corporate work I keep it calm and conversational. In character work I lean toward villains, and in a voice-acting bootcamp the coach cast me as one. They’re nothing like me, and I enjoy working out what drives them and what they want.
Slow, exact tongue twisters taught me respect for every syllable. On Saturdays I’m learning Complete Vocal Technique, a singing method, and a lot of it carries over to the mic. I didn’t expect a little twang to change a read as much as it does.
Working with me
I came to voice from software, a job I’d describe as logical creativity within constraints. A script is similar: the words, the timing and the deadline are fixed, and I work inside them.
A single coaching session sent me to acting and improv classes, where I practice taking a note and trying something different on the next take.
I worked as a software developer for more than six years, much of it on public-sector systems that had to be right, like Croatia’s eVisitor tourist registration system and the portal where companies send approval requests to HALMED, the national medicines agency. I also built the e-learning module of a workplace safety system. So I’m used to deadlines, exact specs and technical or regulatory terms, and I read a delivery spec closely.
In my booth I record in 32-bit float, so a loud line can’t clip and I never have to touch the gain mid-take.
Training
Voice acting
Acting
Singing
One-on-one sessions
Free audition or a quote
Email a script and a deadline to hey@ib.actor, and I’ll send a quote. To hear your script first, paste up to 50 words into the form for a free audition.