There’s something about Joey Schaljo’s voice.
Since 2023, the Del Ray resident has been the in-game PA announcer at all of the Washington Mystics games. She’s also a longtime announcer at the New York City Marathon, and can regularly be heard in commercials for Ozempic, Aspercreme with Lidocaine, and Realtor.com.
An Illinois native, Schaljo transitioned from a career in horticulture to voice acting after earning an MFA in acting from The New School in New York City. She worked as a voiceover actor in New York City for more than a decade before the pandemic forced her industry to outsource content to home studios. With most of her work done from home, she decided to move to Alexandria in 2021 to be near her family.
ALXnow: What are you thinking about when you’re telling people about Ozempic?
Schaljo: The work I book the most is, like, warm, friendly, and authoritative. So I do a lot of healthcare, pharma, finance, banking, and a lot of tech. My voice is really well-suited to those genres — just my natural speaking voice, like, “This is just Joey telling you about this medication and how it might help you. This is Joey explaining the benefits of your credit card and how that might help you.” Like, this is just me being me, but saying the words someone else wrote.
ALXnow: You’ve got a Bachelor’s Degree in science. Are you a scientist?
Schaljo: I got my Bachelor’s in horticulture. When I got out of college, I moved to Del Ray, to Windsor Avenue, and worked for a large commercial landscape company that no longer exists. I lived here from 1999 to 2000 and then lived in Arlington and Fairfax while working in the landscaping industry.
I started as a landscape designer, and then the company continued to grow, and they needed more people in the field. I ran a crew of middle-aged Guatemalan guys for like two years, and then I moved into a customer service project manager role. But while I was doing that, I’ve been a performer my whole life, like all through school. In college, I was in an a cappella group. Performing has always been a part of my identity. So, while I was landscaping, I was in community theater, like The Little Theatre of Alexandria. Then I just kind of decided that you only get one chance at life, and why not go for it? So, I quit my job and I went to get my MFA in acting at The New School. I ended up living in New York City for 17 years.
ALXnow: The New School… like Inside the Actors Studio with James Lipton?
Schaljo: That show was a class we had to attend every other Monday night. In my first year, he (Lipton) was still dean of the school, and then in my second year, he became dean emeritus.
ALXnow: Were you influenced by any of the performers that you saw?
Schaljo: The show taping took a lot longer than you think. For an hour-long show, we probably taped four or five hours worth of content, and then they edit it down. I really liked people who really talked to us, who understood this was a class and not just an interview. I remember James Gandolfini. When he was on stage, he would listen to the question that James Lipton would ask him, and instead of answering to James Lipton, he would turn to us and answer the question to us about what Tony Soprano meant to him, and how he physicalized the role and what was important about that character. He understood what we were there for and why he was there. It was interesting hearing everybody’s journey. Luck is a part of it. A lot of people are talented, and sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time, or your dad knows somebody in the right way that gives you an opportunity.
ALXnow: How did you get into voice acting?
Schaljo: When I graduated from the Actor’s Studio with The New School, I was auditioning for anything and everything. I went and auditioned in person to be the on-field host for the Staten Island Yankees minor league baseball team. That was the first thing I got. It was great… 2007 was my first season, and then 2010 was my last season. But while there, the guy who was our PA announcer was an announcer of the New York Roadrunners, who is the organization that puts on most of the races in New York City, including the New York City Marathon. He said, “We don’t have any women, and I think you’d be great if you’re interested.”
That’s also when a friend of mine actually worked on a political campaign, and he said, “Would you be willing to do ads for us?” They brought me in the studio, and I was my first voiceover experience. I really liked it, and I looked up voiceover classes, and there was a studio that provided an introduction to voiceover class literally across the street from my apartment. I just signed up for that class. Eventually, I became the head of their education department and their training department because I had acting training, and I understood how that worked.
ALXnow: What did the pandemic do to the voice acting industry?
Schaljo: Before the pandemic, the large commercial campaigns were only cast out of New York and LA. Casting and creative directors were under the impression that you needed to be in-person to really get that good feed, that home studio audio quality would never match a professional studio. The pandemic forced those creative directors and casting directors to use talent-owned studios, because it was the only safe form of production, and they heard how talented everyone was, how good our audio sounded.
It was busy across the whole voiceover industry, and there were all of these on-camera and stage actors now out of work. A lot of new people came into the industry and the competition also grew quickly. In 2021, my lease was ending, and I remember thinking about the sheer isolation in New York and that’s when I thought about moving down here to join my sister’s pandemic pods, just so I could hang out with somebody. I called my agent, and I just floated the idea past her. I said, “Listen, if I think about moving to Washington, DC, will I ruin my career?” She said, “Get out of here. We’re never going back to showing up at a studio for an audition with 30 actors waiting to audition in a lobby”.
ALXnow: What’s your most memorable moment as the Mystics announcer?
Schaljo: I announced the largest-attended game in WNBA history. That’s pretty cool. It was about 20,500 people at the Capital One Arena between the Mystics and the Indiana Fever. The Caitlin Clark Effect is real.
ALXnow: The new season starts May 16. Are you excited?
Schaljo: Yeah, it’s a new day. We have a whole new management — general manager and coaching staff, three brand new first round draft picks. It’s exciting.
ALXnow: Are you worried about AI?
Schaljo: What’s important for voice talent with regard to AI is to protect us. I think there’s a world where AI can actually help us. Let’s say someone wanted my voice to read them The Washington Post every day. I can’t physically do that here, read the Washington Post every day, and get it to you in a timely manner. My voice engine, Joey, can be used for that work. Now, will AI take away some work from voiceover talent? Absolutely, it will, it has already. Will it replace us completely? I don’t think so. Anybody who has gone through a commercial recording session knows that the creative behind it wants it to feel so human and so authentic. But currently, there is no way AI can quickly do it. Like, if I read a line and they say, ‘Joey, that was great. Can you add a little bit more smile, and I want you to sound just a little sarcastic on this one word.” That’s a little fuzzy for AI right now. There’s still so much human nuance in a lot of the work that we do that I think it will be really hard for AI to replace.
ALXnow: What’s your dream gig?
Schaljo: Announcing the Olympics. I went to the Olympics in Paris this last summer, and it only fed that desire. I saw the Equestrian team jumping finals, I went to the women’s USA Basketball versus Germany game, and I watched Katie Ledecky win the gold medal in the 800 meters.
