Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1524863
48 M PS E . O R G EM: Kris, thank you so much for joining me today! So, what initially inspired you to want to work in voice direction? KZS: I went to Pepperdine as a music major, I played oboe, and right before my junior year, the conductor left and they brought in a trumpet guy. Well, that was no fun for an oboe player—all he wanted to play was marches. At Pepperdine, I was in the first four-year graduating class from the Malibu campus, which I didn't know until later. I was involved in the theater department. I'd help make costumes for them, and played in the orchestra pits, so they knew me. There's this amazing view of the ocean from the cafeteria there. I was looking out over the ocean one day, and one of the heads of the department saw me looking kind of sad, and he said, "What's wrong?" And I said, "Well, I don't think I can come back next semester because my parents can't afford to send me here, and I'm not gonna play, so I'm gonna lose my scholarship." He goes, "Well, what's your scholarship? Become a theater major. I'll match it." After that, I got an internship with the Ahmanson Theatre in the publicity department. One of the acting classes we had at Pepperdine our senior year was "The Business of Acting." They brought lots of different professionals into that class from all over the place, and one of them was Gordon Hunt. Gordon was a very well-known theater director at the time, and he ended up directing a play that Joseph Barbera had written. Then Joe decided he wanted Gordon to come into Hanna-Barbera and direct some of the cartoons. In the past, it had been the head animator of the project that always directed them, or Joe Barbera himself—but he brought in Gordon Hunt to do it. So, Gordon came to our class that we had, and then after my internship was over, they could hire me but only part time, and I needed to have a real job. So, I went into my boss every day and said, "Hey! Why don't you introduce me to that Bill Robinson guy? He's an agent over at CAA." and he'd say, "Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know him." I kept trying many different people, and then one day I walked in and I go, "What about that Gordon Hunt guy?" and he goes, "Oh! I know Gordie." He called him up and told him about me, so Gordon says, "Well, we're holding interviews this afternoon if she can come over here around four o'clock." I went right over to Hanna- Barbera, and I had my interview with Ginny McSwain, and another woman named Arlen Avery. I was sitting between two filing cabinets, in like a little cage, and all they cared about was how fast I could type. I said, "124 words a minute on a Selectric." They were like, "Wait, what? You're hired." I ended up typing The Smurfs scripts for months at a time and then I'd get laid off—it was very seasonal back then. That cycle went on for a couple years, and then I needed to get a real job, so I went over to NBC in the publicity department for a while. Then one day, Gordon called me and said, "The talent coordinator position has become available, will you come back?" So, I went back, and then eventually, the casting director that was there left after a few years, and I was put into the casting director's position. Then Turner bought us, and they laid off a lot of heads of departments, due to budgets I suppose. Gordon still freelance-directed for Hanna-Barbera, and a gentleman named Davis Doi asked me if I would please direct Jonny Quest. I'd done minor things before, but that was my first series. I can tell you the story about how I directed my very first show. Like I said, it was seasonal, and Voice and casting director Kris Zimmerman Salter. Photo by Eric Marks.