The winds of Chicago swept Catherine (Cathy) from her advertising days with Leo Burnett Advertising, to her adventures in talent payment with Abrams-Rubaloff & Associates back in the early '80s.
During her four years there, she became a voice over agent and learned the ropes of nurturing careers and selling voices for a living.
In February of 1985, Cathy joined the TISHERMAN AGENCY, where she directed talent auditions, made deals, recruited ad agency interest in her "products", and became a supplier of the top promo voices in Los Angeles.
Three years later she was recruited to head the voice over department at SPECIAL ARTISTS AGENCY, and was responsible for the careers and earnings (and sometimes daily lives) of the journeymen actors. She also directed the in-house voice over auditions of celebrity talent. Here she developed the art of "packaging" an actor, as well as refined her knack for "schmoozing".
Brimming over with enough raw material to fill a best-selling novel, Cathy chose to get off that crazy ride and make a shift to casting voices in 1990, when she joined the staff at THE VOICECASTER. There she became a "buyer" of voices rather than a "seller" of voices.
In 1992 she cast 329 voices in the Emmy-nominated television mini-series THE WILD WEST.
Cathy now enjoys her partnership with her husband, Harvey, at Kalmenson & Kalmenson Voice Casting in Burbank, California. She casts and directs voice overs for commercials, animation, etc. (if it needs a voice, this team casts it).
The U.S. voice over community considers the Kalmensons the number one Los Angeles voice over resource center; for both buyers and sellers of voices.
The Kalmenson's applied 47 years of voice over and theatrical experience into a roster of voice over workshops based on the Kalmenson Method, offering the acting community the study of voice over.
Classes address all levels of students (adults and children): from beginner to working pro. Guiding the actor in accessing his process of "telling the truth", the curriculum includes our voice acting method, as well as strategies for getting jobs in the current marketplace. The team provides challenging workout classes for "the pros." Their view of the future includes both commercial and theatrical production.