Dino Andrade
Dino S. Andrade (born September 16, 1963) is an American voice actor in video games and animated projects. He manages dual careers as both a voice actor and the creator, owner and operator of the geek dating/community website SoulGeek.com. Early life. Andrade was born to Mexican parents. He is the first-born son of José Roberto Andrade (1924–2000) and Gloria Esther (Mendez) Andrade (1924–1997). His father was serving in the United States Air Force at the time of Dino's birth. The family moved to McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey where Dino spent the first  five years of his life before his father left the armed services and the family returned to California. Andrade has one sister, Sabrina, born, six years later to the day, on September 16, 1969. He says that his love of all things science fiction, horror and fantasy is lifelong and in his blood. He has been quoted saying, "I was that guy in acting class that, while everyone was reading Mamet and O'Neill, I was reading Batman comics," thus attributing his love of animation and graphic storytelling to making his career in voice acting the natural choice for him. Career . Andrade started as an actor on stage and doing comedy improvisation, having been trained at the Groundlings by the actors Mindy Sterling and Julia Sweeney. His official start in voice over work happened when he drove a friend and fellow actor to an audition to do some background looping on the 1985 feature film "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun", starring the then unknowns Sarah Jessica Parker and Helen Hunt. He was asked if he would like to audition as well and was hired for the film. From this, he was recommended to the director Steve Miner who was doing post -production on the horror/comedy film "House", starring William Katt, George Wendt and Richard Moll. Though not credited in the final release, Andrade was hired to do the creature sounds of the demons that kidnap a child that Katt's character has to rescue. He continued in voice acting and acting in general until the early 1990s when he left acting to pursue independent film making. Around 2002, Andrade returned to acting with a focus on voice acting training and has been in voice acting ever since. Personal life. Andrade was married to the voice actress Mary Kay Bergman until  her struggle with mental illness led to her suicide. Andrade has become active in raising mental health awareness and plans to launch the Mary Kay Bergman Project, a mental health outreach program for artists and entertainers. He has since remarried and they have one child Connor Andrade, who is also a voice actor. Andrade has an interest in science fiction, horror, fantasy and animation. He was inspired to create SoulGeek.com, a geek dating and community website. The site was launched in July 2007. Andrade has a passion for symphonic film scores and is an avid baseball fan, supporting the Los  Angeles Dodgers.