THE EVERYMAN VOICE

Christian Rosselli ’00

Christian Rosselli ’00 had a Fisher-Price cassette recorder growing up. It was beige with brown buttons, white lettering and a plastic handle, he recalled. Rosselli loved recording his voice and then playing back the tape. He would do it over and over again. If he saw his father’s microcassette recorder laying around the house, Rosselli would pick it up and do the same.

“The technology of it, replicating my voice,” he said. “That, to me, was pretty astounding. They were fixtures of my childhood growing up.” Who knew a toy tape recorder would allow Rosselli’s career to come full circle as a professional voiceover artist.

Rosselli specializes in what is called the “Everyman Voice.” He can be the casual guy next door, connected and caring or conversational. His voice is versatile, as is demonstrated by how he pitches and changes his voice. From breath to breath, Rosselli can go from sounding deep and edgy to then old to young.

He is the voice of United Healthcare, and has also done work for Reebok, Kellogg’s and Samsung. His voice has been featured on a wide variety of platforms, ranging from television, radio and internet commercials to political ads, documentaries and more.

“I love being able to be a part of the creative process,” Rosselli said. “Being able to tell the story but also elevate the brand you’re talking about and bring that brand’s message to life.”

Growing up, Rosselli enjoyed doing impersonations of family members at family functions. He tells the story about the time he playfully impersonated Gerald Larson, former Cheshire Academy Head of School, at a school lunch.“Everyone was laughing,” he remembers. Shelley Taylor-Boyd, former artistic director of the school’s theater program, said it was students like Rosselli who set the foundation for a thriving theater program. She describes Rosselli as a musically gifted student who immediately became an integral part of theater at Cheshire Academy. He landed starring roles in shows like “Brigadoon,” “Oliver” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Rosselli was also a talented jazz saxophonist. As a young teen he went to downtown New Haven and played at jazz clubs. TaylorBoyd and her husband, Senior Master and Theory of Knowledge teacher Chip Boyd, would go down to Chapel and College Streets to watch him play.

As for his voice, “it was magnificent, even as a kid,” Taylor-Boyd described. “Distinctive and memorable.”

After graduating from Ithaca College, Rosselli envisioned himself as a casting director in Hollywood. He landed a position at a casting office in New York City. It seemed to be a promising start. He bounced around from different entertainment positions before finding a home at a major production company's casting and production department. Rosselli dealt with agents and managers on a daily basis and many suggested he should pursue a career as a voiceover artist. After hearing that more and more, he decided to give it a try. Rosselli started to take lessons and then eventually put together a demo and pitched it. Agents took an interest and bookings came trickling in.

A corporate video for Sharp Electronics Corporation was his first major booking about seven years ago, he said. It would be the first of many.

Cheshire Academy was the foundation for it all. Rosselli shared some of his memories from school, like going to Bob Gardiner’s AP English class 15 minutes early so the two could listen to jazz together. They would play records and CDs and talk about the music. Taylor-Boyd was influential as well. She encouraged Rosselli to act and develop his craft.

“That’s where I had my foundation,” Rosselli said. “It was the root of passion - music, literature - it all stems from the atmosphere Cheshire Academy teachers created and fostered throughout my time there.”