Dino Andrade

Early life

Andrade was born on September 16, 1963 at Norton Air Force Base Hospital, in San Bernardino, California, to Hispanic parents. He is the first-born son of José Roberto Andrade and Gloria Esther (Mendez) Andrade. His father was serving in the United States Air Force at the time of Dino’s birth. The family immediately relocated 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. Dino admits that his love of all things science fiction, horror, and fantasy is lifelong and in his blood. He has even 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 improv, having been trained at the Groundlings by actors Mindy Sterling & Julia Sweeney. His official start in Voice Over came 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 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 endeavor, he was recommended to director Steve Miner who was doing post-production on the horror/comedy House, starring William Katt, George Wendt and Richard Moll. Though not credited in the final release of the film, Andrade was hired to do the creature sounds of the demons that kidnap a child William 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 filmmaking. Around 2002, Andrade returned to acting with a focus on voice acting training. He has been in voice acting ever since.

Personal life

Andrade was married to the late voice actress Mary Kay Bergman (1961–1999) of South Park fame until her struggle with chronic Bipolar disorder and Generalized anxiety disorder 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.

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.