The Kitchen: US English as the core of global IPs

The Kitchen is the industry’s only Emmy Award-winning language localization studio. Headquartered in Miami for the past 24 years, the company has built a solid reputation in the sector, particularly for the strength and quality of its English-language services.

“The true, non-accented, pure American English dialect is the backbone to most international language dubbing projects,” explained Brad Strickland, Director of Production for The Kitchen.  “For 24-years, The Miami based studio has taken pride in its English dubbing team and it continues to grow in size and reputation. We have 17 dubbing suites here in our headquarter studio, supported by a dedicated team of native English directors and a large network of native, non-accented speakers,” he continued.

“In the past, Miami had a tarnished reputation,” explained Ken Lorber, President/CEO of The Kitchen, “when it came to providing clear pronunciation of the English language. With so many immigrants relocating to Miami from Latin American countries like, Cuba, Venezuela, Colombia and elsewhere, the second and third generation offspring often picked up the accents while living with other family members residing in the same household. While some of that continues to exist”, Lorber added, the Latino community has become far more sophisticated.  The kids have moved into their own places, gone to American schools and colleges and better assimilated into American society”.

MIAMI ON THE RISE

In addition, the Covid pandemic saw thousands of Americans relocating to Miami from cities like New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.  Many are part of families that have been in the US for many generations. Tech companies, financial institutions and the hospitality industry have all come to Miami as a haven for growing businesses without prejudice.

Miami has experienced a cultural explosion that has brought numerous Michelin Star Restaurants, Art Basel, one of the largest art expositions in the world and a growing arts and music community, bigger than ever experienced before.

Along with this boom have come artists from all aspects of the media and entertainment industry.  While Miami, like most affluent cities, has become a more expensive place to live in today, than in the past, the tax structure continues to make this City a prime location for artists from all disciplines of the media and entertainment industry.

“As a result, recording in Miami is significantly less expensive than recording the same project in Los Angeles or New York” Lorber explained.  “And because we are US-based, our English-speaking team continues to grow in importance to the overall international language process.  We now have quality performers, with years of experience, who have lent their voices to animation, anime, novellas, feature films, live action series, video games, political and education projects and more. If you compare Miami to Los Angeles, there is little difference in the quality of the voice acting, but here the cost is much less.”

Additionally, The Kitchen continues to offer its Dubbing 101 workshops, specifically to train new, native US speaking, non-accented talent of all ages, and provide refreshers for seasoned voice actors.