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Voiceover actor Sirenetta Leoni works on an audition tape from the dinning room table of her San Mateo, Calif. home on Wednesday, April 21, 2010. Leoni routinely uses books as a sound insulator when she works from home. (Dan Honda/Staff)

Voiceover actor Kathy Goodwin goes through a sound check with a studio engineer in San Francisco from a closet in her Redwood City, Calif., home on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. While Goodwin does work in a professional studio in San Francisco, she does about half of her voiceover work from this closet. (Dan Honda/Staff)

Voiceover actor Kathy Goodwin talks to a studio engineer in San Francisco on the phone as she goes through a sound check from a closet in her Redwood City, Calif., home on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. While Goodwin does work in a professional studio in San Francisco, she does about half of her voiceover work from this closet. (Dan Honda/Staff)

Voiceover actor Kathy Goodwin goes through a sound check with a studio engineer in San Francisco from a closet in her Redwood City, Calif., home on Tuesday, April 20, 2010. While Goodwin does work in a professional studio in San Francisco, she does about half of her voiceover work from this closet. (Dan Honda/Staff)

While actors in Los Angeles hoof it to auditions every day, Sirenetta Leoni does hers sitting at her dining room table at home in San Mateo.

The former financial consultant at Merrill Lynch quit her job 11 years ago to pursue voice acting full time, eventually making a name for herself as head of the casting division at Voicetrax San Francisco, one of the nation’s leading voice-acting academies.

Leoni, 54, is part of a huge community of voice actors who use technology to audition remotely and maintain a sense of normalcy in their lives — and without having to move down south. Because so much technology is created in the Bay Area, there are a number of jobs locally for video games, corporate communications, commercial spots and electronics.

Leoni, who specializes in dialects, has done everything from GPS directions in Italian to an androgynous mermaid with attitude in a highly successful video game.

She first started taking lessons 19 years ago from Samantha Paris, founder of Sausalito-based Voicetrax and an award-winning actress whose résumé includes voicing the character Roxy from the hit 1980s cartoon “Jem and the Holograms” and thousands of commercials.

In the 22 years since she opened the school, Paris has seen the industry transform through strikes, the dot-com bust and the recession.

Whether its soundproof home studios to hall closets to mobile phones, she demands that her students have the ability to record at home. And unlike on-camera roles, the rest is about focusing on the voice.

“There aren’t any other variables, ” she said. “There’s a lot of reasons you won’t get a role if you’re going for stage or camera things, but if you work hard at your craft you know you’re going to work.”

Kathy Goodin turned a walk-in closet in her Redwood City house into a high-end home recording booth. Goodin is in her 40s, has a 9-year-old son, and is the voice behind a national Marie Callender’s campaign. She’s also worked for Heinz and Clorox, and she appeared in the canceled NBC drama “Trauma.”

In the past decade, Goodin has gone from traveling to San Francisco every day for auditions to completing most of her auditions at home. She said that having to self-direct requires continued education.

“Having a great voice only gets you so far — you have to be a great actor or forget it,” she said.

The technology to record readings independently has opened up the world of voice acting to many people who keep their other jobs. Some Voicetrax students aren’t even interested in making a living from voice acting, although the best can make six- or seven-figure salaries.

Paris has taught scientists, lawyers and high-level executives how to use their voices better, and more students than not have found a balance between careers, she said.

Aileen Casas has the voice of a perky teenager, but by day she’s a product quality manager at Genentech. The 33-year-old Burlingame resident started getting voice work about five years ago and has managed to climb the ranks in both her occupations. She now has agents in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Casas, whose strict parents disapproved of the industry, loved voice acting so much that she encouraged her sister Alyson, 24, to do it. They share a condo and often audition for the same roles in their isolation booth at home.

“I was so happy when I saw that I could make it happen for myself while having a job and doing everything you need to do,” Casas said.

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