Candi Milo

Candi Milo is a three-time Annie Award-nominated voice actor, singer, and comedian who is honored to have taken the mantle from the late June Foray as the voice of Granny for all Warner Bros. Animation's projects, including SPACE JAM 2: A NEW LEGACY starring LeBron James. She is best known for voicing Dexter in DEXTER’S LABORATORY and The Flea in MUCHA LUCHA, among other well-known characters in hundreds of film and television projects, including Looney Tunes Cartoons. On stage, Candi starred with Jennifer Holliday in the first touring production of “Dreamgirls,” directed by Michael Bennett. She also gives inspirational talks about her unusual childhood and how it informed her life as an actor, mother, and passionate advocate for people dealing with mental illness and homelessness. 

Facebook: @CandiMiloPage

Instagram: @thecandimilo/ 

TikTok: @candimilo

Twitter: @candimilo

Is there a genre of music that influences your writing/thinking? Do you listen to music while you write?

Oh my gawd, I could not write without the classic rock and roll of the late 1960s and all of the music of the 1970s. I am a huge fan of Bill Graham and was mesmerized by his concert productions in Northern California. As a matter of fact, I just finished his autobiography, BILL GRAHAM PRESENTS, with a foreword by Pete Townsend (The Who), and it was just magical. Because most of my memoir takes place during this time, I always listen to Classic Rock stations when writing. 

Have you ever experienced Imposter Syndrome?

You have the audacity to ask this question during the times of George Santos?! Hahahaha! I have not experienced that so much as this; lots of times, I am easily “stopped cold” when I get creative pushback. I freeze. I lose confidence in myself, in my writing. If someone even innocently says, “Hmmm, maybe try it like this or that…” I immediately second-guess myself, and my creative juices dry up. So I open TikTok, and ohhhhh, hiii puppies… It’s absolutely the result of childhood trauma, where I experience ideas of others as better than mine because, somewhere, somehow, I missed the handout. I am slowly getting better. The more I write, the stronger I feel. 

What’s the difference (at least for you!) between being a writer and an author? How do you shift gears between the two?

An author writes a story and takes on a journey. A writer tells a story and takes on a magic carpet. How does one switch between the two? By telling the truth. I tell my truth, and if I am writing facts and feeling linear and dealing with exposition, I feel like an author, but when I put feelings into my truth, I am a writer. Both are necessary aspects of the creative mind. 

Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing? Do you sew? Paint? Draw? Knit? Dance?

Now, if you consider me sliding in my socks like Tom Cruise to rock and roll music in my living room dancing, then I dance. (Actually, I stopped doing that during covid lockdown in case of a bad fall…how would I tell an emergency room tech that I was acting like an idiot?! hahaha) My artistic love is singing. I have been singing since the age of four and professionally since the age of 16. To this day, I use singer’s warmups every single day. It helps tremendously with my voice acting, and I think it contributes to my vocal longevity. I manage to eke out a regional musical every year. It does my heart so good. 

What brings you great joy?

It’s so funny how hard I had to think about this! I never consider it. As a working actor and having spent so long as a single mother, it’s always been go, go, go. I get joy from walking outside on a beautiful day. I live in the valley area of Los Angeles, and we have crisp mornings that are so pretty. I live on a beautiful street, in a little enclave off a major boulevard, so I can walk the bucolic streets and then head to lunch. I love to do this. 

On a larger scale, bringing joy to others makes me incredibly happy. Doing this as often as I can gives me that little bit of oomph in my day.