From that point onwards, McDonald took up acting professionally, taking parts in a national kids' theater tour, landing different roles in a couple dozen stage shows.

In 2006, after years of stage work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, McDonald became involved in voice acting and also got into ADR directing and adaptive scriptwriting.

[2] McDonald has provided voices for a number of English language versions of Japanese anime films and television shows, and video games.

He is best known as the voice of Takumi Fujiwara from the Initial D series, Meow from Space Dandy, and Minato Sahashi from the Sekirei series, as well as the ADR director for the Funimation One Piece dub, in addition to Sgt Frog, Deadman Wonderland, Space Dandy and Initial D.[3] In the 2010s, McDonald has been cast in more lead/major roles, such as Akane from Divine Gate, Mikage from the Kamisama Kiss series, Bartholomew Kuma from One Piece, Zeref from Fairy Tail, Brief from Panty and Stocking, Hien from Chaos Dragon, Koki Mimura from Assassination Classroom, Azusa Hanai from Big Windup!, Toshimitsu Kubo from the Baka and Test series, Hayato Ike from the second season of Shakugan no Shana onwards, Jacuzzi Splot from Baccano, Motoharu Kaido from Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero, Ikta Solok from Alderamin on the Sky, and Dilandau Albatou from the Funimation redub of The Vision of Escaflowne.

[4] On March 18, 2016, Joel announced the birth of his son, Beck Austin McDonald.