Whenever I meet new people or acquaintances and tell them that I’m a voiceover artist, everyone asks me how I got into voiceovers. There was one conversation that actually led me to consider voiceovers but there were a few other things in the background that led me there, too.
To begin with, I’ve always loved performing. Dance is my real passion. I used to go to singing and dancing classes when I was younger and performed in local musical theatre Am Dram productions in my early 20s. While I loved musical theatre, a few years on, I became more interested in straight drama and wanted to find a drama class. In the meantime, I found out about an improv group. I went to the group; it was fun and some of the people who came (it still runs!) are professional actors. After the session, I was chatting to one of these actors, Peter Stern, who told me that as well as being an actor, he does voiceovers. I thought to myself “Voiceovers – that sounds fun! I’m interested in doing that and I think I might be good at it!’ I chatted to him about it and he mentioned that as a voiceover you are essentially your own boss and you’ve got to get out there, promote yourself, do all your own marketing, and get your clients.
At the time, that didn’t appeal to me at all. I couldn’t be bothered with all that! So I didn’t do anything then but I had the idea in my head still.
It was only about three or four years later that I actually took the plunge and started working on the voiceover business. During that time, I came across a couple of other voiceovers with whom I chatted to, and also worked at a company that recorded voiceovers for their clients, so I kept being reminded about voiceovers.
Another factor that got me interested in voiceovers is that I grew up listening to a lot of audiobooks. My mum used to take audiobooks out of the library all the time, so I’d always hear them playing around the house. I’d sometimes listen and think “That narrator sounds so good, I wish I’d be able to narrate books like that!”
Lastly, I love language and linguistics. I studied English literature and linguistics at university and love the sound of language, accents, and dialects. In fact, all of my family love language, articulation, and writing; my mum and brothers in particular are good writers and have even turned their hands to poetry! And growing up, my mum would always correct my grammar, for example, if I used an incorrect preposition, and emphasised the importance of being articulate.
So, to sum it up, my love for performing, language and linguistics, listening to lots of audiobooks, and meeting a voiceover artist all led me to voiceovers.
