There certainly has been a lot of talk, energy and focus about the effect of AI on the voice over industry, so I felt it important to weigh in as it certainly caught my attention to say the least being that I’m a full time voice actor and currently own a voice over school with my partner Noel Johansen who you’ll hear from later on in this essay.

Much like the ecosystem’s that exist in our world such as the temperate forests, deserts or oceans, there’s also an ecosystem in voice-over. In this article I’m going to break down a 30,000-foot view of the major elements and contributing factors that make up the opportunities for work within our global voice-over ecosystem.

In voice-over the moment you put your demo out there – you are considered a lead voice.

You are the lead voice in the commercial representing Honda – you’re the voice of their brand – they’ve spent millions of dollars on the advertising campaign and your voice is the one they want people to associate with their brand.

I think one of the most important factors to staying with anything that’s difficult is having a love for what you’re doing.

The most important factor when staying with something difficult is to have a love of doing it.

Before I’d even booked my first voice-over job I had a real and deep love, almost an addiction, to doing voices and playing with my voice. I’d do it to see what silly noises I’d make, and would see what things on TV and movies I could mock or imitate.

In voice-over you need to be sharp. It’s a fast moving industry, studio fees are expensive, everyone has a deadline and nobody wants to waste time.

A complaint I hear all the time is that the voice-over business is very cliquey. This implies that people in the industry are in some sort of gang having secret meetings on Sunday nights about how to keep at the work for themselves. Of course, none of this is true

There are so many opportunities out there for you to do-it-yourself in voice-over! You’d be amazed at how many ways you can find work, create free websites or profiles on-line with your demos, and learn about voice-over. You just need to become a master at searching things on the web.

Whether you’ve been in the business 17 days or 17 years – you’ve got to stay in it to win it. Voice-over is a challenging field, but it’s also very rewarding. Don’t you want to find out your potential? See how far your voice can take you?

Comparing a career in voice-over vs film and TV is interesting. Both fall under the same media umbrella, yet the difference between the two is staggering.

To really understand voice-over, you have to go back to the very beginning. Here’s a crash course in how it all started.

Voice-over is still in its infancy, if you compare it to traditional acting. Acting has been around for over 3,000 years, with the first known actors performing in outdoor amphitheatres in Ancient Greece around 1,200 B.C.

The biggest barrier for people to get into the voice-over business is producing their own demo. Let me tell you why.

Recording a voice-over demo – where it’s your commercial, animation, or narration – is like producing a mini album. You start by creating the content, for example: if you’re creating a commercial or narration demo you’ll use scripts for things that have already aired. Pick scripts that best resonate with your personality, brand, and delivery.