The first Voiceover recording I did was more than 30 years ago. It was for Yellow Pages. If you know what Yellow Pages is, then high-five! I know how old you are. If you don’t know what Yellow Pages is, luckily there’s Google to help you find out.
I thought I’d share a short showreel of some of my work. This is something I send over to people who sometimes ask to hear samples. There are a few places I would refer them to – the Voice Guild website, sometimes I would record a short live sample done over the phone, or I would send them this video. The editing isn’t great – I did it myself with my mediocre video editing skills.
After more than 30 years of voicing and speaking for commercials, corporate videos, phone banking, telecommunication systems and all manner of audio broadcast work, I find myself again contributing my time to give back to the voiceover community as an EXCO member of The Voice Guild. This would be my third time since the guild was incorporated. I felt that my contribution as Vice President the last time was unfulfilled, as it was also during the traumatic period of my late husband’s sudden passing and I subsequently stepped down to deal with personal matters and my bereavement.
I have mentioned before in a few of my workshops and talks as a Voice & Speech coach, how much I love my job as a VO talent, how being a voiceover artist has been my constant line and life that has given me so much, by way of financial stability, friendships and learning opportunities. I’ve come a long way from that Yellow Pages commercial, where I was paid to say “Hello” in 3 languages, way back in 1990.
With a bit of encouragement from colleagues at work, I went to an audition at a studio called Ad Audio (once, and maybe still, owned by Patrick Teoh, a renowned voice veteran). With my first official voiceover booking, the rest, as they say, is history. Grateful and happy to do what I love doing. There are definitely some challenges, but what industry doesn’t have its own set of issues?
So to those who often ask me how I got into the world of Voiceovers, I hope this will shed some light. And I’m happy to share more in the workshops and talks that I sometimes conduct throughout the year. Hope I’ll see you there one day.
