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"I know all the orcs in Los Angeles,” I casually said to a friend over a recent weekend brunch. She stopped, looked at me and we both erupted in laughter over the fact that not only was my sentence accurate….but in my line of work, it was entirely and fantastically true. I do, indeed, know all the orcs in Los Angeles. And most of the demons. Some of the goblins. And certainly, a large smattering of super heroes and mouthless space aliens, all across the California southland. For I make video games. And I spend more time with ghosts, ghouls and grizzly soldiers than I do my own family. And I know and love each of these characters as if they ARE my own family….for they are real, grounded, and birthed from the life experiences of the actors who voiced them.

Like everything in the perceivable Universe, vocal communication is vibration. If we don’t generate the right frequency within the body, it won’t transmit through the voice and, subsequently, won’t be there to reach the listener.

Okay, so how do we take this grand notion of Universal vibration and apply it to our little ole’ narration reads? I’m glad you asked. Let’s start with decisions made in the head and add some funky dials.

What advice would you give those wanting to work in animation?

Classes, improv, explore and remember all the characters in your own life. Anyone that's deeply ingrained. Accents you do really well, you should really showcase those on your demo and then when you're auditioning, if you don't do them well, make them a hybrid, fun, weird thing. I really encourage people to draw on and keep a note, like an actual note card, of all of the accents you do well or poorly, so that you can draw on those when you get a script.

In 2018, whilst at a VOND event in Central London, I found myself in the midst of a gaggle of voice actors, talking about this incredible voice over conference in America, VO Atlanta. What was this? Why did they all look so hyped? Well I didn’t care what it was, anything that made a group of grownups that excited, had me sold from the start. I wanted to feel like that. I wanted to feel THAT excited about something!

The VoiceOver Network is about bringing the industry together to be Inclusive not Divisive

It is very hard to avoid it these days. Everyone is talking about it, what’s been said now, who said it and why? I’m talking about negative campaigning and fake news. It’s something that years ago we would have been horrified that people would accuse the media of reporting fiction as opposed to fact. But now it’s talked about all the time and no one bats an eye lid. It has become part of everyday. 

Twenty years have passed since my first job in the games industry. Back then, development roles were dominated by men. I was the only woman in the audio department and I think there was also a female artist. Nowadays, there is a greater swell of women working in the games (albeit far from a 50/50 split). As such, women now have a greater influence on games development than ever before.

I had the privilege of narrating BBC 2’s documentary series “Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life” (screened May and then December 2017). “Mexico: Earth’s Festival of Life” is described as “a landmark series revealing Mexico’s astonishing wildlife, landscape and culture in three distinct worlds – great mountain ranges, tropical forests and scorching deserts”. 

Needless to say, booking a series of such quality and large exposure doesn’t happen every day (to me at least).

It was a Sunday. 5:30pm. Neighbourhood bar. The joint was packed. There was a jovial buzz in the air not least from those of us recounting a fulfilling, challenging and eye opening weekend’s worth of work. Was it really over? How was everyone feeling? Does anyone want to split a bottle of wine?