Starting out as a voice over talent

It is not so difficult to start in the voice over business if you’re doing this professionally, so that everybody could take you seriously. The first thing you should to do is to practice your talent. In order to do this, get some scripts and start rehearsing on them. Radio stations are usually more than happy to help you with some old commercial copies. Use your contacts in radio to obtain some scripts or to get in one of their recording studios to read and record your own script. Also, you can choose from a large number of voice over courses available in libraries and on the Web. They provide the scripts, the recording facilities, and help you put a winning demo together.

Voice over might just be your talent

What you need now is more experience to achieve. In order to get that experience in voiceovers, you may have to work free for a while (or at least really cheap). One good example is to find a community radio station in your town. Most of them will welcome volunteers. Their production director might be interested in different voiceovers and might need an extra voice from time to time. If you’re lucky, they could use you for an ad here and there. Remember to keep a copy of everything you work, as it will be needed later to put together a demo.

A demo is a collection of at least several different voiceover tracks. This must be done professionally for sure. You can do this at home, burning Cds and printing nice labels. If you don’t know what kind of tracks to record, try to be as versatile as you can - record a commercial announcer track, a movie trailer track, a funny character, a reporter type and anything that will show the large range of your talent. When you have your demo, you can submit it to agents in your area. Try to arrange a meeting and hopefully you'll find representation. It will be their job to try to find you work.

Other valuable options are talent agencies. With small research conducted, you’ll definitely find in your area some local talent agencies that represent voice over talents. Just send them your demo, in a professional looking package with your resume and cover letter. Ask them to review your demo and state that you are looking for representation for your voiceover work. Remember, you don’t have to pay them – the agency makes nice commission from the work they get for you.