Hello 2024!
Well, well, well. Here it is. January 1st, 2024. It’s a cold, dark grey day here in Buffalo, NY, and it can be hard to get hyped for the upcoming year when all I want to do is go back to bed. But things like auditions, projects and blog posts must be done! So I pulled myself out of bed, put on my favorite hoodie and sat myself down in front of this computer.
Part of me is really looking forward to 2024. I already have a few bomb-diggity projects lined up for this year, and I know more will come, but it’s also intimidating staring down the long tunnel of a new year. I went hard in 2023 to advance my voiceover business and I feel like this year I will need to go twice as hard to get where I want to be. And that can be daunting. I had a lot of successes last year with my character work. I was mostly involved with animation, video games and audio dramas, which I dig because they are my jam! I love character work and I’m utterly grateful that so many amazing opportunities came my way. I’m excited to see what roles I get to play in this upcoming year. Last year I played a sentient moon rover, a fire goddess, an ice goddess, an arctic explorer, a space pilot crashed on an alien planet, a wife with a removeable face, a mother protecting her young son, a woman who accidentally killed her neighbor, a tough secret agent, a cat battling a cockroach, and a hard-boiled detective dog. Quite the line-up!
In 2024 I hope to explore commercial voice over a little more. I voiced a few commercials last year but I plan on making it a priority for 2024. Last year I was fortunate enough to do commercials for a weather app, a hair salon, a psychic, a podcast, a jewelry maker, and a company that makes sustainable planters. A highlight of last year was getting to do an explainer video for an English as a second language app. Having taught English in Indonesia a few years back, teaching ESL is something I’m very familiar with, and I was honored to be chosen to represent the company.
I was also thrilled to be chosen by PocketFM to be the narrator for their series Royal Stitches, about a modern day nurse who is magically transported back in time where she is a princess trying to make her way up to being queen! Part audiobook, part fantast novel, it’s full of twists and turns and schemes and shocking cliffhangers! An essential part of audiobook narration is making distinctive character voices since I am the one voicing ALL the characters! It’s been a lot of fun coming up with the princess voice as well as the voices for the other characters.
My most exciting client of 2023 would have to be Legoland Denmark, who contacted me to be the voice of a character for one of their interactive experiences. It was an absolute delight to work with them and a fun character to voice!
But the most meaningful voice acting experience by far was my role in Red Odyssey, the audio drama podcast that came out last September. Having an acting background and having done a lot of live theater throughout my life, I do miss the camaraderie of being part of a group working together as an ensemble. Even though the cast and crew of Red Odyssey are scattered all over the world, it still felt like we were part of a cohesive group, and I feel like through it I made friendships that will last a lifetime.
The skies of Buffalo, New York may be grey, but I’d like to believe that my future is bright, and that this time next year my blog post will be twice as long with all the amazing opportunities I get to experience in 2024!
