Voiceover is a form of professional acting that happens off-screen. While you won’t see a voice actor’s performance in the finished product, storylines like Helen Titchener’s experience of domestic abuse in the long-running radio show The Archers raised over £170,000 for Refuge – a real charity that supports abused women – showing the power of voice to move audiences.
From narration and character voices to e-learning and commercials, voiceover artists must be able to deliver performances that communicate the essence of the script or character and achieve the director’s vision.
These are the tools you’ll need to land voice acting auditions, as well as what to expect on the day.
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To start out in the world of voiceover, we recommend investing in the following four things:
1. Learn mic technique
Assuming you already have a foundation in acting, the next thing to get to grips with is good mic technique. Voiceover is an incredibly saturated industry, so learning the basics before your first in-person audition or studio job is a must.
2. Develop your unique selling proposition
Liz Guterbock has been a voiceover artist for 11 years and says you should start by working out what your “money voice” is. Are you bright and conversational? Contemporary and relatable? Maybe you’re sultry and smooth? Whatever your strongest voice, work out how to sum it up with a couple of adjectives on your demo reel.
3. Create a demo reel
Having a strong demo reel is the number one way to advertise your vocal skills to agents, casting directors, and prospective clients. Voice actor Grace Dunne says this doesn’t need to be long; it just needs to showcase your natural voice alongside some commercial reads, corporate narration, and something more dramatic, like a monologue. If you are particularly adept at certain accents or character voices, you can showcase these too. You could record this yourself, but bear in mind that you want it to sound professional. There are a number of reputable companies in the UK that specialise in recording voice reels, including Voice Over Soho, The Showreel, Sonic Pond, and ioAudio.
4. The space and gadgets to record
Before the COVID pandemic, only a handful of the artists on The Voice Squad’s books had home studios, but since 2022 over two-thirds of them have some form of home recording equipment. Voice actors are increasingly expected to record from home, so in order to submit for voiceover auditions you will need a home setup. Starting out, you could record on your phone or laptop. Do so in a room with plenty of soft furnishings to deaden the sound and improve the quality of the recording. If you’re serious about a voice-acting career, you will likely want to invest in professional equipment and software to record self-tapes. Guterbock suggests a USB microphone like a Rode NT-USB Mini, a pop shield, and software like Ocensound or Audacity.
There are several ways to find voiceover casting calls and be considered for auditions.
1. Sift through casting pages
Casting platforms are a great way to access a wide range of voiceover jobs. Dedicate time to scrolling through listings on a weekly basis.
2. Check social media
Voice actor Leonie Schliesing advises that X (formerly Twitter) can be a great place to find casting callouts, particularly for indie games and animation work. Accounts like @VACastingRT retweet casting calls for voiceover work.
3. Approach casting directors
If a voice casting website welcomes submissions, approach its representatives with a friendly email and your voice demo attached. Voice casting director Dave Peacock says he welcomes voice actors reaching out to share their material. “Sometimes it takes me a while to get back to you as I don’t respond without listening to everyone’s submissions, and we get a lot of submissions,” he notes. Voice and performance director, casting director, and owner of Sounds Wilde Kirsty Gilmore cautions that while many independent casting directors are fine with actors contacting them directly, “casting directors attached to a specific recording studio, game development studio, or production company may have a different process, so it’s best to check the company website to see what they prefer.”
4. Apply through your agent
If you have an agent who specialises in voiceover, they will be able to submit you for a wide range of voiceover castings. General acting agents can suggest you for some voice acting jobs—generally those in gaming and animation—where excellent acting skills are essential. Be aware that voiceover agents generally don’t sign voice talent unless they have already secured some work of their own or have something particularly niche about their voice skills (such as being multilingual or incredible at character voices).
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The first, and often only, round of auditioning for a voice acting job is to produce a self-tape. It’s a similar process to producing an acting self-tape for TV and film work, but purely audio. For commercials, corporate, and e-learning voiceover jobs, voice artists are often cast purely from their self-tape. For animation and video games, a shortlist of voice actors will be selected for an in-person recall.
You may be given a small sample of the script and possibly a character breakdown, some overall direction for the piece, specific directions about what to record (such as how many takes), and instructions on how to submit your voiceover audition. Study the casting directions carefully, including how to label your tape, before you submit.
If the job you are auditioning for requires you to have a professional home studio, Gilmore points out, “you'll be assessed on the audio quality of your audition, as well as the performance.” If the job will be recorded at a professional studio, pristine audio quality is less important, but it’s still “crucial that it’s good enough for the CD to be able to easily assess your performance.”
In-person voice acting auditions are generally around 15 or 20 minutes long. Guterbock advises going in with “your interpretation of the character, but be ready to change it, follow new directions, and be flexible.”
Generally, you will be in the recording booth while the director or casting director sits at the sound desk with the sound engineer and possibly the client. Unlike in a physical acting audition, you may only hear the director through your headphones rather than see them.
- Do your research. Read all the character information and performance directions thoroughly. Look up the production company or broadcaster and watch some of its most popular content to get a feel for their style. If the writer or director’s name appearappears on the information sent, look at their previous work to better understand their taste.
- Make sure you are hydrated. Drink plenty of water at least 90 minutes before your audition to avoid any dry mouth pops and clicks on the mic.
- Do a vocal warm-up. Whether it’s an in-person audition or a self-tape, make sure your voice is adequately warmed up.
- Be familiar with the sides, but don’t memorise them. Memorising can lead actors to become locked in their interpretation of the character, which makes it difficult for the director to try something different.
- Don't worry about making mistakes. It’s a stressful situation, and the director or CD will understand if you make a mistake. Stop, start from the beginning of the line, and keep going.
- Make sure your voice is sustainable. If you are manipulating your voice for an audition, make sure whatever you are doing is something you can reasonably sustain for the whole job without getting exhausted. Think of Nancy Cartwright, who manipulates her voice to portray a multitude of characters on The Simpsons, all without causing vocal strain or fatigue.
- Make sure the character is rooted in truth. Even if you are putting on a distinct character voice, the emotions still need to come from a real place.