For as long as I can remember I have been interested in voice acting. Growing up, I always wanted to be one of the people lucky enough to record the voices of characters like the ones I watched on Saturday cartoons. As. time went on, I became an actor. I started studying theater in earnest in the eighth grade, and have been studying it ever since. I am currently in the process of finishing a degree in Theater Arts. However, I never really paid any interest to audio books, even though I am a voracious reader.
Eventually I ran out of money to continue going to school full time, and was forced to take a break and begin working full time at a call center. My schedule was constantly changing, which made me unable to commit to any parts in local productions. One day one of my sisters came to me with a proposal. She is also a voracious reader, and happens to absolutely love audio books. She really wanted an audio version of a Harry Potter fan fiction that she had read, but was unable to find one. So, she asked me to record it for her. I was reluctant at first because A: I wasn't very into audio books (at the time) B: It was fan fiction C: It was Harry Potter fan fiction. I was going to politely turn her down, but she told me it would be a good outlet for me to keep practicing theater related skills while I was away from school. Needless to say, I agreed.
I was wary at first. It took me awhile to actually sit down and read the fic, The Uncle by sam_storyteller, which turned out to be immensely entertaining. It's a short read, and definitely worth it if you like Harry Potter and old school gangsters. Then I started reading it aloud, and I was hooked. It was a terrible recording. I spoke too fast, recorded it under poor audio conditions, and didn't edit it at all...but I had a blast! (I am in the process of re-doing it currently, and will post a link to the finished product once it is done.)
Then I began to start listening to audio books in the hopes of picking up pointers from actual professional narrators. I went from not being interested in audio books, to studying them, to actually enjoying them. A couple of months later, I saw a post from a friend of mine from school saying that he had been hired to do an audio book through a site called acx.com . I immediately went to check out the site and was quite impressed! Browsing through the site I realized that someday I could actually narrate audio books and possibly get paid for it.
Ever since then I have been working tirelessly to improve myself and my voice and prepare auditions in the hopes of being chosen by an author to narrate their book!
