What Is Voiceover Acting?

Voice-over acting is gradually becoming a popular career path, many years back voice-over acting was unknown and unpopular. However, it is beginning to gain true recognition as performance art and lots of popularly known & ambitious actors are venturing into it. Voice-over acting is no longer what it used to be 10 years ago, it is not just an art for just radio drama and commercial, Voice-over is now used for audiobooks, corporate trading, and even e-learning and there is now a growing need for voice-over actors.

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Voice-over acting is simply the art of creating voice for use in professional audio work. The role of the voice actor is to interpret and add life to words on a script either for a game, an announcement, commercial, animation, and others. To represent characters or ideas to convey a meaning or message to the audience. The actor is not seen but he interprets words to convey meaning to the listeners. As a voice-over actor, you need to let the words flow naturally and not sound like you are reading from a piece of paper. Voice-over actors bring game characters, animation characters to life, guide you through e-learning modules, give your directions through GPS device and give your radio drama life. There are different five basic  voice-over types and they include:

Voice-over Announcers

Voice-over announcers help to introduce segments of live television shows, radio programs or broadcast. They help to announce award shows, sporting event, talk shows and promos.

Voice-over Narrators

They specialize in educational videos, audiobooks, business videos, documentaries, explained videos and medical videos. They help to explain or read out words to listeners.

Voice-over Actors

They portray the roles of characters in animations, radio drama, video game, puppet shows and documentaries using their voice.

Voice-over Artists

They are versatile and can undertake any of the voice-acting types listed above. They also very good as Gps voice, direct telephone prompts and also in welcoming visitors to a website.

man speaking into microphone as voice actor

Voice Talent

This is just an easy way to refer to all the types of voice-over performers.

Before you start voice-over acting you need to know which category to go for and the necessary skills and performance level required for each. Character voice-over acting is required in genres like animation dubbing, video game dubbing, ADR and live-action. It is important to train your voice to suit different character types you are required to play. Serious acting skills and the ability to mimic characters and portray them effectively through your voice is required in this category. It may take some time to master the characters and mimic them effectively.

Commercial voice over is another category which basically includes radio jingles, marketing videos, TV and radio ads or promo. Here, the voice-over artist tries to persuade the consumers or listeners to patronize the brand or product.

The narration voice-over Category requires that the voiceover artist reduces their acting and sound a bit more business-like. Areas like audiobooks, e-learning, corporate videos, IVR, audio guides, documentaries require voice-over talent that specializes in narration. The scripts may be long and the words may be unfamiliar.

big microphone for voice actor

Voice-over acting has been around for a long time even predating acting on screen, however, it was not as popular as acting on screen. Now, however, interest in voiceover action has heightened due to technological advancements. The voice-over market is growing rapidly and now is the time to venture into voice-over acting.

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