Voice overs – so how exactly did I get into the voice over industry?

Well this is the question I probably get asked the most, whenever I attend a networking event, or meet new people for the first time, or bump into old friends who ask me how I am getting on, who did not know that I was a voice actor. I actually fell into voice acting by chance really, whilst I was studying at the University of Manchester in the late 1990’s. I was actually passing through the student refectory one day, when I recall seeing a small message on the notice board in big capital letters, asking for ‘Narrators required for a Health Awareness Project, please apply urgently’!!! At that precise moment, I always remembered what my Mum used to say to me about seizing opportunities as they arose.  So without hesitation, I quickly contacted the Project Manager, who was a fellow Nigerian academic, auditioned for the role, which they liked and I was told that I had got the part.  I was over the moon, at landing such a gig, especially when I had very little experience at the time in voice over work.

What perhaps was the most interesting aspect about this role, was that I had no idea at the time, that my voice would be heard globally across 20 countries. From that moment onwards, I had a strong feeling that voice over would in some way shape the rest of my life, but not to the extent that I would be voicing diverse projects for clients across the globe, as I am today.