Much like on camera talent often gets pigeon holed into a particular character, the same is often true for voice talent. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it means you excel at whatever that ‘thing’ is. But it implies you aren’t good at any others, which isn’t always true.
My voice is naturally suited to more conversational, informational, storytelling work. I haven’t yet mastered a ‘used car’ or a game show host voice. (Sidebar: to improve I read out loud in those voices. Imagine hearing cook books or info about dental insurance read like that … my poor dog! :)) Someday I hope to be able to master them both. In the meantime, there is a middle ground between my comfort zone and the high octane game show host voice. It’s the upbeat, playful, ‘no one else says it quite like another’ zone that I love to work in.
Yesterday, I received a request (from the Director of Programming of a company that creates content for several cable channels – yay!) for some recent samples of upbeat/playful commercial work. So I pulled out a few and made a new short :23 second demo.
Gretchen Paxton Voice & On-Camera Talent 