Being the voice of the main character in a popular game; recording in the most bizarre places; providing live commentary at an international trade fair: Voicebooking’s voice overs go through a lot. In The client is always right – stories from our voice-overs you get a glimpse into the life of a voice over (and maybe even your own). This time with our British voice over Sarah. Are you reading along?
Introduce yourself quickly; who are you and what do you do?
I am Sarah Sealey, I am a professional voice over artist, actress and presenter. I’ve been a full-time voice over for about 17 years, and I actually did my first voice over when I was just 13. It was for Wrigleys chewing gum, dubbing a TV commercial.
How did you become a voice over actor?
I did a lot of acting in my younger years, working in various television commercials and lots of stage plays and things. I actually worked for a sound studio in central London in the early 2000s, and because of my acting experience they often used me to do some dubbing and some extra voice over work as and when it was needed, and suddenly I found myself voice-overing full time!
What do you love about your job?
I love being able to pay my mortgage 🙂 And paying all my bills and giving myself and my family a lifestyle. I’m very lucky to love what I do for a living. I feel very privileged to (severely?) enjoy what I do, and the people in our voice over community are really kind, generous people.
As part of the professional voice over community I’m very proud to work with some great clients, great producers and some fabulous colleagues!
If you weren’t a voice actor, what would you like to do then? And why?
Ah tricky question! I think if I wasn’t in the media business whatsoever, I might be an archaeologist. Narrowing that down, specifically either a paleontologist studying dinosaurs or maybe an Egyptologist studying mummies and ancient Egypt, because I find all of that fascinating! So something completely different!
Why did you choose to be a part of Voicebooking? And what do you like about Voicebooking?
A lot of my close voice over friends were with Voicebooking, so I knew how well you’ve kind of looked after them and given them work. For that reason I was very keen to be part of the community and so I was over the moon when I was invited to join the official roster and I’m very proud to be in your Top 3 of the British voice over artists!
It’s always a pleasure to work with you guys; I get some great projects and it’s just a pleasure working with Voicebooking.
What project did you like the most/are you most proud of, and why?
I do so many jobs, so it’s very difficult to choose which one I am most proud of. I take pride in delivering really good quality audio and professionalism at every point at every job, so I guess every single job is important to me.
What was the most crazy voice over job you have had? Which job was the most fun to do?
My craziest voice over job; I have done a lot of character voice overs for video games, and little old granny voice overs for TV commercials. I think they’re all pretty crazy, for example some of the medical scripts we do are pretty crazy…
Just trying to get your lips around some of the professional medical terms is a task!
Every craftsman/woman has their own special set of talents. What makes you the voice actor that you are?
I would say I am very original and authentic, I don’t try to copy anybody else and my voice is a true reflection of me. I’m very honest with where I work, always act very professionally and I deliver voice overs which are true to myself and therefore represent a brand in the most truthful authentic way.
Yes I can do character voices, but that’s not my mainstay of my work. My mainstay is largely corporate content and web videos. I know that my voice lends itself quite well to projects where you’re delivering an important message.
What advice would you give your younger voice actor-self?
Just be you! Don’t try to be anyone else, and don’t try to pigeonhole yourself – don’t put yourself in a little box and say ‘that’s the only thing I’m going to do’. You’ve got to be very broad minded, take a lot of advice, do lots of training and be very honest about your own abilities regarding what you can and cannot do.
You also need to be prepared to start off from the very very bottom. It’s not an overnight success and you probably won’t be earning a great deal before you build up your career, but it is the most wonderful business and I love it!
