A Voice Over is a narrative technique in which an unseen actor’s lines are heard over visual elements in a movie or commercial.  A professional Voice Actor is the sound behind corporate advertisements on the radio, television, and the internet.  In many ways, Voice Actors must possess the same skills that traditional actors possess.  It is the job of a Voice Actor to interpret scripts of clients and make the words believable to the audience.

Voice Actors usually specialize in a specific type of Voice Over, including radio or television commercials, narration or corporate Voice Overs. Most people think about commercials when they hear the term Voice Over.  However, Voice Over has become an integral part of presentations in the corporate world, in business marketing, podcasts, video games and much more.

In the radio industry, Voice Actors are widely used to create commercials, promotional materials, and radio DJ clips. For television, Voice Actors are used for news stories, commercials, promotional videos and on-air segments to introduce news anchors along with other TV hosts.

In the corporate and business world, Voice Actors are commonly called upon to create training materials, online presentations and promotional videos. Voice Overs can also be used to create marketing presentations, video demonstrations at trade shows, conferences, as well as for training purposes. A Voice Actor may also be called upon to narrate prompts for incoming callers in a voicemail system – called telephony.  Retail stores may also use Voice Actors to announce in-store sales.

In the motion picture sector, Voice Actors are used to voice over movie trailers or to provide narration. One area of Voice Acting where celebrities are widely used is in animated feature films.  Voice Actors typically have some experience in films in order to land these roles, and may need to modify their style significantly to be able to perform a particular character.

Various other areas for Voice Actors include audio books, online streaming audio tracks and internet media presentations. These are all fast-growing areas of our internet-based world that need a professional voice behind the images seen by the viewing public.