When I begin a voice acting job, the questions I ask myself aren’t too different from those I would ask if I were starting a role for film or stage: who am I, what am I trying to get across, and who am I talking to?

As a voice actor however, I cannot use my eyes, my body, or my » Continue Reading.

The very funny writer/entertainer Amy Sedaris writes in one of her tongue-in-cheek books, “I think it’s good for a person to spend time alone. It gives them an opportunity to discover who they are and to figure out why they are always alone.”

In the case of voice actors, we often find ourselves professionally obligated to be alone for hours » Continue Reading.

I get a lot of emails and an occasional telephone call from men and women who think they want to get into voice over acting.  Usually it’s because someone (friend, family member, co-worker) has told them that they have a great voice and that they should look into voice over acting. Or, they read somewhere online that voice over acting » Continue Reading.

As a professional voice actress, I’m often tasked with creating accents ranging from foreign accents and regional dialects to fun and crazy characters.  Just this past week, I had requests from clients for a variety of voice over accents including  European accents, a Texas accent, an Asian accent, and a voice like the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey.

Some » Continue Reading.

The glory of fall in the Midwest still feels fairly new to me, which makes it particularly awesome. Since I’m originally from Southern California, where leaves pretty much stay the same color all year round and generally refrain from disembarking their respective limbs, I never really got the full gist of what autumn was all about until I moved to » Continue Reading.

Working for myself as a female voice over talent and independent contractor, I enjoy the luxury of having some degree of control over key aspects of my business such as my rates, my time, my schedule, and my terms of working with my voice-over clients.

I really love the work I do. I suspect it could be a bit of » Continue Reading.

Corporate Narration Voiceovers provide the perfect opportunity to use my female voice talent in an effort to assist companies with delivering their product and service messages.

While corporate narration voiceover may not seem as attractive as the glamorous and high profile national commercial spots that so many voice over talents love to chase, I tend to love to » Continue Reading.

Published by Debbie Grattan on 10/02/13

One of the best things about being a professional female voice talent is having the chance to meet and work with some truly exceptional people. I was fortunate enough, in the beginning of my career, to connect with voice over artist Scottie Rummell.

As we were both living in Orange County, CA, and » Continue Reading.

Published by Debbie Grattan on 09/13/13

So, what happens when you’re known in a local, regional or national market, as “the voice” for a particular product, store, or brand, AND a competing vendor wants to use your voice for their product too?

Here we get into another form of the question of “exclusivity” and how a voice can » Continue Reading.

Published by Debbie Grattan on 08/21/13

When a client asks you to be an exclusive voice over for a particular share of the market, there are several things to consider.

I recently had this dilemma come up for me, when a direct response end-client (not the producer of the commercial spots, but the actual manufacturer and VP of » Continue Reading.