Winners of the 3rd Annual Voicey Awards

March 25, 2009

Welcome to the 3rd Annual Voicey Awards

Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the 3rd Annual Voicey Awards, I’m your host, Stephanie Ciccarelli.

It is a privilege and my great pleasure to pay tribute to those whose work has been recognized this year. Voice overs are spoken word recordings performed by voice actors, perhaps better known to the world as unseen narrators, breathing life into every medium imaginable.

Thank you for joining me in experiencing this momentous event where we can come together in celebration.

Before I announce our finalists, I would like to acknowledge our judges, without whom this wouldn’t be possible.

A very special thank you to Randy Thomas, the first woman to announce the Academy Awards, the voice of Entertainment Tonight and The Insider, and co-author of “Voice For Hire“; thank you to Paul Russell, a New York City casting director and the author of “Acting: Make It Your Business“; gratitude is also bestowed upon Billy Serow from Abrams Artists Agency in New York; thank you to Melissa Disney, the singing voice of Snow White and female movie trailer voice over pioneer. I’d also like to thank Kathleen Herles, the original voice of Dora the Explorer, British voiceover coach and talent Gary Terzza, Mitch Joel, president of Twist Image and author of the Six Pixels of Separation blog and podcast; and last but certainly not least, much appreciation is expressed to voice actress and industry blogger Bobbin Beam.

BEST NEW VOICE

Without further ado, the finalists in the category of Best New Voice are:

Michelle Ann Dunphy
James Clamp
Veronica March
Janice Downes
Matt Josdal

And the winner is Michelle Ann Dunphy! Congratulations Michelle!

BEST CHILD VOICE

The finalists in the category of Best Child Voice this year include:

Travis Mustang
Grace Taylor

And the winner of the Best Child Voice Award is Grace Taylor. Congratulations to you Grace! Keep up the good work!

BEST TEEN VOICE

This year, Sophie Neveu is in a category all to herself. It is my pleasure to announce that Sophie Neveu be awarded Best Teen Voice this year. Congratulations Sophie.

BEST PERSONAL BRANDING

Seldom are voice artists seen, except that is, when promoting their services. Living proof that it’s not only the voice that stands out, the finalists in the category of Best Personal Branding include:

Nickie Jurado
Julie Williams
Doug Turkel
Vicki Amorose
James Clamp

And the winner is Julie Williams! Congratulations to you Julie.

BEST FOREIGN VOICE

As this truly is a global celebration, I’d like to take a moment now to recognize our finalists for Best Foreign Voice, who are:

Roald Woods
Wuzhi Lu
Julie-Ann Dean
Janpa Serino
Claire Dodin

And the winner is Wuzhi Lu! Congratulations Wuzhi for your outstanding work in Mandarin Chinese voice over.

BEST VOICE TEAM

Voice over is often a lonely profession, but there come times where two artists or more collaborate to create unique performances. The finalists in the category of Best Voice Team are:

The Voice teams of:

Robert Jadah and Diane Havens
Ken Theriot and Lisa Theriot

And the winning Voice Team for 2009 is Robert Jadah and Diane Havens!

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

It is perhaps my greatest privilege to announce the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Voicey award. This category is very special to me, and this year, there were many wonderful people nominated, including:

Don Morrow
Richard Horvitz
Bill Kates
Rita Pardue
Arroe Collins

It is my great privilege to share that this year’s Lifetime Achievement award belongs to the legendary Don Morrow.

Don, I can confidently say this on behalf of the entire voice over community:

Thank you for over 50 years of service, for inspiring the world to believe in the magic of motion pictures, for blazing a trail alongside the late Don LaFontaine, and for opening up a world of possibilities for your colleagues and those to follow.

As we draw nearer to the end, two categories remain: Best Female Voice and Best Male Voice.

BEST FEMALE VOICE

The finalists in the category of Best Female Voice are:

Wendy Brown
Teri Clark Linden
Amy Taylor
Vanessa Hart
Heather Halley

And the winner of the Best Female Voice award is Amy Taylor! Congratulations Amy!

BEST MALE VOICE

To bring the program to a close, the finalists for Best Male Voice are:

Dave DeAndrea
Michael Richard Dobson
James Herron
Eric Gusky
Bill Painter

The winner of the Best Male Voice for 2009 is Dave DeAndrea!

Congratulations to Dave and all of the Voicey award winners this year.

Thank you to all those who nominated voice talent and congratulations to all of the Voicey finalists. Thank you to our judges and also to the team at Voices.com for their help, support, and sponsorship.

Most sincerely,

Stephanie Ciccarelli

Written by stephanie · Filed Under Child Voice, Female Voice, Foreign Voice, Lifetime Achievement, Male Voice, New Voice, Personal Branding, Press, Teen Voice, Voice Team

Best New Voice Finalists in the 2009 Voicey Awards

March 14, 2009

The Best New Voice Award honors voice actors who have been working full-time in voice over as a professional for three or less years.

The finalists in the Best New Voice Category for the 3rd Annual Voicey Awards are:

For more information about each voice actor, click on their names to be directed to their professional profile and voice samples at Voices.com.

Written by stephanie · Filed Under New Voice

Best New Voice Award Criteria 2009

January 19, 2009

The Best New Voice Award honors voice actors who have been working full-time in voice over as a professional for three or less years.

Criteria:

- Voice actor may self-nominate or be nominated by a voice over coach, colleague or client
- A recent sample of their voice or voice over work must be hosted on their Voices.com website
- Each voice actor needs to have a professional headshot or graphical image representative of themselves or of their work to be used for promotion on Voices.com web properties and complementary voice over sites

Written by stephanie · Filed Under New Voice

Best New Voice Finalists 2008

February 11, 2008

The Best New Voice Award honors voice actors aged twenty to thirty who have been working full-time in voice over as a professional for three or less years. The finalists in the Best New Voice Category for the 2008 Voicey Awards are…

Written by admin · Filed Under New Voice

Best New Voice Nomination Criteria

December 8, 2007

The Best New Voice Award honors voice actors aged twenty to thirty who have been working full-time in voice over as a professional for three or less years. Older applicants will also be considered.

Criteria:

Written by stephanie · Filed Under New Voice

Joan Baker, 2008 Voicey Awards Judge, Best New Voice

December 7, 2007

Joan Baker is a sound to be reckoned with as one of New York’s premier voice-over actors and creator of the wildly successful “Make Millions With Your Voice” through the Learning Annex, the ongoing Immersion Class Workshops and for the first time ever Directing & Working with Voice-over Talent at the Promax/BDA TV Conference 2007 was introduced to producers, writers, TV station managers and VO agents to a sell out crowd. Joan is also the author of “SECRETS OF VOICEOVER SUCCESS”, a compelling collection of stories about the top voice-over actors in the industry, including the one and only, Don LaFontaine and many more. All proceeds benefit the Alzheimer’s Foundation.

Clients include ESPN, Showtime, Chase Bank, American Express, ABC News and Sports, Lifetime, Lexus, SPIKE TV and Disney (she positively ROARED for the Lion King’s national radio campaign!). Other credits include voiceover for HBO Family, WNBC, Nickelodeon, Delta Airlines, Fox 5, NBA Entertainment, NICK at NITE, Imus in the Morning, the ABC Super Sign in Times Square and countless more. Joan’s extraordinary talent has generated the spotlight with feature articles in the Hollywood Reporter, Back Stage, Media Week, ADWEEK and Broadcasting & Cable to mention a few.

Written by stephanie · Filed Under New Voice

Kara Edwards Wins Voicey Award for Best New Voice

December 7, 2007

Kara Edwards

Kara Edwards, a rising star in the voice over industry, was chosen by a panel of industry judges to win the Best New Voice Award at the 2007 Voicey Awards, sponsored by Voices.com, the Voice Marketplace. Kara’s career in broadcast started at Radio Disney in the mid 1990s until 2001, honing her craft as an on-air personality. Her background at Radio Disney and subsequent work at a radio station in Charlotte, NC for six years guided Kara down a road which would ultimately lead to making the gutsy decision to quit her day job as a radio personality in 2006 to pursue voice over as her full time profession.

It was through Radio Disney that Kara and her peers, all founding on-air personalities of Radio Disney, studied under the tutelage of Pat Fraley, a prominent voice acting coach and Hollywood voice artist. Kara reminisces that she never knew until that moment that she had so many ‘voices’ in her head. Pat Fraley pushed the team at Radio Disney to make all kinds of noises, sounds, and thoroughly explained character development. Mr. Fraley was also instrumental in giving Kara the courage to go to her first audition in which she was cast as two main characters in DragonBall Z. To this day, Pat Fraley’s audio CD lives in Kara’s iPod and is listened to regularly to keep her voice in form.

When asked about what her experience thus far in voice over has taught her, Kara intimated, “It would take a novel to explain everything I have learned these past months! Being a voice actor is tough and requires much more work than I ever imagined. Professional voice actors have more than just talent; they have business savvy and incredible drive. I have to treat this as a business now, not just a hobby. The most valuable lesson I’ve learned is to ask questions! Someone will be willing to answer them and help you out. This is a fantastic community”.

Kara also shared the following as her acceptance speech “I would like to thank Brian Haymond and Bob Souer for their help and kind words which are invaluable. Thank you to DB Cooper for creating the VO-BB and to everyone that posts there; the advice and friendships mean everything to me as I start my new career. Thank you to Stephanie and Voices.com; it is wonderful to have an avenue to find work, ask questions, and be noticed. Thank you to the Voicey judges; this award means the world to me! Finally, thank you to my wonderful husband for allowing me to destroy our guest bedroom and spend all his hard earned money on electronic gadgets. You’re all the support system I could ever need!”

Voices.com and Voicey Awards co-founder, Stephanie Ciccarelli says, “Kara Edwards is a ray of sunshine and has one of the most contagious personalities of the new generation of voice over talent today. Her dedication and ambition to study and learn from others is key to her success, and along with her vocal talent, singled her out among thousands of voices to be honored as a Voicey Award winner.”

About Kara Edwards

Kara Edwards began her career in the mid 90’s as a radio personality while voicing various anime roles and radio commercials on the side. Kara made her dream of being a full-time voice actor a reality in late 2006. She is most well known as the voices of Goten and Videl in “DragonBall Z”. Other roles include Murugu in “Yu Yu Hakusho”; Celica in the recently released “Solty Rei”; Razzles in the upcoming US version of “Raggs”; plus many more. Kara works from a studio in her home in Charlotte, NC and her voice can be heard on the radio, Internet, and television globally. Being a voice actor is more than a job for Kara, it is her life’s passion.

Kara Edwards partial commercial client list includes: Blockbuster, Playmates Toys, Disney, Toys R’ Us, Snow Country, Raising Canes Chicken Fingers, Bowen Family Homes, Publix, Sona Medspa, Dee Cee Dreams, Peidmont Bank, KB Homes, Clinique, Kohl’s, Carrabas, UNCPembroke, Belk, Bojangles and Purina One.

Written by admin · Filed Under Features, New Voice