FEATURING ELIAH
FOR ALL THE VIEWERS READING, PLEASE KINDLY INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
Hi: I'm Nancy German
PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY.
I was working as a high school guidance counselor. One of my students was a dancer in music videos at the time. She kept telling me I should get on her agent's talent roster, because I made her laugh.
Well, she was serious. For about four months, she pestered me all the time to join it. I had some acting background in my youth, but for commercials? In Maine? It never occurred to me I could make a living at this.
I loved this girl but she was relentless. So, I finally signed up.
Initially it was for on-camera work, but after driving in a snowstorm for an hour and a half and not getting the gig, I was about to give up but then booked a voice over job for a company phone message. I was so excited!! I thought this was it! Then about three years passed where I was so interested in the work but just didn't know what to do to further it.
I then found an online application for a group of pro voice actors to meet and share knowledge. I didn't lie about how much work I had under my belt, but to this day I am not sure how I passed the application test.
That was the pivotal moment in the start of my journey into voiceover. I finally had the information I needed and finding my "tribe " of like minded creatives. Twenty-five years later, I am so happy I found it!
WHAT MADE YOU GET STARTED IN THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY?
I loved my job working with teenagers, but I always was a creative person at heart and needed an outlet for that. It became very clear, as I got older that acting and the challenge of it, really fed my soul.
SHARE A MOMENT WHERE YOU FELT YOU WANTED TO BE INSPIRED TO BE A PART OF THE VOICE OVER INDUSTRY.
It's funny, but I think it began when I won a radio contest when I was ten. I had to say the "two all beef patties, special sauce" lines as fast as I could. I think I won a burger meal. It was so fun and I thought, do people get paid for this? Little did I know it was my "first" of many commercials to come.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT THE CHALLENGES YOU FACE IN THIS INDUSTRY AND HOW YOU OVERCOME THE CHALLENGES.
Even though, now, much work is done remotely, I still think I face biases when I send auditions from Maine to casting in L.A. and New York. They may not be conscious biases, but I think there may be a perception that because I'm from a small town, I may not have the abilities or knowl- edge that other actors might.
This is why I try to make my auditions very strongly competitive and also have trav- elled often to train with some of the best coaches in the business, so I stay relevant from my little corner of the world.
Additionally, I have had to advocate for myself with some agents, who may see me as an "older lady" only capable of certain types of reads. Well, I'm proud that I book character work and very comedic work as well as my straight pharma and medical reads. I don't want anyone to ever limit me, in what is possible for me, though I know I still have to sound young enough to book some things.
IS THERE ANY PROJECT OR PEOPLE THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO WORK WITH OR COLLABORATE WITH?
My work has been largely commercial, but I am very interested in the storytelling of documentary work and just completed a job where I played a woman who was part of the Canadian government's use of psychics in military intel.
I love learning about history and my dream job would be to narrate for Ken Burns or on Discovery, Smithsonian, or the History Channel, Crime Network, really anything about ghost stories or haunted places would be fun. Especially in Scotland, Eng- land or Ireland.
TALK ABOUT WHAT TYPE OF WORK YOU ARE CURRENTLY FOCUSED ON.
Currently, I am focused on commercials and pharma largely, but am often hired for luxury products and travel as well. I have been working with coaches in animation and video game work and documentary work and would love to book more in those genres.
WHAT TYPE OF SPECIALTY IN VOICE OVER WORK DO YOU LIKE TO FOCUS ON, OR DO YOU HAVE SEVERAL TYPES?
I have a compassionate, trustworthy sound because that truly is me as a person. I'm an LCSW therapist as well. So it lends itself to insurance, finance, medical and pharma reads naturally.
This is what I book the most, but I also focus on many genres, including automo- tive, luxury, live announcing, animation and video games.
I know some people only like doing one type of thing but I love all of it. Though I don't have the patience for long audio books at this stage of my life. I like to do shorter non-fiction, since my commercial work takes priority.
I'm happy now to be booking conversation- al reads that were hard when I had trained as an announcer in the beginning. Thanks, Scott Parkin, in particular, for changing that for me, where I was formerly stuck!
CAN YOU SHARE ANY EXCITING PROJ- ECTS THAT YOU ARE CURRENTLY WORK- ING ON NOW?
Unfortunately, much of my recent exciting work is under NDA at the moment but I'm excited to say I have two promos coming out on one of the streaming services for a very popular show that I booked from an old client. This is unusual in that it did not come from an agency casting.
I'm also proud to be able to work as a SAG AFTRA actor now, and look forward to more SAG projects. A recent one using my comedic skills.
IF SOMEONE WANTS TO HIRE YOU FOR ANY VOICE OVER WORK, CAN YOU PLEASE LIST YOUR WEBSITE AND HOW PEOPLE CAN REACH YOU?
My website is www.nancygermanvoiceover. com and my Linked In profile is www. linkedin.com/in/nancygerman My email address is listed on both sites as well as my contact info and I am very responsive.