Voice-over is a production technique where a voice—that is not part of the narrative (non-diegetic)—is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations. The voice-over is read from a script and may be spoken by someone who appears elsewhere in the production or by a specialist voice actor. Synchronous dialogue, where the voice-over is narrating the action that is taking place at the same time, remains the most common technique in voice-overs. Asynchronous, however, is also used in cinema. It is usually prerecorded and placed over the top of a film or video and commonly used in documentaries or news reports to explain information.
Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent. Voice acting is recognized as a specialized dramatic profession in the United Kingdom, primarily due to BBC broadcasts of radio drama production.
Lex Lang is an American voice actor and voice director, who has provided voices and served as a director for a number of animations and video games. He is best known for voicing Doctor Neo Cortex in the Crash Bandicoot series and Goemon Ishikawa in Lupin the Third.
Donald LeRoi LaFontaine was an American voice actor who recorded more than 5,000 film trailers and hundreds of thousands of television advertisements, network promotions, and video game trailers over four decades.
Real Men of Genius is a series of advertisements, primarily 60-second American radio spots, for Bud Light beer. The campaign was originally conceived by copywriter Bob Winter and art director Mark Gross – and co-created with copywriter Bill Cimino – at DDB Chicago.
Keith Ferguson is an American voice actor. He is known for his voice work as Bloo from Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Flintheart Glomgold in DuckTales, Basch fon Ronsenburg from Final Fantasy XII, Marluxia from Kingdom Hearts, Lord Hater from Wander Over Yonder, Lord Saladin from Destiny and Destiny 2 and Reaper from Overwatch. He also provides a number of sound-alike portrayals, including Harrison Ford as Han Solo and Indiana Jones on Robot Chicken and Owen Wilson as Lightning McQueen in the Cars franchise.
Nicholas Briggs is an English actor, writer, director, sound designer and composer. He is associated with the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who and its spin-offs, particularly as the voice of the Daleks and the Cybermen in the 21st century series.
Vanessa Marshall is an American voice and television actress who is most active in films, cartoons and video games. She is the daughter of actress Joan Van Ark and reporter John Marshall.
Haruka Kuroda is a Japanese actress and presenter. She provided the voice of Noodle from Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's alternative rock virtual band Gorillaz from 2000 to 2017.
James Carter Cathcart, also known as Jimmy Zoppi, is an American retired voice actor, script adaptor, voice director, pianist and vocalist known for providing the English voice for James, Meowth and Professor Oak in the Pokémon franchise between 2005 and 2023.
A dialect coach is a technical advisor who supports actors as they craft voice and speech patterns for characters in the context of productions be it in an on-camera setting, stage setting, or voiceover setting. Scope of work can differ widely from production to production and from actor to actor within a production. The coach's tasks may include researching real-world voices with an ear to regional, social or idiosyncratic patterns, curating primary source recordings for the actor's exploration, providing guidance and feedback during the actor's vocal design process, running lines and monitoring vocal performance whether on set or in post (film/tv/commercials), during recording sessions (voiceovers), or at runs and previews (stage). A dialect coach will typically give notes on clarity, consistency, and credibility. Sometimes dialect elements are in place primarily to add texture to character or to the world, but occasionally authenticity is also flagged as a concern by a production. In such cases, the dialect coach will be tasked with monitoring the vocal transformation as it might be experienced by a native speaker in the audience. Above all, the coach strives to remove stumbling blocks to performance so that the actor's vocal transformation work does not distract the actor or the audience.
Bradley Michael Pierce is an American actor, producer and cinematographer. Along with other roles and bit parts in television, films, direct-to-video animation, advertising, and video games, he played Peter Shepherd in Jumanji, the original voice of Chip in Beauty and the Beast, one of the original voices for Tails from the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise and Pete Lender in the 1997 film adaptation of The Borrowers.
Gideon Emery is an English actor and singer. He is best known for his role as Deucalion in Teen Wolf and for providing voice-over work in video games, television series and films.
Corinne Orr is a Canadian actress. She is best known for her work on the English version of the anime series Speed Racer.
P. J. Ochlan is an American actor and voice actor best known for his roles as Damon Wells in the feature film Little Man Tate and Lester Shane in the television show Police Academy: The Series. He has narrated hundreds of audiobooks and has won the Audie Award and several AudioFile Earphones Awards. Ochlan appeared on Broadway in Abe Lincoln in Illinois and in the New York Shakespeare Festival production of Love's Labour's Lost for Joseph Papp.
Andy Cowan is an American writer and script consultant for television and other media. He is the creator and host of the therapy/comedy podcast, The Neurotic Vaccine, launched in 2022 from Benztown + McVay Media Podcast Networks. The Neurotic Vaccine wound up landing among the top comedy interview podcasts in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Italy, and Greece, and in 2023 was a multiple final Quill (podcasting) Award nominee for Best New Podcast and Best Comedy Podcast. From 2010–2011, he co-hosted his radio comedy therapy talk show, Up & Down Guys, on KPFK 90.7 FM in Los Angeles.
Bill Black is a musician who also casts and directs voice actors and performs sound effects design.
Robin Houston is a British voiceover artist and former announcer, radio and television newsreader and quiz show host. After starting his career as an announcer and stage manager, he became one of the pioneers of commercial radio in the United Kingdom. He went on to read the news on television for 15 years and to become one of the most well known announcers in television entertainment. For many years he was a host of television quiz shows, and is now a veteran voiceover artist with over 50 years' experience in the field.
Chris Agos is an American actor. Agos played Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin in the Apple TV+ original science fiction space drama series For All Mankind, ASA Steve Kot in Chicago PD on NBC, Eliot McGantry in Boss on Starz, and has had numerous single-episode appearances on television shows such as Grey's Anatomy, House of Cards, and Sirens.
Dandrell Scott is an American actor, rapper, and voiceover artist. He is best known for his voiceover work with Wendy's, and their breakfast commercials starting in 2020. Scott began his VO career in 2018, voicing commercials for Walmart, Comcast, and Ford. While performing as a voiceover artist, Scott also landed roles in Chicago P.D. and the Chi. Scott's music aspirations followed, as he collaborated with hip hop artists such as Bun B and Sasha Go Hard. In 2020, Scott released his first studio single, "Faded 2nite," featuring Chicago rapper, Twista.
