Here at Such A Voice, we bring together some pretty incredible professionals from all different parts of the world to provide our students with a top voice-over education. Our staff members have such a wide variety of backgrounds and unique personalities. From working VO actors starring in movies, video games, and national TV commercial campaigns, to producers spending their days working on voice-over demos as well as broadcast voice-over work, to copywriters, casting directors and many other industry skills in between! We genuinely love bringing our expertise and our experiences together to create the best programs for our students.
For this week’s staff spotlight, we’d like to introduce you to one of our coaches, Jessica Magers.
SAV: Hey Jess! Thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to tell us a little bit about yourself.
Magers: I’m a professional voice talent. I’ve been doing it since about 1993. My company is called The Voice Goddess, Inc. I call Idaho my home with my husband and two bullies, Hank & Ruby.
SAV: How did you get into voice-over?
Magers: I was an audio/video production student back in the early 90’s and voice-over was a natural path around that time.
SAV: Please share with us what you do here at Such A Voice.
Magers: I’m a voice-over coach. I help folks develop the skills they need to be competitive in the world of VO.
SAV: What’s your ultimate voice-over dream?
Magers: It would be very cool to narrate a script alongside one of my VO heroes like Morgan Freeman, Sam Elliot, or Mike Rowe. Working directly with great talents in the real world is an absolute gift. Every time that I’ve worked directly with a veteran VO talent, I mean somebody that is really, really good, I’ve had a quantum shift of skills. There is a lot that I’ve learned from working with seasoned talent.
SAV: With a few holidays right around the corner, we’d love to know, what’s your favorite holiday?
Magers: Thanksgiving. It’s one of the last holidays that’s not turned into a manic, commercialized circus. Just good food, family, cocktails, and some downtime.
SAV: Are you someone that would read the book or watch the movie first?
Magers: These days, unfortunately, the movie would likely come first.
SAV: Do you prefer plays or musicals?
Magers: Plays. Definitely plays.
SAV: What was your favorite VO job to date?
Magers: Doing VO for Exempla Healthcare videos was my favorite because it was fun and it involved protracted work with some of my favorite ladies. My other favorite was “The History of the Universe,” for the Planetarium at Denver Museum of Nature and Science because it was flashy, fancy, and well paid!
SAV: What’s your favorite thing about doing voice-over?
Magers: Two things, actually: freedom and validation.
SAV: Is there anything specific that you struggled with in your VO journey when you started out? Something that you wish you had known then?
Magers: There have been lots of struggles but the most challenging one was related to my audio chain and production quality. The lesson here is to bring in professional help when you need it. An hour of consulting with a good VO-oriented audio engineer is always worth the price. Although, the only thing three audio engineers will agree on is that the other two are wrong!
Next week, we will be featuring one of our program graduates, Jacquelyn Phipps. Stay tuned!
