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 voice-over coaches, Tia Rider Sorensen!
SAV: Welcome to the Such A Voice team, Tia Rider Sorensen! We’d love to learn more about who you are in and out of the studio. Please tell us about yourself!
Sorensen: Thank you, I’m so happy to be a part of Such A Voice! It’s very humbling to be working with such a talented group of people. I trained with Such A Voice four years ago and I have absolutely loved my new career as a voice-over professional. I live in Salt Lake City with my partner of eight years, Jake, and our two chihuahuas, Dory and Minnie. I’m a fitness instructor, chips and salsa enthusiast, and horror movie junkie. I was born on Halloween and I probably take that way too seriously. A couple of my passions include volunteering at a local non-profit for LGBTQ+ Youth and studying politics and social justice issues. My hobbies include going to Disneyland as much as possible, watching Veep, and spending hours doing puzzles.
SAV: What’s your favorite part about being a voice-over coach?
Sorensen: Helping students find THEIR voice. I had amazing coaches who did that for me. It’s an ongoing journey. Your voice evolves and grows as you continue learning and it’s a really exciting process. I love starting my students on that journey.
SAV: What do you hope to accomplish with your students?
Sorensen: I want my students to leave our sessions feeling empowered, more knowledgeable, and confident. Whatever their purpose was for starting VO coaching sessions, I want them to feel another step closer to that purpose every time we meet.
SAV: What is your niche within VO?
Sorensen: Most of my time is spent in audiobook narration. I’ve had the pleasure of narrating over 50 titles and building relationships with some wonderful small publishers.
SAV: Tell us more about your background in VO. What kind of projects have you worked on?
Sorensen: One of my favorite projects was voicing newscaster, Ayesha Taylor, in the short web-series, directed by and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, called USAi. The whole series can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjHbnf9MiDM&list=PLB0rl-bjxkI6hC5yOQ55Bo_uLPqbxNwrx
Last year, I narrated the audiobook, Rules for Revolutionaries. It’s written by two senior advisors of the Bernie Sanders Presidential campaign who talk about their experiences in grassroots organizing. It earned a very kind review from AudioFile.
In addition, I’ve worked on several explainer and corporate videos. I am the resident voice-over artist for a local food safety company and I have done some commercial voice-over work as well. Some of my portfolio can be found on my website: https://www.tiasorensen.com
SAV: What’s the best piece of advice that you’ve received during your career as a professional voice-over artist?
Sorensen: Voice what you, as a listener, would want to hear. This is especially helpful with audiobooks where unique situations arise constantly, whether it’s a challenging character, dry narration, or a sensitive topic. There can’t be rules for everything and you sometimes need to put yourself in the mind of your listener. I have a mental picture of who I think my listener is and I bring her to my mind often. What would she enjoy? What would she find interesting? It’s a really helpful exercise.
The Disneyland Haunted Mansion socks
SAV: What’s your favorite winter piece of clothing?
Sorensen: My Disneyland Haunted Mansion socks that are perfect for boots! In fact, they made an appearance in my Instagram story today!
SAV: What’s your favorite holiday?
Sorensen: Halloween, of course! I was pretty lucky to be born on my favorite holiday.
SAV: If you were to have chosen the best picture for the 2018 Golden Globes, what would have been your pick?
Sorensen: Oprah’s acceptance speech.
SAV: What’s a quote that you live by?
Sorensen: “We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third.” -Leslie Knope, Parks and Recreation
