Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

How did you get into voice acting?

Well it all started when I was at university, I joined the university
film society and he made 15mm films for our own amusement
and one of the guys helping out there was a BBC camera man who wasn’t doing a degree, he wasn’t at university but he helped us with setting up the equipment. He made a documentary one day and he asked me to narrate it for him and I did that and it seemed to go ok and he said there looking for people at the BBC to be continuity announcers and to read the news and to present programs and he said ‘I think you should consider applying for it’ so that was exactly what I did I applied for a job there part time while I was at university and amazingly got accepted so I was working for the BBC on a part time basis and also completing my degree on a full time basis but the two went together quite well and that’s how I got into the media to start with; just by my exposure to the film making while I was at university.

You were studying psychology weren’t you? Do you think studying it helps you in your day to day life?

No not at all. [laughter] You would think so but I’ve forgotten most of what I learnt and so no I don’t think it helps at all in any respect in terms of specifics of the subject but having done a degree I don’t regret doing that at all it was a very useful four year experience and it was a nice buffer between when I was in school and going into the working world, it equips you with skills that you wouldn’t necessarily have if you came straight out of school and went into a job. But having said that I can’t compare as I only went down that route.

And if you hadn’t of gone on that course at that university you wouldn’t of met the same people and of got the job you have today.

That’s right, if you ask anybody about their career, especially in the media, how they got to do stuff there’s a lot of luck playing a part and being in the right place at the right time but you could also increase your lucky chances by I think going to a lot more parties and sort of meeting people and pestering people and phoning people up and emailing them if you want to have advice and on that basis I think you can create a lot of your own luck and create a lot of opportunities by just simply making your self more visible and by asking people questions, providing you don’t become too much of a nuisance I think people are quite willing to talk to you. And when you boil it all down I think a lot of it has to do with following your heart rather than what other people want you to do. If you really want to become a Doctor you should do what makes you feel good, what interests you and makes you happy rather than what other people want you to do because if you go down that route you can’t go wrong. You’ll radiate enthusiasm for whatever you’re doing and you’ll be passionate about it and passion and enthusiasm combined together will always produce top grade results and you’ll be the best at what you set out to do so remember that, I think passion and enthusiasm are two very key things for people entering a different sphere of life.

When did you first think that you would want to be involved in the media?

From about age 10 it’s all I ever wanted to do and that is a perfect example of having enthusiasm and a passion for something. I always wanted to be involved in film, TV, radio so first of all I wanted to be a camera man, that was at age 10, by age 13 I decided that I’d rather be in front of the microphone so I was going to be a DJ or newsreader or whatever and that’s exactly what happened to me so I think if you’ve got a passion and a enthusiasm and a vision for it then there is no way it’s not going to happen for you.

Your adverts on E4, who is it that writes them?

Those are written by a very talented team of producers who work at E4 and who come up with the ideas for those incredibly effective trailers that we do for various shows on the channel. When we get into the studio and I start the voice recording process where we add the voice onto the track they often will come across situations where the words don’t quite fit or I can frequently come up with a better way of expressing things. So once we’re in the studio the basics scripts are there but there is a certain amount of collaboration between by self and the producers to what exactly goes into the final promo so very often I end up having a better idea or adding the odd word here or there that makes it better or funnier or stronger.