I'm very proud to have been nominated for six One Voice Awards, celebrating the best voice acting across genres throughout the UK.
A massive thank you to Hugh Edwards and the rest of the One Voice team for holding these awards and programming a hugely exciting conference in May.
As a serial nominee (27 in total since the inaugural awards 2018) and one-time winner, there are a few things I think I'd want to observe from these:
𝟭) 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻'𝘁 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. 𝗨𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗼.
Most industry awards have very little resonance 𝘖𝘜𝘛𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 of the industry.
Do most of my corporate clients know what a One Voice Award is?
𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘯𝘰𝘵.
Do some areas of voice acting perhaps value other, more specialised awards bodies?
𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘰.
But what One Voice succeeds in doing is tying together an incredibly broad field and celebrating all its nuances.
And over time, that has had more and more weight.
The odd client has mentioned 'all my awards' when booking me. It's your skill and execution which will get you hired, but in a very competitive industry, every marginal gain is worth exploring.
𝟮) 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘆 𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀.
I started voice acting mainly working in the corporate space, and swore I would never touch audiobooks.
Eight years later, I'm nominated for two audiobook categories because I've massively pivoted into that sector. This is both down to my developing skillset AND the profound impact AI has had on corporate and elearning work.
There are still really exciting, creative and well paid corporate gigs being made - and it was lovely to be nominated in that category too. But the more prosaic jobs which used to be my bread and butter are further and farther between as many clients settle for 'good enough'.
𝟯) 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝘀 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.
All my nominations fill me with immense pride, but it's the bigger picture that most reassures me.
This is the eighth consecutive year that I've been nominated for best male voiceover artist of the year, and that consistency despite huge changes in both life and work is worth shouting about.
𝟰) 𝗔 𝗿𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗯𝗼𝗮𝘁𝘀
Finally, there's something about seeing all these names and the awesome work they've done which fills me with great pride about the VO community at large.
You spot the usual suspects, people making personal breakthroughs... all of this helps tie together a community which is partly so strong because we spend our days speaking alone.
A huge congrats to all nominees and to those who had the guts to submit work in the first place!
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By Christopher Tester, British Male Voice Actor
