Rebecca Haugh Female Voice Actor

Copy of Love that Rebecca signed

Rebecca@lovethatrebecca.com

310-584-7379

The Acting You’re Not Supposed to Notice

animation, business, creative professionals, instructional design, post-production, small business, video design, VO tech, voiceover

What an audio drama, podcasts, and brand VOs have in common.

Recently, a new episode of Forbidden Diary dropped, featuring Peg, a recurring character I genuinely love playing in this historical audio drama. Theater of the mind, where actors, writing and sound create the entire world in the listener’s imagination.

There’s something wonderful about acting in audio only. Chris, the creator/producer, sent me this, which made my day:

“Loved your performances for Peg’s last scene. I wish I had more lines to give you because it’s so much fun working with you.”

Playing Peg is clearly acting. She has relationships, circumstances, opinions and an emotional life.

And I’m making acting choices in my other voiceover work too.

For Melaleuca’s internal BEST podcast series, I voice the branded open and close around each episode. Each installment spotlights a different Melaleuca person. I’m not playing a character and I’m not the host. My voice welcomes the listener into an episode of the established series, and closes it out.

My acting choices are made without calling attention to them.

The goal is simple: the VO should feel like it belongs to and supports the script.

The same is true of brand and product videos I’ve done for Nestlé and Bank of America.

Voice acting means knowing who is speaking, to whom, and why those words matter in that moment, then letting those choices live underneath the read so the listener connects.

A client will give me the tone they want: authority, confidence, warmth, intelligence. As the actor, I find the point of view that connects their tone and script to the listener. For example: How much does this person know? Is she an insider? An advisor? A colleague? What motivates her to say these particular words to this particular audience?

The acting is still there. The listener just shouldn’t notice it.

In an audio drama, it’s the character talking to you.

In branded podcasting, the open/close voice sets the stage for each episode.

In ads and videos, it’s the experience the listener connects to.

Different genres. Same fundamental job.

Done well, you hear the right person saying the right thing in a believable way.

You connect with it.

What Happens When an Explainer Video Entertains?

animation, business, creative professionals, down-time, humor, instructional design, life, post-production, production, small business, video design, VO tech, voiceover

Or, what happened when I went down a rocket crash rabbit hole and decided everybody needed to know about it.

 

We all know explainer videos explain something. But “clear” can too easily become “flat” — especially when the tone defaults to an academic lecture or a monotone read.

Now, I love Spaceweather.com, and earlier this month one update caught my attention: a spent SpaceX Falcon 9 stage had crashed into the Moon. It had even left a fresh scar on the lunar surface.

But what really intrigued me was how we knew.

After completing its mission, SpaceX was finished with the spent stage. The “unemployed” craft was left on a trajectory pushed around by gravity. Independent astronomers first figured out where it was headed, and NASA and SpaceX later tracked its path. Then, after the impact, astronomers in Spain actually captured the plume of lunar debris rising into space, while South Korea’s Danuri spacecraft photographed the fresh impact scar from lunar orbit.

Wow, right?

So I clicked on the story. And kept digging.

The more I learned, the more interesting it became: abandoned rocket stages, orbital mechanics, deep-space debris, and all the other human-made hardware scattered throughout the Earth-Moon system and beyond.

At some point, reading about it wasn’t enough. I wanted to tell the story.

So that curiosity became a science explainer about the crash.

As a voice actor and director, the next question becomes:

What should it sound like?

I could take the narration in an academic direction — authoritative, measured and appropriately scientific. Or… lean into a quirky science-professor point of view. Yes.

The pacing is quick. Certain words and moments can carry a little attitude. I have permission to react to the sheer oddness of the story instead of simply reporting it.

I want you to feel the amazement with me.

And now? An explainer is also entertainment.

A technology video can have wit.
A corporate story can have personality.
Science can sound curious.
Training can actually be enjoyable to listen to.

The information still comes first. Clarity stays intact, and the voiceover performance supports it.

Sometimes the voice performance stays quietly underneath.

Other times, the subject itself gives the voiceover permission to have a little fun.

For a rocket stage that wandered through space for more than a year before eventually ramming the Moon at roughly 5,400 mph?

I went with fun.

[Watch ROCKET CRASH!] 

Learn more about Rebecca’s voiceover at www.LovethatRebecca.com homepage or genre tabs.