We hear professional voiceovers all around us – in the ad breaks on the TV, announcing the stops as we take public transport to work, listening to commercial radio in the car, or calling to make a dentist appointment. They’re our reassuring companions, our trusted authorities and our energising motivators. But since the best ones often simply make life easier, we don’t really notice them, or wonder who they might be.
Behind every one of those voices is a real human being. And sometimes, one of them is me.
Meet Natalie Cooper – the human behind the British voiceover
I’m what you might call an ‘established’ (it sounds better than ‘old’) voiceover artist. I still remember the buzz and mild terror of being trusted to voice my first national radio campaign – for national radio. It aired almost 25 years ago (14th August 2001, if you’re curious).
During my long career my voice has got about a bit. It attended a Guinness World Record event for Jaguar, a glitzy launch for the Range Rover Velar, and chatted with Brian Blessed in a series of radio ads. For a while it was simultaneously on air in Cornwall and the Caymans on a daily basis, all whilst the rest of me was at home juggling school runs, marketing my business, walking the dog, and chugging giant mugs of tea.
But I didn’t set out to be a voiceover, and in truth, I hadn’t even realized it was an Actual Job.
From Top 40 nerding to professional voiceover
It started with that classic story of the 70s and 80s – little me, crouched beside my parent’s tape deck, finger poised and ready to (perfectly) capture the next hit song from the Top 40 that week.
Through secondary school my love of music blossomed, hand-in-hand with a growing passion for radio. I’d dream about becoming a BBC Radio 1 DJ, back in the day when naming female music radio presenters required only one hand. I was thrilled to chat with Bruno Brookes, who’s company grown-up Natalie would go on to voice for in the as yet unknown future.
I hung out with Chris Evans and saw just how exciting and fast moving live radio could be. I met presenters at all my local stations (thank you Radio 210, Fox FM, and baby BBC Berkshire) and was interviewed for the various projects I was involved in and the gigs I was promoting.
And then, there was my uncanny knack for winning phone-in competitions.
It got to the point where long-suffering producers at BBC GLR were saying things like:
“Hi Natalie, yeah, we’d love to have you on again, you’ll sound great, but we’re going to have to change your name for this one. Can you make your voice a bit different?”
Turns out, I could take direction.
Then, I blagged my way into university…
I had an unconditional place waiting for me in Leeds to study Public Relations, but after a year out working for a music management company, and an accidental year on a Business Studies course (regrettable) I spent the summer phoning every day until I finally bagged a place on my dream Broadcast Journalism degree.
It paid off and my first job was in BBC radio as the breakfast traffic and travel presenter.
The late 1990s and early 2000s were an exciting time to be working in the media. Technology was changing rapidly and new opportunities were popping up all the time. I went on to be a broadcast assistant, producer, and project manager, before adding television continuity shifts into the mix.
It was becoming pretty clear that I loved the freedom that a freelance career offered, but I still hadn’t grasped that a professional voiceover career might be possible for me.
My mentor, the inimitable Patrick Lunt
I’d met Patrick Lunt briefly at university when he’d given our cohort some voice training and complimented me on my “beautiful pause”. To this day I’m still undecided whether to be flattered or insulted! A few years on and by chance I discovered he lived just down the road from me. I gave him a call, he took me under his wing and over many large mugs of coffee, he taught me about voiceover.
Most generously, he introduced me to his clients and entrusted me with the key to his studio, so I could voice for them whilst he floated off hot air ballooning, popped out for a pint or was otherwise engaged with one of the many volunteering projects he always had on the go.
Not many people are so fortunate to have such a gregarious and enthusiastic mentor living 10 minutes away, and even now I can’t quite believe how lucky I was. Money can’t buy the sort of training – or kindness – I was given, and so over the years I’ve endeavoured to pass it on wherever I can.
An established professional voiceover
I’m delighted to say I still work regularly with the first clients Patrick introduced me to, as well as being trusted with thousands of radio commercials, corporate projects, explainer and e-learning videos, and telephone system messages over the decades that have followed.
Along the way I’ve swapped the big smoke for a tiny village on the Wiltshire/Dorset border and added three (now terrifyingly grown-up) Voiceover Kids who’ve enjoyed their own successful careers voicing from tots to teens.
My studio has been through many iterations (and house moves) over the years and I now record from my dream space, a beautiful custom-built and acoustically-treated studio, designed with the local tractors in mind.
There have, of course, been a huge number of other changes in both the wider world and the world of voiceover since young Natalie first breathlessly clutched her BBC pass. (Not least that I’m more likely to bump into one of my cats with a helpful wildlife ‘gift’ when I leave the booth, rather than Terry Wogan in the lift at BBC Television Centre).
One thing that I don’t think will ever change though is the importance of real human connection. Of warmth, empathy, magical synchronicity and the valuable shared experiences we encounter along the way.
I hope getting to know a little about the human behind the voice has been interesting for you – my inbox is always open if you’d like to talk much-missed local radio stations, tell me your own ‘excitable toddler to nerdy teen’ story arc, or need a reliable voice for your next project.
I’d love to hear from you.