Click here for Part 1 of An International VO Career

Mike Cooper, is a British voiceover artist, based in London who came to voicing via work in radio and TV over a number of years. He put together his first makeshift studio about two-and-a-half years ago just to see if he could make a bit of extra money voicing from home. When it took off he rebuilt his studio about a year ago and decided to take the plunge and invests in both ISDN and Source-Connect. He now voices TV documentaries in the U.S. market for History, National Geographic, Bio, the Crime & Investigation Network and others, radio commercials, training, eLearning and corporate/industrial films. He also has done VO projects other countries as well. Check out Mike’s blog

TJP: You have a growing VO career via ISDN in the U.S. How does that work for you? Do producers mind that you’re not local (in LA or New York)?

MC: I’m pleased with the pick-up of work from the US. It’s surprised me, to be honest. I’ve done projects live down the line in various forms: one even involved me on Source-Connect in London (see below) into my client in Atlanta, with their client on Skype from LA, so there are a lot of different ways to make it work now. Producers are also coming around to the idea that there are professional voiceovers out there who can be trusted to produce and edit themselves – perhaps supplying a few takes for the client to choose from – so some of my work happens that way too.

TJP: How do you get the work in the U.S. and elsewhere?

MC: Once you take the “we need to work together live” element out it gets even easier, and at that stage it doesn’t matter whether you’re in LA, New York, London or Tokyo! I’m proud to say that I’ve done everything from documentaries and narrations to theme park announcements in the last couple of years for clients Stateside, and I’ve recently had the good fortune to join Erik Sheppard’s roster at Voice Talent Productions, so I’m hoping to pick up some more work via that avenue. With Erik in the US, my Australian agent Kathy Evans in Sydney, and my UK agents (the Voiceover Gallery) in London and Manchester there’s plenty of scope, but I also think you need to work for yourself. Most of my work comes to me directly, either through my website or from my own marketing efforts. People come to me and ask how to get into voiceovers, and then – virtually without stopping for breath – their second question is how they find an agent. I always tell them that unless you’re able to book work on your own, you probably won’t do much better with an agent. At least that’s been my experience.

In part 3 Mike talks about using ISDN and other recording equipment.

-Tracy Pattin