ATLANTA, GA– November 6, 2026 – – American voice actor Peter K. O’Connell has agreed to voiceover representation across the Southeastern United States with Atlanta-based Evolve Talent Management.

O’Connell joins Evolve’s voiceover roster with more than four decades of experience as a voice talent. His work includes projects for Disney Cruise Line, Ford, PBS, IBM and Amazon Web Services, among others.

Known as “Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent,” O’Connell brings a producer-friendly approach to all his recordings. His work ranges from warm, conversational reads to authoritative performances for commercials, corporate narration, television promos, radio imaging and character roles. He also provides live announcing and emceeing for corporate events, awards programs and fundraisers.

O’Connell offers remotely directed sessions through Source-Connect, fast turnaround and responsive pickups for clients worldwide.

For Southeast booking inquiries, visit Evolve Talent Management. O’Connell’s voiceover demos are available on their website and at audioconnell.com.

WATCH BRIEF VOICEOVER DEMO VIDEO
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About Peter K. O’Connell

Peter K. O’Connell is a professional voice actor and live announcer (Voice of God) whose work spans commercial advertising, narration, and branded content for national and international clients.

His voice can be heard in campaigns and productions for brands including iHeartMedia, Crest, SiriusXM Media, Maaco and Tic Tac.

The Buffalo-born O’Connell now operates audio’connell Voiceover Talent Studios in Raleigh, North Carolina, a Source-Connect-equipped voiceover studio supporting remote commercial and narration production for clients worldwide.

About Evolve Talent Management
Led by agency president Lina Ramirez-Mills, former Head of Commercial & Voiceover at Formation Talent Agency (previously known as People Store), Evolve Talent Management is a boutique talent representation firm based in Atlanta, Georgia.

Ramirez-Mills brings significant experience negotiating high-profile campaigns and securing partnerships across voiceover, on-camera and content creator projects. The company keeps its roster intentionally small to provide individual attention, career planning and advocacy for its artists. Evolve works with studios, brands and casting professionals to secure opportunities for the talent it represents.

For more information, visit evolvetalentmgt.com.

CONTACT:

Peter K. O’Connell

Your Friendly, Neighborhood Voiceover Talent

audio’connell Voiceover Talent

PH.    +01 716-572-1800 & +01 919-283-1516

E-M.  peter@audioconnell.com

WEB. audioconnell.com

COMPANY MEDIA CENTER:

http://www.audioconnell.com/media

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In November 2022, the National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) was founded.

In October of 2026, I joined.

Why the delay?

Well, as longtime readers here know, I am never one to hop on a trend, be the first in line or otherwise jump on a bandwagon.

But beyond that, voiceover has had its share of professional member associations over my four-plus decades, and there’s no value in getting in early until a group truly finds its footing.

NAVA has blossomed. It’s time.

NAVA’s Advocacy for Voice Actors

For those who might not know, the National Association of Voice Actors is a non-profit association created to advocate for and promote the advancement of the voice acting industry through action, education, inclusion, and benefits.

Under the direction of its president, Tim Friedlander, NAVA has made some impressive strides, most especially in voice actors’ battle against AI. This is the work that has grabbed my attention.

Through its lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels, NAVA has raised awareness of AI concerns for voice actors and pushed for meaningful solutions.

One example of legislative progress is California’s recently passed SB 1050, which requires advertisers to disclose when an ad uses a “synthetic performer” instead of a human performer.

AI Voiceover: The Stakes for Creatives and Brands

We all know artificial intelligence offers individuals and businesses a great deal of creative freedom to produce written words, video, and audio without hiring people to write, film or perform that content.

While that may be cute for home use, using it commercially creates problems for both the people who make a living doing creative work and the brands that choose to replace those creatives.

Obviously, for creatives like me, AI-produced audio can dilute or remove revenues from our businesses. When AI voiceover replaces a paid human performance, that’s lost work.

But I believe the cost savings brands think they are achieving can come at a price, too.

As a consumer, I can feel misled when I discover that a brand’s message, one I may have related to, was delivered by completely computer-generated people and voices imagined by an AI program. I question the authenticity of the message and the brand behind it.

For me, that’s part of what gets lost when brands replace human voiceover with a synthetic performance.

The challenges presented to all of us by AI (in every business and every walk of life) are far from over, but with work from organizations like NAVA, I believe we in the voiceover world at least have a voice, if not a path forward.

Tags: commentary, NAVA, voiceover // Add Comment »

Those who know me know that I often go out for breakfast.

It’s nothing fancy, mind you…in Buffalo it was Bagel Bros. and then Bagel Jays. Here in Raleigh and Cary, I’m often at NYBD Bagels. A simple bagel and my Pepsi to start my day usually.

Recently, I was at a business networking event in Raleigh, Connect Local, and the conversation with one of the folks there moved on to breakfast places and the one recommended to me was Mission Market on N. Salem St. in Apex.

Well, I held on to that nugget until this week and I checked their menu online…it included one of my favorite things…a croissant with egg and ham. This is a delicacy that my friends at Arby’s used to make when Arby’s offered breakfast in the morning in the ’80s (yes, Dayton, OH).

So this morning after drop-off at school, I made my way to the Mission Market after I got my fountain Pepsi — bottle and can sodas cannot compare.

It was still around 7:30-7:45 so it was still kinda o’dark thirty – the sun was thinking about coming up and starting to stretch its rays. N. Salem is still under construction and I said a prayer for all the businesses because construction is NOT helping business…it will, but there is pain now.

Easy parking, lovely space and about 5 of us in this restaurant with plenty of room.

“The Savory,” sans cheese, was just what I wanted and I loved it. Great food, nice staff and a quiet place to read my phone before I started my day.

So as I was reading the news of the day – no, not social media – in this quiet space, a voice announces: “PETER!”

OK, I’ll admit it: I almost peed a little, I was so startled and all eyes in the place darted to me.

Well, I was pleased to see it was none other than Amy Riley from the Apex Chamber of Commerce. Last March, Amy and I worked together when I was the emcee for the Apex Chamber of Commerce Run The Peak 5K/10K.

Very happy to see her.

She was carrying some signage and bags…and I said, “What’s up?”

Turns out the Apex Chamber was having an AM Networking event at Mission Market (sponsored by Fidelity Bank) starting at 8:30. Very fortuitous.

Amy (and a new Chamber employee – also Amy) were setting up and chatting and then the Mission Market exploded with people…like I said in the title, a networking meeting broke out!

They invited me to stay and visit with folks. I got to meet the new executive director of the Apex Chamber, the very nice Darla Bryant. Fun fact about her is that she’s great pals with Nita Whitaker, the wife of voiceover legend Don LaFontaine.

So a quiet Thursday morning quickly became not so quiet…and I was fine with that.

Tags: commentary, live announcing, networking // Add Comment »

by Peter K. O’Connell

I realize I risk coming across as the “You Kids Get Off My Lawn” old man when I say this, but your font size is shamefully small.

I can’t easily read many of them and no, it’s not my eyeglasses prescription.

Your font is teeny tiny.

Specifically, your business card font size.

People have trouble reading it. This is not a joke. No punchline ahead. I am being completely serious.

If you see someone squinting or putting on glasses to read your card, you are risking your burgeoning sales relationship for no good reason.

You and I quietly judge people all day long…same in a business setting. But if you can avoid making a bad first impression (say, with an unreadable business card) wouldn’t you want to swerve away from that mistake?

I respect that there are electronic business cards and direct contact transfer apps and blah, blah…people still use business cards, A LOT, whether tech nerds like it or not.

And somewhere along the way, in a memo I never received from some invisible business card design guru, it was decided that:

• Cool design included really small fonts, like smaller than 7pt
• Font should be difficult to read (they think the “KISS” principle does not apply to their creative genius)
• Tiny white lettering on very dark backgrounds that often don’t contrast or reproduce well in the printing process are on trend

I have neither the time nor the inclination to do the research to prove I am right about how wrong they are but I am right about this, I am 100% sure.

What causes these business card font size issues, you ask? Oh, I’d love to tell you:

• Designers and business owners wanna be sleek
• They wanna be cool
• They want TONS of white space on a 3.5 × 2 inch piece of card stock…so smaller fonts are better, they think (and no they are not)
• People are also buying business cards online and often designing cards themselves— knowing nothing about design while also looking at a design template image blown up to a much bigger size on their large monitor than what will be a 3.5 × 2 inch card
• Vomiting too many words onto that 3.5 × 2 inch card….treating the card like a folded 8.5” x 3.69” brochure (which it ain’t!!)
• Business people also ignore the purpose and value of business cards as a communication tool first and branding tool second

So how will this problem be solved?

Well it won’t be solved because the problem involves people and people are stupid (I know this because I are a people) and people skip the simple stuff thinking it’s not important and… that’s why the world exploded and we all died, Your Honor.

HOWEVER, just because people are stupid doesn’t mean you are.

You can break the “stupid people” cycle when it comes to business cards.

Here are my tips:

• Don’t give your designer carte blanche to make the business card however they want it…too many of them (not all but very many) see business cards as pretty pictures as opposed to what they really are… a necessary communication tool for business
• Pretend all your clients wear reading glasses…they don’t but pretend…and look at your design as if your clients FORGOT their reading glasses but have to read your card; ask yourself – could they read it?
• My magic number is 7….never create a card with a font smaller than 7 point….if you’re smart, it will be 8 or 9 point or higher – also character spacing matters, be carful not to squish letters together
• If that font you love for the text on your business card is not Arial or Georgia or something very close (and equally readable/legible, like those fonts) chances are you should not use that font on your card…save the fancy fonts for your logo…reader comprehension trumps branding every time with business cards
• People have been trying and using black or dark blue or some really rich dark color on business cards for decades…with limited success on the readability scale (example: forest green cards, with gold or gold foil lettering on a serif font…pretty maybe but yikes for readability) — look, just tread carefully to avoid poor contrast, small lettering, thin strokes, or printing problems with dark backgrounds
• Business cards have TWO sides…no reason you can’t print on both sides

It’s ok if, after reading this, you think I am nuts.

Why is this idiot blathering on about business card fonts??

I’m ok with that.

But please just think about all this when you’re looking at your current business cards or designing your next business cards.

I promise you this is all sound advice on business cards.

I hope it helps.

Tags: business cards, commentary, marketing // Comments Off on Size Matters: Your Business Card Shouldn’t Require a Magnifying Glass

Nobody wants to be trained by a robot.

Nobody wants to be sold to by a robot.

Nobody wants to be influenced by a robot.

So why are producers and educators increasingly trying to sell to us and educate us using voices that are robots?

Because it’s easier?

For whom?

The producer, maybe. But what about the person who’s supposed to listen?

Cost savings?

Again, maybe for the producer.

But when the whole purpose of that voice is to communicate with another human being, what happens when that human being discovers there was never another person on the other end?

That’s where this gets interesting.

She Sounds Like Someone You Trust

Think about the female voice you hear on a commercial.

She’s warm. Friendly. Trustworthy.

Maybe there’s even something familiar about her. She sounds like someone who knows what she’s talking about. Someone you might ask for advice.

Maybe she reminds you of your mom.

That’s not an accident.

The voice is there to make a connection with you.

To make a product seem approachable. To make a company seem trustworthy. To make you feel something about whatever is being sold.

And then you find out…

There is no woman.

There never was.

That person you thought you were listening to doesn’t exist.

Doesn’t that change things?

Because you didn’t just use a voice to deliver information.

You used the fake voice to falsify a relationship!

You gave the listener the impression that another human being was talking to them — reassuring them, teaching them, recommending something to them — when there was never another human being there.

And once the listener discovers that, what happens to the trust you were trying to create in the first place?

Now the internet has labeled you as the brand that lied. That’s a hard label to shake.

Were the cost savings on human voice talent worth THAT?

Now Put That Voice in a Training Course

You’re taking an online training course for work.

Let’s be honest. You probably weren’t exactly counting the minutes until you could begin.

But the woman walking you through it sounds OK.

She’s clear. Pleasant enough. You’re listening. You’re learning.

Then something happens.

Maybe there’s an odd pronunciation.

A strange pause.

An inflection that doesn’t belong there.

Something glitches just enough that suddenly you realize:

Wait. That’s not a woman.

It’s an artificial voice.

Can you still learn from it?

I guess.

But do you listen to it in exactly the same way once you know nobody is actually talking to you?

The information hasn’t changed.

The words haven’t changed.

But the relationship has.

A Human Voice Is More Than a Sound

This is where I think we sometimes misunderstand what professional voice actors actually do.

We’re not hired just to make sounds.

For example, a great female voice actor doesn’t simply have a pleasant voice and read the words on the page.

She understands them.

She interprets them.

She knows which word in a sentence matters.

She knows when a thought needs another half-second to land.

She understands when the copy is asking her to reassure someone instead of sell them.

She can sound amused because she understands why something is amusing.

She can sound concerned because she understands what the listener might be concerned about.

And when a director says, “Can you make that a little warmer, but don’t make it sound like you’re trying to be warm?”

She knows what the heck that means.

That’s not just a voice.

That’s a person communicating with another person.

That’s What I Listen for in Female Voice Talent

Throughout my career, producers have asked me to help them find female voice talent for commercials, corporate narration, training, explainers and all kinds of other projects.

And yes, the voice itself matters.

But I’m listening for something beyond whether she has a beautiful voice.

Does she connect?

Does it sound like she understands what she’s saying?

Does it sound like she’s talking to somebody instead of reading at somebody?

Can she take somebody else’s words and make them feel like her own thoughts?

Because whether you’re teaching someone, selling something, explaining something or trying to earn someone’s trust, there’s another human being on the receiving end.

And that’s why the female voice talents I recommend are professional human voice actors.

They’re not there simply because they can produce a nice sound.

They’re there because they can communicate.

They can listen to direction. Interpret a script. Understand an audience. Make adjustments. Find the thought behind a sentence.

They can connect one human being to another.

And that’s really why I created audio’connell’s FemaleVoiceTalents.com.

These aren’t artificial voices I found in a database.

They’re human women I know. Professional female voice actors I’ve known and/or worked with over the years, whose talent and professionalism I trust enough to recommend to producers.

You can listen to them, decide who connects with you and your project, and contact them directly.

They’re real people.

They understand the words they’re saying. They understand the people they’re saying them to. And they bring something to the microphone that can’t be manufactured simply by making a voice sound human.

Technology can reproduce a voice.

But the humanity isn’t in the sound of the voice.

It’s in the human person behind it.

Tags: commentary, female voice talent // Comments Off on Nobody Wants to Be Trained by a Robot

Back in 2015, I wrote about drones giving commercial and residential real estate marketing a whole new perspective.

My friends at DreamDirt were showing buyers acres of Iowa property from the air, and I got to narrate some of those flying tours.

Great aerial views. I’m NOT doing the flying. Everybody wins.

In 2020, the same conversation took a turn because everything in 2020 took a turn because…2020!

Masks, distancing, and understandable concerns about letting strangers through the front door made property showings complicated.

Video and especially drone work offered agents the chance to introduce properties from a distance, and narration gave prospects a credible storyteller to guide them through what they were seeing.

Eleven years and all those discussions and recordings later, it occurred to me that I should really UPDATE my website’s Real Estate Voiceover & Video Narration page.

Consider your visit to the updated page an open house for your ears (and eyes). You don’t even have to take your shoes off.

The new demo includes clips from my work with DreamDirt, including footage from nationally recognized productions.

As you may recall (but then again, why would you?), in 2016, two videos I narrated earned first and second place in the National Auctioneers Association’s marketing competition for Best Auction Promotional Video.

Then, as now, a lot of good work goes into making those pictures and words work together, and I am always happy to have the speaking part.

I also updated the page with a beautifully videotaped and edited tour of a log cabin home on a 68-acre farm in Iowa. It gives you a chance to hear how my voice follows the video from the rooms inside to the land outside.

That’s what I enjoy about real estate narration: the story changes with every address.

A family home needs a welcoming introduction.

A commercial building needs clear information about the space and its features.

Acres of land need context—and sometimes a pause so viewers can appreciate just how far that view goes.

For agents, drone operators, and video producers, my job is to help those details come together in a natural, engaging way. You’ve put thought into the property and the pictures. I bring that same attention to the voice.

The updated page also answers practical questions about scripts, recording, and getting started. Your listing description and property specifications may already contain much of what a producer needs to shape the narration.

So, if you’ve followed this story from those early drone videos, welcome back. If you’re just discovering that I narrate residential and commercial property tours, welcome aboard.

Come hear what a property can sound like.

I’ll be the guy talking. You probably figured that out.

Tags: commentary, real estate, voiceover // Comments Off on The Drones Got the Views. I Got the Speaking Part.