Voiceover Talent and Live Announcer Peter K. O’Connell at the 2026 Run The Peak 10K & 5K Race in Apex, NC. Photographed by Natasha Gilliam of TLG Film Group. Connect: linkedin.com/in/tlgfilmgroup/

A microphone, a finish line and a Saturday morning that reminded me exactly why I do what I do.

Last week when I did the live announcing for the Apex (NC) Chamber of Commerce’s Run The Peak 10K & 5K race, it was fun on many levels, including a few I had not thought about.

I’ve been doing Live Announcing and Emceeing (like at the Run) for decades.

It’s always a great gig, as is the Voice of God (VOG) work as well. Whether it’s a race, a corporate event, an awards ceremony or a conference, live event hosting and emceeing is one of my favorite things to do as a voiceover professional.

But I had not done anything local in a while, so I forgot how many friends I would likely see at the race.

Peak City Drone, Apex, NC

In addition to the many new folks I met, like the team at Peak City Drone who captured awesome drone footage of the race, I also caught up with some relatively old friends.

VMA Studios, Fuquay-Varina, NC

Out of the crowd came Aaron Lurie from VMA Studios in Fuquay-Varina, whose photography is more like artistic storytelling. It’s just so sharp, and he has the most infectious, happy attitude. https://vmastudios.com/

Both Peak City Drone and VMA were kind enough to share some of their footage and photos with me so I could cut together a quick one-minute video of my performance as a Live Announcer and Emcee at Run The Peak.

TLG Film Group, Raleigh, NC

Also out of nowhere I heard someone call “Peter! Hi Peter!” and it was Natasha Gilliam from TLG Film Group! We had a lovely visit and she took some pictures of me that look great and that I am free to use, so you’ll be seeing them on social media. She has real talent because I don’t look like my weirdo self in the shots. That takes artistry!

I was so lucky to reconnect with current friends and make new ones. It made getting up at o-dark-thirty on a Saturday morning completely worth it!

HERE’S THE VIDEO WITH VIDEO FROM PEAK CITY DRONE AND PHOTOGRAPHY FROM VMA STUDIOS:

Tags: commentary, emcee, live announcing, VOG, voice of God, voiceover // Comments Off on My Microphone. Their Finish Line. One Unforgettable Saturday Morning.

WATCH A SAMPLE OF PETER’S LIVE EVENT EMCEE WORK:

At the 5th Annual Run the Peak, the Apex Chamber of Commerce needed an emcee who could handle everything – sponsors, crowd, energy, timing. I was asked to take on that role, and when the day was done, the feedback from the client and sponsors was universally positive. Glad I could deliver. That’s exactly what my years of experience offer all my live announcing clients.

What Run the Peak Is

Run the Peak is a 10K and 5K road race produced by the Apex, NC Chamber of Commerce and presented by WakeMed. Now in its 5th year, it’s become a real fixture in the local running community – this year drawing over 650 registered runners. My job was to make sure the day reflected the trust the community has placed in this event.

What an Emcee Actually Does

The emcee isn’t just a warm body with a microphone filling dead air. At a well-run event, the emcee is the connective tissue – holding all the moving pieces together and making it feel seamless to everyone in attendance.

At Run the Peak, that meant a few things done well:

Sponsor acknowledgment done right. Recognizing sponsors in a way that feels genuine (not like a commercial break stapled onto the program) is a real skill. It’s about understanding the sponsor’s connection to the event and communicating that to the crowd in a way that actually lands. Happy sponsors come back. That matters to event producers.

Keeping the crowd engaged. Over 750 runners means a similarly large crowd of family and friends there for the long haul. Keeping that audience informed, connected, and energized is an ongoing job from the moment the event opens until they shut the power down

Making it all feel effortless. The best emcee work is the stuff the audience never consciously notices. If everything flows naturally and transitions are smooth, people just experience a great event. They don’t stop to think about why. That’s the goal.

Why Experience Matters

I’ve announced and emceed events across the country – corporate conferences, charity galas, awards shows, and community events of all sizes. That experience is what you draw on when something unexpected happens, when the energy shifts, when you need to find the right words on the fly.

When a client tells you the feedback was universally positive – that the sponsors were happy and the crowd was engaged – that’s the professional equivalent of a standing ovation.

Run the Peak was a great day in a great community. I’m glad the Apex Chamber of Commerce brought me in, and I’m already looking forward to seeing what year six looks like.

Tags: emcee, live announcing // Comments Off on Live Event Emcee: When the Client Says Everyone Was Happy, That’s the Whole Job

Lately I’ve been getting out of my home voiceover studio and doing something old-fashioned: networking. Meeting local business owners around Raleigh, Durham and the Triangle in North Carolina. They have been getting a lot of Peter K. O’Connell, Your Friendly Neighborhood Voiceover Talent lately at various small networking groups, and honestly, they seem fine with it.

The reactions when they find out I’m a voice actor are nice. There’s always a “wait, I knew your voice was familiar.” Always a few wide eyes. And then, right on cue, somebody says one of three things:

• “I’ve always wanted to be a voice actor.”
• “People tell me I have a great voice.”
• “How do you get started in voiceover?”

Every. Single. Time.

Look, I love the enthusiasm. I really do. But if I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that last question, I would be networking from a much nicer zip code.

So rather than answer it for the four hundredth time over a business card and a lukewarm coffee (well, Pepsi, and mine is always properly chilled), I finally did the responsible thing. I wrote it all down. You’re welcome in advance.

First things first: how do I get started in voiceover?

I’m going to start off with the bad news first: now is very probably one of the worst times to begin a voiceover career, in my opinion – hey, I’m honest. Why is it a bad time?

First reason is for a while technology has allowed any jackass with a computer microphone to label themselves a voice talent. The work most produce doesn’t even rhyme with the word talent, yet that silo of fakers keeps filling, not diminishing.

But the latest knife in the back of voice talents is AI, artificial intelligence. AI allows almost anybody to take a purchased voice computer made or a voice actor that has sold their voice (yes there are people who sell their voice and, in my opinion, their careers) to free AI voice generators. Those nasty (in my opinion) but perfectly legal companies then mix an AI voice with a downloaded script and that fake voice is now the narrator.

Good, fast and cheap – pick two. With AI, good is not necessary. Humans are a time and financial nuisance to those media producers who use AI voices and they are glad to tell you that.

I haven’t even mentioned those devious, unscrupulous individuals from around the globe who just plain steal human voices from previous recording (completely unauthorized) and sell them as their own. That kind of CRIME has taken place at the HIGHEST levels of business.

I don’t feel like this tornadic truth of the current voiceover climate will be changing any time soon. I HOPE it does but I don’t have that crystal ball and I promised to be honest.

THAT’S the world new voice talent are coming into.

So. Still want to swim in our pool with those sharks? OK. Here’s how you do it right.

Find a qualified voiceover coach, an actual working professional voice actor whose primary business is teaching, not someone whose real business model is selling you a demo. That distinction will save you thousands of dollars and a whole lot of heartbreak. Take individual lessons. Consider group voiceover workshops. Build your foundation before you build anything else.

Now. The other questions.

How do I make a voice acting demo with no experience?

You don’t. Not yet. A voice acting demo is a result of training, not the starting point. A demo produced before you’re ready is an expensive way to tell casting directors you aren’t ready. Why? Because voiceover is not just talking, there is acting, performance technique, script interpretation…so much stuff that you have not been trained in. As an example, if you can find a group voiceover class of voiceover professionals (not beginners), audit the class. Watch and listen to what they do. Then you will REALLY know how NOT ready for a demo you are. Be humble, not eager. Invest in professional voice over coaching first. When your trusted VO coach tells you it’s demo time, that means something. When a voiceover demo production mill tells you it’s demo time after one phone call, that means something too. And it’s very *not* good.

Do I need professional recording equipment to start?

No. For voiceover training and practice (first and foremost), a decent USB microphone and a quiet closet will do just fine. Don’t let gear anxiety stop you from starting if you really have the drive to be in voiceover. That said, as you progress toward auditioning and booking professional voiceover work, your home recording studio setup absolutely matters. Clean audio is non-negotiable for clients. But right now? Record. Practice. Learn. Save your money for lessons.

How long should a voiceover demo reel be?

About :60 seconds for a commercial demo reel. A qualified demo producer will help you on that, you don’t need to obsess about it. More importantly, I recommend that your first demo ALWAYS be your commercial demo. 99% of the time, your first paid VO jobs will be commercials. Even the famous character voice actors will tell you that. Yes, you can do an audiobook demo next (if that’s your passion), but start with commercial. Casting directors and voiceover agents are not sitting around hoping your demo is longer. They decide fast – honestly you have about 15 seconds or less before they know whether they want to consider or hire you.

Should I have different demos for different genres?

Yes, eventually. A commercial voiceover demo and a corporate narration demo serve completely different audiences. An audiobook narration demo and an e-learning voiceover demo are not interchangeable. As your voiceover career develops, separate demos for separate genres signal professionalism and make it easy for the right clients to find the right version of you.

What should I include in a voice acting portfolio?

The more you train, the more you talk with voice over teachers and the more you hang out with fellow voice talents (or just check out the content of their websites) it will become clear. Since you’re just beginning, you don’t need to focus in your portfolio now…but when you’re ready, my recommended areas of focus (ranked by priority are):

1. On-going, professional voiceover training – (many, many months, not weeks and certainly not in a weekend)
2. Commercial Demo – (with a professional coach and demo producer with scripts and styles the coach thinks you not only excel at but also differentiate you from many other talents)
3. Voiceover website – if you’re hot to do something to do right now for your voiceover career, go to a domain registrar (think Go Daddy or someone like that) and see if you can secure your name as a dot com domain. If not your name, then yournamevoiceover.com or yournamevo.com. Then later, when you’re ready for a website…you can start with a one page with an audio player for your demo and some text (and build from there). You just need a landing page when you start out.
4. A business card – doesn’t have to be fancy….doesn’t have to be perfectly branded. Name, website address, email address and phone number — something you can hand out.

What about a bio? What about a headshot? What about….knock it off. You’re just starting.

OK, you need a project? You want to feel like you’re doing something for your burgeoning voiceover career?

Start an excel spreadsheet. Save it as voiceover database. Across the top, left to right, label the cells “First Name”, “Last Name”, “Company Name”, “Business Address”, “City”, “State”, “Zip Code”, “Email Address”, “Web Address” & “Phone Number”.

Then research and fill out those cells for your regional ad agency Creative Director, Video Production Company Owners and or Producers, Recording Studio Owners and Engineers….this document, more than anything else I have told you, will be the start of your voiceover business.

What do you do with it?

That’s a blog post unto itself. Hope this helps.

Tags: commentary, voiceover advice // Comments Off on You Should Pay Me For This But I’m an Idiot, So It’s Free: The 2026 Voiceover Beginner FAQ It Seems Nobody Wrote Down Until Now

A lot of voice actors treat practice like something they’ll get to eventually.

New talent waits for a coach.

Seasoned pros figure they’ve already got it.

Both groups are leaving real skill development on the table. Good voiceover practice scripts are the gym equipment of this business. Quality matters.

What Makes a Good Voice Over Practice Script?
It should mirror real-world copy you’d actually get hired to read.

Commercial voice over scripts with a clear call to action. Narration with technical language. E-learning that demands authority. If your voice acting practice scripts sound nothing like actual client work, you’re not practicing. You’re just reading out loud.

How to Practice Voice Acting: Start With What’s Around You
Free voice over scripts are hiding in plain sight. TV, radio, streaming pre-roll ads. Real scripts real clients paid real money for.

Read along, then read without the audio and compare.

Here’s a voiceover training tip people overlook and I’ve been teaching FOR DECADES: grab a magazine.

When a brand ad catches your eye, read the copy. Why? Because for some reason you were drawn to that brand and you are connected.

The messaging, tone, and selling points are all there. With a little rewriting you’ve got a solid voice over script for practice and an unlimited, free supply of fresh material.

Where to Find Free Voiceover Practice Scripts Online

There are some other sources that I’m glad to share with you:

• Edge Studio (edgestudio.com) offers thousands of free voice over scripts for beginners and pros: commercial, narration, animation, e-learning, and more in English and Spanish.
• Voice Actor Websites (voiceactorwebsites.com) has a solid growing collection covering commercial, narration, IVR, PSAs, and imaging.

Why Voiceover Training Never Really Stops
I’ve been doing this over 40 years. I still practice.

Here’s a working voiceover’s truth: sometimes when a client sends a script, there’s little or no warm-up time. You sit down and you are expected to nail it. Practice gets you pointed in the right direction faster because you work your mind and vocal muscles more regularly and with intentionality (that’s a big teacher word, you should be impressed, say oooo or something).

Record yourself every session. What you think you sound like and what the mic actually captures are rarely the same thing. That gap is where voiceover training can begin to fix or enhance.

Quick Answers

In addition to practice scripts, I often get these questions (which could be their own full blog posts) but for now I’ll just briefly touch on them.

Can I use free voiceover practice scripts for my demo?
Generally no. Free script libraries are for voice acting practice and voiceover training, not demos. A good demo needs original, custom-written copy tailored to your voice.

Finding great voiceover practice scripts is not complicated. It just requires getupandgoness. Yes that’s a word…that I just made up.

Where do beginner voice actors start with training?
Start with a good voiceover coach who can assess your actual strengths and weaknesses. Then practice constantly with real-world commercial voice over scripts, narration copy, and anything else that mirrors the work you want to book. The coach gives you direction. The scripts give you reps.

How often should voice actors practice?
As often as you can manage, but quality beats quantity every time. One focused session with fresh voiceover practice scripts you’ve never seen beats an hour of reading the same three scripts you’ve memorized. Variety is the whole game.

What types of voiceover scripts should I practice?
All of them, eventually. But start with the category you most want to book. Commercial voice over scripts if you want ad work. Long-form narration scripts if corporate or e-learning is the goal. Character scripts if animation is your dream. Practice where the work is.

Do I need a voiceover coach to get better?
Yes. Not because I happen to coach, but because nobody can do this alone. You need a trained professional set of ears acting as an omniscient third-party expert. You simply cannot hear yourself the way an experienced voiceover coach hears you. That outside perspective is not optional. It’s essential.

Finding great voiceover practice scripts is not complicated. It just requires geterdoneness (that’s another big teacher word…don’t you feel edumacated now?)

Peter K. O’Connell is an award-winning professional voice actor and voiceover coach based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Connect with Peter at audioconnell.com.

Tags: voice over workshop, voiceover advice // Comments Off on How to Find the Best Voiceover Practice Scripts (And Why It Actually Matters)

Look, I’ll be honest with you.

When I moved from Buffalo to Raleigh after five decades, I had a moment of voiceover panic. Do I just… pretend Buffalo never happened? Do I scrub 30+ years of Western New York history from my website and go full North Carolina?

That felt wrong. Really wrong. After all, one does not simply erase Buffalo out of his system. Nor does one want to (#GoBills).

But here’s the other side of it: after 10 years in Raleigh, I think I’ve paid my dues. I’ve survived enough North Carolina summers to earn my humidity badge. I know what “Apex” means without needing GPS. I’ve even stopped reflexively saying “pop” instead of “soda” (okay, that’s a lie, but I’m working on it).

So I figured I should create a dedicated Raleigh North Carolina voice talent page on my website, even though my Buffalo Niagara voice talent page is still very much alive and kicking.

Why the North Carolina Voiceover Connection Matters

Here’s the thing: even though I work remotely with clients worldwide via Source-Connect, local connections still matter. The Triangle area is booming with tech companies, universities, and creative agencies that need commercial voiceover, narration, character voice work and corporate video content. As a professional voice actor now based in Raleigh, I wanted to make it crystal clear that I’m here and available for both local sessions and remote projects throughout North Carolina.

Buffalo native and voice talent Peter K. O’Connell watching a Buffalo Bills game in his Raleigh, North Carolina home. He’s the very essence of calmness, isn’t he?

But I’m also still very much a Buffalo guy. That city shaped everything about my broadcasting career, from my first radio station field trip as a kindergartener to decades of work with Western New York clients like Rich Products and the Buffalo News. Buffalo taught me the work ethic and authenticity that define how I approach every voiceover project today.

The Dual Identity Advantage

I genuinely am both a Raleigh resident AND a Buffalo native (I even kept my 716 phone number). This gives me unique positioning as East Coast voiceover talent who can serve clients from Charlotte to Durham to Greensboro to Apex to Cary to Buffalo and everywhere in between.

Whether you’re a producer in the Research Triangle Park looking for a Raleigh recording studio for a directed session, or a Buffalo agency needing a narrator who gets Western New York, I’m your guy. Same voice talent, same professional studio, same commitment to making your project sound great. For me, geography is flexible, but voiceover quality never is. You get that way after 40 years in this business.

Tags: commentary, North Carolina, raleigh, voiceover // Comments Off on From Buffalo Wings to Carolina BBQ: A Voice Actor’s Tale of Two Cities

Here’s what I expected from Tuesday’s Apex Chamber networking event: coffee, handshakes, maybe a new lead.

Here’s what I did NOT expect: to become a corporate race sponsor rubbing shoulders with companies that have actual marketing budgets.

I had been to more than a few networking events at the Apex Chamber of Commerce, so this week’s morning gathering wasn’t going to be out of the ordinary as far as I was concerned. It was going to be held at the new Foxtail Coffee in Apex, NC – it’d been there some months but it was new to me.

Anyway, it was a very nice early morning crowd as I was walking around, mingling with familiar and new faces — talking about their businesses, chatting a bit about audio’connell. Then, kinda outta nowhere I was at a table with Amy Riley who is the Volunteer Relationship Coordinator for the Apex Chamber of Commerce.

Live Announcer and Emcee Peter K. O’Connell networking at the Apex Chamber of Commerce AM Networking in February just before getting roped into becoming the Entertainment Sponsor for Run The Peak on March 7th

If you haven’t met her, she’s just all the good things – smart, happy, interested, conversational, with everybody. We just got to talking about the various things she was doing with the Apex Chamber and how she’s now in charge of the Run The Peak 5K & 10K race on March 7th.

This upcoming 5th Annual running of this race is her first time overseeing it and she went on to talk about some of the things was involved in the planning and in that list – blamo!- here it came: “Oh, hey, we need an announcer for the race.”

“Oh s—!”, said the voice inside my head.

Yes, I do live announcing, yes I do live emceeing but I DIDN’T wake up and expect *this* on my early morning networking plate.

A few minutes later, I became not only the Emcee Host / Announcer of the Apex Chamber of Commerce’s 5th Annual Run The Peak 5K & 10K race, I became the race’s Entertainment Sponsor. Yup, that’s me up there sponsoring with Dell Technologies, Fidelity Bank, Wake Med Hospital and a bunch of other significantly laaaarrrrger businesses than mine.

So at Zero Dark Thirty on Saturday, March 7 (WHY do runners need to get up so early??!!!) I will be on the mic at the Run The Peak, beginning at Apex Town Hall on Hunter Street. Hope to see you there…please say hi!

Tags: emcee, live announcing, marketing // Comments Off on Why Do Runners Hate Sleep? (And Other Questions I’ll Answer at 6 AM on March 7th)