Heather making waves on VO
FOR ALL THE VIEWERS READING, PLEASE KINDLY INTRODUCE YOURSELF.
Hi! I’m Heather Nichols, a full-time voice actor in Los Angeles. I specialize in the areas of corporate narration, e-learning, audiobooks, commercials, dubbing, and animation. I am also a voiceover coach and teacher for private lessons and group classes.
PLEASE TALK ABOUT HOW YOU GOT STARTED IN THE VOICE-OVER INDUSTRY.
I started in entertainment as an on-camera actor, which I was for many years. One of my former on-camera agents approached me asking if I would like to also be submitted for voiceover opportunities, so I said yes and got my first commercial VO demo made. I wasn’t looking to focus on VO at the time but was very fortunate to book some commercial work very quickly and ended up as the brand voice for a doll company for 7 years. That really planted the seed for my love of VO. I ended up getting burnt out on the on-camera scene, and when I became a mom, I completely stepped away from acting to focus on my twin boys. However, I very quickly missed performing and realized voiceover was a way to have that creative outlet while being at home with my kids. I decided to start pursuing that area again and got some traction right away in the corporate narration space. I leaned into that and, within a year, was able to leave my full-time marketing job and go full-time with VO. That was 5 years ago, and I am happier than ever to still be doing this every day.
WHAT MADE YOU GET STARTED IN THE VOICE-OVER INDUSTRY?
After my twins were born, and I had stepped away from acting for a bit, I ended up as the head of marketing for a major comic con producer with shows all over the country. I have a degree in marketing and have owned a digital marketing company for over 15 years, so I really enjoyed diving into that business. I even had to write radio commercials and hire voice actors, which gave me a unique and valuable perspective when I came back to the performing side myself. When the pandemic hit, the events business obviously ground to a halt, and I had to decide if I waited it out with that company, which was taking a new business direction, or took the leap back into voiceover. I had been working in VO on the side for the last 2+ years of my marketing job, and it was really picking up steam. I knew my heart was no longer with that company, so with the support of my husband, I decided to leave that job and go full-time with voiceover.