I’m Anna Brisbin, but you can call me Brizzy!

Anna Stewart Brisbin, more commonly known as her YouTube name Brizzy Voices, is a voice actress and YouTuber. She got her start by doing voice impressions of the original 151 Pokémon on her YouTube channel and from there has worked her way into voice acting.

She also has two podcasts: ‘Fantastic Geeks’ and ‘Where to Find Them’ with her best friend Tessa Netting. Brisbin grew up in South Carolina where she attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, majoring in drama and completed the Stonestreet Studios acting program.

Known for her voice impressions of fictional characters from Harry Potter, Pokémon and the Disney Princesses, as well as Disney characters in general, in 2015, she co-narrated the novel ‘A Tale of Two Besties’, written by HelloGiggles Co-Founder Sophia Rossi. She had a voice acting role in a 2016 web series adaptation of the popular video game ‘Happy Wheels’, in which she played Janet (the Effective Shopper). In 2017, her voiceover challenge series ‘Voice It!’ debuted on Facebook Watch. Brizzy Voices was nominated for an Artisan Award at the 2017 Summer in the City Awards.

Voice over, also known as voice acting, is part art, part perspiration and a whole lot of practice. It is commonly believed that the first voiceover was created by Walt Disney for Mickey Mouse in “Steamboat Willie.” Although this was in 1928, in reality, the first voice-over was performed in 1900! This historical first belongs to Reginald Fessenden, a Canadian inventor. He was thrilled with Alexander Graham Bell’s new device, the telephone, and set out to create a way to remotely communicate without wires. The beginning of “Wireless!”.

In 1900, working for the United States Weather Bureau, Fessenden recorded the very first voice over:  reporting the weather. It is generally accepted that he was the first voice on the radio. In Boston, in 1906, during the Christmas season, he recorded an entire program of music, Bible texts, and Christmas messages to ships out at sea.

As communications developed, voice acting became more common in radio and animated cartoons. The actors behind those voices are rarely known by the public with perhaps the exception of the eponymous Mel Blanc, a radio personality and comedian. He became known as “The Man of 1000 Voices” for his versatility and is the voice on many cartoons that were made and distributed by Warner Brothers.

One of the most influential and prolific voice-over artists of all time is not commonly known by the public, but very well known in the industry. This is Don LaFontaine, who began voice acting in 1962, recording VO for a movie trailer. He became the voice of movie trailers and the sound of the cinema for a generation of moviegoers, setting the gold standard for how they were written and voiced.

While voice-over acting has grown into being a recognised career path, it still remains unseen and largely unknown by most people. Most voice-over work is still done by classically trained actors who often use voice acting to fill gaps in-between jobs. However, voice acting is increasingly getting noticed and gaining recognition as true performance art and profession in its own right. Famous actors have gained huge amounts of publicity from box-office animation successes such as those produced by Pixar and Disney. People now expect well-known actors to be in animated films. Of course, there are other benefits. Studios can use the name of the stars that appear in the animated films to globally promote these films.

Voice acting is the art of doing voiceovers. It is about providing a voice for use in a professional piece of audio work. This can range from voice over for gaming, videos, cartoons, commercials and much much more.

Voice Over Announcers can be heard introducing segments of live television or radio broadcasts such as, award shows, talk shows, continuity, promo and sporting events.

Voice Over Narrators often specialise in audiobooks, documentaries, explainer videos, educational videos, business videos, medical videos and act as audio tour guides.

Voice Actors are heard performing in animated movies, TV cartoons, radio dramas, ADR, video games, puppet shows and in foreign language dubbing.

Voiceover Artists are versatile performers, able to weave interchangeably between any of the above as well as direct telephone prompts (IVR), they can be heard welcoming visitors to a website, or guiding road trips as the voice of a GPS.

Voice Talent refers to all of the above. The term was coined as an easy way to reference all types of voice-over performers and is often used by agencies or companies that hire voice overs.