Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Genevieve Baer. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Genevieve, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I have known from a very young age that I wanted to be an artist. I found diary entry from when I was in Elementary school that said something like: “When I grow up, I am going to be a famous actress and artist. I know I can do it!”.

Ah, the confidence of youth! But all I ever wanted to do growing up was create art, sing, play pretend, and dance in my living room. I was extremely lucky in that my parents always encouraged me and supported me any way they could. They signed me up for art and drama camps and singing lessons. They came to every performance. And they never discouraged me from pursuing this as a career. When I told them I wanted to major in Musical Theatre, they didn’t blink. I never got a lecture about choosing something more practical. Instead, they supported me all the way.

Of course the dreams of that little girl writing in her diary morphed into a more mature version. But, in so many ways, those dreams came true! I am making a full-time living as a voice actor and I still create art in my spare time. For a while there, I even had my own line of custom painted furniture until my voice over business started keeping me too busy to do both.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a professional Voice Actor and have been recording voice overs for well over 20 years now. I work in every genre of voice over–from commercial to promo, political, animation, documentary narration, eLearning, radio imaging, etc. You can hear my voice on countless TV and radio commercials, on Pandora, Spotify, and iHeart Radio. You can hear my voice talking to you when you’re pumping gas (encouraging you to go inside and grab a snack), when you call your doctor’s office, when your children are listening educational audiobooks, and even on some toys and games.

My tagline is “The Whole Package” because that is what I aim to be and to deliver. I take pride in–not just delivering the read that the client is looking for–but being a pleasure to work with.

I record from home where I have a professional recording studio set-up. I often have a dog or two in the booth with me and a cat (or two) on top of my booth to keep me company. They are the best studio buddies a girl could have.

I started my career performing on stage. After receiving my BFA in Musical Theatre, I moved to NY and was chasing my Broadway dreams. I’ve had the pleasure of singing and acting on stages across the country. During the 5 years I was in NYC, I started to take voice over lessons. It was a field I had always been interested in and seemed to tie really nicely with my musical theatre skills…after all, they are both acting with your voice.

I completed my first voice over demo right before I moved to Boulder, CO in 2003. I signed with my first agent in Denver soon after that and began booking voice over work. In 2012, I created my first home studio and learned how to record and edit myself. That is when my voice over career really took off and I quickly grew my business to full-time.

I am really proud of how well I take direction. I can thank my acting training for a lot of that. I excel at listening to feedback from a director and making the necessary adjustments to my reads until they get exactly what they want. My ability to do so makes directed sessions go so much more smoothly (and quickly!) for clients. There are so many people out there with nice voices. But if they can’t act or take direction, that pretty voice doesn’t take them very far.

Sometimes, clients don’t really know what they want. In that case, I am more than happy to play around and experiment with different tones and energy until we land on something that clicks. I also love a good improv session! Not every client wants the voice actor to ad-lib and improvise. But when they do? I’m like a kid in a candy store!

I also pride myself on my versatility. This, of course, ties back to acting but I can deliver so many different reads and adjust those reads to so many different genres. I can be voicing a little baby puppy, a woman going through menopause, a cool chick, and an urgent news promo all in the span of one hour on a normal day!

But the thing I’m probably most proud of is my positive attitude and work ethic. Even after all these years, I take absolutely nothing for granted. I still pinch myself that I get to do this for a living. I am genuinely grateful for each and every gig I get and I think that gratitude shines through. It is important to me that my clients are happy and that I make their lives easier by delivering the read they’re looking fo–well before the deadline–and remaining helpful and communicative throughout the process.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are so many rewarding aspects of being a voice actor! I think the most rewarding aspect is that I get to tap into my creativity and sense of play every single day.

Voice acting is exactly that–acting with your voice. And my work requires me to tap into a wide range of emotions, scenarios, and energys. Our industry is emphasizing authenticity more than ever these days. So, no matter what the voice over job is, I need to be authentically connected to that script and scenario. So I am working those acting muscles every day. That is incredibly rewarding. No single day is like the next and I love that!

I also love getting to work from home and being my own boss. I am a naturally driven person so motivation is not one of my challenges. I appreciate getting to stay in my pjs and take little breaks to make tea and love on my pets and refill my bucket. And then going back into my happy little recording booth and doing work I love.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

There are a lot of things that society can do to best support artists and help create and support a thriving creative ecosystem. First, we need to recognize just how important the arts really are in our lives. Oh, I could go on about this all day because I feel like the arts are often not given the weight that they deserve.

The arts, in all its forms, are what separates us humans from all other species. The arts connect us, move us, inspire us, and lift us up in hard times.

During the pandemic, it was the arts that truly became a lifeline for so many of us. We used music and storytelling as ways of making us feel less alone–even as we were all isolated in our homes.

Art, in every form, tells a story, and storytelling is powerful. It creates empathy (something our society needs more of these days) and connection.

All this to say, that I wish everyone could really recognize how much their own lives are enriched by the arts. That song they put on to motivate themselves; that movie they play when they need a really good cry; that TikTok dance they learned with their daughter that turned into a bonding moment. All of these things and countless others enrich our human lives in very meaningul ways.

We all need to continue to support the arts programs in our schools, to spend our dollars enjoying the arts, and to encourage our government to value creative fields through financial and legislative support.

And on that note, we really need to be aware of the threat of A.I. on the lives of artists and encourage legislation that includes protections for artists. There are companies out there that are cloning voice actor’s voices (without their permission) and using those voices in other projects with no compensation to the voice actor.

There are A.I. “bands” putting out music.

I understand that A.I. is here to stay and will keep evolving. But it has to be used ethically and we need to create laws and protections around it. The absolute most powerful part of any creative endeavor is the HUMANITY in it. When we replace humans with something technically nice but without heart…we all lose. I hope that everyone recognizes that unethical use of A.I. threatens to put artists of all genres out of work. I hope that everyone rejects companies that are misusing the technology and urges the government to create laws for ethical A.I. use as soon as possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gbvoice.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/genevievebaer_vo/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GenevieveBaerVO
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/genevievebaervo/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@genevievebaervo

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