We were lucky to catch up with Katie Boothe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Katie, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Actually, I had a “regular job” for over 15 years. In college, I had been studying Recording Industry when I changed my major to teaching, because I was told it would be more stable, and dependable. But the reality was that the stability was also coupled with extreme expectations for my time and energy, well beyond what the schools were willing to pay me fairly for. At first, the transition from full-time teaching to freelance voice work was difficult, but I am finding my stride. I am no longer constrained in any way creatively, and I feel like I am growing faster than ever before. It has been an incredibly empowering experience to learn to trust myself and my talents, and to embrace my complete freedom.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

At my heart, I am a storyteller. As a multi-passionate person, I have found a variety of ways to pursue my life’s purpose: through visual art, theatre, music, and writing. As a very young child, I embraced my creative weirdo nature. When asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I never had one answer. I’d say, “I want to be an astronaut, AND a ballerina, AND a paleontologist, AND Madonna.” I was often caught singing to myself at the top of my lungs, or designing elaborate costumes for my Barbies, casting my reluctant neighbors in plays to be performed in the backyard. I just wanted to share my creative voice with anyone I could, any way I could.

But once I got into school, the self-consciousness kicked in, I struggled to fit in and was bullied for being different. I had a hard time making and keeping friends. It wasn’t until I got into theatre that my light really began to shine its brightest again. I thrived playing all kinds of characters, from jumping chimpanzees to prison matrons, zombie nurses, and Southern Belles. I loved trying new accents and voices to bring characters to life. It was around the time that I was working in community theatre as a young adult that the audiobook industry began to take off. Here was an opportunity for me to play ALL the characters in a story, without frantically changing costumes backstage. I had to try it!

I was teaching Art & Theatre full-time in local public schools, but I wanted another creative outlet that might provide a little extra income as well. I took my first voiceover class in 2019, with my mentor, Joe Loesch. I set up a tiny recording studio in the closet of an extra bedroom. I had to sit on a metal folding chair with my laptop resting on my knees, surrounded by pillows and an old sleeping bag. Fairly quickly, I was cast for my first audiobook, and I recorded all ten hours of it in that tiny closet, trying to keep still to prevent the chair from squeaking. It was pretty uncomfortable, but it was a delight to give life to all the characters, and to paint a picture of the whole story with just my voice. That was it. I was in love.

Teaching was and is still a joy to me, but the school system isn’t really designed for people who don’t fit into molds. I needed more autonomy, and more room to fly. After trying to wear too many hats as a full-time teacher and program director, and a part-time voice actor, I knew in 2022, that it was time to focus more of my energy into voiceover. I am most proud of my decision to trust my own abilities and my creative spirit, and take the leap into full-time voice work. It was a pretty big risk, but it’s already paying off. When I told my students about my decision, they were all happy and supportive of me, and they told me they were inspired to believe in themselves more and follow their hearts to become their most authentic selves.

Now I have a larger, carpeted and sound-proofed studio with professional sound equipment. I have done over 20 audiobooks and numerous other voiceover jobs. After a coaching session with another fantastic narrator, Natalie Naudus, she suggested I capitalize on my natural Appalachian accent, and I’ve enjoyed honoring my roots by bringing authenticity to Southern stories as well. I’ve done romance, fantasy, thriller, RPGlit, memoir, and nonfiction, and I’m looking forward to exploring new genres more and more as I continue to grow in my experiences. When I client is looking for someone who can provide different voices for dozens of characters in a book, or when they require extra emotional depth, I know I can give them exactly what they need.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think when the pandemic hit, more people became aware of how important entertainment and the Arts are to our lives. But we still haven’t adjusted to reflect that by paying artists and performers what they’re worth. Creatives have to put a lot of our time and energy into our work, and not enough people understand that. When I was trying to split my time between teaching, directing, and performing, I got burnt out quickly. Now that I can direct my all energy into my creative ventures, I am producing better and better work all the time. I think if more people were educated on the creative process, they’d understand why artists need to charge the rates that we do. We aren’t trying to get rich here – we just need to keep the lights on!

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

People often ask me if I am concerned that AI is going to take over the voiceover industry. They’re surprised when I say that I’m not really worried about it. Yes, there are voiceover jobs being taken by AI, but they’re not the jobs I want – they’re offering rock-bottom rates, and those clients don’t value human voices. Right now, an AI voice can replicate a human voice fairly well, but there’s no emotion or authenticity to it. If you need a voice to read you the phone book or tell you the hours of operation for a business, then AI will do the job. But would anyone want to hear Siri or Alexa read them Lord of the Rings? No way! As actors, we often draw upon our life experiences, injecting our emotions into characters as we attempt to live truthfully through made-up circumstances. Voiceover and narration is an art form, and no AI voice can replicate true human emotion, because it has no human experience to draw upon.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.katieboothe.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vocalboothe/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vocalboothe
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katie-boothe-442a07189/
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vocalboothe?lang=en