We were lucky to catch up with Lin Gallagher recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Lin, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?
Being a free-lancer in any industry has it’s upside and downside. A voiceover artist is no different. The incredible “high’ when I audition, book, then perform a job that I am proud of, feels amazing… and pays bills…….for a while….
There are times, when expenses build, that the stress of not having a consistent and guaranteed salary bubbles up, but I have reached a level in my profession where the next opportunity is just around the corner and I have to remember that.
I have worked regular jobs prior to my VO career, but I believe a true Creative is not fundamentally satisfied unless they can pursue their Art in some form or another.
I’m so grateful to now be doing this full time and will always be happier with the ups and downs- than not indulging that creativity.
I love this work.
Lin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi ! I’m Lin Gallagher, …a British import, though long-time resident of Burbank, California.
I came to the US several moons ago having finished a world tour as wardrobe stylist with a rather famous British pop group.
After various jobs, in fashion, entertainment management, private yoga and pilates instruction, I set up a home recording rig and dabbled more and more in smaller voice auditions
Always interested in language, dialects, communication, and acting, it seems obvious now, that I chose Voice Over as something I wanted to learn about, train in and excel at. I left my other endeavors behind -and went full time .
I workshopped and “worked out” regularly within VO groups which exposed me to seasoned talent who were encouraging and motivating , this training proved to be essential and rewarding and my demos were up to scratch for seeking representation.
It’s a bit tricky for a newcomer to be noticed within a competitive industry as we know, so I decided to think outside the box. I found the head writer for a very well known video game on Twitter and posted that I “would love to drip with evil all over his game”and attached my demos. He got back to me ! and asked the name of my agent, to whom he sent an audition for me.
I booked it and will be forever grateful to him for believing in me.
That was for a dramatic acting role, but the thrill of what I do is due to the variety of genres I work in.
Commercials (i.e JP Morgan, Aston Martin)
Comedic
Animation (‘Swan Princess’ due out any day) Industrial (Pfizer etc.)
Narration (‘The Gardener Sorceress ‘ for one)
ADR which is Additional Dialogue Recording done in post production (eg a villanous Judi Dench type heard on the phone in NCIS Los Angeles) and
Audio Description, which is a narrative heard between and around lines of dialogue to explain and enhance the experience for the sight-challenged, as in Netflix’s doc series “The Surgeon’s Cut’)
I am proud to be a truly multi-genre artist in the field.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I was in a beautiful Burbank studio recording the Audio Description for a poignant documentary series about brilliant surgeons and their life saving skills. Having not seen a script I was reading “cold” and was not aware that the subject coming up was that of a patient with a lethal brain tumor.
I had lost a dear friend just the previous month to the same disease and was still grieving.
As soon as I realised what the subject was I made a couple of decisions.
I had to be resilient enough to give a professional performance without allowing personal emotion to break me down. AND I wanted to tap into my own experience of that loss to convey an empathetic tone at a subtle level.
i got through in one piece and the resulting work remains one of my favourites
All Audio Description requires subtlety. A connection to the tone of the production while not over-treading the listener’s experience of it.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
The mission which drives my creative journey is simply to stay relevant, polished, open and adaptable so that I can perform voiceovers to my dying day !
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.voiceoverbritain.com
- Linkedin: Lin Gallagher (British) Los Angeles VO Actress
- Twitter: @voiceoverbrit
- IMDB: https://pro.imdb.com/
name/nm5261146?s=f4c3929a- 849a-bb37-7160-3ea063183b89& site_preference=normal