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

Megan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Oh man, well, when I was a kid there are only two things I remember always wanting to be; a mom and an actress. Well, I also wanted to work with dolphins, but I didn’t want to work with any other marine animals. Just dolphins. Anywhozer, despite wanting to be an actress my whole life and doing stage performances and a variety of acting classes, once I graduated high school I chose to pursue more “realistic” and “logical” career paths. It wasn’t until the ripe young age of 38 that I began actually pursing my passion as a career.

Megan, 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?

To avoid being toooo long winded (cause I do love to talk!), I got into voice acting sort of by accident. As I was searching for a new career path I was encouraged by loved ones to go after my dream and even given a coach to contact. I figured I was too old to start a career in voice acting, but contacted the coach anyway, mostly so I could check off the “I tried” box. Turns out I had a pretty solid foundation for the craft so I continued with coaching, got a demo produced, developed a website, and started auditioning. The rest is history!

I provide voice over for a variety of genres. Most of what I do are commercials and explainers/corporate narrations. I also am one of the main voices for a GPS driving tour app, which is wicked cool, and I have done a few animation, dubbing, and video game gigs. I’m hoping to start doing more of those genres! Honestly, I love it so much I want to at least try my hand at all genres, so I’m constantly coaching to hone the skills I have and learn new ones. I’m currently working on promo and trailer reads. A lot of people don’t realize how many things out there are voiced by voice actors. I also provide some basic editing, proofreading, and copy writing. I also do the occasional on camera or on stage performance.

The number one problem I solve for my clients is providing them with the audio they need/want in the time they need/want it in. Depending on the job, some deadlines are yesterday and they’re scrambling because often times the voiceover is the last part. I always want to do everything I can to make things go as quickly and efficiently as possible.

I think that’s one of the things that sets me apart from some, but what really sets me apart the most is my ability and willingness to pivot. I want every person I work with to walk away feeling I’ve made their life easier. And I want every project I touch to be as good, preferably even better, than originally conceived. If that means changing an accent or tone of the read or having another go because the wording wasn’t quite right, I’m here for it. I call myself the Swiss Army Sound Slinger because I have a variety of voices and sounds I can throw at a roll, I also can sing, and I’m full of SASS, so the acronym works too, haha. Another thing that sets me apart is, a little piece of advice I heard from a Sam Rockwell interview, I treat every roll like it’s my Hamlet. No matter how big or small, I want to nail it!

Job wise I’m proud of all of them, but for top two it’s kind of a tie. I’m also a board game nerd and I’m super proud to have voiced two explainer videos for my favorite board game developer Stonemaier Games. I also love voicing the GPS driving tours of National Parks for the Shaka Guide app. But honestly, the thing I’m most proud of is actually a room in Clubhouse (a hangout app) a couple of my voice actor friends and I made. It’s called The Working Voice Actor. It was the brain child of George Nowik and Roshelle Simpson and they let me tag along. We created it to be a safe space for voice actors at any level to get together and share knowledge, experiences, wins, losses, do workouts, and anything else we can think of tied to the industry where no one is selling anything and no one has to be “on”. We get a lot of positive feedback about how valuable it is to others and that really makes me proud.

I know I work in an industry full of thousands of insanely talented folks and thanks to the wider spread acceptance of the home studio, more and more of those folks are getting a chance at their dream too. And I’m here for it. Obviously I have dream jobs I’d love to land (I’m talking to you Pierce Brown, hit me up for Red Rising the animated series and video game!!!), but at the end of the day, I only want the roles I’m the best fit for and I ‘m here to celebrate the wins of my peers, even if it’s a job I was hoping for myself. If I have any followers/fans out there, I want them to have the same attitude. Lift each other up. A candle doesn’t go out by sharing it’s light with another candle, the room just gets brighter. As for potential clients, I’m worth it.

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?

Oh man, there are a lot of things I could cover here, but the one I’m gonna focus on is the misconception that voice acting is easy, after all, it’s just talking. Especially when it comes to stuff like commercials, corporate narration, e-learning, and similar genres. The truth of it is that every single genre is acting. The difference is that you can only use your voice to convey the message. AND your voice has to also adjust for any accompanying imagery. Try it if you don’t believe me. Watch a commercial you enjoy that has voiceover. Find the script online or copy it down. Then play the commercial muted, and perform the script, recording yourself on your phone. Play it back with the video. How do you think you did? Chances are you found it more difficult than you thought it would be. There is so much more to voice acting than just talking and every genre has different standards regarding performances and then every client has their own set of preferences on top of that. There’s A LOT more to it than just talking.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

There are so many things I find rewarding about being a voice actor. I’ve met so many amazing people, I get to do something I love every day (I look forward to Mondays! whaaaa?!), I get to work from home most of the time…but I suppose the most rewarding part of being a voice actor is being able to bring people joy and awareness. I love voicing PSA commercials that encourage habits and behaviors to better our world and bring awareness of the needs of those around us. I love creating characters than bring laughter and that people can relate to. Even if that character is a villain people love to hate, haha.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.meganselke.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meganselke_vo/?hl=en
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/megan-selke-167a79207
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeganSelke_VO