My Intro to Voice Over...

My first introduction to voiceover came at age 9 when my younger brother was cast in a small role for a children’s animated series. I often tagged along to my brother’s castings and jobs as it meant leaving school half an hour early to get to London ( and at age 9 this was equivalent to winning the lottery!) Unlike my brother, I was painfully shy and had virtually no interest in performing at the time. I could often be found with my head buried deep in the latest Princess Diaries novel instead. I remember sitting in the waiting room of this particular studio and suddenly disaster struck - my Nintendo DS died! I decided I’d go and see what was going on in the studio, when I overheard two adults in the hallway arguing over who had cancelled the girls audition. This had left them without a voice for a small character called Emily the Elf. As the only child except my brother in the building, I soon found myself being asked if I wanted to give it a go and audition. Much to my mum’s surprise, I decided I quite fancied the idea of being in a recording studio and with nothing better to do, I agreed.

‘That’s the way to do it!’ I said whilst looking at a stuffed rabbit that had been placed behind the mic. And the rest, as they say, is history! My love of performing and singing continued to grow and I began my career as a professional singer at the ripe old age of at 14. I took a brief break from the industry whilst I completed my English Literature degree (I'm a big fan of a gothic victorian novel!). After I graduated, I combined my passion for performing and using my voice with my passion for stories and words and became a full time Voiceover Artist and Actress. I'd love to hear how you got started in your career, let me know in the comments!

Hi, I'm Marilena! I'm a young British Voice Actor with my own broadcast quality home studio based in London. If you'd like to check out some of my previous work and see where you might have heard my voice before, click here to visit my portfolio