Meet The Real Kara
Let's get to know each other before we work together!
Telling Stories Is In My Blood
I love to tell stories. In fact, below you’ll find a pretty long story that covers most of my life from the beginning right up until… the moment I’m writing this, really.
But I don’t tell my story just because I love the sound of my own keyboard. I believe that the most important thing that a voiceover can offer isn’t their voice, it’s the trust and security they give to their clients.
I understand that the project that you’re working on right now is your baby, likely something that you’ve been working on for months and have a much clearer vision for than I do.
I want you to know that I respect the amount of time you’ve already invested and are handing all that responsibility to me at the eleventh hour to turn all those dreams and hopes into a reality.
I want my customers to be thrilled with their final product, especially clients who are not familiar with the industry and might be creating all their future beliefs on voiceovers based on working with me right now.
I know time is money, quick and clear communication is key, and professionalism is paramount.
So if all that sounded like the kind of person you can trust, then I’m ready to discuss your project right away and help you get it over the finish line.
And if you want to know more, then have no fear, there’s plenty more to read about me so you can feel like we’re good friends by the time you reach that contact form!
Let's Begin Shall We!
Let Us Start At The Beginning
I’m a voicer. I’m an actor. I’m a mid-day writer. As an American Female Voiceover artist, I like to think I always bring a unique warmth and personable nature to everyone I work with.
I think… no, in fact I know, that I get that from my upbringing.
My dad was a trapper, and my mom stayed at home, raising five kids and battling the hard Colorado ground to create what became our outdoor oasis, a refuge from the chaos of life.
My childhood was marked by stories told around a bonfire by the family heroes–my grandpa, the WWII veteran, and my grandma, a brilliant storyteller with an uncontrollable yet endearing hyena laugh.
Luckily for us, grandma wrote a book about growing up during the 20th century and gifted it to all her children and grandchildren several years before she died.
Read it, or better yet, listen to it. It has a GREAT narrator. I credit her with much of my own personality—innocence mixed with a twisted dose of sick humor. There were also my uncles, a preacher and a sheriff, whose stories were brilliantly juxtaposed against the tales of my dad, killing a six-pack between First and Main, getting into fistfights, finding Jesus, being held hostage when I was young, and starting a church security organization.
These family experiences helped shape my voice as a Female Christian Voiceover artist, always inspired by the faith and humor that were the heartbeat of my family.
Catching the Acting Bug
I knew I loved acting from the first time I watched all the other kids get cast in the school play-repeatedly. Darn you, Mike Johnson. He even got a commercial spot in the 5th grade, while I was the kid never picked but always memorizing the entire show.
It’s okay, dry your tears. It got better. High school came around, and I got to be a tree! Three hours of standing with my arms stretched out while the chicken wire “trunk” dug into my skull.
Pretty sure that drama teacher hated me.
But really, my big break came with “Guys and Dolls.” The audition was approaching, I knew I could sing and act, and the dancing couldn’t be that hard, right?
I couldn’t get that New York dialect down, though, and my mama finally said, “Just pray.” The next morning I woke up talking like Bugs Bunny, ‘cept girlier. I landed the part and spent the next several weeks in my basement, singing “Bushel and a Peck” and trying desperately to dance.
The thought of being sexy absolutely horrified my Jesus-loving self. I thought spaghetti straps were the Mark of the Beast.
And short shorts?
Well, you’re headed straight to “h-e-double hockey sticks.” Eventually, I got to the point where my dancing looked somewhat like Forrest Gump when he had his leg braces removed.
It was horrifying, but they permitted it anyway. The show was very well reviewed.
Exploring A World Of Dialects
Life progressed, and I decided to take my Jesus-lovin’ self on a trek around the world. In the land down under, I perfected my Australian dialect, learned that I was not the center of the universe, and made a cheesy redemption video complete with bright lights and a long-haired man.
From there, I skipped through Hong Kong, caught a 24-hour train through China, avoided kidnapping and probing questions about my faith (legit), and fell in love with the people so much that I nearly turned my two-week stay into a two-year home.
But God had other plans for this voiceover, so I caught another train to Dalanzadgad, Mongolia.
I spent two months traveling, speaking, singing, putting on skits, helping out in community centers, and praying like crazy. In all of that, I learned that all people love stories. And language, on its own, has very little to do with communication.
What matters is how you say something, what you believe, who you’re saying it to, and where you are. One of the best sermons I’ve ever heard was entirely in Mandarin.
Don’t know what he said, but he was very believable.
I Began Acting in Los Angeles
By the time I returned to my base in Australia, I had six months of life-altering experiences under my belt, a brain in my head, and a song in my heart. I scooched back to Colorado, worked as a night watchman (a.k.a., janitor), and saved up enough money to buy a car that would help me safely navigate the big wide world of Los Angeles.
I was going to Hollywood. I was going to get discovered.
And I did get discovered. Best Buy discovered that I could be easily scammed out of $100 by nefarious customers, and a restaurant discovered that if things were slow, I’d start cleaning anything I could find. Janitor habits die hard.
Just as my 18-year-old self was cast in a play, I ran out of money. Six months had passed, and I had to return to Colorado.
But, ever the optimist, I had seen that a career in acting was absolutely possible, especially if one had more money..Well, that’s not what led me to the next life decision (really, truly…I think…), but I did get married…very soon afterward.
But I’d known him all my life.
Marriage, Military & Tap Dancing
He was the man of my dreams.
A fighter pilot with bulging veins in his arms (I don’t know why, but apparently that’s my thing). He whisked me away to North Carolina, and everything in my life changed. Suddenly my name was different, I shopped at something called the “Commissary,” and I was surrounded by army wives who could run a household and raise children while their husbands were on 18-month deployments.
Mine only had to leave for 6, but that was quite enough for me. I attended a community college and got my Associates in Arts with a focus on Journalism.
I thought maybe it was time to “grow up” a bit and pursue a real job.
But I still couldn’t keep that actress quiet, and auditioned for a show I had no business being in (it involved tap dancing). I knew I could sing and act, so I took some shoes, had taps whacked onto them, and walked my Forrest Gump hips into the audition room.
Made it to callbacks, but we all knew there was no hope. Still glad I did it.
Motherhood & Japan
Eighteen months later, I was pregnant with our first baby when we got the news we were moving to Japan.
We made it just in time for the Tohoku earthquake, the 9.1 disaster with a tsunami that wiped out the shoreline 2 miles from our house and claimed the lives of nearly 20,000 people. My daughter was born the next day in a hospital running on generator power. Since we didn’t have power, we didn’t know then how bad it was.
It became clear in the coming weeks. I would bring Emma off base, and the locals would hold her and weep when I would point and say “tsunami.” The elderly would look at her, tears in their eyes and their backs bent from years working in the fields and declare over her “Japanese!”
The Armed Forces Network and one of the commanders had started Misawa’s own version of “Dirty Jobs,” where this high-ranking pilot would go around the base filming the dirty but necessary parts of life. I approached him in church and suggested he bring in a camera for the birth of my second baby.
Weird?
Absolutely.
I envisioned it as a very G-rated satire, but he saw it differently. It ended up being G-rated indeed, but very sweet and something I will treasure for a long time…while I wince thinking of what that poor camera-man went through.
For the rest of our days, I helped with the youth theater and soaked up the crazy days of stay-at-home-momhood.
I went picking through Japanese thrift stores, hunting along the beaches for glass fishing floats. I learned the Hiragana and Katakana alphabets and could order food, have short conversations, and read menus by the time we left. It was a surreal three years.
Arizona, Acting & Agents
In January of 2014, we arrived at our new base in Phoenix, Arizona, and I had no idea then that I would become deeply involved in the city’s acting community.
The catalyst was a harmless birthday trip to a dinner theater. It was a comedy, but I was so moved as I watched the actors that I had to fight back tears.
As we left, we both realized that acting was deep in my bones, and I had to get into a class or onto the stage in any way I could. We made it happen, I got an agent, and I started auditioning for everything I could. And while I didn’t go full-time with it, it never left my life.
The laughter, the accents, the lessons on stage, the journey has defined my voice and character, bringing that warmth and versatility clients look for in a Christian Voiceover artist.
Whether it’s a heartfelt narration, a high-energy commercial, or a serious medical script, my experiences breathe life into my work, making each project uniquely captivating.
Introduction to Voiceover & Baby #3
During that time, I couldn’t get the word “voice” out of my head. So I began focusing on it while expecting our third child. And then we got news we were moving to Korea.
With now three kids in tow, we once again crossed the Pacific.
There were no appropriate schools nearby, so I became a homeschool teacher while we lived a blissful life in a 800 square foot apartment.
My neighbors were from Germany, Poland, and Long Island.
Together, we would walk among the Korea rice paddies and I would listen to their voice, notice not just the vocal sounds but also how they spoke, the speed and prosody.
They allowed me to record them in interviews so I could add their voices to my ever-growing collection of dialects and accents.
Foster Care & First Demo Reels
One year later, we were sent to South Carolina. My husband and I had wanted to adopt or do foster care. We soon welcomed our fourth child into our home, on his second birthday.
Our youngest daughter was just 3 months younger than him. Suddenly I had twins. My biceps grew faster than a speeding bullet. It was a crash-course in early childhood trauma, in food insecurities…in a lot of things.
I had this beautiful boy who didn’t know what love and safety meant.
My heart was daily torn to shreds as we did everything we could to help him heal. Meanwhile, and before I knew just how much specialized care he was going to need, I had taken a number of voiceover courses and had my first batch of demo reels created by the illustrious J. Michael Collins.
Yes, I am name dropping. He encouraged me to “please do this,” and as badly as I wanted to, my time was claimed by the needs of a little boy who lived in paralyzing fear of abandonment.
It was not the time to start a career. I still auditioned occasionally, but it was not my priority. During that time we also had several court hearings, and I was being educated on legal jargon even as it felt the wheels of justice were slowly crushing my life, my peace, my resolve.
Retirement & Georgia On My Mind
You've Heard My Life Story.
Now Hear My Demos.
Looks Like We're Not Strangers Anymore...
Let's Chat!
I’d love to hear more of your project, so don’t hesitate to send me over your script and all the additional details about the project (such as turnaround time, genre and delivery style).
If you need a custom audition, then I’ll happily record you a 30 second extract of your script so you can hear why I’m the perfect choice for your next project.
If you need me for an audiobook, then send at least a 5 minute sample of your script, preferably with a variety of characters and descriptions of them and their voices so I can fully immerse you in their world.
voiceover@karaleakennedy.com
623.229.8658
