Jima Hester

Some of my portrayals include: Your average everyday concerned and practical woman, an urban girlfriend-to-girlfriend depiction, an older woman (in her sixties), and a down-home character (slight southern accent)

With the exception of one national radio spot for Cardinal Health, my voiceover projects have all been for local radio. Among them are a couple of No Child Left Behind PSAs, and a promo for Bob Proctor, a featured philosopher in the famous documentary film,“The Secret.” I’ve also voiced several Black History Vignettes, commercials for restaurants, car dealerships, blue-collar services, and radio promos for the local stage productions in which I’ve been involved. These include “Believe in Yourself,” “Everybody’s Got a But(t),” “Still Here,” and “One Cool Day.” Other activities take in my writing a children’s book, “Jerry Thorpe and the Misfits,” the first of a series and, also, writing, producing, and directing the play, “Still Here,” and my voice is featured on the jingles of several local businesses as well. My voiceover education and training began early. Being a grammarian, my mom was a stickler for using proper English. So, from childhood, I was taught how to speak with proper diction and to speak clearly. School plays and talent shows helped set a path for living a life laden with the Performing Arts. In addition to attending a few acting classes in 2008 with acting coach, Karen Clark-Green, I’ve also had on-the-job training, including doing a live off-stage narration for a stage production and acting in several other stage presentations, one of which, I played the central character, an older woman in her sixties, which really called on my acting skills! As a singer, along with various vocal and breathing exercises, I’ve been trained to listen for, hear, and execute nuance, all of which naturally apply to doing voiceovers. I’ve also pursued further voiceover training via a few complimentary on-line resources, including video training and website offerings. In doing numerous voiceovers already, I’ve continued to learn fine points along the way and will continue my education (formally and informally) as my voiceover career thrives. Our studio equipment includes: Cakewalk Sonar X-2 D.A.W.(Digital Audio Workstation) with Behringer interface and mixing console AKG, Shure, ElectroVoice, and Studio 7 large diaphragm mic assortment The Waves waveshell 9.2 plug-in bundle Steinberg Wavelab 6 Sony Sound Forge digital wave editor And assorted DSPs (Digital Signal Processors) including Isotope Ozone, Focusrite Red, SSL console strip, and Native Instruments KONTAKT and INTAKT and numerous others I sing, so singing on jingles, children's songs, or whatever is a part of my arsenal. Also, I write copy for clients who struggle with conveying their message within certain time constraints or just plain old struggle with conveying their message at all. My husband, who is a three-time Grammy nominated songwriter, is my producer/engineer and also does voice-overs alongside of composing music, writing jingles, and radio production. So while it's not MY additional skill perse, he brings a broad skill-set that is part and parcel to what I do and is a vital part of the Jima package.