Steve Beckham

Several British Accents, Snooty Brit, Cockney, Scottish, Irish, Indian/Pakistani, German, Italian, French, Various Southern US, Minnesotan.

I worked extensively in VO throughout the 80s and early 90s doing voice work for Kawasaki Motorcycles, Hertz Car Sales, Coors, Alpha Romeo, Allergan, Richardson Vicks and a host of other companies. I was the voice for the national rollout of the Coors Party Ball. During that time, in addition to a great many national, regional and local commercials, I did a good deal of corporate narration for a variety of tech and pharmaceutical companies. I also did a fair amount of character and animation work. My favorite was voicing The Yellow Queen of Crayon for Jim Henson's Muppets on Ice, which involved singing R-E-S-P-E-C-T in character. I majored in Music and Creative Writing (double major) at UC Irvine. My Master's Degree is from Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. I graduated from the KiiS Broadcast Workshop in 1975 and did fill-in radio shifts at KiiS AM in Los Angeles. I first studied voiceover specifically with Dave Hull in 1978, then later studied with Dick McGarven and Kiva Lawrence. I founded the Orange County Voiceover Group in 1983 and directed it until 1988. Two of my most noteworthy students were Scott Rummell and Jimmy Hodson. In 1997 I became an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and that work took me away from voiceover and commercial production for awhile. I have recently returned to VO work, and am glad to discover that I haven't lost my chops. Before entering seminary, I worked in advertising for 20 years. I was Partner/Creative Director at Merishel Creative in LA, Co-Creative Director at Hunter Barth, Copy Director/Broadcast Production Director at Newhoff & Prochnow, and Partner at Beckham & Fallica. My son, Brice Beckham, played Wesley on the TV series Mr. Belvedere and I did voice work and appeared on camera for that show a few times as well. I have a Mac G5 with dual monitors, SoundStudio software, a Line 6 interface, an MXL 990 mic and an MXL 991 condensor mic. I have a small library of music cues and effects but if I need other tools for a more comprehensive production I have access to several studios including the audio studio at my son's production company in LA. I also have a decent synthesizer if I need to create an on-the-spot music cue or bed. In addition, I have a stand-alone 16-track Zoom HD 16 on which I can record. My office walls are covered in Sonex panels so it is acoustically dead. Though not entirely soundproof, it is rare that external noise penetrates the room. I have acted on stage and on television. I have written for commercial television and television commercials. I have done radio drama. I frequently use puppets when working with kids and have a lot of fun giving them unique voices and accents. The puppets, not the kids. I have a great deal of experience with public speaking, but I am also very familiar with the subtleties and textures that can be employed with good mic technique. I take direction well and enjoy directing when given the opportunity. Even though I'm a pastor, I won't go all preachy or pietistic on you... unless that's what your project calls for. I have written just about every kind of commercial, industrial and narration. I just finished writing a novel.