New faces, new people, new stories — this is New Voices.
Here you'll find in-depth interviews and insightful exploratories with new voice actors who nourish the industry. We explore pasts and celebrate presences as we continue creating opportunities for the industry’s future. For this edition of New Voices, we're chatting with Nour Allam from 🇪🇬 who shares how she started as a voiceover artist and narrating children's books.
Tell us, what got you interested in pursuing becoming a voiceover artist?
I’ve been interested in the sound and media field all my life, and I was inspired by Lebanese voiceover artist Maria Aswad on MBC group channels! She started as a translator for films and cartoon programs in Arabic, and worked as a producer and copywriter. But now, she does voice overs for the MBC4 channel. I think she is so amazing! Her voice can get you to watch a film, even if you didn’t want to in the first place. Because of her, I found myself searching and learning more about this field until it turned into one of my passions.
What's the most difficult project you recorded as a voiceover artist and why?
The most difficult project was narrating my first audiobook in 2017, called Ajwan. This novel had a variety of characters. I did them all by myself with different tones! And it was a long novel. The final duration came out to be 12 hours in length, but I enjoyed the experience.
What's the coolest audio gadget in your recording space?
My Zoom H1 recorder! I’m not using it anymore, but I consider it my companion to success! It’s the first mic I ever had, it was recommended to me. I found it more suitable to my budget at first, and it was great quality despite the price in the market. My first project was an ad for a charity in my town called Resala. My first paid project was for an IVR (interactive voice response) and I earned 200 EGP for it.
What do you regard as your voiceover artist specialties?
Narration, voice acting, commercial, e-learning… I’d like to note that I’m proud to be narrating children’s books. These are valuable stories that I’m narrating for children so they can listen to them through an app called Noory Books.
What do you enjoy most about being a voice actor?
When narrating a book, I learn something new.
I narrated a book called “Mom on a Mission.” Despite not being a mom (or engaged, even) I learnt a lot about preparing to be a good mom, what’s good behaviour when you know that you’re pregnant, good ways to deal with multiple kids, and so on. I really enjoyed this book!
When I network and make connections globally, cultivating friendships in the industry.
I became friends with a female Tunisian voiceover artist named Sabine, and I connected with Indian filmmaker Sajas through voiceovers. We worked on an Indian project together.
Being able to convey the emotions and feelings of certain sayings properly.
What I mean by this, is that I’ve become more sensitive to anything I read. And there are some beautiful sayings out there. When I read them, I like to focus on conveying the emotions of the sayings properly and have that reflected via my tone of voice.
What do you want to learn in the next year?
More about sound engineering. I’m currently doing everything on one track, so I need to learn more so I can avoid any future tech issues.
Do you have any questions about being a voiceover artist?
I need to know how I can represent huge brands!
Special thanks to Nour for sharing her experience on becoming a voiceover artist and narrating children's books.
Check out Nour's profile here! And listen to her most recent voice acting work:
Check out our new section with tips and advice as we bring you Ask the pros
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