Fiona Dwyer

I have a professional middle class English British accent. In fact, some people have said I sound quite posh! I grew up about 10 miles from Birmingham so can slip into a West Midlands, Birmingham, Brummie accent if necessary. I now live in Yorkshire, so can also do a Yorkshire accent, at a push!

As a journalist I have been using my voice professionally for over 15 years, reporting, presenting and producing for ITV Yorkshire’s live regional news/magazine programme, Calendar News. I also reported live and recorded as-live inserts for ITN news and ITV’s former 24-hour news channel as well as presenting live daily radio news bulletins. I covered everything from hard news (murders,trials,job losses, the economy, medical negligence, politics) to education, medical discoveries, personal achievement stories as well as celebrity interviews, including Dame Judi Dench, John Hurt, Tom Courtenay, Julian Lloyd-Webber, British soap stars and many more. Since setting up my own ISDN voiceover studio I frequently voice radio adverts, on-hold and IVR messages, corporate and training videos, audio for the web plus other narration projects. I graduated with a 2:1 joint honours degree in English and Public Media from Trinity and All Saints College, Leeds. I am a journalist, having gained my qualifications from the National Council for the Training of Journalists. I have taken part in numerous ITV voiceover and presentation training workshops and because of the versatility of my voice and the fact that I can adapt to hard or softer tones and can change pace when necessary, my voiceovers were often used as an example of "How to voice..." depending on the story or script. I have my own studio, complete with ISDN line. My equipment is as follows: Prima LT Neumann microphone Behringer Xenyx 802 mixing desk Beyer Dynamic DT 150 headphones. I love film and I am a total bookworm! It's probably because I started reading at the very early age of 2 and a half that I'm so good at sight-reading! I play the piano, flute and sing, the latter two ensuring I have excellent breath control, which is particularly important when doing voiceovers. Because I am a journalist and, as I've already mentioned above covered all types of story, I am used to voicing pieces with difficult language, whether medical or technical, as well as explaining to the public what those terms mean.