Renae Maynard

I have a knack for picking up new & different intonations, speech patterns & accents relatively easily. I specialize in a variety of accents/dialects, & can speak a good deal of Spanish, some French, a little German, plus a smattering of other languages such as Italian, Russian, Japanese and Irish Gaelic. I enjoy accents from all around the US and CAnada to all around the world, and can offer everything from a Southern Belle's lilt to a gentle Scottish brogue. I can affect Irish, high English to Cockney British accents (even to the extent of getting mistaken as cast quite often at Renaissance faires), & enjoy accents all the way from Indian, German, & down-home country speech patterns right back to California valley girl or the gruffness of a seasoned New Yorker.

I'm new at professional voiceovers, but I've ecelled at storytelling and on-stage theatre, as well as vocal performance for as long as I can remember. As a person w/a mild visual impairment, I've a life-long love affair with audiobooks, and have thus developed a keen sense of what makes good and bad audiobook narration, as well as a firm love of the new thriving explosion of audio drama. As a singer, writer and actor, I've loved making recordings of my own since I was a child- using nothing more than a tape and the nearest tape recorder as outlests for my imagination and creativity. Sometimes I made stories up as I went along, other times I told stories I already knew, and still others I would plot out a story either in print or in my head so I could act it out on a recording. I've always loved acting out my own audio plays- (sometimes with or without a tape recorder), doing voices for characters that ranged from an old Irish woman to a villainous Southern man, to a small, frightened child. I also practiced for upcoming plays in this manner- recording the lines for a character as the role so I could hear myself as that person, how I reacted, what lines needed more or less empasis, etc. In college I took a brief acting course which centered around "Blithe Spirit," and have been involved in both vocal and theatrical performance throughout college, high school & elementary school. Through all 4 years of college I was a member of our University Chorus, twice being a part of a select womens' singing group called "Camerata." In high school I spent all 4 years in Chorale, (the in-between stage beyond general chorus but not quite at the highest level of Madrigal Singers), and also was in various theatrical productions. Middle school saw me take a lead in "Oliver" as Fagan while I still participated in chorale, and primary school was no different- where I sang and acted wherever I could. Since college I have sung at various venues, and throughout my life I've participated in church choirs wherever possible. During and shortly after college I also became part of a life-action role-playing troupe, and now I've been putting together my own podshow entitled "Eclectica," centered around diverse types of music, poetry and storytelling performance. I'm in the process of buying a new computer, but I have a variety of microphones and will be acquiring Audacity, for starters- in addition to a great sound card. I'm mildly visually impaired, but have no trouble seeing traditional print, computer screens, etc. In fact I consider my visual impairment something of an asset in the audio-performance community, as I've life-long experience being a consumer of such things as audiobooks, radio drama, various descriptive services, etc. I pay attention to voices- from those on recordings on the phone to those I hear on a daily basis or while I travel. I -love- language- the structure, origin.. cultural aspects and rammifications- everything, and enjoy both listening to and learning about, but reflecting different languages and accents. I think my visual impairment has given me a better (if not simply more attentive) ear, and that's proved invaluable to me over the years as both an individual and a performer. Moreover, as an actor I love the potential of exploring different characters, moods, ideas, cultures and themes through a medium which has meant so much to me over the years, and which I believe can mean so much to so many others- for a plethora of differing reasons.