Carle Monique

Middle Eastern and North African / MENA Voiceover Artists

September 27, 2023 by Carle Monique

At Blue Wave Voiceover we’re focused on elevating authentic voices from the Middle Eastern and North African / MENA community so they can give voice to their experiences and the issues they care about.

Recognizing MENA

The federal government has historically categorized people who have origins in the Middle East and North Africa as white although they do not identify with the white experience, leading to underrepresentation. According to this PBS News Hour article, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) defines “white” as anyone with origins in Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa. For decades, representatives from this community have called for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to be recognized as a new category in the United States Census to inform funding, gain access to research, allocate resources, and develop policies to serve the MENA community.

The Diversity of the Middle East

Elizabeth Saydah, MENA Voiceover Artist

Spanning Asia, Europe, and Africa, the Middle East comprises countries that represent a diversity of languages, religions, and cultural traditions. Over the past years, the Middle East has witnessed an expansion of their political presence in the United States, embracing its heritage while actively engaging in global affairs. As the world becomes even more interconnected, its impact on pop culture, politics, and language continues to grow and leave a lasting impact on American culture.

The Middle East region is comprised of countries and a British Overseas Territory that vary in size, population, and cultural heritage including Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. As the birthplace of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, these faith traditions have strongly influenced Middle Eastern history and culture.

Arabic is the primary language in the Middle East and includes various dialects spoken in different countries. Additional languages spoken in countries throughout the Middle East include Hebrew, Turkish, and Kurdish.

Growing MENA Representation

According to a 2018 report, the Arab American Institution Foundation estimated the Arab American speaking population at more than 3.6 million people. Since the 1880’s with the first wave of migration, immigrants moving from the Middle East to the United States have brought and shared their culture, traditions, food, and perspectives. The second wave of migration came following political turmoil including the Arab-Israeli war in 1948 and then the passing of the Immigration and Nationality Act in 1965 brought a third wave of MENA immigrants to the United States. Like many immigrant communities, motivations for moving to the United States include seeking economic opportunity to pursue a better life for themselves and for their families. In addition, political turmoil and civil unrest in their countries have prompted many to seek refuge in the United States with the promise of freedom and hope. A report from the Migration Policy Institute noted that close to 30 percent of immigrants from the MENA region live in California or Michigan.

Voting Power in America

According to a report from the Arab American Institute, 40% of Arab Americans surveyed identify as Democrat compared to the 24% who identify as Republicans. In states with large Arab-American populations like Michigan, California, and New York, the community has become a large voting bloc with significant voting power to influence outcomes in local, state, and national elections. Candidates have spoken on issues that resonate with the Arab-American community including immigration reform and foreign policy related to the Middle East, and according to PBS, cities such as Dearborn and Hamtramck in Michigan have begun providing ballots in Arabic. Recent elections in these cities have resulted in electing their first Arab American mayors. In 2022, five Arab Americans were elected to the US Senate, representing South Dakota, Maine, Michigan and New Hampshire.

In Pop Culture

In addition to gaining prominence for international events, the Middle East’s influence on pop culture continues to grow. Arab-American actors, filmmakers, and musicians have made incredible contributions with television shows like Mr Robot, which aired from 2015-2019 and starred Rami Malek and created by Sam Esmail, who both come from immigrant Egyptian families, and Monk featuring Tony Shalhoub. Musicians like DJ Khaled, whose parents are Palestinian immigrants, and Paul Anka, whose parents were of Lebanese descent, have made significant contributions to the music industry. Comedians including Mo Amer, and Ramy Youssef have also paved the way for diverse representation.

Highlighting Middle Eastern and North African Voiceover Actors

We’re proud to feature voiceover actors representing the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) community. Bringing in an authentic voice to your project ensures that you bring a cultural sensitivity and understanding so that your message resonates authentically and avoids unintentional misrepresentations or cultural insensitivity.

If you’re looking for a Middle Eastern or North African voice actor to reach this audience with a campaign, please contact us at casting@bluewavevoiceover.com. We’re happy to provide you with all the information and voiceover samples that you need!

Reproductive Rights

September 27, 2023 by Carle Monique

The discussion around reproductive rights isn’t new. It’s a topic that continues to take center stage–especially in the context of politics and religion–and can include often heated conversations around birth control, abortion, and access to quality reproductive healthcare. With the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, decisions surrounding women’s rights have been left to each state. The recent changes in laws will likely lead to increased pressure on leaders in progressive states to protect and expand reproductive rights. The fight will need to incorporate grassroots campaigns, advocacy work, and strategic advertising. Local campaigns will need voices in their ads that reflect the very audience they are fighting to serve.

As movements that fight for women’s rights continue to gain momentum and give even bigger platforms for amplifying the stories and experiences of women, so does the conversation around protecting reproductive rights. There are countless news articles each day about states passing restrictive laws around abortion and reproductive healthcare services, and it’s become even more urgent to fight for reproductive rights and ensure all women have access to the information and resources they need to make decisions about their own bodies. It’s an important issue not only for women today, but for future generations. Whether it’s on the local level, state level, or national level, it’s critical to continue calling attention to and advocating for reproductive rights through targeted campaigns and compelling messaging that educates, advocates, and inspires people to work towards change.

Working with a female voiceover artist ensures that these campaigns resonate and reflect the community that is most impacted by the fight to protect reproductive rights. As individuals with a vested interest in protecting and promoting these rights, the roster of female voiceover talent at Blue Wave Voiceover is committed to working with you to drive your campaigns forward. They will work with you to ensure your campaign strikes the right balance of tone, messaging, and delivery.

Hearing a woman’s voice can mean the difference of someone listening to your campaign or truly hearing your campaign, whether it’s for TV, radio, podcast, or digital ad. Limiting access to reproductive healthcare has a disproportionate impact on women of color. Our roster of diverse female voiceover artists bring extensive experience as professionals and have worked with a wide range of companies and organizations to ensure their campaigns connect with the target audience. Working with a professional voiceover talent who can deliver just the right tone and inflection can play an important role in shaping public opinion around your campaign and the conversation about reproductive rights. It’s also an opportunity to showcase your support for the very women who would be impacted by restrictive policies and laws around reproductive rights.

Krysta’s commanding, bold, and engaging voice would be a great fit for a campaign around challenging misinformation and fighting for reproductive rights. Her delivery can not only inform audiences, but inspire them to a call to pay attention and take action.

If you’re looking for a warm and empathetic voice, Joey can help you bring your campaign to life. Her authentic and conversational tone will help you draw out empathy among your audiences and help them feel like they know the person behind the cause.

As a non-binary voiceover talent who who feels affirmed voicing roles for non-binary folks and women, Allegra’s non-profit advocacy background would be a great complement to a campaign advocating for reproductive rights and driving change.

Immigrant Heritage Month

June 24, 2023 by Carle Monique

Immigrant Heritage Month is an opportunity to acknowledge the contributions and impact of the diverse immigrant community in the United States on our society, economy, and culture. According to a Pew Research Report, more than 23 million immigrants in the United States were eligible to vote in the 2020 elections, representing a large and diverse voter base that continues to grow each year. In addition, a report from the National Partnership for New Americans noted that there are more than 5 million naturalized citizens–many of whom became naturalized in response to Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric–representing African, Latin American, Caribbean, Asian, and Pacific Islander countries.

It is critical to reach and connect with this voter base, who play an important role in shaping the local, state, and national political landscape, through all media channels including radio and television. In order to reach and connect with the growing voter base of immigrants and naturalized citizens, campaigns should reflect the diversity of this community. Working with a diverse roster of talent like the voiceover artists at Blue Wave Voiceover to reflect the diversity of target audiences can increase the impact and efficacy of campaign messaging. Voiceover artists who can accurately embody different dialects, accents, and languages offer an opportunity to amplify the voices of the very audiences a campaign is looking to reach. Involving professional voiceover artists gives credibility to campaigns by bringing cultural insights, authenticity, and genuine representation.

By incorporating the appropriate intonation, tone, and emotion, professional voiceover actors add authenticity and build trust with target audiences. They can communicate the complexities, struggles, and triumphs of the immigrant community to create an emotional connection and invite empathy and understanding. Hearing authentic voices that reflect their own experiences can help immigrant communities feel seen, heard, and validated, leading to greater engagement during election season. Professional voiceover artists can evoke emotions and connect audiences to the struggles, dreams, and triumphs of the immigrant community, creating an emotional connection that can inspire people to take action, especially on behalf of policy issues that impact the immigrant community.

Immigrant Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the vibrant cultural heritage and contributions of immigrants to the United States. It’s also a time to acknowledge the increasing political engagement of the immigrant community and the impact that voiceovers have in amplifying their voices and keeping them informed during the campaign and election season.

Voiceover for Podcasts

June 13, 2023 by Carle Monique

Podcasts are a quickly growing channel with at least 3 million podcasts and 154 million episodes worldwide. As a powerful way to increase an audience base and promote a company’s brand, a high-quality listening experience paired with compelling content can help your podcast stand out from the crowd. Working with a professional voiceover artist to serve as your podcast host adds a level of professionalism whether your podcast is a branded or corporate podcast, sponsored podcast, or short series promotional podcast.

While many people are eager to get a podcast off the ground, they may not bring the skills and experience needed to effectively communicate with an audience and capture their attention. A professional voiceover talent can bring their training and experience in vocal performance and even audio production to add polish and professionalism no matter the tone or style of podcast you’re looking to achieve.

Turning Podcasts Into an Experience

A professional voiceover talent knows the exact combination of tone, cadence, pitch, and articulation to not only capture the listener’s attention but also keep them engaged throughout the podcast episode. Whether it’s a corporate podcast looking to share serious business information or a branded podcast targeting a specific audience, working with a voice actor ensures that the podcast hits the mark and sounds natural and conversational so that it creates an enjoyable listening experience and gets the listeners you’re looking to reach.

Voice actors can also ensure that a high level of professionalism is incorporated into every podcast, including those addressing sensitive topics or controversial discussions. They can maintain a balanced and thoughtful approach to keep audiences engaged and, in some cases, offer a moment of reflection and a different perspective or point of view.

Bringing a Script to Life

Having a script or a general outline is an important element of podcasts. Voiceover artists can take a script and deliver a recording that sounds effortless and non-scripted. Whether as a host or a character in an audio drama, the professionalism and experience in script interpretation that they bring ensures that podcast scripts don’t sound like the reading of the phone book. Instead, a voice actor can take any script and turn it into lively and engaging audio content that helps listeners feel connected to the podcast hosts and discussions.

Voice actors also know how to improvise and ad-lib so that organic conversation can flow naturally, especially in podcasts where the hosts are interviewing subject matter experts. They know how to navigate spontaneous moments and ensure the podcast continues to stay relevant and engaging for the listener rather than sounding like a completely off-tangent thought that distracts from the main conversation or topic at hand.

Professional Audio Production

The roster of talent at Blue Wave Voiceover all have access to studio-quality professional recording equipment including microphones, audio editing software, and even at-home studios. Our professional voiceover actors are highly knowledgeable and trained in microphone techniques, acoustics, audio editing, and bring not only the voice acting skills but also the technical skills to create a high-quality audio.

By streamlining the recording experience, you can avoid the separate costs of booking the talent, the studios, and post-production time. Working with a professional voice actor means that you don’t need to juggle the different elements of scheduling, budgeting, and managing a traditional studio recording. You’ll receive an all-in-one experience with faster turnaround times.

On Time, Every Time

Consistency is key. By building a consistent posting schedule, podcasts build trust with their listeners who may be anticipating a new episode. Our professional voice actors know the importance of meeting deadlines so that content is recorded and delivered in time for the next episode release.

Bringing in a professional voiceover talent can get your podcast launched and off to a strong start. When you work with the roster of professional voice actors at Blue Wave Voiceover, you’re guaranteed a professional and polished tone right from the start while combining the pre-production and post-production work into an all-in-one service.

AI vs. Human Voiceover

April 19, 2023 by Carle Monique

The use of AI isn’t new for any of us. Artificial Intelligence, or “AI” is used in voice recognition systems like Siri and Alexa and powers recommendation engines for Netflix, YouTube, and TikTok to suggest content we might like. Latest news about ChatGPT showcases how AI technology is being used to generate everything from to-do lists, travel itineraries, code and emails to messages on dating apps. On the other side, there’s AI Suit Up: an AI-powered photography that promise high quality professional headshots without needing to physically step foot in a photography studio. Therefore, it’s no surprise that AI has been used to generate text to speech voiceovers with the promise of human-like emotion. Let’s chat about AI vs. Human Voiceover.

AI voiceover generators promise quick, scalable options that can deliver the nuances of a human voice. But, many of these AI voiceover engines may not capture the depth and emotion to meaningfully connect with audiences. And with the barrage of messages folks receive today, the general public is getting VERY good at recognizing when a voice is not authentic. Just think about how you behave when you scream “REPRESENTATIVE” at your financial institution’s helpful phone system!

AI Voiceover Generators vs. Authentic Human Voiceover Actors

Working with a professional voiceover actor means working with someone who is dedicated to their craft and will work with you to deliver just the right tone and emotion to convey your message. This allows your message to resonate with audiences you’re looking to reach. You won’t need to listen for the emotion or wonder if the file sounds “human enough” especially when speaking about sensitive topics or messages that require a high level of care and nuance. The talent at Blue Wave Voiceover genuinely wants to get the right take and right delivery to help support your cause. We do this work because we want to voice content to elevate campaigns, organizations, and candidates that we actually care about!

You’ll have someone you can provide direction and feedback to so that you achieve exactly what you need in your audio–something that AI can’t offer due to its unpredictability and inconsistency.

Why Should You Use Professional Voiceover Actors Over AI Voiceover Generators?

When working with AI voice over software, it’s hard to answer the question of who you’re working with, but you’ll know exactly who you’re working with when you hire one of the talents who are a part of Blue Wave Voiceover. If you’re looking for a particular voice to reach a particular audience, you’re sure to find that voice represented at among our roster. Our collective of voiceover actors mirror the diversity of America today so that the audiences you’re trying to reach hear themselves authentically reflected in your message.

Blue Wave Voiceover offers a variety of genuine authentic voices that are real and reflect diversity in ethnicity, gender, and age. We know that the modern media buyer would need diversity in ages (Millennials, Gen X-ers, Baby Boomers/Seniors), multicultural voices (including Asian-American and Pacific Islander, African American, and Hispanic bilingual voices), and gender (including male, female, transgender and gender nonconforming).

Cheap Software Can Ruin A Spot

If you’re spending a chunk of change on your media buy, as well as the firm you hired to execute your digital strategy – don’t opt for cheap artificial voice software instead of an authentic human performer, just to save a few bucks. Our voiceover actors offer fair and flexible budgets – we understand that a spot that is only running in Montana won’t command the same rate as a spot running in the New York tri-state region. We work hard to make sure all of our clients and customers across the world can afford to utilize authentic, diverse, professional voiceover artists for their creative. You might think you’re saving a quick buck by utilizing an AI voice generating engine. AI is great at a lot of things when it comes to saving time or aggregating data – but it can’t truly bring the emotion of America to life with all of the inflection, nuance, and importance that your content deserves.

So, why waste the money on a software engine you probably can’t take to air? Chances are? You’ll listen to the final product and realize there IS value in human creativity and you’ll want to hire a professional actor to bring your copy to life in a way a piece of software never can.

Work With A Trained Professional Voiceover Performer

When you work with a dedicated and trained voiceover actor, such as the professionals from Blue Wave Voiceover, you’re working with someone–an actual person–who is dedicated to serving and supporting your cause and mission. The full-time political voiceover actors on our roster are committed to supporting mission-driven groups, non-profit organizations, and Democratic and progressive candidates for office because they believe in ushering a Blue Wave each election season.