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Houston, Miles & Terwilliger Win
'Unofficial' NBC News Intro Contest
Jan. 16, 2008
 Michael Douglas, meet voice actor David Houston (pictured, right). And say hello to Bruce Miles and Connie Terwilliger.These are the first-, second- and third-place winners in the recent "unofficial" Voice Off contest to render a better intro to the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams broadcast, currently done by Douglas. (See more about the winners below.)
OK, the contest wasn't begun or endorsed by NBC.
But as the brainchild of voice actor Peter K. O'Connell, the contest energized the voice-over community at the dawn of 2008 - and showed O'Connell the power of a quirky idea and viral (i.e. Internet) marketing.
Backstory: In late December, O'Connell blogged that actor Michael Douglas' new voice-over intro to Williams' newscast was ... well ... lacking in pronunciation and passion. So he issued an "unofficial" online casting call for a better job (see VoiceOverXtra's earlier news report).
QUICK RESPONSE
Voice actors are fast on the draw. Especially for fun.
Auditions flooded and bogged down O'Connell's email system. Upon receiving 60 entries within just a few days, O'Connell posted the auditions on his web site for voting by the voice-over community. A whopping 154 votes arrived. And the winners were recently announced in Episode 101 of O'Connell's spirited and enjoyable voxmarketising podcast.
In Ed McMahon fashion, O'Connell even recorded his phone calls to the surprised winners, advising them of their triumphs. Those calls are on the podcast, revealing a bit about the voices and personalities of the winners.
Now VoiceOverXtra invites you to learn more about them ...
DAVID HOUSTON
A "deep, rich baritone" voice helped pull in the votes for Houston, who receives kudos and a USB mic for his first-place win.
Not bad for a guy who began his freelance voice-over career in 2005. But he was hardly a novice.
Houston began using his voice creatively at 19, as an overnight on-air talent at a San Angelo, TX radio station, Houston relates in his bio. Working his way up to producer and copywriter for other stations, he spent off-air hours on-stage in local theatre, singing in musicals and portraying a variety of characters.
He relocated to Austin, and after a brief stint in the city's music scene (he's also an accomplished guitarist and composer) and a string of unsatisfying day jobs, he entered VO full time.
He's praised as "the voice of the tutorials" by Legal Media Inc., a Houston multimedia company. And Houston was recently selected to provide the voice of James Bond in Activision's upcoming 007 videogame, to be released later in 2008. He has also performed voice-over work for Dell Inc., OmniTrader, Kinetic Concepts, Inc., Powered, Inc., and a variety of additional clients.
BRUCE MILES
 A baritone voice that "cuts like butter" is how O'Connell describes the voice of second-place winner Bruce Miles.His career began as an on-air personality and audio producer in Phoenix and San Diego. His working life expanded to theatre, movies, TV and voice-overs - including a 1988-1993 run as co-owner and managing director of the highly acclaimed Mill Avenue Theatre in Tempe, AZ.
Miles says he now spends his days in the VO studio he designed and built, surrounded by lots of music and SFX, doing what he loves most - voice-over, production and writing.
He's heard locally in most of the 50 states and on numerous nationwide commercials and productions. Miles' voice is also heard in many countries in Europe and the Middle East.
CONNIE TERWILLIGER
 Terwilliger took her third place prize with a smile in her voice. And her career has plenty to smile about."How fun! This was a great experience," Terwilliger says of the contest. "I voted, too, of course, and what a challenge to select just three from the really great samples that were submitted.
"I hope someone from NBC or one of the other networks happens to listen to these demos, and realizes that it's time to hear a female voice doing the intro to a national news program."
Yet Terwilliger is no stranger to TV, where she began in production, then moved to booth announcing, writing, commercial production, and on-camera work.
Now based in San Diego, her career has blossomed into voice-over, on-camera, writing and stage performances with worldwide credits. She's also a corporate spokesperson, and a voice-over instructor at San Diego City College (where the next class begins Jan. 28).
Recent voice-over projects have been for Prudential Real Estate, National Geographic, the U.S. Forest Service, Kohl's, KMart, GE Money and Xirrus.
Is that enough? Hardly. Terwilliger is also webmaster for MCA-I, Media Communications Association-International. And, she beams, "I was just cast in a play - Bleacher Bums - at OnStage Playhouse."
'TREMENDOUS TALENTS'
But let's not forget the contest's creator, Peter O'Connell.
"I met so many tremendous voice-over talents for the first time through this exercise," he blogs. "Many I had known of for years, and some are great friends, but coming across so many heretofore unheard (by me) voices was a real treat."
He also has growing respect for the power of web marketing. And from viewing all the contest entries, O'Connell has this parting advice for voice actors:
Web: www.audioconnell.com
email: peter@audioconnel.com
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