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VOICE ARTS® AWARDS The 2019 Voice Arts® Awards Gala: Winners & Voices That Touched Our Hearts November 21, 2019  By Martha KahnVoiceOverXtra On Sunday
night, November 17, the voice-over community celebrated scores of the world's most brilliant artists with coveted Voice Arts® Awards - the "Oscars" of the voice-over industry - at the 6th Annual Voice Arts® Awards Gala at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, CA. It was truly a night of glitz and glamour - and a common thread: gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity and ability to speak for a living. Sponsored by the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences® (SOVAS®), this annual awards competition honors not only voice actors, but also entire teams including creative directors, producers, marketing executives, copywriters, audio engineers, casting directors and spoken work artists - in English and Spanish - as well as an individual for Outstanding Body of Work.  To SOVAS CEO Rudy Gaskins and Chief Communications Officer Joan Baker (pictured) we are ever thankful for giving our industry
a night to shine and celebrate our greatness, our humanity and our dignity on a
global level. DEAR FRIENDS ALL ... The Gala's pre-party
was abuzz as friends gathered for a glass of wine, a little nosh and an
opportunity to shine on the Red Carpet.
The Electric
Angels String Quartet welcomed us and began the evening with beautiful music
- and the almost four-hour ceremony with 71 categories was off ... filled with laughs,
tears and lots of emotion.
 The evening's emotion
was pretty much summed up when Christi Bowen (pictured) accepted her award for Outstanding Political Announcement - Attack
Ad, Best Voiceover, telling us:
While we
laughed, we recognized that many friends were pitted against each other in this competition, and we also knew that we are ALL winners, because we're allowed
to use our voice to do what we love. Voice Over! Voice Over! The kindest most compassionate arm of Show Business.
What I really
want to convey here is how we, as a community came together at the Gala. Lots of quotes follow because
these are the things that touched my heart. The struggles, triumphs, joys and even sorrows. Please forgive me if I did not include yours. There were just so many. But rest assured,
your voice touched our hearts.
'MUST KEEP GOING' Starting the presentations, actor/producer Katee Sackhoff noted that when we signed up for this job, we signed up for a life of
"no's" - yet that we as voice actors MUST KEEP GOING. That every NO is one step closer to a
YES. Her dad told her that 99% of the people
won't stick around … that we need to be the 1%.
Katee, who on Saturday at SOVAS' That's Voiceover! career event was
presented with the Backstage Vanguard Award for Media and Entertainment, is best known for her role as
Lieutenant Kara "Starbuck" Thrace on Battlestar Galactica . And I believe it was Katee who said, "We need to
reflect on energy, skill and innovation of what we need to bring to our craft." And we had quite the chuckle when Adam Harris Wolman accepted his Outstanding Promo Demo, Best Voiceover award, saying
"Thanks to whoever is going to sign me now and make me some
money!"
ICON VING RHAMES  Unfortunately, actor Ving Rhames (pictured) had a family matter and
could not be there to accept this year's Voice Arts® Icon Award. Yet he sent a beautiful video expressing his gratitude that
such an award even exists and is patterned after the incredible James Earl Jones for his contributions. And Ving thanked SOVAS for developing such a high
level for voice actors. 'WE BLEEPING CAN!'  It was also a
great night for women in voice-over, and Rebecca Davis (pictured) was a glittering example!
Upon
accepting her award for Outstanding Movie Trailer, Best Voiceover, Rebecca chimed:
Wild applause and cheers!
HAPPINESS IS 'FEELING COMPETENT' P.J. Ochlan, winner of the Audiobook Narration - Classics, Best Voiceover award, told us:
Isn't feeling
competent as a voice actor what we all strive for?
When Christian Lanz accepted his award for Outstanding Narration - TV, Film or Web, Best Voiceover, he told us about his three-year old, who'd had a terrible croup, and Christian was at a loss as
to how to get him to sleep. So Christian played his narration demo about Wild Peru for
National Geographic. Lo and behold, the
sound of his papa's voice lulled his baby to sleep! Christian was awed that
his son was mesmerized by his daddy's tones. Ah, the power of the human voice!
It was at
this point that I overheard my audience neighbor comment: "They have the best speeches here!" Turns out, my neighbor was Petri Hawkins-Byrd, better known as Byrd, the bailiff from Judge Judy! And he was right. The speeches
were most touching, funny and relevant. HOW TO BE A HERO  When Kevin Motley, owner of TGMD Talent,
introduced the Voice Arts® Lifetime Achievement Award to Peter Cullen (pictured, with Joan Baker), he said
that Peter had a voice that connected, that came to life … a voice that set him
apart from all others. He added that Peter had mastered the art of connection, effort, courage and skill with
honesty, integrity, dignity and compassion. Wow!
And what did
Peter Cullen do when accepting the award? We'll he'd promised his little boy that he would do a knock-knock joke. So,
Peter went on to
share how his brother Larry had been a military officer in Vietnam, had been awarded several Purple Hearts, and was Peter's hero. When Peter was going to audition for a hero role, his brother told
him:
Those words stayed with Peter when he
went into that audition. He took that softness, opened his mouth and
said: "My name is Optimus Prime." The rest is history!
Peter added:
It's true, we are but one large
community. When one wins…we all win.
'I WOULD WANT TO KNOW HER' Upon
presenting his wife Manuela Testolini with the Muhammad Ali Voice Of Humanity Honor, singer, songwriter and
actor Eric Beńet said:
 Accepting the
award along with her two daughters (pictured), Manuela said she was honored to be
considered the voice of humanity and to have Mohammad Ali's name attached to
such a high honor.
As the founder and head of the In A Perfect World Foundation, she has spent
much of the past 20 years working to build effective, solutions-oriented
approaches to empower the next generation. Under her leadership, the foundation has created and supported programs that provide education,
mentoring and artistic expression to under-served and at-risk youth around the
world.
Manuela went on
to say that the next generation of change-makers need access to education and
the arts to become the next generation of compassionate leaders "I believe that little by little, becomes a lot!" she told us.
A PRODUCT OF LOVE A highlight
of the night for me was when Kabir Singh won the award for Outstanding
Spoken Word or Storytelling, Best Performance, for his performance in Love Trumps Over Hate. Kabir
said he didn't have a relationship with love when he was young. But today, he is a product
of love.
And remember Katee's father's observation about 99% giving up? When receiving his award for
Outstanding
Animation Character - TV or Web, Best Voiceover, Jamie Kelton shared how
a coach had told him:
To that, Jamie proclaimed with award in hand: "This is for you!"
REPORTING ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS ...  The Voice Arts® Environmental Award was
awarded to Vanessa Huac (pictured), the
Emmy Award-winning journalist and senior correspondent for
Noticias Telemundo, and co-founder of the Sachamama Foundation, "building thriving and sustainable communities one heart at a time."From social, cultural and political events to natural
disasters, Vanessa has been a valuable source of information for U.S. Hispanics,
reporting the news from right from where it happens.
"Climate
change is very real and people who are the most vulnerable are the most
affected," she said. She was
met with loud cheers and clapping for her work on environmental issues and
using her voice to make our planet a better place for not only us, but our next
generation.
'WE HEAR YOU' How
reassuring was it to ...
And then
there was Marios Gavrillis, who won two awards - Outstanding
Dubbing, Foreign Language - TV or Film and Outstanding Body of Work - Foreign
Language. He had moved to Los Angeles only two weeks ago, has no representation, and only created business cards for the SOVAS gala. His
proclamation: "One supreme super power
and that is gratitude!" There's that "G"
word again!
CONTRIBUTIONS A LEGACY  Congratulations also go to Dave Fennoy (pictured) for
his performance of "March, the story of The Civil Rights movement, as told
by Congressman John Lewis" for Learning Ally. Learning Ally provides audio content to nearly half a
million kids with reading challenges like dyslexia, visual impairment, and
blindness; allowing them to experience the pure joy of independent reading. As noted in a Facebook post from Jenn Henry, Dave's effort in contribution, and that of all Learning Ally narrators, is more
than "narrating an audiobook," it is legacy as these words are passed
to the eager ears of those who will carry them on.  And
then there's the team of J. Michael Collins and AJ McKay (pictured) that carried home more than 10 combined awards for their involvement in the Commercial, Political, Production and Demo categories - including J. Michael's own award for Outstanding Copywriting - Commercial, Promo or Trailer, Best Copywriting.STORYTELLERS ARE EMPOWERING The evening's final award - Outstanding Body of Work, Best Voice Actor - was presented to Zehra Fazal. Earlier, she had also won for Outstanding Promo Campaign - TV or Web, Best Voiceover. Zehra's words of inspiration to us were powerful:
And I would be
remiss if I did not mention the gala's flawless live announce prowess of Frankie Divita, who was the epitome of
grace under pressure. Almost four hours of
live announce. And no mistakes. Go Frankie!
Now I
leave you with the words I began with:
As Christi
Bowen so aptly put it: "The current times are under attack, and it is our great
democracy that allows us to say the things we say and not go to jail for it." ------------------------  ABOUT MARTHA Martha Kahn is a voice actor based in Southern California and well known in the voice over industry for her participation in numerous groups, businesses and activities. She is also owner of Kahn Kids Voiceover, where she coaches voice-over youth, and is the marketing and sales director for VoiceOverXtra. Email: martha@VoiceOverXtra.com and martha@MarthaKahn.com Webs: www.VoiceOverXtra.com and www.MarthaKahn.com |
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You summed up the spirit of the evening beautifully. Wasn’t it magical?!
Congratulations to you and to all the nominees and winners.
We storytellers have a precious gift, and where better to celebrate that, than at the Voice Arts Awards - a place to share our talents, support each other and be thankful that we have the best job in the world!
Great sassy picture of you on the red carpet, too, Martha! Nice gams!!!
xoxonina
XoxoJuliette
Congratulations to everyone involved, from behind the camera (and mics) to on stage!
Rudy