Rachel McVey

I'm good with natural reads, bright or warm reads, and reads that don't sound too sanitized. I've been told my voice is not generic.

 Training

I first learned voiceover during my time as a journalist at an English-language television station in Kyiv, where we had to be jacks-of-all-trade. I was trained by the more experienced team members and the sound engineers, and I got pretty good at it after months of voicing half a dozen stories a day. From there, I connected with a voiceover mentor who did one-on-one trainings with me for several months (and helped me land my first commercial jobs). I stay "in shape" with solo or online training sessions daily, same like must be done for any other skill.

 Experience

If Russia hadn't invaded my city, I probably would have never started doing voiceover full time. But when a producer from President Zelensky's media team approached me in spring 2022 with a job offer, I realized I had a talent that could make a difference for us here. Since then, my voice has told millions of people in Europe and elsewhere the important messages about our situation here. This gives me a huge sense of usefulness.
At the end of 2023, the Effie Awards selected a campaign I'd voiced as the Grand Prix winner, the most effective advertising campaign of the year. Apart from the impressive number of hits it received, I feel professional pride in the knowledge that my creative work has added business value.
Other notable projects include commercial spots for Ukraine's Ministry of Trade, the Ministry of Education, and the country's largest pharmaceutical company ahead of its European launch. I've also done probably 300+ hours of dubbing for educational products (DIIA, Modeisme, smaller local companies), but dubbing is not my favorite specialization.

 Specials

Accurate pronunciation of Ukrainian terms and city names for English-speaking audiences. I'm working on a singing demo.