Liz Drury Voiceovers' Blog

What does pre-historic chewing gum have to do with voiceovers? Not a lot on the face of it, but pre-historic chewing gum was arguably the thing that started me on the path to my current career. Let me explain… Back in 1997 I was a PhD student at the University of Bradford . My field of study was Archaeological Science, and I was looking at natural products (tars and resins) that had been used in the Mesolithic period (5, 000 – 10,000 years ago) as glues and waterproofing agents. These kinds of materials are only preserved in anaerobic conditions (lacking oxygen), such as water-logged bog sites, and so most of the material I was interested in was located in soggy Scandinavia. I spent three weeks during the first year of my research travelling around Demark and Sweden collecting samples to study, and during my travels I came across a number of lumps of tar with human tooth impressions in them – chewing gums. Quite what the purpose of these lumps of tar was, nobody really kne...

Well 2017 was a year of the slightly unexpected, but it’s turned out for the best in the end. At the end of May, after 11 years (with a 3 year sabbatical when we lived in the USA), my career at Franklin Sixth Form College came to an abrupt end. Over the years my role had changed from managing projects (which I enjoyed), to working in business development and sourcing apprenticeship placements (not my forte). I didn’t see redundancy coming, so I was rather taken by surprise, but apart from feeling a little sad, I wasn’t upset by it – which told me I was ready to move on and concentrate on my own business full time. I have been working as a voiceover artist on a part-time basis since 2013, and started my business in America (where they do love a British accent). Since then my business has trundled along alongside my job at the college without really growing, but now I have the opportunity to do something about that! I’ve had some fantastic PR for my business over the last few m...