Ruth Urquhart
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February 2023
Finally got around to updating my news on here!
Since moving to lovely Galloway, work has continued apace. Books, corporates, adverts and a fair bit of animation have dominated.
Voicing Neva and others in the 2nd series of Boonie Squad has now completed.
I still don’t know what platform it will appear on but given Fantawild has just produced another 52 episodes I’m guessing it will eventually be sold! I also provided additional voices for global cinema release 'Boonie Bears - The Movie' and the series 'Boonie bears - Monster Plan'. I was a neurotic Welsh bus, a young US tiger and a Liverpudlian gopher, to name but a few. I love my job!
My lovely custom built studio is now EVEN better as it has had another refurb which allows me to vary the liveliness of the room.
In May 22 I gave an online talk to the One Voice Conference called ‘An A-Z of Audiobook myths’ which was a lot of fun to do and had great feedback. I also attended the conference which as always is both fun and informative
And in November, I was nominated at VOX for ‘Voiceover Artist of the Year’ which of course was a huge honour. I didn’t win this time but the shortlist of artists was amazing and I’m very chuffed to be nominated amongst such stellar company.
To start off this year, in January I headed for London and FDR Studios as I had been cast in the film ‘Zodi & Tehu’ to voice dub Zodi’s mum. A small part but very enjoyable and a chance to put into practise the ‘Bande Rythmo’ dubbing training I began in the year leading up to lockdown. In order to prepare the cast after so long a break, Stephane Cornicard lead some fantastic sessions to reacquaint ourselves with the technique. The cast acquitted themselves well and the film apparently sounds great! It is soon to be released in the UK, and I believe can be seen in arthouse cinemas.
As well as my continuing books ( which, I notice, seem to recently have changed from mainly romance to mainly fantasy novels…so I am voicing lots of dragons and other exciting creatures!) this year I have also been contacted by Proud Motion, a production company who like my work and wondered if I could possibly voice a STV ad for Morar Care Homes. Of course I did! The advert will be airing on STV from the 16th Feb.
Things have got so busy that I have now employed a PA to help me with admin and marketing so that i can spend most of my time recording.
Speaking of which…I’d best stop writing this and get back to the studio! Those projects won’t record themselves :-)
November 2021
Well its time for my yearly update!
Yeah, yeah, I know.....It’s supposed to be every month.......But I have been ultra busy.
Since my last news update sometime in the 1800s, a lot has happened..........
In late May, we moved house to beautiful Dumfries & Galloway. As we were in the process of moving, I remembered that Karen Campbell, the author of the very first audiobook I did ‘This is Where I Am’ lived somewhere in the area so I got in touch and to my delight it turns out that we actually now live in the same small town!
We have since met quite a few times for coffee or lunch and it turns out she is great company as well as being a fantastic writer.
Once we got in our new house, I had about six weeks without a studio as my partner Bruce toiled to create a state of the art one for me. I loved my studio at the old house but this one is even better!It's got triple thick walls with room for bookshelves and I can also do admin comfortably in there too. And more importantly, it sounds ace!
Audiobooks continue aplenty both from the big publishing houses I work with and with independent authors. I haven’t counted exactly but I believe I have now passed the 150 title mark.These include quite a few non-fiction books including the wonderful ‘Climate Justice’ by the
ex president of Ireland, Mary Robinson. A very apt book for our troubling times. I also narrated the longest book I have ever done, ‘Scotland, A Complete History’ by Alastair Moffat which was a massive
23 hours long! and a fascinating book called ‘Beasts Before Us’ by Elsa Pancrioli about the evolution of mammals.
In other dubbing news I am excited to announce that I have been cast as the voice of Neva, a magical bear, in Boonie Squad, the new TV series for pre-schoolers by Fantawild Animation.
I am currently working on this and have already done about a half of the 51 episodes! I don’t know yet where it will be shown but I will update as soon as I know. PROMISE :-)
October 2020
In my last news I was still buzzing from my trip to LA and the Voice Arts Awards. It was the beginning of 2020 and the words ‘Corona’ and ‘Covid-19’ were only just on the fringes of public consciousness. Like everyone else I was full of lavish plans for this year with plenty of big voice acting goals. And then, like a bolt of out of the blue, everything changed, we were locked down and work slowed incredibly. I was fortunate to have my audiobooks continue even though corporates and commercial work became completely non-existent for a long time.
Now, even though these are still uncertain times, things are slowly picking up again and I think this may be in part because the industry has learned to adapt to the circumstances.
December 2019
Last month I attended the One Voice Awards. Of course this year it was virtual which was sad as the best thing about it is getting together with my fellow VOs: The voiceover community really are a lovely bunch. Gravy for The Brain did a stellar job of hosting it via Zoom. I was nominee in the category of best narrator of fictional audiobooks this time and I didn’t win (the talented Billie Fulford Brown took the trophy this year) but it was SO nice to see everyone, even virtually and we all chatted long after the official awards were over.
So workwise, apart from some amazing audiobooks (More Helen Harper ones, which are so much fun to do) I have in the past few weeks had a couple of corporates directed live from my studio, as well as a video, phone messaging and radio commercial all for a property company.
I have also been offered further representation by the agency “Duygu Basara, London”. This means that I am now represented by four agents: Manchester Voiceovers, Natural Sounding Voices, Chatterbox Voices and now Duygu.
(The more the merrier! Now I just need to get some U.S. agents too)
Let’s hope that things get easier for everyone. As I write this the level of infection and local lockdowns are increasing daily and the effect it is having on society is catastrophic. As well as the personal toll on families and mental health, so many industries are folding and it is particularly heartbreaking to see what is happening to theatres and music venues.
However, I firmly believe that we as humans have an innate need to tell stories in whatever form and we will find a way to do it, whatever the difficulties.
Keep safe.