Lisa Biggs: The Unravelling of a Voice Over Reputation

In December, very public allegations were made against voice actor, coach, and demo producer Lisa Biggs.

Earlier, in November of 2023, a group of voice actors sent an anonymous letter to the National Association of Voice Actors detailing their allegations, which in some cases, date back possibly as far as a decade.

As many as 100 people now allege that Biggs has violated agreements she made with them.

Three of the alleged victims have courageously stepped forward to tell their stories.

GRATEFUL for AI?!? SURELY YOU MUST BE JOKING!

I've been getting a little discouraged lately about the voiceover business.

We are hearing stories of lots of people potentially being allegedly hornswoggled by a particular coach. People are making up Zoom calls with celebrities that probably didn't happen. There's La Niña and war and unrest on the world stage and I'm feeling it all heavier in a way that I probably haven't since maybe 2016.

So when that happens, one of the best strategies I've found to manage it myself is to go hard in the paint on my gratitude practice.

Consistently practicing gratitude does a world of good for my mental well-being. It boosts my overall mood, it lowers my anxiety and my depression. And it's not just about feeling good. It improves my relationships, my sleep. It's good for the immune system. Lots of good stuff there.

So, as we head into Thanksgiving week here in the States, I thought it would be a great time to remind myself and count down the top five things I'm grateful for in the voiceover business.

AI/TTS, conferences/conventions, professional development, rates, sag-aftra, the vo industryPaul SchmidtNovember 16, 2023SAG-AFTRA, GVAA, NAVA, AIComment

An Open Letter to Voices' New CEO: 7 Ways to Make Up with the VO Community

It’s November and as we stare down the barrel of the Holiday Season, it's clear that 2023 has held more change and transition for the VO business than any of us knew at the start of the year.

We’ve also seen some change and transition in the PSP platforms, especially at the largest of the VO-specific platforms, Voices, as they replaced Founder David Ciccarelli as CEO with interim CEO Jay O’Connor in October.

So today as we start wrapping our heads around 2024, I think there’s an opportunity here to begin to repair a fraught relationship between the platform and the voice over community, and so I thought I’d write an open letter to Voices and Interim CEO, Jay O’Connor.

I believe that Voices can run a healthy, profitable business, provide significant value for shareholders, and have an ethical, collaborative relationship with the voice actors who provide the services upon which Voices is built.

Here are a few steps Voices can take to start to repair our relationship and show some good will toward the voice-acting community.

Voices.com Finally CAVES. NAVA Announces fAIr Voices

Tim Friedlander, president of NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors, discusses the recent victory in which Voices dot com amended their terms of service to address the use of voice actors in AI voices. Tim credits community efforts and demonstrates the power of collective action.

casting sites, the vo industry, AI/TTS, businessPaul SchmidtMay 18, 2023NAVA, voices, Voices.com, AI, bodalgo, castvoices, vo planet, aiComment

Voice Actor Remie Michelle Clarke: "AI STOLE My Voice!!!"

One of the scariest aspects of being a voice actor in modern times is AI, artificial intelligence, synthetic voice, and text to speech. Most of the discussion has been around the question of, “Well, what happens when AI steals our work?”

The scarier question to me is what happens when A.I. has your voice?

Joining us from Dublin today is the Irish voice actor and author Remie Michelle Clarke with her story of how she believes her voice was stolen directly by artificial intelligence and the difficulties she's had in pursuing the people that have taken her voice.

AI/TTS, the vo industry, tech/gear, businessPaul SchmidtMarch 2, 2023AI, TTS, Revoicer, NAVA Comments

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