From the host's chair When you host a workshop, you get the best seat in the house. You are not the one at the mic, and you are not the one giving all the notes. You get to sit back and watch your students meet someone new, take a risk, and come out the other side a little braver than they went in. On August 31, that someone was Brian Nefsky, Lead Casting Director at Walt Disney Imagineering, our guest for The Voice Behind the Magic in the Hanne Rickert Voiceover Workshop Ser

The voice I learned English from I have to start with a confession. Before I ever stood in a booth, before I ever coached a single student, I was a little girl who spoke Arabic first and English second. And when I spoke English, I spoke it with an accent. So I did what a lot of kids do when they want to fit in. I listened. I found a voice I loved and I copied it until it became mine. That voice was Dave Fennoy's. So you can imagine what it meant to me, on October 20, to sit

Audio description is one of those genres of voice over that people don't think about until they need it, or until they realize how much craft is actually behind it. It was built for the blind and low vision community, and it has grown into a category that touches almost every major streamer now. I brought Eric Wickstrom into a recent workshop with my voice over students. Eric heads up East Coast Operations at Descriptive Video Works, and he was the casting and directing produ

Anime is having a real moment in Houston. With Crunchyroll actively casting local talent and Sentai Filmworks headquartered right here in the city, there has never been a better time to ask what casting directors are actually listening for when they bring an actor into a session. I sat down with Tierra Hollis, an agent at Pastorini Bosby Talent, to get her perspective from the casting side. As a voice coach, I want to make sure I am preparing my students for what the market a

By Hanne Rickert A few weeks ago I went to Adobe's Create Now event here in Houston. I was not there as a voice over artist looking for new clients, I just wanted to see what the creative community in this city was building. I ended up talking with Sydney, one of the organizers, and she asked me the question every good host asks, what brought you here today. I told her I was a voice over artist, and her face lit up with surprise. She had not realized voice over artists were p

Myself and Raquael Torres answering actor's questions about voice acting at the Houston Media Conferencee 2025. (Photo Credit: Tasha...

Last year, I embarked on a journey to the SOVAS Career Expo, seeking inspiration and connection in the world of voice acting. Little did...

By Hanne Rickert Voice over work is a business that takes time and effort to grow, just like any other! It doesn't happen overnight, and...