MVO: The Voice-Over Guys’ likes to check-in with our male voice talents and today we talk with GEORGE WASHINGTON III about a recent voiceover project he voiced.
1. Can you tell us about a recent voiceover project you’ve recently enjoyed working on? Who was it for?
Without question, it was the project to be the African American Male voice for the companion phone app for the new National Museum of African-American History and Culture at the Smithsonian Institute.
2. What was the project all about?
The NAAMHC just opened in Washington, D.C., and is the culmination of decades of effort to create the only national museum for recording and interpreting African-American life, culture, and history. My portion of this project was to provide an African American voice for a number of the exhibit items represented in the companion app.
3. How did the project come to you? Agent? Website? Past client?
I was cast in this by Rosi Amador, a friend and colleague in Cambridge, MA.
4. What was the most interesting or enjoyable part of this project for you?
This may be the most important voiceover project I have ever done. To be a part of this museum in particular is unbelievably humbling for me. Because the museum itself is so important on a personal level, I could not be more flattered to be a part of it. One section, “David Driskell ‘Behold Thy Son’ 1956” actually brought me to tears. It was about a painting created after the death of Emmett Till, a 15 year old boy beaten to death in Mississippi for flirting with a white woman in 1955. His mother demanded an open casket so people could see what had happened to her son. This image, combined with the memory of singing a piece years ago in which I soloed the line “Woman, behold thy son, son behold thy mother” caused me to have to take a moment to compose myself while reading the entry.
The entire app, which includes Spanish voices by Rosi, Brian and Zia Amador and African American female voice Iesha Nyree is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
LISTEN TO GEORGE WASHINGTON III AS PART OF THE NMAAHC EXHIBIT….
In 2003, I began voicing with a trip to a local recording studio to do some narration bits for a First Union National Bank industrial. The gig stirred my imagination, and I began the research and practice to make my first demos. Working with sources both local and national, new opportunities came over time, and I started working on projects as small as phone messaging to as large as national ad campaigns.
Since that time, I have provided voice over services in documentaries, video games, radio and television commercials, in store announcements, marketing on hold, websites and web ads, virtually every aspect of the voice-over industry. My voice has represented companies like McDonalds, Courtyard by Marriott, Whole Foods, Big Lots, Time Warner Cable, and Lowe’s Home Improvement. My home studio is giving me the opportunity to build on my voicing successes, and I am looking to keep growing with new clients and outlets for years to come.
I have called Charlotte home since 1998 with my daughters Grace, Naomi and Ella, and my son Jordan.