Some people are born with natural talents like a photographic memory or an innate musical ability. Others are gifted in athletics, have brilliant minds in english, science, math or all of the above.
Early in life I learned that I had what seemed to be a completely random skill: the astute ability to identify voices in commercials, films, cartoons, narration, etc. While I would love to try and make a living using this talent, I've gradually come to grips with the fact that voice — let's call them "recognizers" — aren't really in demand these days (were they ever?). Regardless, I've decided to do something with this superpower — and maybe, just maybe, make the world a better place in the end.
So, from now on, I will contribute to this blog instead of just shouting random facts to others such as, "hey, that's Stanley Tucci explaining the value of rollover minutes!" and "yep, that's James Spader in the Acura commercial" or "Jack Bauer is the voice of Bank of America!." How this will translate to a website I'm not quite sure, but perhaps I can share my talents with the entire Internets and finally stop annoying my friends.
I'm also aware that I might be overrating my "talent" and in reality just suck when it comes to the big-time voice recognition biz. However, there aren't many websites that present voiceover info in a way that's easy to find and fun to read. Sure, you can search Nancy Giles' IMDB profile and learn that, in addition to being the voice of the Boniva commercials, she's an award-winning correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning — but would you? That's why we're here.
Finally, as the American entrepreneur Bill Gates once said: “If you give people tools, [and they use] their natural ability and their curiosity, they will develop things in ways that will surprise you very much beyond what you might have expected.” The World Wide Web is the tool, let's see where this goes.