A voice-over artist is an actor or actress who lends his or her voice in order to give personality to a cartoon character or to be utilized in an advertisement to name a few. The voice over can be spoken by someone who the audience will see or by professional voice talent someone who the crowd will not see. There are many devices to employ a voice-over with. These can be used in building character, creative influences in cinema, education, or in advertising and marketing.

One of the most common ways to use vocalization is in TV and movies. For instance, animated characters (like the kids from the show ?South Park?) are animated. They require voice talent in order to give them personalities and to make the show work. There are times where well known actors are used as the voice artists, such as Mike Myers and Cameron Diaz, who lent their voices for the ?Shrek? movies, or, it is a specialized voice actor, not a screen-actor who portrays the characters. Obviously, using an actor's voice is critical to building the animated character and making them seem believeable.

In other examples, there are no animated characters, but the need for off screen narration is still there. A voice-over can be used to create an ironic counterpoint, or to make a statement in the movie. This is the creative device. It can be a character narrating, or miss-matched voices speaking and the narration does not match the characters on screen. This creates a sense of imbalance and lends to the films? inventiveness, such as the film ?Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas?, wherein this technique is used.

Moving away from use in films, voice-overs can also be used for educational or descriptive purposes. Our television news is presented with video clips and commentary by the reporters, who are describing and explaining the significance of the

clips being shown. Sports broadcasts also have spoken comments, particularly when played over the radio. There are also narrations that are used as commentary by a historian or critic, possibly even production personnel about when a new movie or DVD will be released.

Sometimes, instead of just commentary or news production, voices are also used for advertising and marketing applications. We don't the actor that is narrating the advertisement, but we hear it on TV, radio, in stores and shopping malls, to name a few places. Voice-overs were primarily used on radio, but since the development of the TV, this practice has crossed over into TV as well.

Some prominent and iconic voice-over artists are Hank Azaria, Nancy Cartwright, Hal Douglas, & James Earl Jones. These artists and the utilization of their articulation talents are very useful in many different facets of our daily lives. It is not just for show business. It can be used creatively and commercially, and almost all people come into contact with it daily.