Although painfully shy as a child, Debbie loved being in the school plays and reading fantasy and adventure books, such as The Faraway Tree series and The Famous Five. The escapism of sci-fi and fantasy are even now among her favourite film and tv viewing.
Working for Mobil Oil Trading & Supply in London, surrounded by high-flying foreigners was a real education in different nationalities and big personalities, not only those in the trading room but all the traders and brokers she had to field on the phones.
In a very, very different way, moving to Mobil Oil UK was also an educational experience, selling diesel to haulage companies, with a meeting one day in a huge boardroom, the next a dusty portacabin on a muddy farm.
Debbie attended evening classes at Theatre Arts, performing plays and musicals and having a ball… gaining a LAMDA Acting Diploma, though she since acknowledges that TV & Film would have been the preferred route and possibly would not have been lured away from her creative side by the corporate income, until she escaped, intending to look for a vibrant, fun company to suit her creativity and personality, though somehow sidetracked and worked for a few small companies… a whole other story entirely, which we will skip over…
A huge leap from the rat race into self-employment in 1995 was scary but exciting and has been a rollercoaster of mahoosive highs and dismal lows, though much of the ride has been more gentle. This allowed Debbie the freedom to mix her creative and business sides far more effectively and her experiences in telecoms, business networking/event hosting and more recently LED lighting have, she believes, contributed to her strong work ethic and people skills.
During this time Debbie gained further experience from courses, from presenting to various filmmaking courses at Raindance in London, resulting in writing & directing (and reluctantly producing… another story!) her short comedy ‘Blow Job’, which was screened at the Raindance Independent Film Festival in 2002. This led to crewing on other film projects, the best by far being as 2nd Assistant Director on ‘Evil Aliens’, an independent feature by the highly talented Jake West in 2005.
Missing being ‘in front’ of camera so to speak, Debbie made the decision to focus on voice overs, which she had been doing along the way and had long desired to do professionally. She honed her skills with voice courses and coaching, the training and varied experience contribute to her quality and range of voice overs, from professional & relaxed, fresh & fun, big & charismatic, sultry & seductive, to quirky & cartoon. Clients have also described her voice as chocolatey, reassuring and sing-song.
She is also a qualified live theatre Audio Describer, through the See-a-Voice project by VocalEyes. As resident Audio Describer for Lighthouse Theatre for 4 years, cuts the last few years reduced audio described shows to Panto only.
Recent work includes a large corporate project for Twycross Zoo, voicing their entire internal staff induction training modules. Other voice work includes commercials, promos, corporate/website narration and audio books…
Although focusing on voice, Debbie has a natural flair for making people feel relaxed and chatty and has put this talent into practice presenting on camera interviews at business events, quirky interviews with The Hamiltons and Les Dennis, for Chattoon and several radio interviews on the weekly show Let’s Talk Business, distributed to over 20 UK radio stations.
Above merely scrapes the surface, though I wouldn’t inflict more on you… however, if you’re still here and awake, some additional & random info about ‘me’:
I now live by the gorgeous Dorset coast and have a home recording studio, though also still spend a lot of time in London.
I own a scooter, the push variety… which I use regularly to ‘scoot’ with my 10 year old niece.
I’ve been a member of Soho House since 2002, though have yet to visit the ‘Houses’ in LA and Miami, which I look forward to doing!
I love Dolphins and years ago spent a week at the Dolphin Research Centre in the Florida Keys.
My fave character is Tigger, because he makes me smile… and not sure if it’s related and can’t believe I’m sharing this… I bounce when I’m happy or excited… not as boisterously as Tigger thankfully, almost imperceptibly when in public… but it’s a bounce!
My life is an adventure, not always fun or pleasant but it’s all an adventure.
That’s all folks! I can see you… breathing a sigh of relief!
