Kiwi voice over artist sweeps London awards ceremony
working from his studio in the remote Far North of New Zealand.
New Zealand voice talent, Toby Ricketts won 4 out of his 6 nominations at the UK’s biggest voice awards taking home the
night’s supreme accolade.
Open to anyone with UK citizenship, The Inaugural One Voice Awards were held on Saturday night (Sunday morning NZ time)
at London's Docklands Hilton Hotel in front of a crowd of industry. Born in Brighton, UK and a New Zealand citizen since
1998, Ricketts has been a professional voice talent for over 5 years.
The categories he won were;
Demo Reels - Best Male Performance
Television Commercials - Best Male Performance
Corporate / Explainer - Best Overall Performance
Male Voiceover of the Year 2018
Toby works from a self-built studio in rural Northland, where he connects via the internet to clients in New York, Los
Angeles, London and all over the world – using 4 different accents; New Zealand, Australian, British and American. His
Clients include; Netflix, BMW, Audi, Intel, Microsoft, Amazon, Samsung, Cathay Pacific, and 100s of others.
The One Voice awards are already recognised as one of the most impartial awards by having double blind judging. Hugh
Edwards, one of the organisers, explains:
“To have belief in the validity of the judging process, you need to be able to see inside that process. We have built
our system from the ground up (actually based on how I cast voice talent, interestingly!) and it has the following
criteria:
All submissions are listened to;
All submissions are anonymised (so that judges are not swayed by ‘friendship’ voting);
The identity of the judges is secret (to protect any ‘corruption’ attempts);
None of the judges are aware of who any of the other judges are (to protect ‘collusion’ voting);
None of the judges can see any of the other judges scores (to prevent any ‘historical’ voting).
The idea is to protect the integrity of the awards so that it is incorruptible.”
Toby Ricketts graduated from the New Zealand Broadcasting school in 2001, and started his career in radio broadcasting,
working for many stations at The Radio Network and Mediaworks over the years as a studio operator. He has now been
voicing for over 20 years, with it being his full time profession for the last 5.
He also runs the New Zealand Voice Academy for people looking to start their careers in voice work. (www.voiceacademy.co.nz)
Toby is professionally represented by Sarah McLeod at Big Mouth Voices.
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Toby Ricketts Quotes:
“I was blown away to be nominated in 6 categories, but to win 4 of those including voice of the year was just unreal!”
“I’m a firm believer that being a voice artist is the best job in the world. Where else can you be working with ad
executives in New York and London, but still show up for work in your dressing gown, at home?”
"It's incredible that in this day and age I can walk down to the studio in the middle of nowhere and be talking as if
I'm in a recording studio booth in New York or LA! The internet really has shrunk the world and made it possible to work
from anywhere."
Sarah McLeod (Agent) Quotes:
“Huge congratulations to Toby Ricketts for winning four awards at the recent One Voice Awards held in London. These are
international awards so to be receiving international recognition is huge kudos to Toby and his ability to deliver for
clients all around the world. His ability to deliver scripts in so many different accents is a tribute to his skill as a
voice artist and also his dedication to constantly improving his craft.”
What it means to Toby as a voice artist – “International recognition as not only one of New Zealand’s best voice over
artists but as one of the world’s top voice over artists”
What it means to Bigmouth Voices – “We are very proud to represent Toby. His professional dedication to the voice over
industry is an asset to us on a daily basis. His versatility, quality of recordings, speed of delivery, and
professionalism, make Toby a stand out voice artist. The beauty of recording VO in this day and age is that Toby can be
based in his studio, delivering top quality audio for clients all over the world, as more and more clients become
comfortable with recording with a voice remotely and if required they are able to direct via Skype or use Source Connect
during the session.”