An Inspired Chat with Shelley Avellino of Singapore

We recently had the chance to connect with Shelley Avellino and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Shelley, it’s such a great way to kick off the day – I think our readers will love hearing your stories, experiences and about how you think about life and work. Let’s jump right in? What are you being called to do now, that you may have been afraid of before?
Since our move to Singapore from the U.S., I made the significant decision to semi-retire. At the time, it felt like the right choice, but I soon realized how much I missed having a sense of purpose—and especially how much I missed being in the booth recording.

When I was working full-time as a VO, I often wished I had time to take on more coaching students. However, my schedule was so full with client projects that I was hesitant to step back, worried I might miss an important opportunity.

Ironically, when I did allow myself to step away, it created the space—for both myself and my students—that I hadn’t realized I needed. New students began to find me more organically, and I now have the time to dedicate to voiceover demo production, which I’ll be starting next month.

That brief step back gave me valuable perspective. What once felt daunting—letting go of some of the work—ultimately gave me the freedom to focus on what brings me the most fulfillment. Coaching has become the most rewarding part of my career, and it’s where I find the greatest joy.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hi, I’m Shelley Avellino and I’m originally from Wales in the UK. I’m a Voiceactor, VO Coach, Director, Demo Producer and a musician. I’ve been in the business since 2012 and it’s been such a fantastic fun career. I can’t imagine myself doing anything else.
What I love about this job, is that no two days are the same and the work I get to be a part of can be exhilarating, frustrating, tiring, wonderful, lonely, funny, sad, enlightening and so many other things. It’s also why voiceover is so unique.

I consider myself well travelled, having lived all over the world and I’m currently settled in Singapore, which is an amazing city to be in. Asia has a very special place in my heart. for me. My Dad served in the army in Hong Kong, and that’s where my love of SE Asia came from. I also met my husband there, so it’s always been a place that I’ve wanted to settle down in.

Voiceover has followed me around the world and my brand is my international sound and my international coaching style. Since finding Voiceover, I’ve mainly been based in the U.S. so I pull in my international experiences into my teaching and casting, which is very beneficial to voice talent who may not think that they can work outside of their own country.

I recently took a little step back from Voiceover to concentrate on not only moving to Singapore but also my other second love, animals. I worked as a Veterinary Assistant before getting into Voiceover, so welfare of animals has always been an important part of my life. I specialized in feline welfare in the UK and managed a cat rehoming shelter, then fostered kittens when I lived in the U.S., so I wanted to dedicate some time to that for a little while. I can’t say that my own 3 cats liked the idea much though…lol.

Now that I’ve decided to come back into the VO business after my little hiatus, I’ve enjoyed taking on more students and working towards producing voiceover demo’s in the future.
I’m currently working on keeping my VO skills up in the booth, as always, working with my favourite clients on corporate narrations and elearning and I will also be voicing a recurrent character in a new anime which will be released soon. There’s always something to look forward to in this career and you never know what’s around the corner.

AI has definitely presented challenges in the voiceover business, but I think there will always be a place for the human voice in VO, no matter which part of the business you are in. It’s just a case of knowing what’s out there and be ready to navigate and make changes to your business in line with the changing landscape.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Oh this is a great question. Actually something that happened to me quite recently opened my eyes. I was lucky enough to go on a trip of a lifetime. I went on vacation to Johannesburg in south Africa and spent 10 days in two areas on Safari with my Mother and Sister. Not only was it fantastic to spend time with my family because I’m so far away from them, but to be at one with raw nature was something else.

It’s quite hard to put into words if I’m honest. Being so close to these wild creatures was terrifying yet beautiful. I was inspired and in awe of how they survive every day. How they worked together and supported each other. More than anything, I felt small, insignificant yet connected to something larger. It really made me think about balance, patience, strength and most of all resilience.

When you are in the presence of an elephant that’s literally next to you and it’s focused on not just you, but also where it’s young are and the surrounding area, constantly on the look out for predators….or you see a pride of lions after a raw kill and how they work together to eat and make sure every lion and cub gets a share and how the lionesses take turns in hunting and how they silently signal to each other when they are stalking. It’s humbling in a way I was not ready for. It taught me to be present. You HAVE to be in the here and now. You can’t be looking at a laptop or scrolling on the phone when nature is doing it’s thing right there in front of you. It was the most amazing experience I’ve ever had and definitely shaped my world for the better.

Was there ever a time you almost gave up?
Oh many times. In a creative business like ours, it can be challenging to be in a job where’s there more rejection than anything else. You definitely have to have a thick skin. We start every month at zero, like every freelancer out there and have to work hard to make money at the end of the month. Some months are better than others and even if you’ve done everything right and worked your little socks off, you may still not bring in what you want, whether that’s in monetary terms or other terms.

There have been a few times, where my business was very quiet and some months I didn’t earn very much at all and in those times, it’s challenging to keep going. Sometimes you tell yourself that you are failing and you have to go out and get a “real job”. I think we have all been there. It’s at those times that you have to be the strongest and make sure you are sensible and put money aside for the months that are not so good. When the work isn’t coming in and it’s quiet, I turned that around and worked more on marketing or branding or learning more editing skills or taking some coaching classes. But yes, there were many times I wanted to just give up. Having great peers or friends that inspire you, will always help you get through times like this, but as business owners, we all go through it to some extent.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
I’d like to think it’s pretty close. I’m one of those people who is quite genuine to the core. I like to think I don’t judge anyone and I don’t treat any one person differently to anyone else. I think like most people, I tend to share just the good things going on my in life on social media and in person.

I’m not really a negative person, so rarely share the struggles I go through to the world. There’s enough out there already. I’m a fun, happy person most of the time but aging is a real thing and I have no issues sharing that with the public and what women go through as they age and how their hormones change. It has a real impact on not only them as people but their working lives too. My voice changed, which was hugely significant for me but I pivoted and moved on. Most people that know me in public get to see it all. I wear my heart on my sleeve for the most part. I think what they see is what they get…no surprises…lol.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. If you retired tomorrow, what would your customers miss most?
Oh this is quite a pertinent question as I recently semi-retired for a little while and my customers actually told me what they would miss. I was told more often than not, that they would miss my professionalism, my fun attitude, that I’m so easy to work with, I get everything in on time and I work over and above what is necessary. They also told me that they don’t know how they would replace me as no-one else has quite got that Shelley vibe…..I don’t know if I really understood what that meant at the time but I took it as a good thing.

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