We were lucky to catch up with Betsy Winchester recently and have shared our conversation below.
Betsy, so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
My parents both modeled optimism every day for me and my sister. Not to say they didn’t have tough days or that we didn’t have challenges as a family. But my dad, who was a therapist, encouraged us to recognize that with tough feelings, the only way out is through. And my mom showed us how important it is to appreciate the small things as well as the big things in life. She celebrated our wins and helped us reframe struggles. They weren’t perfect of course, and goodness knows, neither am I, but I feel that a huge part of our purpose in this world is to look for and see the good in ourselves and others.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’ve had a wonderfully multi-chaptered professional life, and I really wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s been such an adventure! I feel I’m right where I’m meant to be, thriving as a full-time voiceover artist, and everything that has led up to this point adds to the richness now.
My undergraduate degree is in theater from Florida State University, where I performed in many plays and expanded my love for the art of acting that I discovered in high school. After graduation, I moved to New York with a gaggle of friends and dove into off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions. We self-produced shows and started a sketch comedy group where we wrote and performed our own material. I also trained in improv, where I met a dear friend, Ian Fishman, who introduced me to voiceover.
I started doing how-to voiceovers for a company called Howcast—learning by doing paid work under the guidance of an incredible booth director, Dave Horowitz, who has since become a producer and co-founded Extra Credit, a Live Experience Studio. Around the same time, needing health insurance, I became an executive assistant at the ad agency, Havas. My boss, Doug Burcin (who has since passed away), was an incredible mentor. He could tell I wanted to continue acting and asked, “You’re already here. What would you rather be doing?” When I expressed interest in copywriting, he helped me transition into a junior copywriting role.
Through that role and subsequent promotions, I learned so much. My boss Rochelle Melton taught me how to write ad copy—sometimes into the wee hours of the night—with hard lessons about rewriting and perfecting, always with a focus on strategy and the reader. The work was exacting, especially in pharmaceutical advertising where every claim had to be backed by peer-reviewed studies. After nine years, I decided that this line of work was no longer a fit, and I went to graduate school for social work, which was incredibly gratifying. After graduating, I worked as a counselor at a substance use disorder facility, where my favorite part was facilitating group therapy. The healing that happens in that setting is profound and hearkened back, in a way, to part of the magic of improv—how the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
After getting married, I moved to Atlanta with my husband (an architect) and became a therapist at an Atlanta public school through the non-profit Chris 180, working with children who needed therapeutic support. When I was home with my newborn son, I had this needling thought: “What if I really went all in on voiceover and tried to make it a full-time career?” I’d been doing part-time voiceover work for 10+ years but not pursuing it heavily. So I started leaning in, and it took off—2020 was my first full-time year!
It’s been incredible ever since. My business has grown year over year, and everything I’ve done professionally feeds into what I get to do every day in the booth. I’ve returned to my acting roots, enriched by my experiences with the scrupulous work of healthcare advertising, an expanded appreciation and understanding of psychology and the absolute basis of everything–relationships. I work primarily in commercial, corporate narration, and medical genres of voiceover, and I’ve recently started working more in political. My clients include house name brands like Google, BMW, Microsoft, Amazon, Purple, Craftsman, PODS Moving & Storage, Lancôme, Clairol and many more. Working with purpose-driven organizations is also something I deeply care about, and I’ve had the privilege of voicing projects for mission-focused clients including the CDC, National Red Cross, The Art Institute of Chicago, Stanford Center on Early Childhood, National Grid, the National Archive Foundation, and The Opportunity Alliance of Maine.
I’m lit up by how continuous the learning can be in this field, with endless opportunities to continue exploring different genres, refining my craft, and deepening my skillset. My current fascination, which links beautifully with my social work background, is somatic experiencing and how the body holds the key to a truthful, playful and present read in voiceover. I’ve been learning the ropes of this work with Catherine Krumrine, who’s masterful.
I’ve also recently joined a collective called Voiceover for the Planet, which has a “do one, give one” model: when a client hires one of our members, VO4TP provides voiceover pro bono to a non-profit or startup focused on environmental stewardship or social justice. Being part of a community with similar goals and values has been game-changing for me this year.
I gained representation by DPN New York this spring, which was a very exciting milestone. I’ve built my business through consistent, quality performance and stellar partnership, and I’ve received nearly 300 five-star reviews and developed amazing client relationships. I love doing live directed sessions with clients, and I actually love being a solopreneur while reaching out to other entrepreneurs to share and receive support, encouragement, and insight.
I also just learned last week that I was nominated for three Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAS) Voice Arts Awards for 2026 in the categories of Outstanding Commercial Demo, Outstanding Corporate Narration Demo, and Outstanding Narration for Museums and Cultural Sites, and I am so honored to be among such stellar nominees. Looking ahead, I’m so excited to continue growing as a voice actor, entrepreneur, and member of the voiceover community, and to learn from other visionaries in this and other fields.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
I think the 3 qualities that were most impactful in my transition to voiceover were curiosity, tenacity, and willingness to take healthy risks and get out of my comfort zone. Once I set my sights on voiceover, I did a ton of research about reliable sources for info, and I listened to literally hundreds of hours of industry podcasts from leaders in the field. Voiceover professionals have to be among some of the most generous people, and there is so much gold out there for free in podcast form. I also had to learn a whole new set of skills related to the actual recording and editing of audio. I hadn’t done any of that in my earlier part-time voiceover work, so this was a big learning curve. And the act of auditioning for each job is a matter of taking your best shot and sending it into the ether. Sometimes you hear back, and a lot of times, you don’t. And so developing my own ear and sense of quality was so important.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
The Way of Integrity by Martha Beck has been a very impactful book for me. It’s main premise is that integrity is the cure for suffering. And integrity is defined not as some moral high ground, but as wholeness or aligning with your inner truth. Culturally, we’re so programmed to look outside of ourselves for direction and approval. And I really connected to the premise in this book that a more exciting journey is to move away from chasing cultural ideals and abandoning oneself to fit in or accommodate, because on the other side of that is the experience of living in flow with contentment, ease, and joy.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.betsywinchester.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/betsywindy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/betsy.winchester.1/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsy-winchester-vo/
Image Credits
Emerald Dove Photography
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