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Happy New Year! ¡Feliz Año Nuevo! Why My Ritual of A Word Of The Year?

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Updated from a previously published post.

Instead of making a New Year’s resolution, for many years I have picked a “word of the year” to guide my decisions each year. My Word of the Year last year was ASPIRATION, and I’m happy to say that I definitely brought that word to fruition. I studied and advanced my learning with coaches in both my voiceover and singing careers. I studied online with an amazing VO coach in Madrid and another in the U.S to make my auditions pop and to book more work. And I studied with several expert vocal improvisation coaches throughout 2023, both online and in person, which filled my heart with more joy than I can express in words.

Unintended Consequences

Along with all this growth, guess what happened? I was overcommitted, ran around a lot doing so many things I loved and found I had too little downtime (big surprise, right?!) so my new word for 2024 is EASE. Oddly enough, when I was looking at my blog post from 2020 about my word of the year it was… EASE. I had completely forgotten! This is clearly a recurring need for me, as my family could tell you. 

So here’s what I’m thinking: I will continue to study and take working vacations, but at a more relaxed pace. That way I can enjoy my life more fully and keep working on that never ending life/work balance! My hope is that all of my choices next year will be guided by this word. Do me a favor and email me every now and then to see how I’m doing. 😉 Who knows? Maybe it will help you, too.

A LITTLE UPDATE ON OUR FAMILY’S VO’s LAST YEAR

Fabulous Museum Audio Tour Narrations

We are thrilled to share that museums around the country invited us to narrate audio guides and audio descriptions. Some of our favorites this year were: MoMa, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Miami Institute of Contemporary Art, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Seattle Art Museum and The Jewish Museum. You can hear some examples and videos here. 

We were so fortunate in 2023 to guide thousands of visitors through various exhibits and travel destinations. Whether it’s in English, Spanish, or even Hispanic accented English, we thoroughly enjoy recording this type of work. It feels as though we are exploring the world, all from the comfort of our studio! 

Brilliant Health-Themed Narrations/eLearning

We also worked on a wide variety of health and medical projects, recording spots for hospitals, health insurance plans, medical products, and health-related educational programs.

Health-medical commercial voiceover should exude warmth and reassurance. It should also demonstrate expertise in a confident and authoritative manner. The voice should bring to mind a knowledgeable doctor who not only excels in her field but also possesses the bedside manner that makes you feel at ease. That is what we had the privilege of doing for clients such as: JSI, MCD, Mount Sinai Hospital and Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Check out this playlist to see and hear for yourself.

Inspiring Public Television Voiceovers

Public television and radio have always played a significant role in our family’s life. We have been enthusiastic advocates and dedicated viewers/listeners for many years. That’s why we love recording promos, educational narrations, pledge drives and community outreach media for many stations around the country and are grateful for their trust in us to help them with their  projects.

Last year, we had the joy of working with our new clients Oregon Public Broadcasting and North Carolina PBS, and some of our cherished regulars like Maryland Public Television and WNET Thirteen in New York City. Here are some samples for you to check out.

Overdubs and Translations

Overdubbing into Spanish is an art. It requires skill and patience because there are about a third more words in Spanish than in English, and making it sound natural is one of our specialties. We love the challenge. Check out our playlist of overdubs if you’re curious. 

Other Genres

As always, we cherish the opportunity to work with our clients and welcome new ones who may want us to work in different genres from the ones I highlighted above. 

Happy 2024 to all! Contact us by clicking here and tell us how we can help you. ¡Feliz año nuevo!

Our son Zia is more available than ever for voiceover

Zia Amador is now fully done with college and now can help you with his gender-fluid/younger male voice. Some of the projects he did this year include Central Park Conservancy, MoMA, JSI and WNET Thirteen, 

Our family looks forward to collaborating with you this year. Let us know (hyperlink) if you have any bilingual projects in mind.

Two Sides to “Bilingual”

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Amador Bilingual Voiceovers Las Dos Caras

Updated from a previously published post.

The growth of the Hispanic population in the U.S. (around 18% of the population in 2023) has led to increased demand for audio content targeted to that demographic. All genres of voiceover work, from commercials and explainer videos to e-learning, corporate narration, promos and more, are incorporating Spanish and bilingual content. And the increased demand has brought an expansion of VO talent offering their services in Spanish, from fluent native speakers to those who learned a little Spanish in high school.

I think anyone seriously involved in Spanish or English-Spanish bilingual voiceover work would agree that it’s not a good idea to sell yourself as a Spanish-speaking talent if you are not able to speak the language fluently, expressively and with an impeccable accent. In this regard, there are obvious advantages to hiring talent born and educated in a Spanish-speaking country.

But it’s not an absolute necessity. There are U.S.-born Spanish speakers who are completely bilingual – native speakers who can speak both English and Spanish and switch effortlessly between the two languages.

Full Bilingualism = Value Added

In my career as an English/Spanish bilingual voice actor, my standards are exactly the same for both languages: perfect, native pronunciation and expression. Surprisingly, I’ve found that sometimes being a native English speaker is just as important as being a native Spanish speaker. Being fully bilingual has advantages:

  • It’s important to recognize errors in translation and be able to make suggestions to correct them. Sometimes English expressions are translated directly into Spanish; if you are familiar with the colloquial expressions in English, it may be easier to find the best Spanish equivalent.
  • Some translation problems are due to grammatical errors or ambiguities in the source text. If you have a complete command of written English, you can more easily identify and correct these errors.
  • In overdubs, errors in translation may be due to the translator misunderstanding spoken English words because of the speaker’s accent or dialect. As a native English speaker, I am able to understand many different accents (although I admit I still watch “Masterpiece Theatre” with the subtitles on!)
  • For recordings of a specified duration, mastery of both languages makes it easier to adapt translations to fit in in a given time without sacrificing the meaning of the source copy.
  • It’s an extra perk for the client to be able to use the same voice talent in English and Spanish and have both languages sound natural and conversational.

Quality is What Matters

Given the growing importance of the Spanish language in the United States, and just as a matter of principle, the standards for Spanish and bilingual voiceover should always be as high as they are for English. It is as important for creators of content in Spanish, as it is for English-language creators, to find speakers who have a perfect command of the language, whether they are “native” or ”imported” speakers. There are two sides to “bilingual”. In some cases, mastery of English may be just as important as mastery of Spanish.

Amador Bilingual Voiceovers Brian Demos

Compelling Narration For Effective Educational Content

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Rosi Amador – PBS SoCal “Family Math” Educational Narration (English Voiceover):  Rosi Amador provided this voiceover for an educational program for PBS SoCal, the primary Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station for the Southern California market.

Compelling Narration For Effective Educational Content

One of the most rewarding parts of our job is being able to use our voices to educate people (and to educate ourselves in the process). That’s why eLearning (educational narration) is one of our favorite voiceover genres.

The eLearning industry has seen enormous growth in the last few years. As we weather the first, and hopefully last pandemic of our lifetimes, the need for content that keeps the public informed has grown exponentially. At the same time, eLearning developers are creating ever more innovative eLearning content, and many of them have come to us for narration and character voices. We’ve also been collaborating with PBS affiliates on exciting new educational programming, and museums are finally receiving in-person visitors again, so we’re back to narrating audio tours of some breathtaking exhibits. It is never a boring day at ABVO! 

We are passionate learners in both of our native languages, so we’re fortunate that around 50% of our voice over work consists of eLearning content. It’s amazing what you can learn reading this stuff! In fact, we feel so strongly about it that we dedicated an entire page on our website to our eLearning work. (Link to page in website). 

Working alongside industry titans like Discovery Education’s Mystery Science, WNET – Thirteen Public Television in NYC, MCD Public Health, National Science Foundation, the Getty Museum and NASA, we have had the opportunity to voice hundreds of wonderful educational narration and eLearning projects in English, Spanish, and Hispanic accented English covering a wide variety of topics. We couldn’t be more grateful. 

We thought it might be fun to share some behind the scenes tips and tricks we have learned working as eLearning industry voice actors. Our experience has taught us what’s required to take eLearning narration from good to amazing.

1. A Disengaged Audience is a Wasted Opportunity

E-learning content needs to be accessible, self-paced, relevant, and personalized. Equally important, though, is keeping the audience engaged. Many of the top eLearning producers we have worked with are constantly adopting new strategies to ensure engagement. These efforts include new design elements, an interactive presentation, and organizing the content into easily absorbed bits of information. As always, our clients recognize the importance of casting a professional educational narrator. One of the most powerful teaching tools is the human voice, and as anyone who’s sat through a boring lecture can tell you, the quality of that voice matters!

Zia Amador / Rosi Amador “Meet Zia” Out Maine Educational Narration (English Voiceover): Zia and Rosi Amador recorded this animation created by Medical Care Development, MCD Global Health. MCD’s mission is to improve the health and wellbeing of people worldwide through enduring, high quality, cost-effective and universally accessible public health solutions.

2. Using Professional Voice Talent

When cost is an issue (and when isn’t it?) it may be tempting to consider not investing in professional voice talent. Nevertheless, elearning narration requires a set of skills that only trained voice actors possess. There’s a lot more involved than just reading text. Being a good voice actor means having not only an appealing voice, but also proficient acting skills. Bringing characters to life and expressing their emotions is a craft. A professional voice actor can help motivate the audience and focus their attention, increase information retention, and enhance the overall quality of the production.

3. Do a Test Run

You know that hiring a professional is essential for a high quality narration, but how do you find the right voice for your project? Easy: request an audition! Ask your voiceover provider to record a short sample of your script for your review. You can hear exactly what the VO talent sounds like, offer suggestions, and decide whether or not he/she is a good fit for the project.

4. Make Sure Your Script is Recording-Ready

One sure-fire way to slow your project down is to provide the voice talent with a script that’s riddled with errors. You’ll make things easier on all involved if you make sure the script is proofread and any unusual pronunciations are spelled out. This can save a great deal of back-and-forth between you and the voice talent. If your script is in a language other than English, we can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting a professional translation. A poorly translated script can add hours to the recording time of a project. If you need translation help, we work with an international team of translators, proofreaders and QC professionals who keep us on our toes and assure an impeccable finished product.

5. Work with Talent that Allows You to Maximize Efficiency.

We work with educational content creators and developers from around the country, and we know time is of the essence! Next time you are looking for voiceover talent, be as specific as possible about your needs in terms of performance, file format, file delivery, accent or translation. We are often asked if we can split and label separated files for an elearning narration. Check! Our clients vastly appreciate when we provide them with a customized service that allows them to work faster and smarter. Just like that, you can save many hours of editing and your whole production team will surely appreciate it. Talk to your VO provider, ask them about the different ways they can help you maximize your efforts.

Zia Amador ~ Educational Web Video for Planned Parenthood (English Voiceover): Zia Amador recorded the voice for “Am I Normal? Puberty, Explained”. Springtime Jellyfish teamed up with Planned Parenthood for their new series explaining puberty, a total of four videos. For this project we worked with the Planned Parenthood team and combined stop-motion animation with 2D digital animation to create a unique, inviting, playful and friendly video series.

A Family of Bilingual eLearning Narrators

Having recorded hundreds of eLearning modules in English, Spanish and Hispanic-accented English, our experience allows us to offer our clients a tailored service. We’ve recorded training videos, animated educational games, diversity, equity and inclusion training, slide-based courses, institutional orientations, you name it! Our family is always happy to flex its voice acting chops when asked to provide multiple character voices. We’ll work with you to ensure that your project connects with your audience and meets or exceeds expectations. Let us help you with your next eLearning narration project. It’s our job to make your job easier!

Check out our eLearning Narration YouTube Playlist

highlighting some of our remarkable clients

For more demos of our work, check out our eLearning Narrations playlist. This playlist features a variety of #eLearning voiceover projects that bilingual eLearning narrators and voiceover talents Brian, Zia, Alisa and Rosi Amador have recorded for their global clients. 

Voiceover For Educational Awareness

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Rosi Amador
Rosi Amador, Bryn Mawr College graduate

Updated from a previously published post. 

As the first member of my family to attend college, I am passionate about the issue of educational access. My parents, who raised me in San Juan, Puerto Rico, had always been quite clear about their desire for me to attend college in the United States. My dad was only able to make it through 5th grade in his native Buenos Aires. And my mom, following her graduation from a public high school in a Latino neighborhood of New York City, started working as a secretary to support her family. You can only imagine how thrilled they were when I was accepted to Bryn Mawr, my top choice for college.

I was able to attend quality schools throughout my upbringing because of my parents’ perseverance, tenacity, and business savvy. I now have the honor of belonging to a family that gives back by lending our voices to numerous educational projects. We are fortunate to collaborate with creators who are as passionate about the value of education and creativity as we are.

The Boom in Online Learning

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people shifted to remote working, so naturally, people are increasingly looking to digital learning to develop new skills to navigate today’s ever-changing world.

The US has the highest number of online learners with almost 18 million, according to the World Economic Forum, even ahead of China and India! That increase in the need for learning meant that we got to lend our voices to many more amazing projects in these last three years.

Serving a Growing Spanish-Speaking Educational Market

Forbes reported that as of 2022, 13% of the population speaks Spanish at home, earning it the title of the most common non-English language spoken. The U.S. is home to the 2nd largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, behind only Mexico. It’s no wonder that more than half of our work since 2020 has been for content creators of Spanish language e-learning. We’ve recorded for a vast variety of educational projects, in unaccented American English, neutral Latin American Spanish, and Hispanic-accented English. With our revolutionary Accent-o-meter, you can check out the varying levels of hispanic accents we can provide.

Educational Narration for A New World

My husband Brian, our son Zia and I all love using our voices to promote global education, social change and cross-cultural understanding. Our skill set is well suited to providing voiceovers and educational narration for both young and adult audiences. Whether it’s an online video, a bilingual television promo, a Spanish overdub, or an animated educational game, we are privileged to provide voice overs and related services (music, translation) to enhance our clients’ projects. It’s a wonderful job.

I’m proud to highlight some examples of voice over work we’ve done on educational projects created by wonderful clients, new and old.

WNET, New York Public Media’s “Parenting Minutes” ~ Rosi Amador, Narrator

Rosi Amador provided the Spanish voiceover and overdub for this educational spot for Thirteen-WNET, the primary Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television station for the New York City market. Many thanks to The WNET Group and Suzanne Rose, Senior Producer at Thirteen-WNET, for this amazing opportunity!

Planned Parenthood & Springtime Jellyfish’s “Am I Normal? Puberty, Explained” ~ Zia Amador, Narrator

Zia Amador recorded both the English and Spanish voice for “Am I Normal? Puberty, Explained”. Springtime Jellyfish teamed up with Planned Parenthood for their new series explaining puberty, a total of four videos. For this project we worked with the Planned Parenthood team and combined stop-motion animation with 2D digital animation to create a unique, inviting, playful and friendly video series.

JSI & the Reproductive Health National Training Center’s “Family Planning & Hypertension” ~ Brian Amador, Narrator

Brian Amador recorded the English voiceover for this educational piece about family planning and hypertension for the Reproductive Health National Training Center (RHNTC), as part of their collaboration with the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) and the Office on Women’s Health (OWH) in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health to address the needs of Title X family planning service delivery grantees and Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) grantees through training and technical assistance (TA).

Bringing our ‘Grain of Sand’ to Help Educational Media Producers

Here are a few ways we can complement your creative process in producing effective non-profit videos focusing on education and social change.

  • Using our acting skills to bring just the right amount of emphasis to your project;
  • Offering original music and production services to increase the reach of your message;
  • Offering translation, native Spanish voiceover, script supervision and a bicultural/bilingual perspective to help you target your message to a Hispanic audience;
  • Sharing your passion for your work. We love to work with creatives who also care deeply: our voiceover family and dedicated staff are all equally invested in the excellence of your project and the success of your mission.

Corporate Narration: Communicating Within, Without, and About Your Organization

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Since launching Amador Bilingual Voiceovers full time in 2009, we’ve responded to hundreds of requests for bilingual corporate narrations. As the diverse Hispanic population grows in the U.S., so does the need for narrations in neutral Latin American Spanish, or Hispanic-accented English, to reach a particular demographic. As a result, our whole family has been asked to deliver:

  • institutional reads
  • diversity and inclusion training modules
  • product installation and use tutorials
  • training/onboarding
  • human resources initiatives
  • corporate culture programs
  • B to B and B to C branding/marketing

We always welcome the opportunity to flex our acting muscles on projects requiring a variety of voice acting skills.

Communicating in a Diverse Market

Companies have long used corporate narration for internal communication, training, building their brand, and informing audiences about their products. With the restrictions on movement and gathering brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, the need to communicate with a remote audience has expanded. At the same time, the U.S. Hispanic population continues to increase in size and diversity. As a result, there’s an ever-growing need for narrations recorded in neutral Latin American Spanish or Hispanic-accented English.

As the demand for corporate narration increases, so does the variety of styles needed to communicate messages effectively. Different considerations dictate how a particular narration needs to be voiced. Who is the intended audience? Employees? Prospective clients? The general public? Whichever the target audience, the voice talent needs to deliver the right performance to reflect the corporation’s values and make the message connect. The narration needs to be clear, engaging, and genuine.

Finding the Right Recipe

We’ve been called on for a wide variety of narrations in unaccented English and Spanish, and we’ve also seen a growing demand for Hispanic-accented English. It became obvious that many clients wanted voiceover with an accent, but they didn’t know just how much of an accent they wanted. We saw this unmet need as an opportunity. And so, the Revolutionary Accent-o-Meter was born! It’s a handy tool we invented to allow our clients to choose the exact degree of accent they want.

Let’s review the different types of corporate narration that are most frequently requested:

Reaching Out: External Corporate Narrations

This type of narration uses storytelling to promote a corporation’s values, products or services. Corporations spend a great deal of time and money building a consistent brand. Voiceover talent needs to understand this in order to provide a performance that successfully connects with the audience. You’ll find examples in a YouTube playlist in the Corporate Narrations Services page of our website.


Brian narrated this web video in English

Reaching In: Internal Corporate Narrations

This type of narration is made for employees and/or management. The goal is usually to help members of the staff learn certain skills or practices in order to meet the corporation’s needs. Once again, you’ll find some relevant examples on our Corporate Narration Services page.

Making it Connect

For the most part, corporate narrations require a voice that can be persuasive and authoritative, yet friendly and trustworthy. Pronunciation needs to be flawless, and the pacing easily intelligible while also engaging. The voice actor’s goal is to put themselves in the listener’s shoes; to empathize with the listener. To bring the message to life. And that is always our end goal. Years of training and simply doing the work for so many brilliant companies we’ve been honored to serve have helped us get there. Count on us.

For more information about corporate narration, or to hear examples of our work, check out our Corporate Narration Services page.

Words That Matter

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Events in the United States this January have given us a lot to think about. We watched in horror as our democracy was imperiled on January 6th. The shock of the insurrection is still in my heart. Yet, thankfully, my fear has been replaced by the hope that took hold as we watched the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris, and the broad condemnation of the insurrection. 

Watching the inauguration, full of gorgeous music and inspiring poetry that healed and uplifted us, and seeing the actions taken in the first days of the new administration, it’s evident that compassion, justice, truth, science, competence and even civil discourse are back! And seeing a proposed cabinet that looks like America in its diversity feels like a dream come true.

Nominees include: Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior (from Brian’s home state, New Mexico), who if confirmed will be the first ever Native American cabinet secretary; Dr. Miguel Cardona, a talented son of the Puerto Rican diaspora, who hopefully soon will be our Education Secretary; and Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who grew up in a segregated town in Louisiana, chosen for UN Ambassador. And in contrast to the previous administration, all of President Biden’s nominees have actual, relevant experience in the areas in which they’ll be working. Our family is so grateful for this.

Adapting to the “New Normal”

When the pandemic began we realized that, while we were set up perfectly to work at home, we, too had to stretch and grow. 2020 was a year of learning. We started collaborations with numerous new clients, recording countless health trainings and PSA’s around COVID 19, political spots, web videos, and much more. Many of our clients had to adapt and innovate due to the pandemic, and we were able to help them thanks to our professional home studio and remote recording capacity.  Fortunately, we also got to deepen our long term working relationships with some of our favorite regulars, something we never, ever take for granted.

New Projects with Old Friends – from Clients to Friends

There are certain clients whose vision has aligned with ours from our very first meeting; that’s what happened with Planet Nutshell. They’re a one of a kind, full-service animation studio that has been creating compelling media since 2008. We’re thrilled to feature them here.

Every project Planet Nutshell has asked us to participate in resonates with our values. And they have a frequent need for bilingual content, which of course, just happens to be our specialty. Together we’ve worked on a wide range of projects promoting positive social change, as well as small and large scale projects for a wide variety of clients showcasing education, science, healthcare, music, Latino empowerment, and much more.

In 2020, Planet Nutshell approached us about a different kind of project. Founder (and now friend) Josh Gunn knows that we’re musicians and that Brian is a composer. He asked Brian to write music for an animated short film “Azúcar”, a poignant immigration story. As Josh describes it:

  “Azúcar is the story of a mother and son who have journeyed over 1500 miles to get from Honduras to the US border in search of a better life. The film follows them on the night of their attempted crossing, when nothing goes to plan.” 

Brian is thrilled to contribute his musical skills to this beautiful story. The film should be released soon. Meanwhile, you can see the trailer here.

Planet Nutshell Casts a Wide Net

We also got to collaborate with Planet Nutshell as voice actors on a variety of their clients’ projects. They created inspiring animations for the Latino Victory Project’s “Tu Voto” (“Your Vote”) campaign, and asked us to provide bilingual voiceovers. The project was aimed at turning out Latino voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and North Carolina. It was a wonderful experience and a perfect opportunity to honor our Hispanic roots through our voices at a critical time. 

I also got a huge kick out of voicing a series of whimsical animations recorded for Kentucky Educational Television focusing on music education, and my daughter Alisa Amador had the pleasure of recording the story of Lucille Packard, founder of Lucille Packard Children’s Hospital. A while back, when folks could still go to museums, I recorded for the “Culture Pass NYC” animated video. (Sigh… those days will return now that the vaccine is here, so long as we’re all patient. What a treat it’ll be to go to museums again, right?) You can see these animations and more created by Planet Nutshell at the top of this playlist. 

You can also check out the rest of their remarkable work at PlanetNutshell.com.

¡Gracias Joshua! It has been a pleasure working with people engaged in helping others understand this beautiful but sometimes complicated world.


A friendly reminder

I’m saying adiós for now. I share this amazing professional experience with you all because I have faith that reading about resilient efforts to better our world through creativity will brighten up your day. Our voices, our talent and our values can reshape our daily approach to life! Take care, stay safe and remember that the light will always be found at the end of the tunnel. We truly look forward to whatever inspiring projects 2021 sends our way from our terrific clients and new ones too, so we can bring their words to life to the best of our ability.

– Rosi

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