By Keith Brunson
Brooks Moore is a storyteller. One of the best there is. As the narrator for the discovery channel’s show “How’s It’s Made,” Brooks is the voice of choice for the television industry’s most recognizable brand.
Brooks Moore is the famous voice narrator of the Discovery Channel’s “How It’s Made” show.
Raised around the show horse business, the very young 10th grader became interested in radio at age 13 in 1979. Educated at the University of Maryland, Brooks knew from day one that working in broadcasting and storytelling would become his life’s work. Mentored by the very famous Steve Burns, a television icon, Brooks discovered radio in 1979. “and I liked it instantly.” This affection foreshadowed Brooks’ future that would be told as a nationally acclaimed narrator for the discovery channels’ most recognizable show.
“It requires luck,” says brooks, “and you have to work for it; it’s not handed to you.” Brooks is involved in the superstructure of the brand over twenty years ago, comments on his introduction to very well-known Steve Burns, “so he took me under his wing at Discovery, and things started to really happen.”
Brooks also had the power of renowned broadcaster Hal Douglas behind him. “When Hal befriended me, it opened doors.”
Hal Douglas helped Brooks make connections in the world of voice-over.
Politics aside, Brooks was first given the narrator position on “How’s It’s Made” from 2004 to 2008, only to be restored as the show’s permanent narrator when a letter-writing campaign got him reinstated after a couple of seasons of another narrator being used.
“It was quite a surprise,” says Brooks, “but because I love storytelling so much, I think it just came through that I was at home when narrating.”
But all of this “luck” would not have happened if Brooks had not been at the right place at the right time. A scratch track was needed for a show, and Brooks cut the track so that the impending narrator would have a baseline.
“So had if I had not cut that scratch track at that moment in on that particular day, then my voice would have never been heard, and my political connections would not have been able to award me the show,” Brooks says. “I remember it all so well. It was October of 2003.”
That particular lucky track got brooks on TLC, Nat Geo, and the Science Channel, which led to “How It’s Made.”
Brooks believes deeply in the concept of being a type-B personality. “I let go of everything, and I try to be open and available every day of my life,” he says. “I don’t have to control everything.” It’s that simple mindset that has enabled Mr. Moore to remain a constant force in the biggest network brand in the world. But being inside the organization is the first step to achieving this high honor status because “they only work with and empower people that they know.”
And content-wise, it all happened early on because of this episode, the story of how the glass eye is made.
And now, some twenty years later, the 59-year-old narrator has become the voice of one of the Discovery Channel’s most famous shows. There are no plans to cancel the series, and Brooks has become very comfortable inside the worldwide operation. The reason? Brooks comments in closing, “It’s because I truly love storytelling, and that’s all there really is to it.”
