Emily McGonagle is a lawyer.
Well, she was. “It was three o’clock in the morning, and I was preparing for a case, and then it hit me,” Emily tells me. “I don’t think I want to be married to my job.” And so, in that flash of a moment, Emily decided that the field of law that she was practicing in the UK was not for her. “I didn’t care about doing this job, and my heart just wasn’t into it.”
And that’s a recurring theme in the world of voiceover. People reinvent their lives because of the circumstances they are in, which they don’t want to remain in. After all, when have you ever cradled your baby as you speak to your spouse and say, “Honey, someday she’ll be a voiceover artist.” It doesn’t happen. Everyone who’s in voiceover got there unintentionally.
Emily hails from Colchester, England, in Essex County, and grew up in a close-knit family. “It was a normal childhood, and I was singing and dancing at three years old,” she says. And while always academically inclined, the arts were not on her teenage radar.
Emily attended the University of Bristol in England and also spent a year studying in Bordeaux, France. She got a Law and French degree and went on to train as a lawyer with an international law firm in London. “It was that TV show “Ally McBeal” that was the image I held in my head, but it wasn’t like that at all.”
Emily got married and suffered an ectopic pregnancy, undergoing emergency surgery, which devastated her. But luck smiled on Emily, and she had a successful pregnancy. That was followed by another child. And all along, she was searching for a business she could practice at home while caring for her children, and that’s when voiceover appeared in her life. “I had no acting background, but I loved the idea of doing character voices and animation.
Within a month, Emily booked her first job. Ultimately, Emily would book one in twenty-four. And for the uninitiated, booking two in a hundred is considered a success. “I’d always had an ear for accents, so Irish and Australian and Regional English and the general American dialects” were voices she could do.
“Gargoyle Doyle” the trailer
Emily has an affinity for cartoons. “I love entertaining characters and find that joy in cartoons.”
“Me, The Family Pet?” voicing Rex and Sally.
In terms of how she finds the voice, her explanation is simple. “It depends on the character, so I need an image in my mind.”
“Fire Spike” voicing Mummy Dragon and Dr. Purr.”
Commercials are also within Emily’s voiceover range.
Dr. Beckmann TV commercial
Corporate explainer videos are also an area in which Emily excels.
Nominated for the One Voice Award for 2024, Emily got the nod for Best Character Performance in Animation.
And of all the payoffs that voiceover has brought into Emily’s life is her family. Voiceover and being a mum work well in Emily’s life. www.emilymcgonagle.com
And so, at 40 years old, Emily reinvented her life and is one of the most sought-after character voices available.
No question about it; Emily McGonagle no longer reports to the boardroom, and her lawyer days are behind her now.
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