By Keith Brunson
For professional voiceover artist Dominica Ivey, it all started at Macy’s. “I was the voice you heard over the public address system nationwide.” Bear in mind that Dominica created this voiceover in-store opportunity for herself “by asking.” Given her perfect diction with no detectable accent, Macy’s thought she was the perfect voice for the retail floor in All Macy’s nationwide. She was in her mid-twenties. But she just didn’t feel like she fit in. And that’ll be important later in this story.
Dominica’s desire to speak properly and sound good began in childhood. Her Mother, in particular, emphasized the importance of speaking properly. But Dominica had eccentricities. She behaved like an adult, even in childhood.
She desired to be perceived well and not just to have “good” speech; she wanted exceptional speech at a young age. “I wore heels and nice outfits to school in the third grade.”
“So with such creative energy and adult-like behavior, my parents did not know what to do with me.” Dominica explains further, “No one in the family was interested in the arts.”
Influenced strongly by the late Diahann Carroll of the hit shows “Dynasty” and “Room 222,” Dominica aspired to be as classy as possible. She was a little girl with thoughts like an adult mind.
At 13 years old, Dominica “started doing things with my voice.” Characters were her interest. Practicing the art of pretending to use her voice percolated inside her. But like so many, Ivey never thought that anything but a corporate job would ever suffice. She had been raised with an emphasis on education and a notable career with benefits, but she did not even think of the life of an entrepreneur. So, she graduated from broadcasting school with honors, “but the PAY was so low” that she abandoned being a broadcast journalist.
It’s true. Unless you’re in the nation’s top five to ten markets, you’ll work for years for very little money. It’s just the way the TV news industry is. You’re paid well if you’re in a top-ten market. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta. Just six of ten markets pay a journalist well. The rest of the country is a low-paying field that requires years of living on a very low salary in television news. Dominica was not interested in that journey.
And then, “I started seeing all of these ads for voiceover education.” So, based on these advertisements and being encouraged by a friend to do it, Dominica entered the voiceover field late in life. “It’s the one profession where no matter your age, there is no discrimination,” she comments. “You can be 109 years old, and they’ll cast you if you sound right,” says Dominica. “And so, I have reinvented myself as the only self-employed person in my family.”
Dominica Ivey in her home studio
“I wanted to do something meaningful with my life,” and “I found it in voiceover.”
Her first client was Carolina Tractor. “I knew it would be a long time to get really good at voiceover, but I had no choice; I had to.” And so, from that first client, Dominica discovered that all the voices she heard in her head as a child had value…and this is where this story gets interesting. While possessing multiple characters in her head, here’s Dominica voicing an elderly lady:
That character is just one that she does. Here are others:
Listen to Dominica Ivey’s voice-overs here: https://dominicaivey.icanvoice.com/
Dominica discovered she could do more than just characters. Here’s her audiobook voice.
And here’s her commercial voice.
That genre led to narration, which, given her inability to regionalize her voice, worked Very well.
But the world of voiceover offered Dominica an identity that really had an impression on her. “I’ve never really felt like I belonged until I entered the voiceover world.” In voiceover, Dominica can now be anyone she wants to be using her voice. “I remember working as a bill collector at one job, and they’d use my voice to get people to pay past-due debts.” But voiceover was about working at home in your own studio, which Dominica calls her “lab.”
“And when I am in there, everything I have experienced in life is useable to communicate a message, just like in grade school.” But it all began at Macy’s, in the office, a million miles away from this A-lister on the rise. “I finally found where I fit.”
