Jenna Birmingham is an exceptional commercial-producing talent. One of the nation's most heard. But she manages a problem. "I'm bi-polar, and being bi-polar has challenges, and I'm trying to break that stigma," says Jenna, "but I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't have it." Says Jenna.
Jenna Birmingham in the studio
Jenna was adopted, and "I was very blessed as a child to have been adopted by a wonderful family, but "I loved to talk and got in trouble for talking so much." And she was a rare child. "Walking at 9/10 months old, I was talking in sentences at one year old and would spend all day trying to learn how to tie my shoelaces."
Certified in the third grade with an IQ of 159-160 (only 1 in 31,560 people have this intelligence quotient), she was placed in the gifted and talented program. This is when educators identify a highly intelligent child who would not benefit from the standard curriculum and give them advanced classes so they can learn at their unique IQ level.
Music became interesting to Jenna early on, so she learned to play the flute. "And I also sing, but at 14. I was diagnosed with bipolar," she tells me, "And it took a couple of years to accept my bipolar condition." Early on, Jenna learned when a manic mode would set in, "I'd talk to my doctor, get the medicine I needed to stabilize before things get out of hand.”
Jenna was prescribed 1500 milligrams of lithium, prescribed at 14 years old by a California psychiatrist. "That doctor didn't give a shit how I felt, so I self-medicated and took drugs to kill my meds. Pot didn't work, LSD didn't work, but METH really worked and made me feel like myself again." Jenna confides, "And on weekends, usually all three at the same time." And, as Jenna continues, "I carried different personas everywhere I went from school to church to family to the boyfriend. I learned to eat while on drugs, so I wouldn’t get caught and I could keep doing what I wanted.”
Rocky Mountain Academy Rehabilitation Center in Bonners Ferry, Idaho.
But trouble hit when she got addicted to METH, and that's when Jenna was sent to a place that could help her escape the vortex of addiction. It was Rocky Mountain Academy in Bonners Ferry, Idaho. This was one of the schools in the CEDU program known as part of the Troubled Teen Industry. A CEDU is an acronym for Charles E. Dederich University, which lives by the credo, "See yourself as you are and do something about it." Jenna adds, "I had hit rock bottom, but I said to my parents, "So, you're sending me to the fucking potato state?”
But here's a significant statement. "I am 99 percent sure that had I not gone there, I would have never lived to see 18."
Through all of this, Jenna turned 18 in February of 1994, and "I wound up meeting a guy, and we got married in March." She called her mother and said, "Mom, I got married last night." That marriage turned into a pregnancy in October, "even though I was on the pill, I got pregnant anyway." And that meant "money was hard as a young Mom." So, Jenna's husband (at the time) joined the Navy, "and I had my son in Italy, and while there, doing voiceover simmered in my head."
In 2007, while stationed in Hawaii, Jenna was hired by a five-station radio group, Visionary Related Entertainment. "It was definitely an aha moment." Her first voice sweeper was for McDonald's. This experience led to voices.com for about a year, and "that's when I started getting bookings as a voiceover artist and I produced liners. “I fell in love with production while working at Visionary Related Entertainment. I started for free in the Promotions department, and they eventually hired me as a freelance voice and producer. When they let me go, I said I was willing to do it for free; they said I was too good to do it for free. I was paid $10 an hour.”
“Before the day was out, I was hired to work for Ron Jacobs for his online radio station, where I gained more confidence in my production skills. He also wouldn’t let me quit when I was getting ready to move back to California. I had to write a letter of resignation. He was not happy.”
"To do this, you have to have thick skin." But that made no difference to Jenna. She began her education with voice classes and became a premier female voice talent known for exceptional voice acting in many sectors, especially commercials. “But Dad passed and left me some money. My first thoughts were to travel and invest in classes because you should never stop training."
The result? Automotive, commercials, imaging, promo…you name it—all under one roof. Go to www.jennabirmingham.com to hear Jenna at her very best.
Winner of an enormous number of awards, here's the Best Automotive Performance Female award.
Here's her nomination for best commercial female performance.
And here are some examples, just a few, of Jenna's award-winning production work.
Besides being a voice actor, Jenna works as a voice talent for Audacy. "I cut about (20) commercials a day, and at my hub, I can voice for (11) U.S. markets and (250) + stations across the country as well as streaming channels." Voicing about 1000 commercials a year, Jenna Is, in truth, a voice to be reckoned with. "I've voiced over 550 commercials already this year." So, what is Jenna's definition of being who she sees herself to be? "I live up to the title of BadAss, which to me means, "Owning who you are with things you do well. I don’t see myself as a badass. I realize that I act like one according to other people, but I’m just me doing my thing. I’m not trying to be a badass per se.”
So, it's been a long time since the little girl on the trike in the creek has had life so simple.
Having just been hired as the new imaging voice for New Country Music Radio, Jenna is literally heard around the country by millions of people daily. She continues to manage her bipolar condition "because episodes can be SCARY."
But look where the adopted child with bipolar has landed. She is undoubtedly one of the country's leading female voice talents.
And even though there is a mental condition to manage, two children to Mother, and scads of commercials to voice, deep down inside, she's still the little girl who wanted to get her shoes tied when she was a child.
And as offbeat as she may appear, what you're reading about is one of the country's most successful female voice artists. Inside, she's still that little girl. But let's face it: by constantly studying through classes and continuously learning the little girl…has grown up.
