Last weekend I was honoured to receive the award for Best Male Performance in Audio Drama at this year’s One Voice Awards.
The performance came from a production that I also wrote and produced myself, which made the moment particularly meaningful to me. Over the years I have spent a great deal of time developing not only as a performer, but also learning more about storytelling through production, sound design, editing and engineering. Audio drama has gradually become one of the creative spaces I feel most connected to.
There is something unique about storytelling through sound alone. Without visuals to rely on, every element carries weight. A breath, a pause, distant rain, the tone of a room, the way footsteps sit in a mix, the silence before a line arrives. All of those details shape how a listener experiences a story, often without them ever consciously noticing it.
That process fascinates me.
Much of my work over recent years has involved learning how performance and production support one another. A strong performance can lose its impact if the atmosphere around it feels artificial or distracting. Equally, the most beautifully designed soundscape in the world means very little if the emotional truth of a scene is missing. The goal is always immersion. You want the listener to stop thinking about microphones, edits and effects, and simply disappear into the world of the story.
One of the things that meant the most to me during this year’s awards was seeing fellow cast members Vicki-Jo Eva and Ben Wake recognised with nominations for performances in another of my upcoming audio drama productions. Watching talented actors bring depth and humanity to something you have created is an extraordinary feeling, and I could not be prouder of the work they delivered.
Audio drama remains a wonderfully collaborative medium. Even when working from isolated recording booths, you are still building something together. Writers, performers, editors, engineers, composers and directors all shape the final experience piece by piece until eventually the seams disappear and the story begins to breathe on its own.
That collaborative side of the work is something I value enormously, and it has also started influencing the way I approach other areas of production work, including cinematic gaming reels and character-driven voiceover material for other actors. The emotional truth of a performance should always remain at the centre of the process.
I am incredibly grateful to everyone who has supported my work over the years, whether by collaborating, listening, encouraging, or simply giving these productions their time and attention.
There is plenty more still to come.
And for now, I am very happy to head back into the studio and continue building stories in sound.
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