Narration Creation: Meet the narrators

Narrators bring the stories we love to life. But what does it take to prepare and record an audiobook? I asked a group of narrators four questions about the audiobook process. This series is based off of the Blogger Confidential series.

Meet the Narrators!

Khristine Hvam: Khristine studied acting for the theater and film and then, surprisingly, found herself producing radio and television. After a short stint as a morning show producer, she found that being behind the mic was far better suited to her, than being behind the scenes, and so her career of voice acting began. You can hear her in Poke'mon, WOW, various TV and Radio commercials and most notably in over 90 audio book titles. Khristine earned her first Audie nomination in 2010 for the book "Skinwalker" by Faith Hunter. And is honored again this year for her audio book performance of Lani Taylor’s “Daughter of Smoke and Bone.”

"I sort of tripped and fell into the world or audio books while I was searching for my career in voice over, and it's been the best fall yet. I discovered a real passion for this medium of acting, and consider myself very fortunate to be able to do it." -K.Hvam

Ilyana Kadushin: Ilyana has performed as both an actor and singer with companies that include: Nickelodeon, Discovery, BBC America, Amnesty International, Sesame Street Television, Scholastic, Cartoon Network, MTV and The Public Theater NYC. Her voice-over performing work spans from national commercials, animation, video games (Lord of The Rings) and audio books including Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight Series. Ilyana co-created the music duo called LYTHION, a composing and performing team. They have composed original music for film, television, radio and stage. To learn more about Ilyana as a peformer, visit: www.ilyanakadushin.com

Luke Daniels: Luke Daniels is an actor, writer, director, and teacher.  He has narrated over a hundred audiobooks and won numerous awards; including a 2012 Audie Nomination and several Earphones Awards.  Luke received his BA from Western Michigan University, and his MFA in performance from the University of Connecticut.  He has appeared on stage at regional theatres around the country, including the Utah Shakespearean Festival.  But by far his most treasured role is that of Dad to his eight year old daughter River.

Therese Plummer: Therese Plummer is an actor and voice over artist living and working in New York City. Television: Guest Star Roles on The Good Wife and Law and Order SVU. Regional Theatre:  Sister James in Doubt.  New York Theatre: Celebrity Row; New York Theatre Workshop, Under Tillage; The Irish Repertory Theatre.  Off-off Broadway credits include The Vagina Monologues, Suzanne in Twilight of the Gold’s and Madeline in the Award Winning Samuel French Short play The Sweet Room. Comedy Credits include Improv at Upright Citizens Brigade, The P.I.T. and Stand-up at Caroline’s Comedy Club. Therese also performed her one woman show, Ribbons Undone, at the Here Arts Center.  Therese has recorded audio books for Audible.com as well as titles for Recorded Books,  HarperCollins, Talking Books Productions and Audiomedia Production. She is the voice of Maya Hansen in all six episodes of Marvel Graphic Motion Comic Ironman Extremis, Dr. Fennel in Pokemon and characters for Yu-Gi-Oh.  Learn more at www.thereseplummer.com

Tara Sands: Tara's versatile voice can be heard on hundreds of radio and TV commercials, audiobooks, video games, and on several popular cartoons. She has done ads for everything under the sun, including McDonalds, Am Ex, Ford, Pom, Home Depot and many, many more. Some other projects include “Generator Rex” for Cartoon Network,” “Phineas & Ferb” for Disney, “Ice Age 4” a new “Scooby Doo” film and the video games "Dead Island," “Avatar,” “Singularity,” “Final Fantasy,” and “Call of Juarez.” Tara has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including the series “Sammy Keyes” and Katy Kelly’s “Allie Finkle,” and "The Language of Flowers." She has received several Earphone awards from Audiofle Magazine.

Currently, Tara’s voice can be heard all day long on Kiss108 in Boston and on The Edge in Toronto.

For 2 years, Tara was the on-camera host of Cartoon Network’s weekly Friday night lineup, appropriately titled “Fridays.” On “Fridays” Tara interviewed dozens of celebrities like Johnny Depp, Robin Williams, Charles Barkley and Kevin Spacey, and had more on-camera food fights than she cares to remember. You can also check out Tara on TV on 2 episodes of “Everybody Hates Chris,” The Fresh Beat Band," "The Sarah Silverman Program," and the upcoming HBO series "The Newsroom."

Nick Podehl: My name is Nick Podehl and I am a voice actor. I have narrated around 70 audio books in the last 3 years. I am a graduate of Grand Valley State University with a degree in Communications and a minor in Theatre. I currently reside in the greater Grand Rapids area of Michigan with my beautiful wife, Erin, and our cat, Dreams.

Amy Rubinate: Earphones Award-winning audiobook narrator Amy Rubinate has been a professional actor and singer for over a decade. Her narration was chosen for Booklist’s Top 10 Historical Fiction on Audio. Amy has narrated many interactive children's books and provided character voices for toys and video games. Her one-woman cabaret shows have been performed in New York and San Francisco.

Caitlin Davies: Caitlin Davies graduated from Vassar College with a BA in English. She is currently finishing her MFA in Acting at Brown University/Trinity Repertory. She has performed in New York and regionally and narrates the best selling House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast.

Amanda Ronconi: Amanda Ronconi is a writer and actor who can currently be seen in her new solo comedy, KEMPNER, at The PIT in NYC. Her previous solo show, Shirley at the Tropicana, received critical acclaim for its endearing quirkiness and was subsequently featured in an article/interview for The New York Times.

Since graduating cum laude from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a degree in Acting (where she was awarded the Stella Adler Conservatory Prize), Ronconi has performed extensively in New York City (Access Theater, Turnip Festival, Raw Space as well as workshops at New York Theater Workshop, The Public Theatre and Lincoln Center) and regionally at The Alley, Capital Rep and in many productions at The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey.

Ronconi’s film, TV and web series credits also include Deadly Sins: Greed on The Investigation Discovery Channel, Daydream Believer (Slamdance 2001's Best Dramatic Feature winner), The Understudy, and IFC’s Get Hit and Chasing Paradise.

Her voiceover credits encompass many audiobooks which can be found on Amazon and Audible.com. Amanda can be seen in commercials for Chase Freedom Credit Card, ESPN/Sony 3D TVs and BlueCross BlueShield CareFirst.

Carol Monda: A two-time Audie Award-winning narrator and AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award recipient, Carol has been consistently working in the industry for over 15 years in a wide range of genres including Biography, History, Inspirational, Young Adult, Mystery, Suspense, Western, Dramatic Fiction, Pulp Fiction, and Romance.

She is a frequent reader for Recorded Books, where she was recently showcased as a featured narrator in their catalog. She has also recorded for Harper Audio, Books On Tape, listentogenius.com, Redwood Audio, Edge Studio, HighBridge Audio, Audible.com, and Hachette Book Group.

Kate Rudd: Kate Rudd is a narrator, actress and singer living in West Michigan. Kate is currently nominated in the multi-voice category of the 2012 Audie Awards for her work with Luke Daniels on 'Bruiser'.