About P. J.

Period drama class with supervillain sass.

A curious mix of fright-night chiller and Edwardian romp, P. J. is equally at home narrating dark thrillers and light-hearted romantic escapades. They live with their two horses and assorted house pets in Rural Lite (TM) Oregon, alternately enjoying the solitude and craving the connection of story. Narrating keeps them sane in the darkness.

As a non-binary queer storyteller, P. J. certainly knows the value of subtext and how to read between the lines for deeper meaning. The quest for meaningful representation has consumed them for the better part of three decades.

P. J. has narrated over 150 titles to date for Penguin RandomHouse, Hachette, Brilliance Audio, Audible Studios, BeeAudio, Pink Flamingo Productions, Findaway Voices, Spoken Realms, Audibly Addicted, Read Me Romance, and many independent authors.

They were nominated for a Sultry Listeners Award in 2023 in the Contemporary Romance category. They have a background in theatre, musical ensemble, opera, several TV and film credits, and a degree in Linguistics with emphases on Phonetics and the French language.

When not in the booth acting as a spiritual medium for the characters that possess them, P. J. spends as much time as possible outside. When the weather renders that unpleasant, they can often be found obsessively rewatching favourite shows (especially Our Flag Means Death, Severance, Killing Eve, and Hannibal), researching their Welsh and Irish heritage, learning to speak Thai, starting new craft projects, or world-building within their Sci-Fi trilogy WIP.

Member SAG-AFTRA / APA

P. J. narrates in their home studio using professional, industry-standard equipment:

  • VocalBooth Gold series with added bass traps
  • CAD Equitek E100S microphone
  • Audient iD14 interface
  • Studio One Artist using Punch and Roll
  • Izotope RX Standard

Skills and training:

  • Audiobook Narration training with Paul Alan Ruben, Carol Monda, Sean Allen Pratt, Elise Arsenault, Emily Woo Zeller, Andi Arndt, and Tanya Eby
  • Studied opera with Zachary Gordin and Layne Littlepage
  • Many years of musical ensemble experience with a wide variety of instruments, especially soprano recorder and bass guitar
  • Over a decade of theatre experience (from avant garde to professional), network TV and feature film credits
  • Bachelor’s degree in Linguistics (emphasis on Phonetics), minor degree in French Language Studies
  • Prior career designing voice user interfaces for Fortune 500 clients and casting and directing voice talent, audio editing

Accents and languages:

  • Native speaker of “General American” (California) English
  • Able to narrate long-form in the following accents: US – General, Boston, Southern soft ‘R’, Southern hard ‘R’; UK – RP, Estuary
  • Conversational accents: Russian, German, Irish, Scottish, Texas, Midwestern US, Australian, French, Cockney
  • Conversational and academic fluency in the French language
  • Basic language skills in Thai, German, Welsh, Spanish, and Latin
  • Proficiency in learning new languages and dialects quickly and accurately
  • Well versed in the International Phonetic Alphabet

Interests:

  • Queer studies, especially in the horror genre
  • Veganism, animal rights activism (vegan for over 20 years)
  • Life-long horse owner and trainer – natural horse keeping (paddock paradise, barefoot trimming, enrichment, and enlightened training)
  • National Novel Writing Month (Municipal Liaison volunteer since 2008)
  • Crafting: crochet and knit
  • Social justice and DEI work
  • Dialectology, second language acquisition
  • IT security, Identity and Access Management (IAM), web and software development (20 year career), programming languages (python and PHP)
  • Hiking, strength training, roller derby