Emily Zeller: Audiobook Narrator
Emily Zeller: Audiobook Narrator
Let's Hear it for the Audiobook Narrators: Featuring Emily Zeller
Bio:
Emily started her career in Los Angeles and subsequently continued the journey in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong, and New York City. She's always felt most at home in those sorts of diverse, vibrant communities. As a mixed race child of a Chinese immigrant and native of the San Gabriel Valley in Los Angeles, Emily grew up hearing myriad languages and developing a keen ear for them, which has been a boon for her specialization in East Asian narratives. She enjoys walking on the beach with her old dog, Baxter.
Emily Woo Zeller is an acclaimed narrator, having received Audie, Earphones, and SOVAS awards, as well as the distinction of being named one of Audiofile's "Best Voices" in 2018, 2015, and 2013. She is a dancer, singer, and stage actor, with years of character and commercial voiceover work. Emily won a Tristan award for her work as Sally Bowles in Cabaret, and a Roselyn E. Schneider Prize for Creative Achievement from UC Berkeley. Just a few of her notable audiobook titles include The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, Fire Road by Kim Phuc Phan Thi, The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang, and Gulp by Mary Roach.
How did you prepare to narrate THE BRIDE TEST?
First, always, is to read the text and know the genre. While THE BRIDE TEST is definitely a romance, it has a number of elements in it that made it feel a little different and so I chose a performance style that is more understated than you often find in romance. Both main characters have very deep private lives and thoughts and that is compounded by their lives as immigrants/in immigrant communities. THE BRIDE TEST felt as much a book about Vietnamese diaspora as it did a romance with a love interest who is autistic, so I wanted to honor that. I also reached out to the author and a family friend who speaks Vietnamese. I am not a Vietnamese speaker, but I do know that pronunciations between Northern and Southern Vietnamese vary quite a bit and I wanted to be sure I was getting it right.
Let's Hear it for the Audiobook Narrators: Featuring Emily Zeller
Other books narrated by Emily Zeller:
Let's Hear it for the Audiobook Narrators: Featuring Emily Zeller
Let's Hear it for the Audiobook Narrators: Featuring Emily Zeller
Let's Hear it for the Audiobook Narrators: Featuring Emily Zeller
More places to find Emily Zeller:
Twitter/Instagram: @ zwooman
Facebook: www.facebook.com/zwooman
Other work by Emily Zeller:
While I have been a professional, full-time audiobook narrator for ten years now, I certainly have done quite a bit of other work. Not including the "odd jobs", of which there are MANY, these are other avenues of work I've pursued over the years.
First, and most obvious, is as a stage actor and voiceover artist in general. I've had the great privilege to voice dozens of anime characters, some video game characters, documentaries, commercials, and the neatest job so far - narration for television programs for the seeing impaired. I've also been thrilled to play lead roles in musical theater shows, including CABARET, WEST SIDE STORY, THE FULL MONTY, and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. While in NYC, I also co-created Lampazo (a small physical theater company) and worked with Dutch Kills Theater in many different capacities for many years.
Second, I am also a yoga and fitness teacher, with special interest in working with older adults.
Third, which is related to number two, is that I was a professional dancer for many years, performing and competing in Chinese Folk dance, Ballroom dance, team jazz dance, and contemporary/modern dance.
Fourth, I've worked in hospitals and acupuncture centers, primarily in administrative support and organizing roles. I took pre-med classes while in college at UC Berkeley and considered getting into the medical/healing field for many years.
