Kaye (Gideon) Weaver ’04, wife to Zach and a mom of four, has recently stepped into a career as a voice actor after years out of the workforce while raising children. Amidst the twists and turns of her life journey, she’s trusted the Lord to direct her path with the skills she has developed and cultivated over the years.

Kaye’s fascination with the world of documentaries led her to major in communication at Geneva. Inspired by the Pittsburgh documentarian Rick Sebak and with a growing interest in foley art (the art of sound effects), Kaye created an independent-study documentary on the Genevans during her time at Geneva. Kaye participated in music groups including the Genevans and Grace Notes, and was involved with Geneva’s theater program. Kaye discovered a love of organization through her roles as stage manager and choir librarian.

After graduating, Kaye married Zach and worked in retail until her husband’s military work moved them to New Jersey. Kaye’s communication degree gave her the flexibility to jump between various jobs, which fit well with the frequent moving her husband’s job required of them. In the early years of marriage, Kaye’s work included reception work at a dental office and an audio engineer job at a media and audio studio. When her children were born, she jumped into the vital role of mom.

In 2019, Kaye’s husband retired from the military and the family moved to Maryland. Around the same time, Kaye and Zach began seeking medical help for their youngest daughter who was experiencing symptoms that resembled cerebral palsy. When she was eventually diagnosed with an extremely rare neuromuscular syndrome, the family began saving money so their daughter could receive treatment internationally in Slovenia. However, her husband lost his job during the COVID-19 pandemic, driving Kaye to return to work as a voice actor. Although the circumstances were less than ideal, Kaye joyfully embraced this new season of their life.

A few years later, Kaye now runs a voice acting business from home, fulfilling contracts with various voice acting sources and often utilizing her previous skills as an audio engineer. She enjoys the flexibility of virtual work (including the ability to act in her pajamas) as well as the variety of voice acting contracts available, which include commercials, animation, podcasts, online learning, video games, and museum tours.

According to Kaye, “There’s a voiceover everywhere!” Although she has drawn the line at recording audiobooks because of their complexity, her attuned ear for mistakes, developed through audio engineering, allows her to proof audiobooks, providing yet another avenue of work from a skill learned years ago. Once, after a particularly dull voiceover job for a government procurement contract, Kaye’s director lifted her spirits through his observation, “You made this sound not boring!” Kaye values the impact her work provides even in technical fields.

The everyday joys of being a mother have prepared Kaye well for her current job. For years, she read aloud to her children, entertaining them with dialects and voices for the book characters. For Kaye, voice acting is a natural progression of something she has long enjoyed. She looks forward to undergoing training for additional voices in the future. Regarding her Geneva education, Kaye is grateful for the way she was taught the process of audio engineering and voice acting. Though technology has advanced exponentially since her graduation, the process of creating remains the same.

Kaye’s advice to the person considering a return to the workforce after a season away is to “find something that brings you joy.” As she builds her business, Kaye also works part-time at a department store to help make ends meet. She acknowledges the challenges she’s faced as she’s gotten her business off the ground, but she says, “When I’m here in my booth, I’m happy because I’m creating, being expressive, doing something that makes me smile.” Voice acting makes Kaye radiate, and that joy has become her driving force to keep pressing on when the going is hard.

Header image photo credit: Sarah Wockenfuss Photography