Narrator Spotlight: PJ Freebourn
If you read last week’s blog about Paige Reisenfeld, you know I met her at a bookish event and instantly liked her. Well, she wasn’t alone at the event, and I also got to meet her partner, PJ Freebourn. Not only was he super nice, but the two of them together were absolutely adorable. It was so obvious they had a deep, solid, personal and professional connection, so when I reached out to Paige about coming to Charm City Romanticon, I absolutely had to include PJ in that invitation. And since Paige knows him best, I asked her to step in as this week’s guest blogger.
So here, in Paige’s words, is all the info about PJ:
I suppose I am well-placed to discuss PJ.
He fell into narration quite by accident and/or circumstance! I was beginning my narration journey and came across a 40-hour MC romance audition on ACX - I went ahead and auditioned, and I heard back almost immediately from the author who loved it. BUT she was interested in having a male narrator too and this was her first audiobook - my second - so she asked if I knew any.
What do we learn in theatre? The answer is always yes. So I said I might know a guy, poked my head out of the booth, asked PJ if he wanted to try this, and he *nailed* it. The author hired us on the spot, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Always an avid listener, he modeled his "narrator voice" on James Marsters from The Dresden Files, in that slightly textured "noir" style, and accordingly, gets hired for romance quite a bit. But he is also an incredibly talented actor, has tons of characters and voices at his disposal, and spends so much time on refining them all (sometimes much to my Capricorn deadline brain's dismay).
While we do a lot of work together as "Paige and PJ", he has worked with quite a few other narrators in dual, duet, and multi-cast styles. He also has a couple solo titles under his belt, including landing a solo thriller with Audio Sorceress which he starts recording in a couple days!
On a personal level, he is incredibly supportive of my journey and passion, even agreeing to move to a place with no theatre to speak of because it will make me happier and more prolific. He is an excellent cat dad and the golden retriever to my grumpycat and I am very lucky to work with him, as well as share my life with him!
You can find more information about PJ on his website: https://pjvoice-pj-freebourn-narrator.on.drv.tw/PJvoice/
You can grab PJ’s audiobooks on: Audible
You can find PJ on social media here: Facebook Instagram TikTok
