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MARK JASON ROYSE

is a stage-trained audiobook narrator & voice actor with 30+ years of professional creative experience. An emerging audiobook actor, Mark booked 16 titles within his first 60 days of auditioning–including a Nobel Prize winner.

Born and bred in the Bluegrass, Mark’s Kentucky bourbon baritone is warm and clear with a kick. He can deliveer an authentic Southern/Appalachian accent plus a stocked stable of characters & dialects champing at the bit to race.

Affable, approachable, but unafraid to go dark places, Mark delivers nuanced, emotional, engaging performances.

Mark is partial to LGBTQ fiction, thrillers, sci-fi, fantasy, and horror. He is also an excellent choice for medical narration, e-learning, corporate explainers, and other narration that requires a warm, trustworthy, articulate, and educated voice.

He’s an author ally, a production pro, and a devoted story shepherd.

OUTSIDE THE BOOTH

Mark is an award-winning creative director, copywriter, and graphic designer with advertising agency experience. He’s also a seasoned non-profit exec skilled in philanthropy and community engagement. Plus, as a published poet, essayist, and short story author, Mark understands storytelling from the inside out. A longtime meditator, Mark has practiced with celebrity Buddhist teachers and anonymous alcoholics. 

Fun career highlights:

  • Interned at Circle Rep Theater, New York, on a Joyce Carol Oates play, The Truth-Teller.
  • Collaborated with 20th Century Fox as a buyer for J. Peterman Company, selling Titanic costumes and props, including a red-carpet premiere appearance.
  • As the University of Kentucky College of Design’s communications director, helped list the Kentucky Bluegrass as a World Monuments Fund endangered landscape.

CREDITS

Theatre, local ad agency, and public broadcast experience:

  • Audiobook Narration: Glagoslav Publications
  • Audiobook Narration: Lantern Publishing & Media
  • Audiobook Narration: Running Wild, LLC
  • Audiobook Narration: Riptide Publishing
  • Audiobook Narration: BHC Press
  • Audiobook Narration: Wordwooze 
  • Commercial VO: Sole Dynamics
  • Video Game VO: Dislyte, Brewster Intro
  • Theatre: Circle Rep Theatre, NYC
  • Theatre: Busch Gardens, The Old Country, VA
  • Theatre: Lexington Musical Theatre
  • Theatre: Actor’s Guild of Lexington
  • Public Speaking & Presentations: The J. Peterman Company
  • Public Speaking & Presentations: University of Kentucky College of Design
  • Public Speaking & Presentations: CJ Advertising
  • Public Speaking & Presentations: AVOLKY (non-profit)
  • Host/Emcee: Beaux-Arts Ball, Lexington, KY
  • Podcast Host: Mad Mister Mark’s Podcast of Mystery
  • Spokesperson: RADIOLEX (public radio)
  • Public Radio Host: My Morning Mixtape, RADIOLEX
  • Public Radio Host: Community Voices, RADIOLEX
  • Voice Talent: radio PSAs, radio spots, online spots RADIOLEX
  • Spokesperson: AVOLKY (non-profit)
  • Voice Talent: radio PSAs, TV spots, online spots AVOLKY (non-profit)
  • Voice Talent: CJ Advertising, various clients, spec spots, etc.

EDUCATION/TRAINING

Lifelong performer and public speaker (4-H, high school drama & debate, corporate trainer, non-profit spokesperson)

  • BA Theatre, University of Kentucky
  • 2024
  • Audiobook Narration Coaching, Julie Wilson, The Articulate Coach, Ahab Talent
  • Voice Acting Coaching, Paul Alan Ruben, Tribeca Audio
  • Voiceover Coaching, J. Michael Collins, JMC Voiceover
  • Voiceover/Acting Coaching, Lau Laupides, agent, owner Lau Laupides Company
  • ACX Master Class, David H. Lawrence XVII & Dan O’Day
  • Voiceover Coaching, Mike Cosh, MCVO
  • Improv Acting Coaching, Joanne Yarrow, Dir. of Community Engagement & Education, Syracuse Stage in New York; Executive Director of Live Animation Studios; owner, Distinctive Voices LLC
  • Voice Performance/Vocal Production, Russell Henderson, University of Kentucky
  • Voice Performance/Vocal Production, Lynn Estes, Belmont University

LISTEN

0:00 / 0:00
Literary Fiction - Does she want me to be her pilot? | 1st person, social satire

Does she want me to be her pilot? | 1st person, social satire

Thriller, Dark Comedy - cranky couple bickers over gun and gin | 3rd person, Appalachian dialect, mf dialogue
Non-Fiction, Science-Animals - the top of the tree of life
Sci-Fi - computer scans for murder | 3rd person, MM dialogue
Thriller, LGBTQ - They're sayin' you attacked them first | 3rd person, Southern dialect, German dialect

AUDIOBOOK TITLES

AFFILATIONS

Mark Jason Royse, home studio, audiobook narrator, voice actor

STUDIO STUFF

Professional home studio featuring Vocal Booth VO1 with additional customized acoustical treatment. AKG Pro Audio C414 XLII (primary), Sennheiser MKH 416 (secondary) with Focusrite Clarett 2Pre. Macbook Pro + Adobe Audition. SourceConnect available.

I also have easy access to a full-service, Audible-certified,  commercial recording studio.

LOGO & LORE

My logo is a stylized griffin from the Royse family crest.  It’s a reminder that I don’t do anything alone.  Generations of men & women, lovers & fighters, saints & sinners, heroes & thieves got me to where I am today.  Their lives, lusts, and loves stir my blood, drive my desires, and keep the whole grand show going.