By Karim Hammam
Emily McGonagle, a 42-year-old mother from Colchester, left her late-night legal career to pursue voiceover work from home, now voicing eight characters in the Netflix children's series Spike.
From Law to Voice Acting
McGonagle worked as a lawyer in London, often finishing at 3 a.m., and commuted from Colchester to Canary Wharf. After having children, she sought a more flexible career and pivoted to voiceover work in 2019.
Breakthrough with Spike
She joined the cast of Spike, a preschool animation about a dragon and his friends, created by Lithuanian company Bored Panda. The show premiered on Netflix on 12 October and quickly became the platform's number one children's show in the UK and the seventh most-watched globally in its first week.
Building a Voice Career
McGonagle's interest in voice acting sparked while watching children's television with her toddlers. She invested in a home studio, took acting courses, and landed her first commercial gig with Google before auditioning for Spike three years ago.
Show's Rapid Growth
When McGonagle joined, the YouTube channel Fire Spike! had fewer than 1,000 subscribers. It now boasts 1.25 million subscribers. Bored Panda's head of animation, Jonas Dovydaitis, expressed excitement about the show's global reach on Netflix.
