Manxman who starred in Pokémon wins 'Oscars' award

Peter Wicks is relatively new to the world of voiceovers, having started during lockdown, yet four years on - he's just won two awards at the industry's equivalent to The Oscars.

Having started as an actor in London, Peter moved back to the island he grew up on in 2018 and started his career as a voiceover artist.

At a ceremony in Los Angeles, Peter received awards for an audiobook narration and voicing of a first-person horror video game from the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences.

Peter, who has previously recorded voiceovers for Pokémon, admitted he was "in bed asleep" at his Ramsey house after "completely forgetting" the ceremony was on.

After hearing the news at 05:00 GMT on Monday morning, Peter thought he was "still dreaming" as he got ready for what is his full-time job, working in a marketing agency in Onchan.

He said: "I looked at my phone lighting up with texts from friends who were at the awards ceremony.

"It was a weird morning. The entire day was a fever dream, but life goes on.

"I showered, went down to the bus station and went to work."

Once there, Peter kept quiet about the news, until a colleague asked 'didn't you win two awards at the weekend?'"

The Society of Voice Arts and Sciences is an annual ceremony held in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, celebrating the best voices from animation, audiobooks, video games and adverts.

This year's nominees included Stephen Fry, American actor Matthew McConaughey and Stranger Things star Maya Hawke.

"They call it The Oscars of voice acting - it's quite high-up.

"You've got Disney submitting Moana 2 up against my stuff," Peter said.

As a teenager, Peter and his family moved to the island from the Lancashire market town of Barnoldswick.

"I was 14 at the time so I thought everything sucked, but the first thing we thought was 'oh my, isn't everywhere so clean'.

"Within five minutes of Ramsey you can be in the most startling rural countryside, incredible coastline, or you're up a mountain," he said.

Peter attended Ballakermeen High School, the school attended by Manx actor and star of Netflix series Heartstopper, Joe Locke.

"The school was amazingly geared towards drama and performance.

"I'm a really shy person and was a shy kid. I never thought I'd be doing anything performance-based, but I was lucky enough to have some really good teachers," Peter said.

As a child, Peter always enjoyed acting and hearing stories.

"It's the opportunity to tell stories. My parents would always send me to bed with an audiobook cassette and I would sit there unable to fall asleep, completely obsessed.

"As a kid, I'd record myself on cassette reading stories, or record my own little radio shows.

"I just thought, it would be such a cool thing to pretend to be various people".

After leaving the island to study drama and English at Kingstone University in London, Peter secured his first paid acting role in the capital.

Soon after, he starred in shows at the Globe Theatre and Edinburgh Fringe despite an unfavourable living situation with his girlfriend.

"Money's tight [so] we lived in a static caravan at the back of the garden of my girlfriend's family friend's house for nearly five years."

After noticing the "exhaustive grind" of life in the capital, Peter moved back to the Isle of Man, where his voiceover career began to bloom.

Peter said: "I didn't think it would go anywhere really, but it's kind of taken over a bit now."

Since going headfirst into the voiceover industry, Peter has produced voiceover work for a Halloween-themed Pokémon advert, Yamaha, and Japanese watch manufacturer Citizen.

"Citizen was a bonkers one. It was my first TV commercial gig and the third paid job I ever had as a voiceover artist.

"For the last four years I've become the brand voice for them, which is really cool."

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