Free Voice Over Scripts: Sample and Practice Scripts to Read and Download
Updated: Oct 8
Ok fine. Here are some free voice over scripts. There are six below that you can read straight off the page, covering commercials, explainers, narration, animation and video games. There are 20 more as free PDF downloads, from easy to slightly tricky. Each one comes with a few notes on how to approach it and roughly how long it should take.
They're all mine, written on my very own typewriter (alright, keyboard), so you won't find them anywhere else. Use them to warm up, test your mic, or practice a style you don't normally get booked for. But when it comes to your demo reel, please write your own. I'll explain why (and how) further down.
Free voice over scripts you can read right now.
Commercial voice over script: local bakery (30 seconds, easy)
Direction: warm, smiling, conversational. Talk to one person, not a crowd. About 70 words.
"There's a smell that stops you in your tracks on a Saturday morning. Warm bread. Proper butter. Cinnamon doing that thing it does.
That's Hartley's Bakery on the high street, baking since half past five so you don't have to. Sourdough, sausage rolls, and a custard tart that's caused at least one family argument.
Hartley's Bakery. Open from seven, every day except Monday. Get there before the tarts go."
What to practise: landing the brand name twice without it sounding like a hard sell, and the little smile on "family argument".
Explainer video script: bill-splitting app (60 seconds, easy)
Direction: friendly, clear, a touch of humour. Slightly brighter than your natural read. About 135 words.
"Sharing a house is great. Sharing the bills? Less so. Someone pays the electric, someone else buys the loo roll, and by the end of the month nobody's quite sure who owes what.
That's where Tally comes in. Tally is a free app that keeps track of shared costs in one place. Snap a receipt, choose who it's split between, and Tally does the maths.
Everyone sees the same running total, so there's no awkward chasing and no spreadsheet that only one person understands. When it's time to settle up, Tally works out the fewest payments needed to get everyone square AND sends a friendly reminder, so you don't have to.
Fair, simple and argument-free. Download Tally today, and get back to arguing about whose turn it is to do the washing up."
What to practice: the problem–solution–benefit shape that almost every explainer follows. Lift your energy at "That's where Tally comes in."
Want to hear my demos to help you understand how it should sound? Head over to my explainer demos page or learn more about what an explainer animation is?
Narration script: wildlife documentary (60 seconds, medium)
Direction: unhurried, curious, intimate. Let the pauses breathe. About 135 words.
"Twice a day, the tide turns on the Thames Estuary; and an entire world turns with it.
As the water draws back, it leaves behind mile upon mile of glistening mud. For the birds that spend the winter here, it's a banquet. Avocets sweep their upturned bills from side to side through the shallows. Flocks of wading birds gather in their thousands, rising as one shape, folding and unfolding against a grey sky.
To the passing eye, it looks empty. Bleak, even. But beneath the surface, every square metre is packed with worms, shellfish and tiny snails.
This is one of the richest feeding grounds in Britain – and all of it within an hour of central London.
In a few hours, the sea will return, and cover it all again."
Narration demos can have varying approaches. Listen to mine.
What to practice: pacing and restraint. The pictures do the work, so don't "sell" the words.
Character voice over script for animation: dragon and tortoise (two voices, easy)
Direction: one actor can read both parts for practice. Pip is young, fast and panicky. Granny Moss is slow, dry and completely unflappable. The contrast is the joke.
PIP: (out of breath, panicking) Granny Moss! Granny Moss! I've done something terrible!
GRANNY MOSS: (slow, unbothered) Have you now. Sit down, Pip, before you set fire to the hedge again.
PIP: That was ONE time! (beat) …Two times. But this is worse. I sneezed in the library.
GRANNY MOSS: Ah.
PIP: And now there's no library.
GRANNY MOSS: (long pause) Well. I suppose that's one way to stop people talking in there.
PIP: (wailing) Granny, it's not FUNNY!
GRANNY MOSS: (gently) No, love. It isn't. So let's go and say sorry – and on the way, you can tell me how a dragon your size manages a sneeze that big.
PIP: (sniffs, small voice) …I had pepper on my crisps.
What to practise: switching between characters cleanly, holding a voice consistently, and comic timing on the pauses.
Video game voice acting script: mercenary barks (medium)
Direction: gruff, battle-weary mercenary in his fifties. Record three takes of each line at different intensities: games need variety so lines don't repeat.
Trigger | Line |
Idle | Quiet. Too quiet. I hate it when it's quiet |
Spotting enemies | Company's here. Weapons up. |
Combat start | Right then. Let's get this over with! |
Taking damage | Argh – that one's going on the bill! |
Low health | I'm not as young as I was… cover me! |
Ally down | No, no, no – stay with me, lad! |
Victory | And that's why they pay me double. |
Looting | Hm. Not bad. Not bad at all. |
What to practise: physicality and effort sounds. Commit to the shout without blowing out the mic: keep your distance on the big lines.
Listen to my Drama Demos and understand how different approaches work.
Commercial terms and conditions read (10 seconds, slightly tricky)
Direction: the classic end of ad legal read. Fast, flat and perfectly clear. Aim for 10 seconds without rushing a single word.
"Offer ends 31st October. Respresentative 9.9% APR. Credit subject to status. UK residents aged 18 and over only. Subject to availability. Terms and conditions apply: see website for full details."
What to practice: speed with clarity. This is a real job skill on UK radio, and clients will ask for it.
For more inspiration and to hear how these should sound, head over to my commercial demo page.
Voice over script template
Most scripts I'm sent come in one of two layouts. If you're writing your own practice scripts, or a client asks you to "just send something over", use one of these. It makes the script easier to read, time and record.
Video script template (two columns)
For anything with pictures, like explainers, corporate videos and adverts, the visuals go on the left and the voice over on the right. Each row is one scene, so you can see exactly what's on screen while you're speaking.
Scene | Visual | Voice Over | Time |
1 | Close-up of a messy kitchen noticeboard covered in receipts | Sharing a house is great. Sharing the bills? Less so. | 0:00 - 0:04 |
2 | App logo animates on | That's where Tally comes in. | 0:10 - 0:12 |
3 | End frame:logo, app store badges | Download Tally today. | 0:55 - 1:00 |
Audio script template (One column)
Radio ads, phone messages and podcast intros don't need a visuals column. Give the script a title, a target length and a line on tone, then put the words underneath with any directions in brackets.
Title: Hartley's Bakery - 30 second radio ad Tone: warm, smiley, conversational Length: 30 seconds (about 70 words) There's a smell that stops you in your tracks on a Satruday morning... (beat) Warm bread. Proper butter
How to mark up a script
Emphasis: underline or bold the word to hit. Don't use capitals for a whole sentence
Pauses: a single slash / for a short breath, a double slash // for a longer pause.
Pronunciation: spell tricky names out phonetically in brackets, e.g. Worcester (WUSS-ter).
Timing: allow roughly 150 words a minute at a natural pace, fewer for a slow, emotional read.
Numbers: write them how they should be said, e.g. "twenty twenty-six" or "two thousand and twenty-six".
Download the FREE, yes Free, Blank Voice over script template below and then record yourself and take the time to listen back afterwards. You are always looking to improve your recording quality.
If you're writing scripts for clients rather than practicing, read my guide to writing effective corporate video scripts.
Easy voiceover scripts (Free PDF downloads)
Slightly tricky voiceover sample scripts (Free PDF downloads)
50 more practice scripts
There's 50 of them here for £5. I spent literal hours putting them together, so to save yourself Googling for scripts again, why not grab them? There's monologues, ads, narrations, loadsa bits and pieces! There's some that include a bit of purposely bad formatting and typos - you'll get scripts like these from clients on occasion, it's good to practice with these too.
Why you should wrtite youre own demo scripts
Before we get to the external links for more free voiceover scripts, on OTHER websites, opening YET MORE tabs in your browser, I want to briefly say write your own.
Write your own.
Freebies are great for practicing but if you want them for your reels, consider how many other people might have already used them for theirs.
Recording demo reels and keeping them current is obviously really important for voice artists. They push us to flex our muscles during the creative process and they help us to get work, so they have to be the absolute best we can possibly produce. This is exactly why I launched my demo production service for voice artists: every script is written from scratch for your voice, so nobody else's reel sounds like yours. That also means being unique. You won't stand out if you use a sample car commercial script that's been downloaded 145,000 times. (By the time you finished reading that sentence, it was downloaded 3 more times).
If you're looking for voice over scripts for your demo reel, stop.
(I also wrote a post about how to make voiceover reel a couple of years ago and much of that content is still relevant.)
But how do we even start writing our own, for a commercial reel, for example?
Watch commercials. Lot's of them. If you don't have a TV, firstly, what do you point your sofa at? and secondly, take a look at this website. It's a huge library of great TV ads, with weekly updates.
Absorb them like a sponge and use them as inspiration. Don't copy them, but allow them to give you some ideas of where you should aim for.
Consuming media like this is always better than staring at a blank page trying frantically to write something for your reel. Listen to the words, the voice and accent, and think about the content - service, product, charity etc.
A great resource I've used in the past is Best Ads on TV. Actually, it's more than just TV ads, and it really is an incredible resource. However you start ensure you read the script back to yourself afterwards and understand the importance of reading with context.
Create a voice over commercial script
Here's my commercial voice over demo. I wrote everything on here with my very own pencil.
You can do this for all your reels.
Video production websites or YouTube (I'm not going to link to that, everybody knows it) are great for explainer video research. For radio ads... turn on the radio. Whatever scripts you need inspiration for, find that media.
If you want a charity ad on your commercial reel, watch some charity ads. What sort of words do they use? Are they hard sell or do they grab the audience a different way? Pull out some words you like and use a thesaurus to find other words like those.
Another thought is to take the opposite direction. Need inspiration for a pet food ad? Listen to some some of the best voices in film. The obvious contrast in styles can conjure up magic.
Use your own personal experiences to make the scripts real and human. (That's a good tip for voicing too, drawing on your history). As we are fully on the AI downward spiral, this is more important than ever.
I'm not going to get into details about how to actually write the copy but just by doing a bit of leg work (eye and ear work), you can get a great start.
Use real brands - make the reel for what jobs you want to be doing. Like the ad for Dell? Make a Dell ad. Don't use Dave's Computers Down The Town (although I have heard VERY good things about them).
The last thing I'll mention about writing your own is how rewarding it can be. Seeing a script through from conception to the final edit with voice and music is a really great feeling.
OK DOUBLE FINE HERE'S SOME LINKS FOR FREE VOICE OVER SCRIPTS FOR YOUR DEMOS*.
*Practicing.
(Note on practicing - some people like to practice with content that already exists, like voiceover monologues in movies, so they can really stretch themselves. Just be careful posting anything you "copy" online, for obvious reasons. And be careful not to fall into the impression trap).
ChatGPT as a tool for script writing
Recently I've been embracing AI. It's pretty cool maaaaan.
ChatGPT in particular can really save you a lot of time when producing scripts. It would often take me a few hours to construct something coherent for a demo, but when I tried AI recently, it probably knocked it down by about 75%.
This isn't a tutorial on how to use ChatGPT. I'm just saying that it's ok to do it. You're not moving to the dark side. You're using it as a kick off point. It's a hell of a lot better than staring at a blank screen.
And this also isn't about copying and pasting what it spits out. You have to make it sound a bit more real. A bit less repetitive. A bit more like you... a bit more human.
Have a look at this.
I asked ChatGPT to write a script about starting a business and to compare it to mountain climbing. I spent about 45 minutes editing it so it "felt right", but I wouldn't have come up with some of the ideas contained within all by myself. Well, I might have, but it would have taken a lot longer.
An example.
Here's something ChatGPT gave me when I asked for 50 words about why ChatGPT is good for script writing.
ChatGPT is an invaluable tool for scriptwriting, offering flexibility, informed storytelling, and creative collaboration. With its vast knowledge base and adaptability to various genres, it empowers writers to explore diverse narratives and enhances efficiency and creativity in the scriptwriting process.
That's pretty good right?
But it feels a bit clinical, a bit cold. The words sound nice, but they don't feel nice. At least not to me.
ChatGPT is a really valuable tool for me as a scriptwriter. It offers flexibility, informed storytelling, and my favourite thing of all in this life... creative collaboration. With its mind blowingly large AI brain filled with knowledge, it has no issue switching between genres. It also empowers me to explore diverse narratives, that I might not have considered before and it enhances my efficiency tenfold.
See what I mean?
That whole process took me maybe 5 minutes.
Give prompt > ChatGPT spews out content > you edit it.
Make it uniquely you.
Other free voice over script libraries
Voice over actor - free scripts
Voice over club - free scripts
But really, do have a go at writing your own. It's fun!
Where to go next
To hear more scripts I've written without AI, pop over to the voiceover demos page.
I've also got some tips on how to find voice over work and also how much you can earn as a voice over actor plus BRAND NEW (and something quite close to my heart), gift ideas for voice actors
Now you've got your free voiceover scripts... what about FREE VOICE OVERS?!
I'm guessing that you're here because you are somewhere on your VO journey that isn't near the end. You've probably got more questions - visit the voiceover frequently asked questions page and you might find answers to them! If you're looking for help with pricing, look at how much voice actors earn. If you need some business help then checkout my recommendations for the best books to help with your business.
Or if you're bored of practicing and you think you're ready to get yourself into the wide world of VO, check out the post about voiceover marketing techniques and voiceover casting sites. Then read about the importance of networking in business. There's always something else to learn. Absorb!
