as of 2/21/24*
Additional guest coaches and publisher representatives will be added as enrollment grows with the goal of keeping the ratio of coaches to narrators at an optimal level for personal engagement.
We are excited that our publisher representatives will also be working with people individually as one-on-one coaches.
The Audiobooks at Sea Crew
Sean Pratt, Guest Coach
seanprattpresents.com
Erick Black, Guest Coach
Production Manager, Dreamscape Media
Travis Baldree, Guest Coach
travisbaldree.com
Allison Light, Guest Coach
Casting Associate,
Simon & Schuster Audio
Tamara Marston, Guest Coach
Senior Casting Director, Podium Audio
Tanya Eby, Guest Coach
Casting, Deyan Audio
Steve Wagner, Guest Coach
Senior Producer, Macmillan Audio
Debra Deyan, Guest Panelist
Owner, Deyan Audio
Ana Clements, Guest Presenter
anaclements.co.uk
Jocqueline Protho, Guest Panelist
The Audio Flow/Nubian Audio
John Pirhalla, Guest Presenter
JohnPirhalla.com
Joel Froomkin, Creator
Host and Head Coach
Rich Najuch, Creator
Producer and Admin
www.cruisingwithrich.com
*** Guest coaches subject to change. Any changes in the coaching team will be reflected here on the website.
All listed coaches are eager to join us and have every intention of attending and doing their best. That being said, life happens. Changes are possible, but we will guarantee that the guest coaching team will be of the highest caliber and provide excellent educational opportunities.
Crew Biographies
Sean Pratt
Guest Coach
Sean Pratt has been a working actor for over 30 years. He has been an audiobook narrator for 25 years (aka – Lloyd James), recording over 1,100 books in almost every genre and has received nine AudioFile Magazine “Earphones” awards, five SOVAS nominations, and five “Audie” nominations from the Audio Publishers Association.
Sean is also the author of “To Be or Wanna Be – The Top Ten Differences between a Successful Actor and a Starving Artist.”
Currently, Sean coaches performers on audiobook narration technique, as well as teaching classes on and writing articles about the business of “The Biz”.
Travis Baldree
Guest Coach
Travis is a New York Times Bestselling author, Nebula nominee, Audie nominee, multi-Earphones recipient and award-winning full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories.
Before venturing into audiobooks, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his very patient family and their small, nervous dog.
Allison Light, Guest Coach
Simon & Schuster Audio
Allison Light is a Junior Producer and Casting Associate with Simon & Schuster Audio, originally from Arkansas and now based in NYC. She has produced and directed titles in English and Spanish by Alice Walker, Pope Francis, Stephen King, Mandy Gonzalez, Natasha Leggero, Sarah Ruhl, Stacey Vanek Smith (Audie Winner), Jamie Ford (Audie Nominated), and many more, including a handful of upcoming Audio Originals. Outside of audiobooks, she writes musical theater and fiction.
Erick Black, Guest Coach
Production Manager, Dreamscape Media
After graduating from Full Sail University, Erick Black worked several gigs including live sound reinforcement, operations at an independent TV Station, and as an audio engineer for a company that manufactures brass bells. Finally, his love of audio and passion for the written word led him to Dreamscape Media where he started recording and directing audiobooks. He has been casting and producing there since 2017 and absolutely loves the work and the audiobook community. An outdoor enthusiast, Erick lives deep in the woods with his wife, two daughters, a dog, and 2 bunnies.
Tanya Eby, Guest Coach
Casting, Deyan Audio
Tanya Eby is an award-winning narrator of over 1,000 titles, a USA Today bestselling writer and a Casting Director and Producer for Deyan Audio. She has over twenty years of experience in recording and producing audiobooks. Her original productions have featured work by diverse writers and narrators and she has received awards from AudioFile Magazine, SOVAs, and The Audies. Tanya has an MFA in Creative Writing, enjoys foraging and mushroom hunting, and was once a contestant on Netflix’s Nailed It! Holiday! where she made a cake so gloriously bad, they gave her a trophy.
Tamara Marston, Guest Coach
Senior Casting Director, Podium Audio
Tamara Marston is the Senior Casting Director at Podium Audio.
Coming from a theater and music career, both as a performer and director, she first entered the audiobook industry as a narrator in 2009 and recorded for Blackstone, Highbridge, Harper Collins, Audible and others before moving into mentoring, coaching and casting; she came to Podium in 2016 after casting for BeeAudio for several years.
Tamara lives in Southern Oregon with three dogs, two cats, and a 30-year-old African Grey parrot who’s currently composing her third operetta.
Debra Deyan, Guest Panelist
Owner, Deyan Audio
Debra Deyan is a 30 year veteran producer of audiobooks and owner of Deyan Audio the world's largest independent producer of audiobooks, working for over 30 publishers. She has won numerous awards including 4 Grammys, 11 Grammy nominations, countless Audies, Odyssey, Carnegie and Earphone awards. She was awarded the Life Time Achievement award from the APA in 2013 for her efforts in helping pioneer the audiobook industry. She owns two Los Angeles recording studios with 9 recording booths. She also owns a video game/interactive toy venture and co-founded an institute which teaches audiobook narration and production.
Steve Wagner, Guest Coach
Senior Producer, Macmillan Audio
Steve Wagner is a Senior Producer at Macmillan Audio. 2024 marks his fifth year at Macmillan and eighth year in audiobooks. He works on most genres of audiobook at Macmillan, but primarily Nonfiction, Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Literary Fiction, working with authors like Leigh Bardugo, V.E. Schwab, Elliot Page, Brandon Sanderson, Naomi Klein, TJ Klune, André Aciman, Cixin Liu, and many more.
Before audiobooks, Steve taught English at SUNY New Paltz, where he earned his MA in English Literature. Outside of work he's interested in weird music and film. He lives in the Lower East Side of Manhattan with his wonderful girlfriend Shannon, and their chubby menace of a cat named Nole.
Jocqueline Protho, Guest Panelist
The Audio Flow/Nubian Audio
In 2017, Jocqueline created The Audio Flow Casting Services, which grew into The Audio Flow, LLC shortly after with two imprints and became a SAG signatory in 2019. With The Audio Flow and Three One Six Audio, Jocqueline produces and publishes top-notch audiobooks earning her a SOVAS Award for Best Casting Director in 2020 and 2022, and numerous nominations. In 2020, Jocqueline saw a need to create more opportunities for African American performers and founded Nubian Audio. In that same year, Jocqueline became CEO of Youth in the Booth, a non-profit she founded that teaches students ages 11-17 the art of narration. Jocqueline lives in Indiana with her son Jaxxon, a five year old Shih tzu. In her spare time she enjoys traveling, spending time with her family, cooking, writing, and riding her Harley.
Ana Clements
Guest Presenter
As the founder of the Audiobooks Club on Clubhouse (with over 9000 members) leading several weekly sessions, and a monthly session with Narrators Cup of Joe, SOVAS nominated Ana Clements has special insight into the needs and stumbling blocks of our creative careers. She has presented at VO Atlanta, and her creative coaching has been described as “helping others to reach a point of clarity on who they are as a creative professional… with actionable direction." Her work empowers narrators to push past their self-limitations and be their own cheerleader.
She has narrated for Hachette, Blackstone, Harper, PRH, Audible, and Dreamscape among others. As a bilingual actor, fascinated by language and our use of words, she offers valuable insight into the unique challenges of Spanish language narration.
John Pirhalla
Guest Presenter
When not scaring off bears from his studio, John has narrated just under 400 titles. He was a 2023 Audie Award finalist for Best Male Narrator of the Year. He was the recipient of the 2022 Reader's Choice Award for Best Audiobook and the 2021 Adrenaline Award for Best Thriller. He is also a multiple time finalist at the Independent Audiobook Awards, OneVoice Awards and the Indie Ink Awards.
Although a veteran of Science Fiction(70+), Fantasy(100+) and Horror(100+), John is a true genre hopper. He's worked with Macmillan, PRH, Blackstone, Podium, Deyan, Audible and The Audio Flow, among others, but the foundation of his 650+ FH/Year audiobook business is built on working and creating business relationships with independent authors. He's always happy to share insights into "wrangling the wild writer" and building efficiencies and best practices into your workflow to become an asset to pubs and indies alike.
Joel Froomkin
Host, Head Coach, and Creator
Joel is an Audie nominated, eleven-time Earphones Award-Winning narrator of over 450 titles. He was the recipient of the 2020 Best Male Narrator Award at the Independent Audio Book Awards and the 2020 Best Humor Narration recipient at the Society of Voice Arts Awards (in addition to his five other SOVAS nominations). He is the recipient of two Audiobook Reviewer awards and was named the first member of the Narrator Hall of Fame and All-Time Favorite Narrator in the Goodreads M/M Reader’s Choice Awards.
With an MFA in theatre from USC, he has served as Director of Drama at Manchester University and taught accents at NYU. He is the creator of Acting for Audio, a zoom-based acting course focused on the art of narration. He is a sucker for Disney and dachshunds.
Rich Najuch
Producer, Admin, and Creator
Rich is the one you will be emailing, phoning, or texting with! All cabin arrangements and workshop bookings will be handled by him.
Rich is an Accredited Cruise Counselor, member of the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), and a registered cruise travel agent.
He is familiar with planning and executing events through his work as Executive Producer at The New Huntington Theater for 10 years, as Executive Assistant to the Dean of Columbia Business School, and a lifetime in the theater. When not booking cruise adventures for Audiobook Narrators, Rich is usually working at a sewing or embroidery machine.