2022 Award Winners
- Outstanding Audio Description Visionary – Larry Goldberg
- Audio Description Game Changer: Innovation – Microsoft
- Audio Description Game Changer: Inclusion – Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
- Audio Description Game Changer: Education – Described and Captioned Media Program
- Outstanding Achievement: Live Events – Paramount Global
- Outstanding Achievement: Spanish Media (USA) – Telemundo/Hearst
- Outstanding Achievement: International Media – AMI
- Audio Description People’s Choice Award – Obi-Wan Kenobi (Disney+/Lucasfilm/Audio Description by Deluxe)
The 2022 Audio Description Awards Gala was hosted by Thomas Reid, with Audio Description Voice Talent Nefertiti Matos Olivares, and featured special celebrity guests Stevie Wonder, Ewan McGregor, Nesta Cooper, Camryn Manheim, Shayla Brown, and the cast of iCarly!
Learn how the ACB Barry Award & Audio Description People’s Choice Award nominees were selected.
Host
Thomas Reid
Shortly after becoming blind in 2004, Thomas Reid decided to re-ignite a dormant interest in audio production. After years of combining his interest in audio with advocacy, he was selected as an Association of Independence in Radio New Voice Scholar in 2014. During that same year he began his podcast Reid My Mind Radio – featuring compelling people impacted by all degrees of blindness and disability. Occasionally, he shares stories from his own experience as a man adjusting to becoming Blind as an adult.
Thomas has been thinking critically about Audio Description since his early in theater experience in 2007. He’s been covering the topic on the podcast since 2015 and most notably since critiquing various aspects of AD in Marvel’s Black Panther in 2018.
Through his Flipping the Script on Audio Description series, Reid continues to explore the art by going beyond surface level topics and examining its implications on the community.
As an Audio Description Narrator, Reid has appeared on projects for Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, PBS and more. He provides consultations for independent film makers, film festivals, co-facilitates workshops and serves as moderator or panelist for discussions on audio description and content accessibility.
Audio Description Voice Artist
Nefertiti Matos Olivares
Nefertiti Matos Olivares is a blind bilingual professional voice talent who specializes in Audio Description Narration. Her body of work always prioritizes the creation of culturally-competent Audio Description, and she fiercely advocates for quality improvements within the industry through community organizing and group building for professionals and consumers alike. Nefertiti co-founded the LinkedIn Audio Description Group and the Audio Description Twitter Community where all things AD are welcome. Nefertiti is still riding high from being the AD narrator for the inaugural Audio Description Awards Gala in 2021, and she’s positively thrilled to be back and better than ever in 2022! Follow her on Twitter at @NefMatOli.
Event Producer
Doug Roland
Doug Roland is excited to be back producing the second annual AD Awards Gala. Doug is an Oscar-nominated director for his film Feeling Through, which was made in collaboration with Helen Keller National Center and is the first film to star a DeafBlind actor. As a social impact filmmaker, Doug has collaborated with many organizations, creating screening events and speaking at conferences, institutions, and schools around the world to foster conversation about important social issues.
Co-Producer
Joe Strechay
Joe is a media consultant and producer who specializes in bringing stories involving disability to screen while making productions accessible to cast and crew with disabilities. Joe is a Co-Executive Producer of SEE Season 3 on AppleTV+ and over three seasons helped to build the World of SEE.
He is an Associate Producer on Netflix’s All the Light We Cannot See, to be released in 2023, and served as a consultant on Marvel’s Daredevil and Netflix’s The OA. He has contributed to numerous scripts with writers from around the world, including award winning projects. In film, Joe advises on scripts, set decoration, props, and the blocking of scenes with the directors and cast. Joe has assisted in casting actors who are blind or low vision for numerous shows and networks, and worked with Jonathan Tropper to confirm the casting for SEE Seasons 2 and 3. Joe has also carried out leadership roles in multiple state government agencies and developed programs for non-profits. He completed undergraduate studies at East Carolina University and graduate studies at Florida State University.