Meet Matt Addis!

One of our team members recently sat down with voice and screen actor, Matt Addis, to talk about his career, iAnnotate, and even chocolate foxes!

Tell me a little more about what you do? Have you worked on anything that the folks at home would recognize?

I’m an actor (on-screen and voice). I’m also a partner and an Executive Producer in an audiobook production company called Chocolate Fox Audiobooks. We purchase the rights to books and publish them as audiobooks. 

I’ve worked on War Horse for the Royal National Theatre in the U.K. as well as The Sound of Music.

I have to ask, how did you come up with the name Chocolate Fox?

I once worked with this young producer who was very nervous. It was only her first or second book and she was very timid about interrupting me. I wanted to make her more comfortable so I told her to use a silly code phrase to signify when anything was wrong, and chocolate fox is the phrase we came up with.

That's a great origin story! So, what brought you into this career field?

I’d always loved listening to stories. My parents read to me a lot when I was younger. At 11 or 12 I really started getting into audiobooks. Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and the original James Bond books were some of my favorites. I started working a corporate job and then realized that I wanted to be an actor and that I wanted to get into voice production.

How did you find out about iAnnotate?

Audiobooks used to be recorded by using the physical book and making notes, but it's a time-consuming process. I started seeing that you could read PDFs off of iPads and felt like that was the way forward. I bought an iPad 1 and became really interested in PDF software, played around with a few different ones and eventually found that iAnnotate was the most reliable. 

How has iAnnotate improved the way you work?

iAnnotate has made a phenomenal difference in the amount of time it takes me to do my job. Being able to read from an iPad and quickly search for specific words, quickly make notes, and use the audio notes tool has even made the proofing process simpler. It saves me so much time and it makes the whole process much more accurate.

What are the features that you can't live without?

I use the typewriter, pencil, multi-tasking mode (split screen), notes, underline, and the highlighter tool. And the fact that you can resize and customize these annotations is invaluable to me.

I have 50 different colored highlighters that relate to an excel sheet and that makes it so much easier to stay organized.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself.

If I’m not reading a book, I’m happiest on a mountain. I grew up in a very mountainous place, so I love the mountains and the sunshine.

If you could tell other people one thing about iAnnotate, what would it be?

iAnnotate has made my life much easier. It's a tool I wouldn't be without and it's a tool that I recommend to everyone I work with.

A special thanks to Matt Addis for taking the time to talk with us! Make sure to check out his work on his personal page  and Chocolate Fox Audiobooks.