You might not recognise Kat's face, but you've almost definitely heard her voice

Aussies probably don't recognise Kat Callaghan by name or appearance, but her voice might ring a bell.

When she was young, Callaghan was obsessed with the voices of radio announcers and commercials, constantly mimicking what she heard.

Now, her obsession has turned into a decades-long career, and her voice is heard by millions of people around the globe every single day.

Callaghan is a voice actor and radio host in Canada whose been working in the industry for almost 20 years.

About 10 years ago, she started her company, Kat Callaghan Voiceovers, and it's through that venture that she secured the gig as the voice behind TikTok's popular text-to-speech feature.

Voice acting isn't a career that Callaghan just stumbled into; it's something that she was passionate about before she ever realised she could make a living out of it.

"I would record myself pretending to be on the radio and as the voice of the commercials," she tells nine.com.au.

"I would even do it when I wasn't recording myself. I would just read news articles or websites out loud like I was a news anchor. 

"Eventually, I realised I really could make talking a career, and I didn't look back."

As well as hosting Ontario breakfast show, The Hot Mic with Kat and Dave, Callaghan has lent her voice to TV, commercials, YouTube tutorials, meditation apps, e-Learning and plenty more.

"I'm comfy behind a mic," she jokes.

While it sounds like a glamorous job, most would dread working Callaghan's hours.

"I am up by 4am – I know, madness," she begins.

"My show is live 6am to 10am and also syndicated on other stations. Then I jet back to my home studio mid-day, where I record for many different clients, some of whom I have worked with for over a decade. I do that until at least 4pm."

With decades of jobs under her belt, it would be fair to think that Callaghan would struggle to pick a favourite. But when asked, she says it's "an easy answer".

Being the voice of TikTok's text-to-speech feature is by far Callaghan's proudest achievement, not only for the fact that her voice is heard by millions every day, but because of the opportunities the gig has afforded her.

She says that since taking on the role, she's been offered jobs with several major companies.

"I even have my own Calm sleep story," she adds.

TikTok users can select the feature in the app, turning any written on-screen text into spoken audio.

The process has always been a mystery to users. Is each separate word recorded? Or is there some kind of technology working hard behind the scenes?

Well, according to Callaghan, the mystery is going to remain unsolved.

"I can't get into too much detail on this one," she says.

"Companies like to preserve their process, and I completely respect that.

"What I will say is that sometimes networking in this business is key. I got the opportunity to audition for it because the person who was helping them find the next voice had worked with me before and thought I would be perfect for it."

When her voice was first rolled out on the feature, Callaghan hadn't announced to her followers that she'd taken on the role, but people quickly figured it out.

"I struggled with whether or not to let my radio listeners know it was me ... they knew my voice and I received an unbelievable amount of DMs about it," she recalls.

"So finally one day – October 19, 2022 to be exact – I posted a video and confirmed it was me."

Callaghan didn't think anything of the clip at the time, thinking she was just sharing the news with her radio audience.

But she quickly realised that she had shared the news with the whole world, as the video amassed more than 51 million views on TikTok.

There are downsides to voice acting. Callaghan says it can be stressful relying on her voice for income. But still, there's no career she'd rather be in.

"I think the variety is my favourite part. I can be in a session for a silly, sassy commercial one day – and the next day it is a serious somber read for something else,"

"I never get bored."

Produced in partnership with CareerOne.