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If voice-over performer Cathy Weseluck wins an Oscar, she'll know exactly who to thank. She believes the Oscars would be just the place to give credit to the two main influences on her career.

"I had these two gerbils when I was a kid -- Whiskers and Nibbles -- and I used to make up voices to speak to them, pretending I was speaking 'gerbilese' or something. That was probably my greatest inspiration to do voice-overs."

Strange as it sounds, Weseluck feels it makes perfect sense that her inspiration should have come from gerbils. What else would you expect from someone who has played the part of everything from a goofy penguin to a snotty chicken?

Much of the voice-over work Weseluck does is called prelay. That means she creates voices for animated voices in new cartoons. The voices of Bugs Bunny, Batman and Bart Simpson are all the product of this kind of voice-over performance.

Talking animals may seem like kids' stuff, but prelay is very demanding work, says Weseluck.

"We walk into the studio armed with nothing but a picture and a description of the character we're playing. From these profiles, we come up with several different character voices which we apply to the script for the director's approval."

If the director likes one of the voices, Weseluck will go into a sound studio with a script and an outline of the cartoon and begin her voice-over performance. At this point, the animation hasn't been done for the cartoon, so Weseluck has to imagine the actions of the character she's playing.

"It's tricky, because if your character trips and falls on his head, you don't do it. You have to just imagine what kind of noise someone falling on his head would make. In this way, prelay requires more imagination than standard acting," says Weseluck.

Along with imagination, life experience and knowledge of languages are also helpful to the voice-over performer.

David Hirt remembers doing a marketing tape for the American distributor of a German product. "While the script was in English, it made references to German cities and some other German names and words," the Georgia professional recalls. "The client was glad to hear that I pronounced every word without a hitch."

While that was a highlight, every bit of work is rewarding.

"Then again, every commercial is memorable when you hit the timing perfect the first time out. And the client goes nuts because they think that they wrote such great copy."

Creative effort is a big part of voice-over work. A performer in this field always needs to have another character voice and another idea to pull out of their hat. One of the challenges of prelay is that in the first few shows, directors are still trying to find out what they want.

"Once I played a character who was supposed to be a 16-year-old princess, but midway through the first show, the director decided to change her into an action heroine," remembers Weseluck.

Although prelay is her favorite medium, Weseluck doesn't limit herself to one type of voice-over work. She's had a wide range of experience doing radio and television commercials. .

"CD-ROM narration is a huge part of the voice-over market. It offers a lot of opportunity for people in this business," says Weseluck.

The voice-over business is very competitive. Experts estimate there are at least 10 performers for every voice-over contract. Those odds don't bother Weseluck, however. She believes there is a danger in getting too wrapped up in competition.

"A lot of people worry constantly about the competition in this business. They push so hard to get where they want to go, they almost self-destruct."

Weseluck steers clear of this kind of dog-eat-dog mentality. She credits her sanity to a more inward-focused and positive approach to her work.

"I'm a fatalist. I believe if I'm meant to get something, I will. I just try to concentrate on what I'm capable of doing, and what aspects of my work I can be improving upon."

This kind of professionalism is the product of several years of experience in the entertainment business. Weseluck started doing voice-over work about eight years ago, after a long stint as an associate producer for a radio show.

"Radio was a good training ground for me. It taught me a lot about using my voice," says Weseluck. "Ultimately, though, I think it's really important to have some acting training in your background. I did some live theater first, and this was really helpful."

Weseluck's theater background proved to be a real asset when she started her voice-over career. Her first voice-over contracts were for audio digital reproduction (ADR) work, an area of voice-over performance which demands strong acting skills.

ADR is the dubbing of a voice-over performer's voice on a damaged or foreign language film. The voice-over actors must follow the written script and watch the film on a TV screen so they can speak in synch with the character on the film.

"There's nothing worse than having the dialogue not match the way the characters on screen are moving their lips. You have to use your brain to follow the lip-synch and stay in character at the same time."

With all of these challenges, and the competition involved in making it in voice-over performance, some might wonder why Weseluck does it. But she says you couldn't pay her to change careers.

"Voice-over work is a wonderful creative outlet. How many people can say they've been paid to talk like a chicken all day?"