Angela Scappatura, or Angelina Rocca, as she’s known professionally, is pinching herself these days.
The former Sudbury journalist and mother of two turned audio book narrator is the winner of the Society of Voice Arts and Sciences (SOVAs) Award for Outstanding Audiobook Narration in Romance and Erotica.
If another awards program, the Audie Awards, is the industry’s Oscar’s, the SOVAs are the Golden Globes — so this is a big deal.
The award, which was for her narration of the book “Between Never and Forever” by Brit Benson, was handed out in Beverly Hills, California earlier this month.
With the industry dominated by Americans, Scappatura said it felt “surreal” to her that someone who comes from Northern Ontario actually won.
“I'm incredibly grateful for it,” said Scappatura. “I didn't expect to win given the other incredibly talented people in that category. I'm still a bit shocked and very grateful.”
Scappatura only got into audiobook narration about two-and-a-half years ago, but she’s already narrated around 150 books.”My career trajectory is pretty anomalous, as far as this industry is concerned,” she said.
Originally from Sudbury and now living in the GTA, Scappatura worked as a journalist for more than a decade, including at the Sudbury Star and St. Catharines Standard, as well as more recently at CBC at the network national news.
With punishing early-morning hours at the CBC and her kids sometimes having to stay home from school due to the impacts of the pandemic, that job was just no longer sustainable.
Scappatura is also an accomplished jazz singer, having released an album and performed at jazz festivals, so she has lots of experience using her voice.
She also happens to love romance novels.
“So I thought, ‘OK, well, these are the things that I know how to do’,” she said. “So I took a couple of voice acting courses just to see what it was like, and I did one on audio book narration.
“And after the first class, it just hit me, I just thought, ‘Oh, my God, this, this is exactly what I should be doing.’ So I just kept studying and doing classes and doing coaching. That first class that I did was a four-week class, and part of it was to create a profile on this site, this marketplace to match narrators and author authors. The first book that I auditioned for, I got, and I just kept hustling and learning and working from there.”
As for why she uses the pseudonym Angelina Rocca, Scappatura said at first it was because she has two kids, and many of the books she narrates are explicit as she narrates in both the romance and thriller genres.
Although she mostly continues under that name, Scappatura said she’s proud of her work, as romance is a very popular genre, and it takes a lot of skill to do what she does.
“I am not ashamed of what I do, of these books, these beautiful love stories that I get to read,” she said. “I still have a pseudonym, because that's what I'm known by in the industry.”
Asked the obvious question — whether she ever bursts out laughing when reading the sexy scenes — Scappatura said she doesn’t.
“I don't laugh at all,” she said. “No, because you know what? I take it very seriously, because these books mean a lot to people. That is my issue with people who are outside of romance or who have never picked up a romance novel.
“They have this vision of the bodice-ripper, Fabio covers, and it's all dramatic. But these books are so beautiful and really touch at the core of human nature, and it's just love stories. Sometimes, yes, they're explicit, sometimes they're incredibly dark, and they're not for everyone.”
Scappatura said she’s had many messages from people who have told her that these books have been their escape from harsh reality.
“The impact that these stories have on people, I think, is diminished by a lot of people, and I wish it wasn't,” she said. ”It is truly an escape for people, and authors put so much of themselves into these stories. So no, I don't laugh.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.