Connie Zimet - Biography
Connie Zimet - Biography
Connie Zimet has had a varied career in all segments of the entertainment business and the arts, beginning in summer stock in her hometown of Indianapolis, Indiana at the age of ten. She continued working in Equity summer theaters in Indianapolis and throughout the mid-west as an actress/ singer/ dancer until she entered Briarcliff College in Briarcliff Manor, New York at the age of 16 as a drama major.
After moving to New York City a year later, she studied with Robert Lewis, Bill Hickey, Luigi, David Sorin Collyer and Helen Hobbs Jordan. She also studied film with Stanley Kramer at NYU and interior design at Parsons School of Design and The New York School of Interior Design..
During her years in New York, Connie worked nightclubs, off- Broadway, and was under contract as a solo artist with Colpix, Capitol and Todd Records. She subsequently became a top studio/jingle singer as well as voice-over talent working on literally thousands of national accounts including Coca Cola, Hanes Hose, American Airlines and Estee Lauder. She was also one of the busiest voices on children’s records and was the 2nd Lucy on record for the show, “You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown”. Additionally, she was featured on numerous comedy albums and was the voice of “The Sensuous Woman” for Atlantic Records.
Although she continues to be a successful voice-over talent, Connie has also attained national prominence as a voice-over (voice acting) coach and has been featured in that capacity in 2001 in Mademoiselle Magazine as well as Essence Magazine in November of 2003. She has scores of students working successfully in every major market. One female student is currently the national voice of TGI Fridays, another the national voice for Starbucks and Febreze, a third the Lifetime voice for Intimate Portraits as well as narrations for Learning, Discovery Channels and Animal Planet and announcer for the syndicated version of “The Weakest Link.”
One of her male students can be heard as the national voice of Cottonelle, Florida Orange Growers, The Florida Lottery, Today Show promos and CBS Sports. Another was the first voice of MSNBC and is currently the voice of Fear Factor. A third was chosen as the NBC voice for the 2004 Olympic Games in Greece and is currently heard on Wrangler, Stanley Tools and as the announcer for The Tony Danza Show.
When asked how many of her students actually work after studying with her Connie says, “All those who work at it.” In the South Florida market alone, perhaps 80-90% of the busiest talent are Zimet alumni. All are friends.
Also as a teacher/coach, Connie has taught at the University of Miami, Florida International University, Miami Dade Community College and Miami Lakes Technical Institute (part of the Dade County School System) where she was also a member of their advisory board.
Under the auspices of the Los Angeles branches of AFTRA and SAG, she has taught workshops at UCLA and USC and has been conducting private workshops and seminars for the past twenty five years.
She is currently completing a for-sale-to-the-public version of her workshop workbook entitled, “Connie Zimet’s VoiceOver Tool Box; All the Tools You need to Build or Renovate A Career in Voiceovers.”
As a castingdirector/acting coach Connie she has worked with Los Angeles casting director, Caro Jones, on feature films like “Cross Creek", “Last Plane Out"and “Rocky 5″ …as well as casting for network movies of the week and as a voicecaster both in Los Angeles and South Florida.
Connie has also worked with two major Miami ad agencies as a writer/producer for Office Depot, TheAthlete’s Foot, Godfather’s Pizza, Lilly Pulitzer as well as serving as a freelance writer/producer/talent for a variety of department stores including: Burdines, J Byrons, Gayfers, and Maison Blanche. She was also the voice of Burdines Department stores (now Burdines/Macys) for over 30 years and can still be heard as the phone voice for all Florida Macys stores.
Though Connie moved to South Florida in the mid-’70’s, she regularly commuted to New York where she was Production VP for Ridgefield Productions and Shanna Productions. She later worked in Los Angeles as co-creator and head writer on the development of a daytime soap opera for CBS and Polygram Television.
She has worked in many production capacities including writer, producer/ director, talent coordination, location scout, production coordinator and 2nd A.D. for feature films including “Cross Creek”, Rocky V, “Last Plane Out”, as well as network television shows and local, national and international commercials. A collection of her poetry, “Poetica Erotica” was recorded and released in the early 1990’s by Diversity Records. Three of those poems have been featured in national poetry anthologies.
Until 1991, she was the founder and vice-president of CZ Payments, a Florida based talent payroll company now known as Checks In Motion.
Formerly on the Board of Governors of the South Florida Radio Industry’s annual A.I.R. Awards, Connie was also a consultant to the Dade County School System’s radio/vocational education program. She is a member of AFTRA, The Screen Actors Guild, WGA, AICP, and the Independent Film Project. She served on the AFTRA National Board for six years, the Florida Board for ten years and is currently president of the Miami Local. Listed in WHO’S WHO of AMERICAN WOMEN, Connie was nominated for the WONDER WOMAN award in the early 90’s.