Megan is a Bristol-based Producer of Podcasts, Creative Audio and Social Content, with nearly a decade of experience making award-winning programming. She is a Podcast & Social Media Producer at editaudio, an international podcast production house, where she has led shows including Mina AF, TruthWorks and Be Well, Sis.
Megan also creates immersive audio installations, sound design and video content, and is a judge for industry events such as the Audio Production Awards and Independent Podcast Awards. Megan was named as one of PodPod’s “Ones To Watch” in 2023.
In 2026 she founded Bristol Sounds Good, a free community for audio creatives across the South West. With so much going on we sat with Megan to find out more about her work and why she decided to take on even more by starting Bristol Sounds Good!
Megan Hayward
ALEX: Hey Megan! Thanks so much for chatting with us, you have a lot going on, can you tell us a little bit about how you got into audio production and more about the projects you mostly work across?
MEGAN: I always wanted to work in media and entertainment and fell into radio after requesting one song too many at my sixth form’s station and being offered a show of my own! After going “on air” for the first time I then pursued radio at uni and fell in love with speech programming and the power of audio as a storytelling medium.
Through my degree and student radio I made various documentaries and dramas- including a Charles Parker Prize winning audio doc about mental health in farming, called Down On The Farm. Now, I’m a Podcast Producer, working mostly on shows in the tech, business, leadership and wellness spheres, but I like to still do creative audio projects when I can, such as a Cinematic Poetry series last year, and an Audio Installation the year before that!
ALEX: What draws you to working with creative audio?
MEGAN: The first time I heard “The Revenge” by Andrew Sachs, it absolutely blew my mind.
It really made me understand how audio can be a powerful storytelling art-form, and that sound design should be experimented with.
It’s also incredibly accessible, you can be the writer, actor, producer, editor, everything! Creating something exceptional with zero budget (especially if you use free resources like freesound and audacity). You don’t need to rely on anyone else or the expense of a fancy camera etc to bring your story to life. I think being quite hyper-independant at uni and avoiding group work where possible really made my love for audio grow! You can also hide a multitude of sins and create magical theatre of the mind without a camera. I once made an entire audio pantomime with about 10 voice actors just sending me their files and never interacting with each other!
ALEX: How much of your work involves working with voice artists, actors or performers?
MEGAN: I’m not a Voice Actor and really steer clear of putting my own voice into my work if I can help it! So even if I need a narrative voiceover, I will always reach out to my actor pals who have lovely voices to see if they’ll lend themselves to a project!
The first time I had a properly funded project and was able to pay people properly for their time was when I felt like I’d made it as a Producer. it's nice that we all do each other favors but money is nicer! It also really helps me carve out the story I’m telling if I literally hear it in a different voice, as it lifts it off the page and gives it a separation from myself as the storyteller.
ALEX: Going to the podcast work. There’s a real skill to hosting a podcast and I sometimes think that people forget that although quite often we’re listening to a more relaxed form of conversation - there are still very prominent vocal performances and techniques coming into play that interact with the whole programme and sound design. Would you agree?
MEGAN: Yes, definitely! I think it’s great that podcasting is such an accessible medium, as it has launched so much fresh talent who have built their own audiences from scratch. It’s those personalities who, when well performed, can make anything an interesting listen! There’s definitely a skill in taking on feedback. Even being lightly media trained and knowing when to pause and restart a sentence is a talent in itself that has to be learnt, and it makes for a much better listen after the edit!
ALEX: Right! Are there any standout performers you’ve worked with when it comes to voice and what makes them stand out? (Cheeky question as of course everyone you work with is great! Haha!)
MEGAN: Absolutely! Last year I got to work with some pals (Producer Sonia Wargacka & DOP Benjamin Tate) on their Cinematic Poetry series, with our very lovely and talented pal Savannah Betts. She’s an absolute ray of sunshine and it was an absolute joy to get to work with her and her voice for the series. We did two creative takes on poems (Wild Geese and I Talk To My Body) and her performances were the catalyst for the direction I took the sound design in!
There's such a warmth and an edge to her performances that really sparks curiosity and pulls you in.
We’re also working together on a fun cool project I’m not sure I can talk about yet, with another talented actor here in the South West, Alexandra Ricou, and it's been such a blast seeing them both explore a range of characters and the voices they give to them!
ALEX: Let’s talk about your networking event, ‘Bristol Sounds Good’, can you tell us what this is?
MEGAN: Yes! I moved to Bristol three years ago and I absolutely love it here. The majority of my audio industry connections however live in London or Manchester and I wanted to create a bit more of an audio specific creative community here (there are a LOT of creatives in Bristol!). Myself and another audio producer Katie Chandler-Clarke just kept letting people know when we were going for a coffee or drink on LinkedIn and eventually we gained a little group of regulars. Because of my SRA (The Student Radio Association) background I’m quite enthusiastic about sharing opportunities and whatever the opposite of gate-keeping is, so now we have an Instagram and LinkedIn where we let people know about future events and any cool opportunities we’ve spotted in the south west!
ALEX: Sounds amazing! Why is it important to bring people together, in person, and host these types of events?
MEGAN: I work from home for an international production company, editaudio (which is fantastic btw!) but it means I don't see people in an office every day and I miss out on just chatting about my main passion IRL. It’s been so lovely to meet new people and make new friends. It’s networking, but hopefully in a very chill friendly way, a lot of the creative industry freelance jobs often just come from who you know, from being the first person someone thinks of, and its get togethers like Bristol Sounds Good that can help forge those connections beyond LinkedIn.
ALEX: Your event is open to pretty much anyone working in audio. Do you think there’s an increasing overlap between roles, with people taking on more hats rather than sticking to one defined job within the industry? If so why? Or why not?
MEGAN: Yes there’s definitely something about being a jack of all trades in 2026! I know my role has gone from editing audio to producing social media campaigns for example. I think people can be a bit nervous about up-skilling themselves and therefore a bit resentful and pessimistic and I get it, however most of the creative skills are really transferable and easy to pick up. There’s no harm in making yourself as employable as possible, if you can!
ALEX: We’re coming to the end of 2026 (crazy)! So looking ahead into 2027 - what are going to be the top skills that someone should bring to the table when working across creative voice production, audio or voiceover?
MEGAN: Ooooo I mean its not a skill but I would say there’s lots of opportunities hidden in places you wouldn’t traditionally think of. Particularly in stories that blur between fact and fiction and need a suitable voiceover to create that blend. Maybe perhaps for those wanting to tell their own stories, they should look into how they can make things happen for themselves, instead of for someone else! If you’ve got the voice, think if there’s any stories you want to tell, there’s a great resource called All Hear that is full of grants that might inspire you!
ALEX: Totally agree, creating your own work can be so powerful. Last one, I promise, what’s one piece of work involving creative voice production that’s really inspired you recently?
Okay so its not a human voice butttt its a great example of human creativity: Project Hail Mary's Sound Designer, Erik Aadahl put his dog into a scene that is absolutely heart-wrenching and a truly inspiring sound design choice - putting together sounds that you would never guess the origin of!