But flash forward a few decades, and computers began to change everything. In these days, actors would simply record entire pre-written paragraphs or sentences. It became the first successful ATM machine in the United States. They called her ‘ Tillie the All-Time Teller ,’ and they hired me to sing a jingle in her voice. So, they decided to personalize the machine by putting a little face of a smiling girl on it. That’s right! In the early ‘70s, The First National Bank of Atlanta started introducing some of the earliest ATM machines - but nobody would use them! People didn’t trust computers yet. You were also the ‘voice’ of one of the first-ever ATM machines, right? I am the voice you hear over the loudspeaker at Delta Airlines gates, and also on a bunch of GPS and phone systems. I did jingle and voice-over work for hundreds of companies - Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Macy’s, Goodyear, Papa John’s, IBM. Susan Bennett, then and now (via Susan Bennett) The studio owner said, “Susan, you don’t have an accent come over the read this copy.” I thought, ‘ Ding, ding, ding! I can do this! ’ The job went well and I decided to get a voice acting coach and an agent. One day, I had just finished recording a jingle for a product and for whatever reason, the voice actor for the ad didn’t show up to read the copy. I started spending a lot of time in studios recording backup vocals and singing jingles. Through that, got some interesting opportunities. In the early ‘70s, I graduated from Brown, ended up in Atlanta, and started singing in clubs. Growing up, I had no concept that you could actually make a living with your voice. ZC: To start off, how’d you get into voice acting? The transcript below has been lightly edited for brevity. We recently sat down with Bennett to learn a bit more about her life and experiences as the original voice of Siri. Today, voice assistants like Siri, Cortanta, and Alexa are becoming more ubiquitous - but we rarely get a chance to meet the people behind those voices. Little did she know that 6 years later, her voice would be in the hands of millions of people all around the world, immortalized as the most recognizable virtual timbre in the history of mobile phones: Siri. She was not told what the recordings would be used for. When the work was done, Bennett collected her hourly rate and moved on to the next gig.
Stuff like, “ Say the zzzzzzz ding again.
For an entire month - 4 hours per day, 5 days per week - she sat in a studio reading sentences that seemed to make no sense. If you can't see the video below on your phone, try this direct link to CNN.In July of 2005, an accomplished voice actor named Susan Bennett was hired to record a bunch of material. That's been kind of freeing in a lot of ways." "You have a certain anonymity which can be very advantageous," she told CNN. Soon she'll go back to the quiet life of a voice actor. You may recognize her voice from other venues: If you've walked through Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, she could have alerted you to guard your suitcase, or step off the moving walkway she's told countless frustrated callers to press 1 for, well, you know and she's a singer who's performed with Burt Bacharach and Roy Orbison.īut today, with her reign as Siri winding down, she's basking in a moment of glory, celebrating her time as the sassy, infuriating, all-knowing yet clueless voice inside millions of cellphones. Like many performers, she won't reveal her exact age for fear of being typecast. Friends later recognized her voice on their phones before she heard herself as Siri.īennett has been a voiceover artist for more than two decades.
SIRI VOICE ACTOR FULL
For a full month, she spent four hours every day recording syllables and parts of words and phrases, which could be assembled into Siri's idiosyncratic speech patterns.
When she recorded Siri's voice back in 2005, Bennett told CNN, she wasn't told how it would be used.