If you listen to audiobooks or magazine articles, chances are you have heard Julia Whelan’s voice. Whelan is one of the most popular audiobook narrators working today. She is the soothing female voice behind Gillian Flynn’s thriller “Gone Girl,” and the confident, assured voice in “Malibu Rising” by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
Whelan has recorded over five hundred audiobooks, received AudioFile’s Golden Voice, and won best female narrator for Tara Westover’s “Educated” at the 2019 Audies.
As a child, Whelan loved reading books. She was also a talented actor – at the young age of five, she was acting in local theater productions. In 1999, Whelan auditioned for the “Once and Again” creators Herskovitz and Zwick. After reading as one of the characters, Zwick said they knew they had found the perfect actress. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Check that box: Done.’”
Whelan began her narrating career after her friend’s mom, who worked for an audio publisher, informed her about the opportunities in audiobooks.
Over the years, Whelan has earned her spot as one of Audible’s most popular and on-demand narrators. “Narrating a book really is a performance,” Whelan said, “and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience.” When recording “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” Whelan said she had to “try aging a voice over three hundred years.” In “The Four Winds,” she recalls that she had to do “accents all over the place!” The most stressful recording she has done, she said, is her own novel, “Thank You for Listening.”
There are many problems Whelan must deal with that most people never think about. One is making sure her stomach does not make any noises. She also has to avoid spicy foods. “I’m Irish,” she explained. “My lips go numb.” Another food to avoid before any recording session is cheese because it “makes you phlegmy.”
“I have an absolute voice crush on her,” said Olivia Nuzzi, New York magazine’s Washington correspondent whose work has been narrated by Whelan. “There is some Joan Didion quality to her voice, detached but not uninterested, with a conspiratorial tone that makes her a very compelling storyteller.”
Best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid who wrote “Daisy Jones & the Six” and “Malibu Rising,” became friends with Whelan after she narrated Reid’s 2015 novel, “Maybe in Another Life.” A few years later, in 2017, Reid wanted Whelan to be one of the characters in her book “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” At the time, Whelan was so sought after that six months’ notice was required for her to record an audiobook. This delighted Reid. “Who doesn’t like to see their friends in such high demand?” she said.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658690187835x977926149483167000/That%20Voice%20You%E2%80%99re%20Hearing_%20It%20Might%20Be%20Julia%20Whelan.%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/the-adele-of-audiobooks
Whelan has recorded over five hundred audiobooks, received AudioFile’s Golden Voice, and won best female narrator for Tara Westover’s “Educated” at the 2019 Audies.
As a child, Whelan loved reading books. She was also a talented actor – at the young age of five, she was acting in local theater productions. In 1999, Whelan auditioned for the “Once and Again” creators Herskovitz and Zwick. After reading as one of the characters, Zwick said they knew they had found the perfect actress. “We looked at each other and said, ‘Check that box: Done.’”
Whelan began her narrating career after her friend’s mom, who worked for an audio publisher, informed her about the opportunities in audiobooks.
Over the years, Whelan has earned her spot as one of Audible’s most popular and on-demand narrators. “Narrating a book really is a performance,” Whelan said, “and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience.” When recording “The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue,” Whelan said she had to “try aging a voice over three hundred years.” In “The Four Winds,” she recalls that she had to do “accents all over the place!” The most stressful recording she has done, she said, is her own novel, “Thank You for Listening.”
There are many problems Whelan must deal with that most people never think about. One is making sure her stomach does not make any noises. She also has to avoid spicy foods. “I’m Irish,” she explained. “My lips go numb.” Another food to avoid before any recording session is cheese because it “makes you phlegmy.”
“I have an absolute voice crush on her,” said Olivia Nuzzi, New York magazine’s Washington correspondent whose work has been narrated by Whelan. “There is some Joan Didion quality to her voice, detached but not uninterested, with a conspiratorial tone that makes her a very compelling storyteller.”
Best-selling author Taylor Jenkins Reid who wrote “Daisy Jones & the Six” and “Malibu Rising,” became friends with Whelan after she narrated Reid’s 2015 novel, “Maybe in Another Life.” A few years later, in 2017, Reid wanted Whelan to be one of the characters in her book “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.” At the time, Whelan was so sought after that six months’ notice was required for her to record an audiobook. This delighted Reid. “Who doesn’t like to see their friends in such high demand?” she said.
Sources:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/appforest_uf/f1658690187835x977926149483167000/That%20Voice%20You%E2%80%99re%20Hearing_%20It%20Might%20Be%20Julia%20Whelan.%20-%20The%20New%20York%20Times.pdf
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/the-adele-of-audiobooks
