If you’ve ever listened to an audio book, there is a high chance that Julia Whelan was the narrator. As the voice of over 500 books, including her own, Whelan is one of the most recognizable narrators.
Whelan began her career as a child actor, landing her first role as a teenager, Grace Manning, in the show “Once and Again.” Edward Zwick, co-creator of the show, remarked that “There are people who you meet at an early age who you know understand things that cannot be taught. Julia is one of them.”
When the show was canceled in 2002, Whelan decided to attend Middlebury College in Vermont after being homeschooled for the majority of her acting career. She went on to spend her junior year at Oxford University for a study-abroad program before returning to Los Angeles in 2008.
Despite making guest appearances on shows such as “NCIS” and “The Closer,” Whelan struggled to land major roles. As a result, a year after hearing about a narrating job from a friend’s mother, Whelan finally called back.
After three years of narration, Whelan landed her first major role voicing the best-selling novel “The Witness” by Nora Roberts. Since then, she has narrated the four other books in the series, with more to come.
Soon after, Whelan voiced the hidden antagonist Amy in the popular thriller “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. According to Flynn, it was Julia’s “way of putting little curls on certain words” that made her stand out. “There aren’t a lot of actors that I think could do Amy,” Flynn had added, highlighting the difficulty to fully portray a character through only audio.
It was in 2012, when Whelan’s father died after suffering a heart attack, that she started to entertain the idea of pursuing narrating full time. She gave herself three more years, until her 30th birthday, to find a firm career path. After the television show she was cast for shortly before her birthday was dropped, she felt it was time to move on.
After marrying her acting coach and guardian from her years as a child actor in Los Angeles, Whelan published her first novel, “My Oxford Year.” A couple months later, she started working for Audm, a startup that offered article narrations. Eventually promoted to the head of production before leaving the company, Whelan still narrates articles as a freelancer.
Her latest book, “Thank You for Listening,” was inspired by her own experiences as a writer and narrator. “I’m pitching it as ‘In a World’ meets ‘You’ve Got Mail,’” Whelan remarked during an interview, laughing slightly.
Sources:
– https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/the-adele-of-audiobooks
– https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/arts/julia-whelan-audiobook-thank-you-for-listening.html
Whelan began her career as a child actor, landing her first role as a teenager, Grace Manning, in the show “Once and Again.” Edward Zwick, co-creator of the show, remarked that “There are people who you meet at an early age who you know understand things that cannot be taught. Julia is one of them.”
When the show was canceled in 2002, Whelan decided to attend Middlebury College in Vermont after being homeschooled for the majority of her acting career. She went on to spend her junior year at Oxford University for a study-abroad program before returning to Los Angeles in 2008.
Despite making guest appearances on shows such as “NCIS” and “The Closer,” Whelan struggled to land major roles. As a result, a year after hearing about a narrating job from a friend’s mother, Whelan finally called back.
After three years of narration, Whelan landed her first major role voicing the best-selling novel “The Witness” by Nora Roberts. Since then, she has narrated the four other books in the series, with more to come.
Soon after, Whelan voiced the hidden antagonist Amy in the popular thriller “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn. According to Flynn, it was Julia’s “way of putting little curls on certain words” that made her stand out. “There aren’t a lot of actors that I think could do Amy,” Flynn had added, highlighting the difficulty to fully portray a character through only audio.
It was in 2012, when Whelan’s father died after suffering a heart attack, that she started to entertain the idea of pursuing narrating full time. She gave herself three more years, until her 30th birthday, to find a firm career path. After the television show she was cast for shortly before her birthday was dropped, she felt it was time to move on.
After marrying her acting coach and guardian from her years as a child actor in Los Angeles, Whelan published her first novel, “My Oxford Year.” A couple months later, she started working for Audm, a startup that offered article narrations. Eventually promoted to the head of production before leaving the company, Whelan still narrates articles as a freelancer.
Her latest book, “Thank You for Listening,” was inspired by her own experiences as a writer and narrator. “I’m pitching it as ‘In a World’ meets ‘You’ve Got Mail,’” Whelan remarked during an interview, laughing slightly.
Sources:
– https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/01/the-adele-of-audiobooks
– https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/22/arts/julia-whelan-audiobook-thank-you-for-listening.html
