Meet The Real Woman Behind The Beloved Voice Of Siri

We’ve written so much about Siri lately. With the new iOS 7 Siri features, she’s more useful than ever before. One thing I’ve never thought about is…who’s the woman behind the voice of Siri? Surely it’s a real woman who lent her voice to our beloved Siri. As it turns out, there is a real woman behind the voice of Siri, and she lives right here in Atlanta. She ‘came out’ with an interview to CNN yesterday, and her story instantly went viral.

Siri was introduced to the world on October 4, 2011 with the iPhone 4S. Since then, Siri has of course become a household name. The woman behind the voice of Siri is Susan Bennett. She is a voice actress, and the interesting thing is, when she recorded her voice for a client eight years ago, she had no idea it would eventually be used by Apple. She didn’t know her voice would be considered for a then unknown virtual assistant named Siri.

Apple won’t confirm or deny whether or not Susan Bennett is telling the truth, but everyone from industry experts, to insiders who know, to voice analyzers, confirm she is correct. She didn’t find out her voice was used for Siri until one of her friends with an iPhone 4S asked her about it since Siri’s voice sounds identical to Susan’s voice. Susan didn’t have a 4S at the time, so she pulled up online recordings of Siri, and sure enough, it was her own voice. I hope you click over to I’m The Original Voice Of Siri on CNN to read her full story. It’s such a great read.

Susan jokes that when it sounds like Siri has an attitude, it’s because those voice recording sessions were very long (4 hours each). Towards the end of each one she was tired, and you can hear it in her voice. Next time you hear Siri’s voice, you’ll be able to picture Susan Bennett talking to you. Her picture is below. What an interesting story about how history is made.