Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Awards

AudioFile Magazine has honored Julia Whelan, Ramón de Ocampo, JD Jackson, Arthur Morey, and Emily Woo Zeller, with its highest accolade, the Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Award.

Since 1992, AudioFile has bestowed the Golden Voice prize on only 24 voice artists. The award celebrates an artist’s iconic role in the field of narration and honors those who have made significant contributions to the audiobook art form. You’ll find the complete list of AudioFile Golden Voices including videos, interviews, and samples of their audiobooks here.

AudioFile Magazine’s new Golden Voices have won numerous awards, including Earphones, Audies, and Best Audiobook of the Year. Individually, they narrate everything from Biography to Mystery to Science Fiction to Young Adult.

JULIA WHELAN: Narrator Julia Whelan brought home the 2019 Audie Awards for Best Female Narrator and Autobiography/Memoir for her narration of Tara Westover’s Educated, which has spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. Whether she’s narrating a memoir or a novel, such as Linda Holmes’s Evvie Drake Starts Over, Julia sweeps listeners up in the characters’ emotional journeys. As an author herself (My Oxford Year), she feels empathy for all authors and thus an emotional connection to every book she narrates.

Essential Listening

EDUCATED by Tara Westover | Read by Julia Whelan
FAR FROM THE TREE by Robin Benway | Read by Julia Whelan
FLIGHTS by Olga Tokarczuk, Jennifer Croft [trans.] | Read by Julia Whelan
GONE GIRL by Gillian Flynn | Read by Julia Whelan, Kirby Hayborne
MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION by Ottessa Moshfegh | Read by Julia Whelan

RAMÓN DE OCAMPO: As the voice of Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid audiobooks, Los Angeles-based actor Ramón de Ocampo has an army of young fans. He brings authenticity to children’s and young adult audiobooks, connecting with coming-of-age stories and taking the listener on an emotional journey. The winner of multiple Earphones Awards and an Audie Award, Ramón is also a stage and screen actor.

Essential Listening

FREE LUNCH by Rex Ogle | Read by Ramón de Ocampo
HELLO, UNIVERSE by Erin Entrada Kelly | Read by Ramón de Ocampo, Amielynn Abellera
PATRON SAINTS OF NOTHING by Randy Ribay | Read by Ramón de Ocampo
RED, WHITE & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston | Read by Ramón de Ocampo
RUN ME TO EARTH by Paul Yoon | Read by Ramón de Ocampo

JD JACKSON: JD Jackson narrated the audiobook versions of two 2020 Pulitzer Prize winners—Colson Whitehead’s The Nickel Boys (Fiction) and Jericho Brown’s The Tradition (Poetry). Narrating everything from biography to gritty detective novels, Jackson brings strong characterizations to the table—and wins awards as well as listener admiration.

Essential Listening

THE NICKEL BOYS by Colson Whitehead | Read by JD Jackson
BLUEBIRD, BLUEBIRD by Attica Locke | Read by JD Jackson
CEMETERY ROAD by Gar Anthony Haywood | Read by JD Jackson
HEAVEN, MY HOME by Attica Locke | Read by JD Jackson
WHAT IT WAS by George Pelecanos | Read by JD Jackson

ARTHUR MOREY: Award-winning audiobook narrator Arthur Morey is an accomplished actor, writer, writing teacher, and singer. He is known for giving attentive and well-researched narrations to nonfiction audiobooks, as in his eloquent delivery of E.B. White’s essay collection, On Democracy. His performances consistently rank among AudioFile’s “Best of the Year” audiobooks.

Essential Listening

IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE by Hampton Sides | Read by Arthur Morey
ON DEMOCRACY by E.B. White, Jon Meacham [Intro.] | Read by Arthur Morey
REPORTER by Seymour M. Hersh | Read by Arthur Morey
THAT OLD CAPE MAGIC by Richard Russo | Read by Arthur Morey
THE BETTER ANGELS OF OUR NATURE by Steven Pinker | Read by Arthur Morey

EMILY WOO ZELLER: “Humanity is colorful,” narrator Emily Woo Zeller says, “and I hope to always celebrate that.” Whether she’s narrating Asian American fiction and nonfiction, or fantasy or young adult audiobooks, Zeller offers absorbing and multilayered portrayals of a wide range of characters and subjects. This Earphones and Audie Award-winning narrator is also a fan favorite.

Essential Listening

GULP by Mary Roach | Read by Emily Woo Zeller
KITCHEN CHINESE by Ann Mah | Read by Emily Woo Zeller
THE BRIDE TEST by Helen Hoang | Read by Emily Woo Zeller
THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP by Marie Kondo | Read by Emily Woo Zeller
THE POPPY WAR by R.F. Kuang | Read by Emily Woo Zeller

AudioFile Magazine has honored audiobook narrators January LaVoy, Edoardo Ballerini, Bahni Turpin, Suzanne Toren, andJohnny Heller with Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Awards.

The award celebrates an artist’s iconic role in the field of narration and recognizes those who have made significant contributions to the audiobook art form. Only 24 narrators have previously won the award, including Frank Muller, George Guidall, Simon Vance, Jim Dale, Martin Jarvis, Katherine Kellgren, and Scott Brick.

January LaVoy and Bahni Turpin have been the most active in sff. LaVoy has recorded such fantasy and science fiction titles as Star Wars’ Last Shot by Daniel José Older, Mother Go by James Patrick Kelly, Version Control by Dexter Palmer, Breach by W.L. Goodwater, and The Drafter by Kim Harrison. Turpin recently recorded The Salt Roads by Nalo Hopkinson and won multiple awards for last year’s Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

During the month of June, Golden Voice narrators will be featured on the Behind the Mic with AudioFile Magazine daily podcast. This is a link to the Golden Voices page, listing all awardees: Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Awards.

AudioFile Magazine’s new Golden Voices have won numerous awards, including Earphones, Audies, and Best Narrator, and Best Audiobook of the Year. Individually, they narrate everything from Biography and Mystery to Science Fiction and Young Adult.

January LaVoy

A New York City-based stage and screen actress, LaVoy is a well-known voiceover artist as well as an audiobook narrator who records over 20 books a year. She specializes in books that speak to her, be they biography, suspense, fantasy, history, children, or young adult. She loves knowing that everyone from commuters to soldiers listen to audiobooks.

Essential Listening

Edoardo Ballerini

A stage and screen actor, New York-based Ballerini has won many awards and recorded a wide range of fiction and nonfiction since debuted as an audiobook narrator less than 10 years ago. When recording, he relishes the opportunity to create an entire world for listeners by using only his voice.

Essential Listening

Bahni Turpin

Los Angeles-based stage and screen actress Turpin has always loved to read aloud, which makes her many awards – from Earphones and Audies to Narrator of the Year – a particularly meaningful accolade. She loves to voice dialects and relishes creating individual voices for different characters.

Essential Listening

Suzanne Toren

Winner of the American Foundation for the Blind’s Scourby Award as well as many Earphones Awards, Toren has forged a successful career as an audiobook narrator for over 30 years. Known for the warmth, clarity and emotional power of her performances, Toren follows advice she heard years ago: “Allow what you receive to land in your heart and then come out of your mouth.”

Essential Listening

Johnny Heller

Chicago-born and New York-based Heller is the actor whose voice-over line, “Mmmm-ummm!” convinced millions of consumers to succumb to the taste delights of Campbell’s soup. Since then the award-winning narrator, who also works as a narrating coach, has recorded well over 200 titles, many of them young adult and comedy, with his trademark upbeat tone and spirited characterizations.

Essential Listening