If you’ve picked up an iPhone or iPad in the past years, or watched an Apple commercial, you’ve probably heard her voice. She’s SIRI, the automated virtual assistant that Apple created for the iPhone 4S, and that has appeared on every device since. But until today, the woman behind the voice has been secret. She’s the voice of SIRI, and she’s talking… and it has nothing to do with directions.
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In the video embedded below, Susan Bennet, a voice actress who also provided the voice for the world’s first ATM, discusses how she stumbled upon SIRI, and how she found out that she’d been cast as the world’s busiest secretary.
And if you’ve ever dreamed of SIRI having a conversation with herself, she did that too.
How SIRI was created is an even more interesting tale. For four hours a day, for a month, she was hired to record various sayings. After several years, she’d nearly forgotten about the project when a friend emailed her to ask if the voice of the iPhone was hers.