Jonathan Briggs (born 24 January 1965) is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is known for his

voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

work and as the original British voice used by

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

Siri Siri ( , backronym: Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) is a digital assistant purchased, developed, and popularized by Apple Inc., which is included in the iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, macOS, Apple TV, audioOS, and visionOS operating sys ...

virtual assistant software.

Career

Briggs' voiceover credits include appearing as the voiceover statistician in over 1,800 episodes of the

BBC TV BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios ...

quiz show ''

The Weakest Link ''Weakest Link'' (also known as ''The Weakest Link'') is a television game show which The Weakest Link (British game show), first appeared in the United Kingdom on BBC Two on 14 August 2000 and originally ended on 31 March 2012 when its host ...

'' (2000–2012, 2017) and as continuity announcer for

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

(1996–2009) and

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by Channel Four Television Corporation. It is state-owned enterprise, publicly owned but, unlike the BBC, it receives no public funding and is funded en ...

(1988–1990). Briggs was the first presenter on air when

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network and a flagship shopping channel specializing in televised Shopping channel, home shopping, owned by QVC Group (formerly Qurate Retail Group). Founded in 19 ...

launched in the UK in 1993. Briggs' radio credits include the breakfast show ''Oxford AM'' for

BBC Radio Oxford BBC Radio Oxford is the Local BBC Radio, BBC's local radio station serving the county of Oxfordshire. It broadcasts on frequency modulation, FM, Digital Audio Broadcasting, DAB, digital TV and via BBC Sounds from studios in the Summertown, Oxfo ...

(1985–1987), the breakfast show ''Morning Edition'' for BBC Radio 5 (1990–1992), '' Night Ride'' for BBC Radio 2 and ''The Weekend Wireless Show'' for

LBC LBC (originally the London Broadcasting Company) is a British phone-in and talk radio station owned and operated by Global and based in its headquarters in London. It was the UK's first licensed commercial radio station, and began to broadc ...

(1998–2003). His reporting credits include

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

's '' PM'', ''

Today Today (archaically to-day) may refer to: * The current day and calendar date ** Today is between and , subject to the local time zone * Now, the time that is perceived directly, present * The current, present era Arts, entertainment and m ...

'', ''

The World at One ''The World at One'' (or ''WATO'', pronounced "what-oh") is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs radio programme, broadcast weekdays from 13:00 to 13:45 and produced by BBC News. The programme describes itself as "Bri ...

'' and ''

The World Tonight ''The World Tonight'' is a British current affairs radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4, every weekday evening, which started out as an extension of the 10 pm news. It is produced by BBC News and features news, analysis and comment on dome ...

'', as well as travelogue and transport programmes '' Breakaway'' and ''Going Places''. In 1996, Briggs founded the London-based talent agency Excellent Talent, an entertainment agency representing voice-over actors. He sold it in 2020. In October 2017, he was a contestant on the celebrity version of the UK quiz show ''

Pointless ''Pointless'' is a Television in the United Kingdom, British television quiz show produced by Banijay Entertainment subsidiary Remarkable Entertainment for the BBC and hosted by Alexander Armstrong. In each episode, four teams of two contestan ...

''. In July 2019, Briggs co-presented

's "Voice in the Machine" episode of the '' Archive on 4'' series. In November 2020, Briggs launched the podcast ''You're On the Air!'' talking to UK broadcasters about the skill of broadcasting.{

Siri

In 2007, Briggs recorded his voice for

text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

software developed by ScanSoft, later acquired by

Nuance Communications Nuance Communications, Inc. is an American multinational computer software technology corporation, headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, that markets speech recognition and artificial intelligence software. Nuance merged with its comp ...

. In 2011, Nuance's software was used by

for their first British version of

, the personal assistant application for Apple devices. Briggs' voice is renamed "Daniel" for these purposes. The voice is also the default British voice for

VoiceOver Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

devices, the built-in software found within accessibility. This software reads everything aloud on the screen to enable blind and visually impaired people to use their device independently. Since

iOS 7 iOS 7 is the seventh major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 6. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 10, 2013, and was released on September 18 ...

, released on 18 September 2013, Briggs' voice for male Siri was replaced and a female voice option was also added.

References

External links

www.jonbriggs.com
nbsp;— Jon Briggs' website.
www.youreontheair.co.uk
nbsp;- Podcast website *
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJLxEvL6eCo
nbsp;— BBC Radio 2 Voice Party Video from The

Jeremy Vine Jeremy Guy Vine (born 17 May 1965) is an English television and radio presenter and journalist. He is best known as the host of his BBC Radio 2 lunchtime programme which presents news, views, interviews with live guests, consumer issues and popu ...

Show
The iconic voices of technology
- BBC Technology "Meet the real Siri, and other iconic voices of technology" {{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs, Jon 1965 births English male voice actors English radio presenters English television presenters Living people People educated at The Dragon School People educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford Radio and television announcers