Susan Alice Bennett (née Cameron, born July 31, 1949) is an American voice actress and a former backup singer for

Roy Orbison Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist known for his distinctive and powerful voice, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. Orbison's most successful periods were ...

and

Burt Bacharach Burt Freeman Bacharach ( ; May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) was an American composer, songwriter, record producer, and pianist who is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential figures of 20th-century popular music. Start ...

. She is best known as the female American voice of

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

's Siri personal assistant, since the service was introduced on the

iPhone 4S The is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fifth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4 and preceding the iPhone 5. It was announced on October 4, 2011, at Apple's Cupertino ...

on October 4, 2011. She was the voice of Siri until the

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 ...

update was released on September 18, 2013.

Early life and education

Bennett was born in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

, and attended high school at Clinton Central School in Clinton, New York. In 1967, she enrolled in Pembroke College and graduated in 1971 from

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

after the two schools merged. In college, Bennett focused on the

classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...

, intending to be a teacher. She acted in Sock and Buskin theatrical productions, was a member of the jazz band, Conglomerate, and was a singer with the Chattertocks, an

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

group.

Career

Bennett's career began in 1974 when she was recorded as the voice of

First National Bank of Atlanta Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asset ...

Tillie the All-Time Teller Tillie the All-Time Teller was one of the first ATMs, run by the First National Bank of Atlanta and considered to be one of the most successful ATMs in the banking industry. Tillie the All-Time Teller had a picture of a smiling blonde girl on ...

. She has recorded messages for the

public address system A public address system (or PA system) is an electronic system comprising microphones, amplifiers, loudspeakers, and related equipment. It increases the apparent volume (loudness) of a human voice, musical instrument, or other acoustic sound sou ...

in all

Delta Air Lines Delta Air Lines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, operating nine hubs, with Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport being its ...

terminals worldwide, for e-learning software and

GPS navigation software Satellite navigation software or GNSS navigation software a category of software that provide positioning services by utilizing data from satellite navigation systems. Key functions of satellite navigation software usually includes: # Positioning: ...

, and for telephone systems. Her voice has also been used in numerous local and national

television advertisements Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

for companies including Ford,

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a cola soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. In 2013, Coke products were sold in over 200 countries and territories worldwide, with consumers drinking more than 1.8 billion company beverage servings ...

Fisher-Price Fisher-Price, Inc. is an American company that produces educational toys for infants, toddlers and preschoolers, headquartered in East Aurora, New York, East Aurora, New York (state), New York. It was founded in 1930 during the Great Depression ...

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

The Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., often referred to as Home Depot, is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportat ...

, Goodyear,

Visa Visa most commonly refers to: * Travel visa, a document that allows entry to a foreign country * Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Vi ...

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

Hot Pockets Hot Pockets is an American brand of microwaveable turnovers generally containing one or more types of cheese, meat, or vegetables. Hot Pockets was founded by Chef America Inc. Since April 20, 2002, they have been produced by Nestlé. Histor ...

Club Med Club Med SAS, commonly known as Club Med and previously known as Club Méditerranée SA, is a French travel and tourism operator headquartered in Paris, specializing in all-inclusive holidays. Founded in 1950, the company has been primarily ow ...

, and

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (CN) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the Cartoon Network, Inc., a sub-division of the Warner Bros. Discovery Networks division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It launched on ...

. In 2021, she provided the voice of EMMA, an artificial intelligence application, in ''

Persona 5 Strikers ''Persona 5 Strikers'' is an action role-playing game developed by Omega Force and P-Studio and published by Atlus. The game is a crossover between Koei Tecmo's ''Dynasty Warriors'' franchise and the ''Persona'' series developed by Atlus. The g ...

'' by

Atlus is a Japanese video game developer, video game publisher, publisher, Arcade game, arcade manufacturer and distribution company based in Tokyo. A subsidiary of Sega, the company is known for the ''Megami Tensei'', ''Persona (series), Persona'' ...

Siri

In June 2005, the software company

ScanSoft 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 compe ...

was looking for someone to be the voice for a database project involving speech construction. They inquired with GM Voices and selected Bennett, who happened to be present when the scheduled voice-over artist was absent. She worked in a home recording booth in July 2005, more than four hours each day, reading phrases and sentences. The recordings were then

concatenated In formal language theory and computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining character strings end-to-end. For example, the concatenation of "snow" and "ball" is "snowball". In certain formalizations of concatenatio ...

into the various words, sentences, and paragraphs used in the Siri voice. Bennett became aware she was the voice of Siri when a friend emailed her about it in October 2011. Apple has never acknowledged or confirmed its use of Bennett, but audio-forensics experts hired by

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

expressed 100% certainty that Bennett was the voice of Siri.

Personal life

At Brown University, Bennett met her first husband, professional ice hockey player Curt Bennett. She later married audio engineer and guitarist Rick Hinkle. She now lives in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, Georgia.

In popular culture

On October 4, 2013, she appeared on CNN " New Day" explaining how she was picked to play the part of Siri. In the March 13, 2015, episode of

Adult Swim Adult Swim (stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representativ ...

and s is an American adult-oriented television programming block that airs on Cartoon Network which broadcasts during the evening, prime time, and Late-night television, late-night Dayparting, dayparts. T ...

's '' The Jack and Triumph Show'', titled "Siri", Bennett appeared as herself and was referred to as the "voice of Siri". In July 2016, Bennett appeared on comedian

Anthony Anderson Anthony Anderson (born August 15, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, and television host. He is known for his leading roles in television shows such as Andre "Dre" Johnson on the comedy series ''Black-ish'' (2014–2022), Marlin Boulet on the ...

's ABC game show ''

To Tell the Truth ''To Tell the Truth'' is an American television panel show. Four celebrity panelists are presented with three contestants (the "team of challengers", each an individual or pair) and must identify which is the "central character" whose unusual ...

'', and was revealed as the voice of Siri.

References

External links

* * * (audio story featuring the voices of Siri and Susan Bennett)
Meet the Real Voice of Siri: Susan Bennett
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bennett, Susan 1949 births Living people American voice actresses Musicians from Atlanta Actresses from Atlanta Actresses from New York (state) Actresses from Vermont Pembroke College in Brown University alumni 21st-century American women Actors from Burlington, Vermont