Jon Briggs | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1965-01-24)24 January 1965 (age 60) |
| Alma mater | Dragon School Magdalen College School, Oxford |
| Occupation | Voiceover artist |
| Known for | Voice of British Siri |
Jonathan Briggs (born 24 January 1965) is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is known for hisvoice-over work and as the British voice used byApple Inc.'sSiri virtual assistant software.
Briggs's voiceover credits include appearing as the voiceover statistician in over 1,800 episodes of theBBC TV quiz showThe Weakest Link (2000–2012, 2017) and as continuity announcer forBBC Radio 2 (1996–2009) andChannel 4 (1988–1990). Briggs was the first presenter on air whenQVC launched in the UK in 1993.[citation needed]
Briggs's radio credits include the breakfast showOxford AM forBBC Radio Oxford (1985–1987), the breakfast showMorning Edition forBBC Radio 5 (1990–1992),Night Ride for BBC Radio 2 andThe Weekend Wireless Show forLBC (1998–2003). His reporting credits includeBBC Radio 4'sPM,Today,The World at One andThe World Tonight, as well as travelogue and transport programmesBreakaway andGoing Places.
In 1996 Briggs founded the London based talent agency Excellent Talent, an entertainment agency representing VoiceOver actors. He sold it in 2020.[1]
In October 2017, he was a contestant on the celebrity version of the UK quiz showPointless.[2]
In July 2019, Briggs co-presentedBBC Radio 4's "Voice in the Machine" episode of theArchive on 4 series.[3]
In November 2020, Briggs launched the podcastYou're On the Air! talking to UK broadcasters about the skill of broadcasting.{[4]
In 2007, Briggs recorded his voice fortext-to-speech software developed by ScanSoft,[5] later acquired byNuance Communications. In 2011, Nuance's software was used byApple Inc. for their British Male version ofSiri, the personal assistant application for Apple devices.[6] Briggs's voice is renamed "Daniel" for these purposes. The voice is also the default British voice for Voice-Over on the iPhone, built-in software found within accessibility. This software reads everything out on the screen to enable blind and visually impaired people to use a phone independently.[7]