Who is the voice of Alexa?

The answer to Apple’s Siri, Amazon Alexa is the virtual assistant that has become a pop culture sensation over the past nine years.

According to its official site, Alexa’s features can be used to inform others about current news, the weather, sports scores, specialized routines, and entertainment purposes. Alexa, which operates on voice command, was released on the Amazon Echo device in 2014. Since then, the electronic device has sold hundreds of millions of shipments worldwide. In addition to the devices’ sales, Amazon is set to release the fifth generation of its Echo device sometime this year. 

Aside from the basics, little information regarding Alexa has been revealed to the general public, including the alleged actress that lent her voice to the device. Author Brad Stone, however, thinks he’s uncovered Amazon’s mystery woman with a world-famous voice.

Information on the alleged voice actress and her past work

The Verge reported in a 2021 article that the alleged actress that has provided her voice for Alexa is named Nina Rolle. According to the publication, Rolle’s identity was shared in Stone’s book Amazon Unbound. In Stone’s book, the journalist opened up about how Amazon allegedly selected Rolle for the job and how Stone figured out Alexa’s voice despite the company’s secrecy.

In a quote from the book, Stone shared that Amazon officials reviewed the potential candidates’ voice recordings before presenting the top contenders to founder Jeff Bezos.

“Believing that the selection of the right voice for Alexa was critical, [then-Amazon exec Greg] Hart and colleagues spent months reviewing the recordings of various candidates that GM Voices produced for the project and presented the top picks to Bezos. The Amazon team ranked the best ones, asked for additional samples, and finally made a choice. Bezos signed off on it. Characteristically secretive, Amazon has never revealed the name of the voice artist behind Alexa.”

As for how Rolle’s identity became public knowledge, Stone went digging through Rolle’s old projects. However, it was a denied interview request that truly confirmed his suspicions.

“I learned her identity after canvasing the professional voice-over community: Boulder, Colorado–based voice actress and singer Nina Rolle. Her professional website contains links to old radio ads for products such as Mott’s Apple Juice and the Volkswagen Passat — and the warm timbre of Alexa’s voice is unmistakable. Rolle said she wasn’t allowed to talk to me when I reached her on the phone in February 2021. When I asked Amazon to speak with her, they declined.”

At this time, Rolle and Amazon have yet to comment on Stone’s remarks.