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But flash forward a few decades, and computers began to change everything. In these days, actors would simply record entire pre-written paragraphs or sentences. It became the first successful ATM machine in the United States. They called her ‘ Tillie the All-Time Teller ,’ and they hired me to sing a jingle in her voice. So, they decided to personalize the machine by putting a little face of a smiling girl on it. That’s right! In the early ‘70s, The First National Bank of Atlanta started introducing some of the earliest ATM machines - but nobody would use them! People didn’t trust computers yet. You were also the ‘voice’ of one of the first-ever ATM machines, right? I am the voice you hear over the loudspeaker at Delta Airlines gates, and also on a bunch of GPS and phone systems. I did jingle and voice-over work for hundreds of companies - Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Macy’s, Goodyear, Papa John’s, IBM. Susan Bennett, then and now (via Susan Bennett) The studio owner said, “Susan, you don’t have an accent come over the read this copy.” I thought, ‘ Ding, ding, ding! I can do this! ’ The job went well and I decided to get a voice acting coach and an agent. One day, I had just finished recording a jingle for a product and for whatever reason, the voice actor for the ad didn’t show up to read the copy. I started spending a lot of time in studios recording backup vocals and singing jingles. Through that, got some interesting opportunities. In the early ‘70s, I graduated from Brown, ended up in Atlanta, and started singing in clubs. Growing up, I had no concept that you could actually make a living with your voice. ZC: To start off, how’d you get into voice acting? The transcript below has been lightly edited for brevity. We recently sat down with Bennett to learn a bit more about her life and experiences as the original voice of Siri. Today, voice assistants like Siri, Cortanta, and Alexa are becoming more ubiquitous - but we rarely get a chance to meet the people behind those voices. Little did she know that 6 years later, her voice would be in the hands of millions of people all around the world, immortalized as the most recognizable virtual timbre in the history of mobile phones: Siri. She was not told what the recordings would be used for. When the work was done, Bennett collected her hourly rate and moved on to the next gig. Stuff like, “ Say the zzzzzzz ding again. For an entire month - 4 hours per day, 5 days per week - she sat in a studio reading sentences that seemed to make no sense. In July of 2005, an accomplished voice actor named Susan Bennett was hired to record a bunch of material.