One of the biggest questions listeners have when it comes to approaching a new audiobook is whether or not they'll enjoy the narration style. This is understandable, since you'll be spending several hours with a reader's voice—often more like 20 hours or more! Luckily, there are so many wonderful voice actors narrating audiobooks that you might find yourself gravitating to certain books solely because of the narrator. As we celebrate women's stories this month, we rounded up some of the best and most beloved women narrators with a stellar array of audiobooks under their belts. Find your new favorite below!
Bahni Turpin's range, incredible track record and many accolades have landed her in Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame. She's a screen and stage actor who has voiced more than 200 audiobooks in varying age categories, genres, and styles. She received the Odyssey Award for her performance of The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and was named Narrator of the Year by Publisher's Weekly for her narration of The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. She's also received accolades from AudioFile magazine and the Audio Publishers Association, winning multiple Audie Awards, including one for her beloved performance of Tomi Adeyemi's Children of Blood and Bone.
The multihyphenate and Audie Award–winning Julia Whelan always delivers a masterful performance, making listeners swoon over her in the romance genre and beyond. Her intelligent, addictive performances could turn the phone book into a must-listen, and we love how she’s leveraged her experience reading hundreds of audiobooks—not to mention an —into a second career as a successful novelist. Her signature performances include Kristin Hannah's The Women, Tara Westover's Educated, and her own novel Thank You for Listening, the story of an actress turned audiobook narrator which could hardly be performed by anyone else. All hail the queen!
A relative newcomer to narration especially compared to some of the veteran voices on this list, voice actor Helen Laser burst into audiobooks in 2019 and quickly established herself as one to watch. She caught our attention as one of the stars of Young Rich Widows, the deliciously twisty feminist-revenge thriller, then turned the dial up to 11 with a chilling performance of RF Kuang’s acclaimed publishing satire, . We can’t imagine anyone else as the voice of villain June Heyward, and we can’t wait to hear what she does next—including her return to the Widows series this month and later this year, as the voice of Alison Espach’s hotly anticipated summer novel, .
Julliard-educated Eunice Wong is a classically trained actor who was born and raised in Toronto by Chinese immigrant parents. The winner of eight Earphones Awards and nominated for four Audie Awards in 2024, including C Pam Zhang's Land of Milk and Honey, Wong's brilliant narration just keeps getting better and better. The voice of the delightful Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Wong also reads some of this year's most anticipated novels, from Lisa Ko's Memory Piece to Abraham Chang's 888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers to Rachel Khong's Real Americans.
Multiple Earphones Award-winning narrator Natalie Naudus is incredibly talented and prolific—she has voiced more than 250 titles! Looking at her background, it’s no wonder Naudus has been so successful as a voice actress, as she started out as an opera singer before making her way into the rich world of audiobook storytelling. Although all of her titles, full of nuance and genre-diverse, are brought to life by her evocative voice, some of her most outstanding performances include One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston, She Who Became the Sun by Shelley-Parker-Chan, and the fantasy romance The Night and Its Moon from TikTok sensation Piper CJ.
In addition to portraying Lady Danbury on Netflix’s beloved Bridgerton series, Adjoa Andoh has performed with the Royal Shakespeare Company and narrated more than 100 audiobooks, including Abi Daré's The Girl with the Louding Voice and Naomi Alderman's The Power. Whether acting on stage, on screen, or directly from the page, her emotive work always deserves applause. In an Instagram post capturing Andoh's thoughts on voicing the 10 anniversary edition of Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah, one of her signature performances, a listener commented, "Runs to get audiobook because the voice of @adjoa.andoh is better than Cadbury chocolate." We couldn't agree more!
Saskia Maarleveld is a dynamic voice actress who is known for her ability to perform many accents—American, Irish, British, and more—across a wide genre of books, sometimes switching seamlessly between accents in dialogue. She's won Audie Awards for Best Female Narrator and Best Multi-Voiced Performance in addition to AudioFile Earphones Awards. With more than 300 audiobooks to her name, some of her notable works include Kate Quinn's The Alice Network, Ashley Elston's First Lie Wins, and Eleanor Catton's Birnam Wood.
Robin Miles is an actress who has appeared on Law & Order and since turned to audiobook narration—where she has become wildly successful. With more than 300 audiobook performances and an incredible range for stories for kids and adults alike, it's no wonder she's honored in Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame. She's won two Audie Awards, the AudioFile Golden Voice and Earphones Awards, and she's been a Grammy Award finalist. Some of her best-loved performances include Margot Lee Shetterly's Hidden Figures, N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth series, and Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.
Marin Ireland is a fast-rising audio star who has quickly distinguished herself in the 50 or so audiobooks she's narrated so far. She won an Audie Award for Best Female Narrator for her performance of Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson, and she's narrated books by Fredrik Backman, Stephen King, Alice Hoffman, Jodi Picoult, and Colleen Hoover as well as Shelby Van Pelt's breakout debut, Remarkably Bright Creatures. She's also a stage and screen actor—you might recognize her from the TV series Sneaky Pete or the movie The Miseducation of Cameron Post.
With nearly 400 audiobook credits to her name, Gabra Zackman is a well-known voice in full-cast audiobook productions as well as voicing bestsellers and award winners. Zackman got her start in narrating romance novels, but she's since performed kidlit, sci-fi, fantasy, and nonfiction. She's the recipient of multiple Earphones Awards from AudioFile, and she's a novelist as well. (Oh, and she narrates her own books, of course!) Some of her most notable performances include The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister, Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage, and I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara.
January LaVoy is another much-beloved narrator whose work spans genres and age categories. She's worked in theater, film, and TV—you might recognize her from One Life to Live—and has also done voiceover work in addition to narrating books. Her audiobook honors include the AudioFile Golden Voice, multiple Earphones Awards, 19 Audie nominations, five Audie wins, and Publisher's Weekly's Listen Up Award for Audiobook Narrator of the Year. In addition to her work on books by Nora Roberts, James Patterson, Alix E. Harrow, and bell hooks, LaVoy is (fun fact!) married to fellow narrator Will Damron. The couple's joint performance of Amy Tintera's Listen for the Lie, an incredible thriller in its own right, is a must-hear.
Isabella Star LaBlanc is a Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota actress and storyteller from Minnesota who mystery fans will recognize from True Detective: Night Country, where she played Leah, the daughter of Jodi Foster's Liz Danvers. But audiophiles and YA fans will also recall her breakout performance of Angeline Boulley's sensational debut, Firekeeper's Daughter, and its follow-up, Warrior Girl Unearthed. A seasoned Shakespearean actress, LaBlanc brings passion and authenticity to stories from Native American authors like Stephen Graham Jones's The Babysitter Lives and gritty mysteries like Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens.
Most listeners will recognize Davina Porter as the voice of the bestselling Outlander series, but that's only the beginning of her diverse range and backlist. Over her 20-plus years of working as an audiobook narrator, she’s voiced classics by Thomas Hardy and Leo Tolstoy as well as books by Anne Perry, Alexander McCall Smith, and Elizabeth George. She's won two Audie Awards, received AudioFile's Lifetime Achievement Award, and, of course, she can be found in Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame.
A voice actor, writer, and game developer based out of Los Angeles, Sena Bryer brings verve and dazzling characterization to her work in narration. Bryer's performance of Emily Tesh's Some Desperate Glory was hailed by AudioFile as a "cinematic performance" whose brilliant character work is "so skilled that listeners may wonder if this is a full-cast production." Other standout performances include Promises Stronger Than Darkness by Charle Jane Anders and Joshua Mason's Steam Whistle Alley. We can't wait to hear what this talented performer does next.
Emily Woo Zeller is an actor, dancer, and voiceover artist—in addition to narrating more than 300 audiobooks. She's received an Audie Award and a Sovas Voice Arts Award, and has been named on multiple “Best of” lists by AudioFile Magazine. While she might be most recognizable to listeners as the narrator of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo, her credits span numerous YA, science fiction, fantasy, and literary titles, including The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang and Minimum Wage Magic by Rachel Aaron.
Soneela Nankani is an award-winning narrator with more than 300 titles in many different genres. including young adult, fantasy, romance, sci-fi, and nonfiction. She has garnered 16 Earphones Awards, nominations for Audie and SOVAS awards, and was recently awarded AudioFile’s Golden Voice Lifetime Achievement Honor. Her audiobooks have been featured in "Best Audiobooks" lists by AudioFile Magazine and The Washington Post among others. Among her best-loved performances are S.A. Chakraborty's City of Brass, Sujata Massey's The Widows of Malabar Hill, and Parini Shroff's The Bandit Queens.
A standout performer across stage, film, and television, Kyla Garcia has endeared herself to audiophiles' hearts with her acclaimed work as an audiobook narrator. Her rich, even voice has distinguished bestsellers from Chanel Cleeton's Cuba Saga to Abby Jimenez's Part of Your World series to Erika L. Sánchez's YA novel I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter. We're not the only ones to swoon over Garcia's voice; as an audiobook narrator, she has received 14 Earphone Awards and been a finalist for four Audie Awards.
Romance fans will recognize Andi Arndt as one of the stars of romance audiobook narration, and it’s no secret why she's found in Audible's Narrator Hall of Fame. She's a recipient of the Audie Award in Romance and an AudioFile Best Voices Award, and she has worked as a voice coach for years. In addition to many romance novels such as Emma Chase's Getting Real, she's narrated everything from the instant-classic biography Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik, to compulsive thrillers like She's Not Sorry by Mary Kubica.
