By: Samuel Lin

Julia Whelan, a former actress, is now an audiobook narrator. In her office in Palm Springs, California, she has diligently narrated countless audiobooks for Audible, as well as news articles for Audm.

Whelan was born in Oregon, and loved to read as a child. She often went to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which sparked her interest in acting. She began acting at a very young age, and first appeared on television at age 11. In the movie Once and Again, she played the role of Grace Manning. This performance won her the Young Artist Award, which is given out by the Young Artist Foundation. She also starred in The Secret Life of Zoey, a TV drama.

After acting in other movies, Whelan went on to graduate from Middlebury College and studied at Oxford University. Her English major helped her decipher texts and become a successful book narrator

After her acting career ended, Whelan went on to become a successful book narrator for Audible, and has narrated over 400 books. She and Kirby Heyborne, another narrator, recorded the hugely successful novel Gone Girl, written by Gillian Flynn. Whelan has also read other books, such as Educated by Tara Westover, The Witness by Nora Roberts, and has voiced many articles for the New Yorker and the Atlantic.

Whelan puts all her effort into making the best audiobook recording possible. Before recording, she reads the book a few times to get a sense of the mood of the story, and to know which tone to read the story in. She will also hydrate as much as possible to protect her voice. In addition, she goes through vocal warm-ups before recording. If she ever garbles or messes up a certain passage, she is quick to reread it more clearly.

“Narrating a book really is a performance, and it can be harder to do than acting, because I can’t use my eyes or facial expressions to convey something to the audience,” said Whelan.

Her acting skills have helped her become a better audiobook narrator. “I instinctively approach a book as I would a script,” she says. “I look for the characters’ wants, their needs, their weaknesses.”

Whelan has also written her own books. Her novel My Oxford Year, published in 2018, is about the experience of an American student, Ella Duran, at Oxford University. Her book Thank You for Listening is about a fictional character, Sewanee Chester, who is an audiobook narrator.