Jon Briggs
| |
|---|---|
| Born | (1965-01-24) 24 January 1965 (age 59) |
| Alma mater | Dragon School Magdalen College School, Oxford |
| Occupation | Voiceover artist |
| Known for | Voice of British Siri |
Jon Briggs (born 24 January 1965) is an English television, radio presenter and narrator. He is known for his voice-over work and as the British voice used by Apple Inc.'s Siri virtual assistant software.
Briggs's voiceover credits include appearing as the voiceover statistician in over 1,800 episodes of the BBC TV quiz show The Weakest Link (2000–2012, 2017) and as continuity announcer for BBC Radio 2 (1996–2009) and Channel 4 (1988–1990). Briggs was the first presenter on air when QVC launched in the UK in 1993.[citation needed]
Briggs's radio credits include the breakfast show Oxford AM for BBC Radio Oxford (1985–1987), the breakfast show Morning Edition for BBC Radio 5 (1990–1992), Night Ride for BBC Radio 2 and The Weekend Wireless Show for LBC (1998–2003). His reporting credits include BBC Radio 4's PM, Today, The World at One and The World Tonight, as well as travelogue and transport programmes Breakaway and Going 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 show Pointless.[2]
In July 2019, Briggs co-presented BBC Radio 4's "Voice in the Machine" episode of the Archive on 4 series.[3]
In November 2020, Briggs launched the podcast You're On the Air! talking to UK broadcasters about the skill of broadcasting.[citation needed]
In 2007, Briggs recorded his voice for text-to-speech software developed by ScanSoft,[4] later acquired by Nuance Communications. In 2011, Nuance's software was used by Apple Inc. for their British Male version of Siri, the personal assistant application for Apple devices.[5] 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.[6]
