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People dozens of years from now are going to recognize Jim Dale’s rich baritone voice. At seventy-five, Mr. Dale is the narrating voice of Harry Potter and over two-hundred different character voices in the Harry Potter audio books.

What most people do not realize though is the fact that Dale has been in entertainment far before he began working on the Potter audiobooks. Jim was a pop singer, a stand-up comic, an off-broadway performer, and more in the entertainment industry for just about over 50 years before he discovered the Harry Potter audiobooks… or more like, before the Harry Potter publishers found him.

In ’99, Listening Library (at the time an independent publisher) had just obtained the copyright (in the USA) to the audio book for The Sorcerer’s Stone (book 1) for only fifteen-thousand dollars. Timothy Ditlow, a son of the founders of Listening Library, was attending a small party with several broadway frequenters and a few of them thought Jim would be good for the part. And although Dale had only recorded 1 audiobook previously, he decided to offer him the part. Rowling and the producers had always been clear that they wanted a british accent for Harry on the audiobooks and that combined with Jim’s performing experiences fit the bill.

Jim says that when he was first offered the part he had never heard of Harry Potter and asked to read the book. After having read it he says that he was “completely immersed in the Harry Potter World” and recognizing that the book was incredibly well-written, witty, and that there was a prospect of 6 more books really “whetted my appetite.”

When Jim was recording the books he was usually the 1st or 2nd person after Rowling’s publisher to read one of the new books (and almost always the first person in the United states to do so). Quite the gift and the curse, since Dale was required by his contract to not expose even the smallest storyline particulars before the book was released.

Now since narrating all seven audio books, Dale has received 2 Grammys, seven Grammy nominations, a record ten Audie awards (including audio book of the year 2004), and thirteen Audio File Earphone awards for his performances. Dale is also the voice for many of the Harry Potter video games and a lot of the commentary in the Potter DVDs and Blu-ray discs.

People dozens of years from now are going to recognize Jim Dale’s rich baritone voice. At seventy-five, Mr. Dale is the narrating voice of Harry Potter and over two-hundred different character voices in the Harry Potter audio books.

What most people do not realize though is the fact that Dale has been in entertainment far before he began working on the Potter audiobooks. Jim was a pop singer, a stand-up comic, an off-broadway performer, and more in the entertainment industry for just about over 50 years before he discovered the Harry Potter audiobooks… or more like, before the Harry Potter publishers found him.

In ’99, Listening Library (at the time an independent publisher) had just obtained the copyright (in the USA) to the audio book for The Sorcerer’s Stone (book 1) for only fifteen-thousand dollars. Timothy Ditlow, a son of the founders of Listening Library, was attending a small party with several broadway frequenters and a few of them thought Jim would be good for the part. And although Dale had only recorded 1 audiobook previously, he decided to offer him the part. Rowling and the producers had always been clear that they wanted a british accent for Harry on the audiobooks and that combined with Jim’s performing experiences fit the bill.

Jim says that when he was first offered the part he had never heard of Harry Potter and asked to read the book. After having read it he says that he was “completely immersed in the Harry Potter World” and recognizing that the book was incredibly well-written, witty, and that there was a prospect of 6 more books really “whetted my appetite.”

When Jim was recording the books he was usually the 1st or 2nd person after Rowling’s publisher to read one of the new books (and almost always the first person in the United states to do so). Quite the gift and the curse, since Dale was required by his contract to not expose even the smallest storyline particulars before the book was released.

Now since narrating all seven audio books, Dale has received 2 Grammys, seven Grammy nominations, a record ten Audie awards (including audio book of the year 2004), and thirteen Audio File Earphone awards for his performances. Dale is also the voice for many of the Harry Potter video games and a lot of the commentary in the Potter DVDs and Blu-ray discs.