About the Narrators
Benedict Cumberbatch is a British screen actor best known for his role in the BBC television show Sherlock. He has also appeared in a number of Hollywood films, such as War Horse, The Hobbit, The Fifth Estate, and Star Trek: Into the Darkness. He has won several stage and screen acting awards, including the BAFTA/LA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year and the Broadcasting Press Guild Award for Best Actor and is an Earphones Award-winning narrator.
Miriam Margolyes received the BAFTA Best Supporting Actress award in 1993 for The Age of Innocence. She was the voice of Fly the dog in Babe and appeared in Ladies in Lavender with Dames Maggie Smith and Judi Dench. In 2002 she played the role of Professor Sprout in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
Nick Cave has been performing music for more than thirty years as the lead singer of the Birthday Party, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and Grinderman. He has collaborated with Kylie Minogue, PJ Harvey, and many others. His first novel, And the Ass Saw the Angel, was published in 1989. Born in Australia, Cave now lives near Brighton, England.
Simon Callow is an actor, director, and writer. He has appeared in many films, including Four Weddings and a Funeral. He made his stage debut in 1973 and came to prominence in a critically acclaimed performance as Mozart in the original stage production of Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus at the Royal National Theatre in 1979. He is well known for a series of one-man shows that have toured internationally and featured subjects including Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, Jesus, and Richard Wagner. His books include, among others, a highly acclaimed biography of Charles Laughton, a biographical trilogy on Orson Welles, and My Life in Pieces, which won the Sheridan Morley Prize in 2011.
Stephen Fry is a celebrated actor, novelist, journalist, presenter, intellectual, wit, and winner of several award for narration. He has produced four novels and two volumes of autobiography and has written for radio shows and television. His television credits include Jeeves and Wooster and Blackadder, and he hosted the BBC TV series QI.
Stephen Mangan
graduated from London’s RADA after studying law at Cambridge University. He
spent several years in regional theater, playing in classics such as The Tempest, Twelfth Night, and Hamlet, and his successful seasons with
the Royal Shakespeare Company and the touring company Cheek By Jowl earned him
a nomination for the Ian Charleson award for his roles as Sir Benjamin Backbite
in The School for Scandal and Don
Pedro in Much Ado About Nothing. He became
a regular face in London’s West End in plays such as Hay Fever and Noises Off,
but 2001 marked his breakthrough TV role as the eponymous character in the
six-part BBC TV adaptation of Sue Townsend’s Adrian Mole: The Cappuccino Years. Stephen has also appeared on
screen as Dr. Guy Secretan in the TV comedy series Green Wing and has gone on to play a number of similarily
self-obsessed characters on film such as Sean Sullivan in Festival and Josef in Confetti,
a film which was wholly improvised.
Fred Sanders, an actor and Earphones Award–winning narrator, has received critics’ praise for his audio narrations that range from nonfiction, memoir, and fiction to mystery and suspense. He been seen on Broadway in The Buddy Holly Story, in national tours for Driving Miss Daisy and Big River, and on such television shows as Seinfeld, The West Wing, Will and Grace, Numb3rs,Titus, and Malcolm in the Middle. His films include Sea of Love, The Shadow, and the Oscar-nominated short Culture. He is a native New Yorker and Yale graduate.
Louise Brealey, AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, studied history at Cambridge University before studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Manhattan. On television, she appeared in the long-running medical drama Casualty on BBC One in 2002, appearing in ninety-six episodes. Afterwards, she appeared in the BBC serialization of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, as well as Hotel Babylon, Law & Order: UK, Ripper Street, and in all series of Sherlock as Molly Hooper.
Distinguished stage, television, and film actor Toby Jones was born in Hammersmith, London to actors Freddie Jones and Jennifer Heselwood. He studied Drama at the University of Manchester, and at L’École Internationale de Théâtre in Paris. His career began on the stage (and continues there), but film and television roles came soon after his studies. Toby made his film debut with a small role in Sally Potter‘s experimental take on Virginia Woolf‘s novel, Orlando, starring Tilda Swinton. Recently, he has had roles in the Hunger Games films and the Captain America films.
Louise Brealey, AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, studied history at Cambridge University before studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Manhattan. On television, she appeared in the long-running medical drama Casualty on BBC One in 2002, appearing in ninety-six episodes. Afterwards, she appeared in the BBC serialization of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, as well as Hotel Babylon, Law & Order: UK, Ripper Street, and in all series of Sherlock as Molly Hooper.
Adrian Edmondson is well-known for his roles in The Young Ones, and Bottom, which he wrote with his long-term comedy partner, the late Rik Mayall. He recently starred in the BBC’s adaptation of War and Peace and won Celebrity Masterchef in 2013. His first adult novel, The Gobbler, was published in 1996. He has three daughters with his wife - actress, screenwriter and comedian Jennifer Saunders - and lives in London
Neil Gaiman is the author of several #1 New York Times bestsellers, including Norse Mythogy, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, and Anansi Boys, and others, as well as the Sandman series of graphic novels. His fiction has received Newbery, Carnegie, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, and Will Eisner awards. His novel American Gods aired as a TV series in 2017. Originally from England, he lives in the United States, where he is a professor at Bard College.
Louise Brealey, AudioFile Earphones Award–winning narrator, studied history at Cambridge University before studying acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in Manhattan. On television, she appeared in the long-running medical drama Casualty on BBC One in 2002, appearing in ninety-six episodes. Afterwards, she appeared in the BBC serialization of Charles Dickens’ Bleak House, as well as Hotel Babylon, Law & Order: UK, Ripper Street, and in all series of Sherlock as Molly Hooper.
Juliet Stevenson is a narrator who is recipient of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. She has won the prestigious Audie Award and numerous Earphones Awards for her narrations. She is a British actress on stage and screen and notably a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has also appeared in popular films such as Bend It Like Beckham and Mona Lisa Smile. She was honored as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. She received further recognition when she was nominated for several BAFTA Awards, and she earned an Olivier Award for her role in Death and the Maiden.
Neil Hellegers grew up in New Jersey and attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned a BA in theater arts and a minor in psychology before getting an MFA in acting from the Trinity Rep Conservatory in Providence, Rhode Island. He moved to New York City in 2003 and, since then, has made a career of theatrical performance, percussion, theater education, and audiobook narration. He currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife and son.