FOR WOMEN’S HISTORY MONTH, MEET AWARD-WINNING NARRATOR AND ACTRESS BAHNI TURPIN

For Women's History Month, Audible spotlights narrator Bahni Turpin as one of the “Best Women Narrators You Have to Hear."

LOS ANGELES , CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES, March 14, 2024 /EINPresswire.com/ -- If you don’t know the name Bahni Turpin, you probably know her voice. She is a well sought-after narrator for some of the most popular books on your bookshelf. Voicing more than 400 audiobooks for various ages, genres and styles, Turpin is an Audible Hall of Famer and winner of six Audie Awards, multiple Earphone Awards and two Odyssey Awards. In 2016, she was named Audible’s Narrator of the Year as well as Publishers Weekly’s Narrator of the Year for her work on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel “The Underground Railroad” by Colston Whitehead, respectively. Her voice has earned her a spot on the “Golden Voice Narrators” by AudioFile magazine and “Voice of Choice” by Booklist.

Readers will be familiar with Turpin’s voice as narrator of some of the most popular and critically-acclaimed books that have been adapted for the film and television, including “The Help,” “The Hate U Give,” “The Underground Railroad” and the children’s book, “The True Meaning of Smekday,” adapted into the animated feature, “Home.”

For Women’s History Month, Turpin shares her thoughts on being a voice actress; bringing characters on a page to life for listeners; revealing her process of narrating a book; plus, disclosing some of her favorite books you should add to your bookshelf.

QUESTION: You attended Howard University and NYU to study acting. How did acting train you to be such a wonderful voice actress?
BAHNI TURPIN: Narration IS acting. Most of the books I narrate are fiction, which I prefer. I like getting to act all the characters – i.e. parts in a book! When I started my career in audio books, theater actors were the preferred choice for audiobook narration. As a voice actress, you have to perform and relay emotions to a large, listening audience who will not see your emotions and facial expressions up close; so, you have to depend on your voice to do the work. My job is to translate the words on the page and to make the feelings HEARD.

QUESTION: How did you jumpstart your career as a narrator of audio books?
BAHNI TURPIN: (She chuckles.). By winning! Well, it started with a fellow stage actor telling me that if I wanted to read these "books on tape," I could call this number. It was Random House Audio. I reached out, auditioned and received a call months later to narrate a book. At first. I was narrating a couple of books a year. And it was great!

Then some books I narrated started getting noticed. Reviews and awards followed in publications like Audiofile and Booklist. I attended an industry mixer event and I found out accidentally that I won an Audie Award without ever being told I was nominated for one! I didn’t even know what an Audie was! But, the next day, the director called me from New York to offer her congratulations to me. The Audie win was for the award-winning book, “The Help” by Katherine Stockett, later adapted into a film in 2011. Anyway, one of my directors, Cassandra Campbell -- who is also a well-known narrator – suggested I reach out to other publishing houses and referred me to Blackstone Publishing … and the rest, as they say, is history.

QUESTION: As a voice actress, what is your process? How do you prepare your voice?
BAHNI TURPIN: Well, the first thing I do is read the book I'm not a real stickler for a process or routine. It depends on how my voice is feeling that day; but, I can always use a big cup of hot water and lemon juice. Before anything … coffee or food. Unfortunately, eating is terrible for your voice!!! (Just ask any narrator about the after lunch “crud!”) If you eat something, it takes about a half hour after a meal to get your voice back up to speed. For that “crud,” we’ll use things like apple juice or apple slices; lemon is good too; plus, Trader Joe's coconut smoothies and Singer's Throat Spray work wonders, too. That’s some of the tricks of the trade. And of course, vocal warm ups are a must!

QUESTION: Do you have any favorite books that you’ve narrated?
BAHNI TURPIN: Oh yes! So many books. So little time! Here are some of my favorite picks you should add to your bookshelf:
• “The True Meaning of Smekday” by Adam Rex.
• “The Chess Putnam Series -- “City of Ghosts,” “Unholy Ghosts” and “Unholy Magic” -- by Stacia Kane.
• “Children of Blood and Bone” by Tomi Adeyemi. This book was VERY close to my heart. I actually kneeled down and PRAYED to do it justice.
• “The Children” by David Halberstam
• “The Quest of the Silver Fleece,” a breathtaking political love story by the renowned W.E.B. Dubois

QUESTION: Do you have a special genre of books you like to narrate?
BAHNI TURPIN: FICTION. I seem to attract the witchy, supernatural, magical stuff.

QUESTION: How do you feel the voices of diverse, female authoress are re-defining the literary world?
BAHNI TURPIN: Women have always had an important voice in literature. But now, more than ever, we’re able to hear the many different voices from various perspectives of women. And that’s quite refreshing! I’m so thrilled and honored that I’ve been chosen to narrate some of the most critically-acclaimed work by female authors.

ABOUT BAHNI TURPIN | actress and narrator
A native of Pontiac, Michigan, Turpin began taking acting classes at the age of nine years old. She studied acting at Howard University and NYU, and received a scholarship to study at the Lee Theatre & Film Strasberg Institute in New York City. She spent 12 years in NYC, sharpening her acting chops in theatre before moving to Los Angeles to pursue more work in television and film. Today, Turpin continues to nurture her theatre roots as an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles.

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