Lee Ridley, alias Lost Voice Guy, has announced that after much consideration he has chosen voice over artist Dan Pye as the person who will provide the new Geordie accent.

In his search to find the perfect Geordie accent for his communication device, Lee has spent the last month listening to almost 500 potential donors from across the Newcastle area. They were each asked to read a short extract from his book, I’m Only In It For The Parking. Lee listened to each entry in order to select the voice that he felt best suited his regional and family accent. Dan’s voice fitted the bill perfectly.

Dan, who grew up in Whickham, Newcastle upon Tyne and is currently living in Hunwick, County Durham, said: “I spend much of my life lending my voice to fictitious characters for a range of projects. The idea of being able to lend my voice to an actual human is just such an honour at the best of times, but when that individual is as inspirational as Lee, it’s an even greater one. Being able to help Lee communicate in a tone which is more personal to him is fantastic.

I hope will give him a sense of identity that the rest of the North East are famed for. Tone of voice accounts for so much of our ability to communicate, I’m so thrilled to be able to help provide that element of effective communication. It will be nice to hear myself tell jokes that are actually funny… “

To create a highly natural Geordie text-to-speech voice tailored for use on a communication device, CereProc customises the vocabulary during the script consultation process to incorporate phrases that Lee Ridley will say often. Even regional Geordie slang such as “Whey Aye Man”. The customised vocabulary will be added into the phonetically balanced script for Dan to record. 

This process will give the synthetic voice emotional capability giving Lee the ability to express his emotions through his voice. CereProc will build the voice using their system CereWave AI that incorporates Artificial Intelligence with deep neural network modelling speech synthesis. CereProc will produce a Geordie voice for Lee that reflects his identity and represents where he is from so that he can sound like his family. 

Paul Welham (CereProc’s Chairman & Chief Executive Officer) commented: “Working with Lee will be an opportunity for a greater audience to see how our technology can be used to create regional accents to give him and others their own accent to talk with. To hear Lee speak with a Geordie accent has been an ambition of mine since we first met.” 

Lee Ridley said: “I’m very excited to finally be getting a Geordie accent so I can sound more like my family and friends. I had a great response to my request for a donor. The number of people willing to help out blew me away. So it was hard to choose the voice that I thought suited me best. But Dan’s voice was the one that I kept coming back to. Thankfully, my family agreed with my choice too. I can’t wait to get started on the project and I look forward to you all hearing my new Geordie accent soon."

Lee Ridley is the first stand-up comedian to use a communication aid. He made his first stand-up appearance in February 2012 and took his first ever solo show to the Edinburgh Fringe in 2013. He has performed a show there every year since (until COVID 19 came along). 

As well as winning Britain’s Got Talent 2018 Lee also won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014 and has appeared on TV shows including The One Show, This Morning, Lorraine and BBC Breakfast.

He has performed for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex on The Royal Variety Performance, appeared on Britain’s Got Talent: The Champions, America’s Got Talent: The Champions, Live At The Apollo, the New Year edition of The Last Leg, The Now Show and Comedians Giving Lectures. 

The third series of Lee’s popular Radio 4 sitcom, Ability, which he co-writes and in which he also stars, is currently being broadcast. His debut book, I’m Only In It For The Parking will be published in paperback in March.

Lee Ridley is an Ambassador for the charity Scope. He is also a patron of Smile For Life, Find A Voice, Communication Matters and The Sequal Trust.