Mod R here, sliding in just before the ball drops.
As we tiptoe toward midnight, we have a very important New Year’s resolution to keep, and we need you to help us with it.
We’re on the hunt for voice actor recommendations for an audiobook role that is very near and dear to the BDH’s heart: Augustine Montgomery aka Pancakes, aka Head of House Montgomery, aka Illusion Prime extraordinaire, best friend of Mad Rogan, mentor to Arabella Baylor, and keeper of very deep secrets.
In case you need visual motivation, I just happened to find some lying around today after Ilona left for her birthday mini-break. It’s New Year’s Eve, restraint is overrated, and sharing is caring. Everybody gets a treat!
Hubba DING DONG Hubba!
Specifications for the audio narrator of our Montgomerian dreams:
- Early to mid-30s
- Cultured, aristocratic businessman vibes
- Attractive in a sophisticated assassin type of way, not a musclehead alpha-growly way
- Range of voices, especially good female voices. Augustine is an Illusion mage and he speaks in character when he changes visage. It has to be believable and natural, Pancakes puts a lot of effort and control into it.
If you’ve ever listened to an audiobook and thought “Wait, how is that even the same person?” — that’s the energy we want to ring in.
The champagne is chilling, the comment section awaits…oh wait, I nearly forgot:
“Augustine?”
“Yes?”
“If I wasn’t there, would you have killed all of them?”
There was a tiny pause before he answered. “It would’ve been bad for business.”
May your 2026 be a year full of joy and good reading!
Hi There,
here is a narrator I really enjoy listing to, and keeps in character when doing both male and female.
Joel Leslie
https://tantor.com/narrator/joel-leslie.html
Laura
Nathaniel Priestly narrated K. M. Shea’s King Arthur and Her Knights, and I was impressed by his range, especially when voicing a female protagonist. He also fits the regal/refined criteria, and the ability to flex between accents.
Also, I know Alex Hill Knight is already Arland, but after the exposition that Augustine hides his true size, I have always pictured the character as Arland adjacent? And Hill Knight’s voice is stunning.
I’ve had a look through my audio book list –
Travis Baldree (flattered by flowers forthright)
Noah Michael Levine (robin d owens heart mate)
James Fouhey (only bad options Jennifer estep)
Alister Austin (magic unleasehed km shea)
And Happy New Year. I made the post before I realised all the other comments!
Robert Petkoff definitely!!
He has a very clear and neutral voice but manages to change character both dramatically (into much deeper tones and various accents) and also give the illusion of a completely different person by very subtle changes in his voice. In my opinion, he would be perfect.
I do have a couple of recommendations for a voice. Not sure how you would connect up with them.
There is an a cappella group called VoicePlay. They have a base singer who has a 5 octave range. He has published several read books on YouTube. His name is Geoff Castellucci. He has a fantastic base voice but can sing in the higher ranges as well so he can modulate his voice.
The other recommendation is Eli Jacobsen. He is a voice actor and ranges from tenor to alto. He also has a 5 octave range.
Both would be fantastic in your book readings.
If you do nothing else, check out VoicePlay’s music. I suggest starting with their version of Wicked, but they cover several genres so if Wicked is not your thing, browse them on Facebook or YouTube.
ooh…love the sneaky chase-in of augustine being arabella’s mentor…..can’t wait to read more……
I think Joe Arden would also be a good choice!
hi. I think Grant Cartwright would be perfect for Augustine. he is the male voice actor for the Section 47 series by Jennifer Estep. he has the perfect mix of sly sophistication.
Zoe Black audio book narrator. I bought a book he narrated and could imagine him as Augustine. He might be new to the field , so maybe more easy to book. Thanks for giving Augustine a face!
“It would have been bad for business.” Hmmmmm…That’s not actually an answer to the question.
I’m going to have to push Travis Baldree, here. He’s the voice of the Cradle audiobooks, and his range is incredible. Plus, I hear he’s a dream to work with, and his hair has volume and definition. How could one resist?
https://www.travisbaldree.com/
I cannot recommend Kyle McCarley enough. He’s an amazing narrator. He did a series I love with at least 40 different significant characters, and I could *tell who was talking without dialog tags*. That’s how different the voices were! He does women well, too.
Extra bonus, he keeps voice clips in an excel sheet so that if he does more than one book in a series, he remembers what all the characters sound like! It’s a pet peeve of mine when characters change voices between books, and I was so impressed to learn he takes responsibility to keep that from happening.
I’m super excited for the Augustine “novella”!
Matthew Wolf! He narrated the House Witch trilogy for Delemhach and Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife for Deston J. Munden.
Happy New Year
You might try Michael Kramer he does a few different female and male voices in Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson.
Greg Boureaux – great at male and female voices.
Jeffrey Kafer. Great vocal range.
Has anyone mentioned Joel Leslie/Froomkin?
For his full range I would suggest the Hidden Species by Louisa Masters or a sampling of Cat Sebastian books. His accents are awesome and he has impressive vocal range.
I already saw Greg Trembley mentioned.
Iggy Toma might fit, too.
I am watching Colin Ryan running through FFXIV on YouTube. He records it live on twitch first. He is a professional voice actor and is very versatile.
On his run through, he is voicing all the dialog and some times the voice is not human. His child and female voices are very believable.
However, he is a very busy man. He acts, he does voice overs for video games and movies, as well as international activities.
I mention him only because while I watched him on YouTube, my first thought was of audio reading of any of Andrew’s books.
Forgot to mention his youtube channel is ‘iamalphinaud”
Alphinaud is the name of the NPC he does the voice for in FFXIV from Heavensward on.
Happy New Year!
I suggest Tom Taylorson as an outstanding performer.
I’ve been listening to him perform the Good Boys trilogy by Jeremy Robinson (very good, especially for dog lovers) and holy moly, his character work is fantastic! I’ll be looking at other series he’s done because I want to hear more of him.
Gary Furlong is one of my favorites. He’s spectacular with accents and really good at voicing women too. He narrated an epic fantasy with huge cast and I was pretty blown away.
Happy New Year!
Alex Hill-Knight. He was Michael in Book 11 of the Demon Days Vampire Night series.
He was so smooth and aristocratic, I had to stop listening and look up who he was.
Hi! The Voice actors who come to mind are:
Gareth David-Lloyd and Claudia Black. They complement each other, and I suspect they are also part of the BDH. Maybe.
Travis Baldree. He does the litrpg that I read and he is amazing. He is also prabably fully booked! I listen to two of the series that he narrates. Each one has a large cast of characters and they are both unique. Absolutely love him,
Jeff Hayes! His range is amazing – the first time I heard him, I thought it was a full cast.
Are those “pancakes” graphics available in print…or desktop wallpaper? Not even close to being a teenager, but those are defientely bedroom poster material.
I’m a little late to comment and have no input on a voice actor. That said, I clearly have a type. Augustine is my favorite HL character and this artwork reminds me of Percy in Legend of Vox Machina, who is also my favorite.
I am a wee bit late as well, but I want to put in a vote for Aaron Shedlock, who can do basically any voice, has voiced several of my fave characters. Highly, highly recommend.
Danny Montooth is great.
My recommendation: Alex Knox. I think I’ve only heard him do the Arcane Casebook series, but I’ve thought his female voices were very good.
Haven’t listened to any new audiobooks this year so I’ll have to pass on recommendations, however, I am so curious to see who will land Pancakes
An excellent voice actor is J. Michael Tatum. He has done numerous Anime characters. I don’t know if he can voice a female, but he is worth a try. He voice sounds suave and sophisticated just as I imaging Augustine’s voice would be. Don’t know if he does a Southern Texas accent.
When I visualize Augustine of Hidden Legacy fame, his voice and speech patterns are very precise and a bit changeable to fit his moods and/or business situations. He can be cordial, chilly, smooth, snobby and oh so many things to match his illusion skills. Perhaps the voice actor that portrayed George Camarine in the Graphic Audio InnKeeper series could do Augustine justice.
James Fouhey/Cavenaugh!!!! Very regal. Or Aaron Shedlock but he might be a little too growly.
Connor Crais can do a very clear, crisp dictation that sounds educated (and dangerous) – for flavour, he narrates Alistair in the Brutes of Bristlebrook series from Rebecca Quinn. I’m not sure I’ve heard him narrate a female role though.
I’ve heard really good things about Rex Rhys (has narrated for Sierra Simone). He seems kind of new to the scene and he’s mostly worked with dual narration, so not sure about his female voice, but he could have a more open schedule than some people in high demand. Good luck!
I enjoy listening to Susan Erickson when she narrates . She reads the In Death series and has some good voices. Happy New Year( yes, I am a bit late).
🎶 Your pancakes bring all the girls to the yard 🎶
What about the guy who did Dungeon Crawler Carl?
Jeff Hayes runs Soundbooth Theater. Not sure what the licensing would end up looking like.
Sorry to have taken so long to get back to this but I needed to scan various audios to be sure. After my research I can strongly recommend Kyle McCarley, who has voiced Drew Hayes’ “Superpowered” series. He does both male and female voices very well and in a variety of both accents and styles in each gender. I’ve listened to this series several times and have never had difficulty distinguishing each individual character. I hope this helps.
Swoooonnnn!!! I will give this some thought. Can’t think of anyone in the age group off hand. What about a celebrity? Since I don’t listen to much YA, I am stuck. I’ll think on it. The voices are very important to me cuz I dig audio. Happy NY. And congrats on the engagement.
I never thought Pancakes would be swoon worthy. He’s such a pretentious prick.. yet that artist..
Michael Leslie is incredible at distinct voices.
Fred Burman ( voice)
“Two necromancers a bureaucrat and an elf”
By LG Estrella
Great book
when is the book du?
Around the end of January for the epub, slightly later for audiobook 🙂
Fluffy the comedian does amazing voice work for both male and female characters.
I love Heath Miller!!
I’m not sure how it all works, but the narrator for Dungeon Crawler Carl is an absolute beast when it comes to mixing gender voices in scenes. So much so that people genuinely thought there were uncredited female narrators!
The comment of “It would have been very bad for business” cemented it for me . . . THAT line was delivered by James Spader.
Not one fluffy little thought in my noggin
Hello and good day to you. It may be too late to offer voice actor suggestions. If not, I humbly suggest Robbie Daymond or LiamO’Brien.
James Fouhey who does the voice for Kyrion Caldaren in Jennifer Estes’s Galactic Bonds series