Lee Ridley - Lost Voice Guy

CereProc is honoured to announce a collaboration between the CereProc team and comedian Lee Ridley (aka Lost Voice Guy). CereProc has been able to create a voice for Lee through CereWave Me, a voice cloning process, which was able to synthesise a Geordie accent for Lee using a voice donor.

The distinctive Geordie accent could not be found replicated in any other TTS engine so Lee ran a competition to find his ideal voice and selected voiceover artist Dan Pye from over 500 entrants.

Lee was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at a young age, which meant he was unable to speak. Following a successful career in journalism, Lee became the first stand-up comedian to use a communication device and made his first appearance in 2012. He went on to become the only comedian to win Britain’s Got Talent in 2018 (having already won the BBC New Comedy Award in 2014). He is a well-known face on television and has appeared in venues across the UK. His Radio 4 sitcom, Ability, is now in its fourth series, and his debut book, I’m Only In It For The Parking is available in paperback.

Before receiving his CereProc voice, Lee, who is originally from Consett, County Durham, always felt that his original synthesised voice didn’t really represent where he was from and was a voice that he wouldn’t have had if he hadn’t been disabled. So when CereProc approached him offering to create a Geordie accent for his communication device he jumped at the opportunity.
Language is the cornerstone of communication and lacking the ability to communicate in a way that resonates with your personality and your community can be alienating.

Commenting on his first impression of his custom CereProc voice, Lee said, “It was very strange when I first heard it but in a good way. I’m extremely pleased to finally have my new voice. I’ve always wanted a Geordie accent. To be honest, there was nothing wrong with my other voice, except from the fact that it sounded very posh. It sounded like I should be reading the shipping forecast on radio four. So, it means a lot to me to finally be able to sound like my family and friends.

“I’ve worked with CereProc in the past, so I knew how capable and experienced they were in creating great quality voices for people like me. So, it just made sense to use them to create my own voice as well. I knew I was in very good hands.”