Anyone who has tuned in to the Oprah Winfrey Network has heard the male voiceover announcing season premieres, brand-new episodes and more during commercial breaks. But the man behind the voice isn’t an anonymous voiceover talent. He’s actually a well-known actor.
Who is he? Here’s are a few hints…
He starred in the 1992 rom-com “The Cutting Edge,” he’s originally from New York and he got his start on Broadway.
The answer? D.B. Sweeney.
His gig with OWN isn’t his only voiceover work. Sweeney has also voiced commercials for advertisers from Coca-Cola to NFL Network, and done narration for channels like Discovery Channel and Nat Geo.
“I thought it’s very funny that I ended up as a voiceover guy because when I started out as an actor, I had a very strong Long Island accent,” Sweeney says in the above video from “Oprah: Where Are They Now?”. “I had an audition with this famous casting director and he was like, ‘Kid, you’re very good, but you don’t look like you’re from New York so you can’t sound like you’re from New York.'”
Also in the above video, Sweeney demonstrates the technique he used to lose his accent and takes cameras inside the recording booth at Harpo Studios, as he reads lines for OWN’s latest programming.
