Julie Seitter
Encyclopedia
Julie Seitter is a professional voice talent
who can be heard as "Julie", the interactive voice response
agent for Amtrak
's automated information and registration telephone system. Julie's positive voice personality—described as "spunky", "tirelessly chipper", "perky", "unshakably courteous", and "reassuring"—has been cited as one of the reasons for the success of the Amtrak system. Upon the automated system's confirmation of a caller's spoken instruction, Seitter's recorded voice would cheerily intone, "Great!" or "Got it!", while a speech recognition
failure might prompt the message, "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you..."
On Valentine's Day
in 2002, Seitter's voice was featured, in character, in a humorous National Public Radio story, and Seitter's Amtrak persona was parodied in a recurring Saturday Night Live
sketch in 2005–2006, with Rachel Dratch
as "Julie". Seitter made a one-time appearance on Jeopardy!
as a contestant on February 28, 2006. 45 years old , Seitter resides in Littleton, Massachusetts
with her husband and two sons.
-based Amtrak system using recordings of Julie's voice as an automated reservation agent premiered in April 2001, and soon garnered a caller approval rating of over 90% while saving the railway system an estimated more than $13 million. Seitter recorded herself for the "Julie" system (which the rail network named for her) working out of a basement studio in her Massachusetts home. She later moved, and now works out of a room in the attic of a new house.
Voice acting
Voice acting is the art of providing voices for animated characters and radio and audio dramas and comedy, as well as doing voice-overs in radio and television commercials, audio dramas, dubbed foreign language films, video games, puppet shows, and amusement rides.Performers are called...
who can be heard as "Julie", the interactive voice response
Interactive voice response
Interactive voice response is a technology that allows a computer to interact with humans through the use of voice and DTMF keypad inputs....
agent for Amtrak
Amtrak
The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, doing business as Amtrak , is a government-owned corporation that was organized on May 1, 1971, to provide intercity passenger train service in the United States. "Amtrak" is a portmanteau of the words "America" and "track". It is headquartered at Union...
's automated information and registration telephone system. Julie's positive voice personality—described as "spunky", "tirelessly chipper", "perky", "unshakably courteous", and "reassuring"—has been cited as one of the reasons for the success of the Amtrak system. Upon the automated system's confirmation of a caller's spoken instruction, Seitter's recorded voice would cheerily intone, "Great!" or "Got it!", while a speech recognition
Speech recognition
Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
failure might prompt the message, "I'm sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you..."
On Valentine's Day
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
in 2002, Seitter's voice was featured, in character, in a humorous National Public Radio story, and Seitter's Amtrak persona was parodied in a recurring Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
sketch in 2005–2006, with Rachel Dratch
Rachel Dratch
Rachel Susan Dratch is an American comic actress best known for her roles as a cast member of Saturday Night Live from 1999 to 2006.-Early life:...
as "Julie". Seitter made a one-time appearance on Jeopardy!
Jeopardy!
Griffin's first conception of the game used a board comprising ten categories with ten clues each, but after finding that this board could not be shown on camera easily, he reduced it to two rounds of thirty clues each, with five clues in each of six categories...
as a contestant on February 28, 2006. 45 years old , Seitter resides in Littleton, Massachusetts
Littleton, Massachusetts
Littleton is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 8,924 at the 2010 census....
with her husband and two sons.
Amtrak agent
The speech recognitionSpeech recognition
Speech recognition converts spoken words to text. The term "voice recognition" is sometimes used to refer to recognition systems that must be trained to a particular speaker—as is the case for most desktop recognition software...
-based Amtrak system using recordings of Julie's voice as an automated reservation agent premiered in April 2001, and soon garnered a caller approval rating of over 90% while saving the railway system an estimated more than $13 million. Seitter recorded herself for the "Julie" system (which the rail network named for her) working out of a basement studio in her Massachusetts home. She later moved, and now works out of a room in the attic of a new house.