Josh Hurley

What was the first audiobook you performed?

The Anderson Tapes by Lawrence Sanders.

What title or series are you best known for?

Reincarnated as a Sword by Yuu Tanaka.

If a listener wanted to get to know your work, which of your audiobooks would you point them to?

The Tarot Sequence (series) by K.D. Edwards
The Star and the Strange Moon by Constance Sayers
RIVALS! (series) by Scott McCormick
The Dragonrider Heritage (series) by Nicole Conway
Letters From Camp (series) by Jamie Lee Curtis, Boco Haft

What do you always have in the booth?

I could lie and say something like fancy lozenges or a nice hot cleansing tea but honestly… Diet Coke. And water too, yes. But yeah, always Diet Coke.

How did you come to performing audiobooks?

I owe my career to one chance meeting.

In 2008 I moved from Idaho to NYC to focus on theater, improv, and sketch comedy. Then, in 2011, while working the front desk of Borders Books (RIP) at Madison Square Garden, I had a wonderful, fateful conversation with someone who stopped by the front desk looking for a magazine — the amazing Mike Charzuk, who was Executive Producer / Director of Content Creation at Audible. After a great chat about acting and audiobooks, he kindly extended an invite to audition. I lived in Newark at the time, and Audible was only a 20 min walk away! On audition day, a huge blizzard hit Newark — no trains running that day, which meant no audition. I was really bummed, so much for that, right? But to Mike’s credit and my eternal gratitude, he emailed a few weeks later and re-invited me to audition. The rest is history. If you’re reading this Mike, thank you. You changed my life!

Anything else you’d like a listener to know?

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” — Stephen King, On Writing

When I was a kid my family would often hop into our sky-blue Chrysler minivan and set off on roadtrips to Wyoming, or California, or whatever distant relative warranted a visit from the Hurleys. But as a kid, that meant long hours in a stuffy van with nothing but massive stretches of interstate to look forward to. I imagine a lot of kids back then had it out for that dreaded roadtrip car-time. But not me. Nope. I loved it, if for only one reason — audiobooks. While mom and dad were up front talking gas mileage and which Exit had the fastest fast food, I was in back; blissful, headphones on, laying sideways in my seat belt. My books doing the driving — navigating me through worlds and characters and scenarios I never imagined, listening and loving every second. And I think that love of audiobooks came from my parents. Many times I’d sit up front and we’d all listen to Crichton, King, Collins, or Poe with nothing but us, the narrator, and headlights pushing us through the dark. Those were good times. And I know that goofy kid in the back seat (and the one writing this now) would sure agree with Stephen King’s assessment. Books — on the page, or in our ears, or otherwise — really are magic.