Darcey Rhoads

What was the first audiobook you performed?

Alexandra’s Legacy, N.J. Walters

What title or series are you best known for?

Mitran Warlord Protectors series by Ella Blake

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

How (Not) To Renovate A Haunted House by Jenny L. Howe
Not Today, Satan by Samantha Joyce
Daughters of Ash by Dakota Monroe
Shield by Moira Wilde
Intercepted by Aleatha Romig

Where else have we heard your voice?

Television: HitRECord on TV with Joseph Gordon-Levitt, seasons 1 and 2
Commercial: GoPuff

What do you always have in the booth?

Water, Coffee, pictures and quotes by Loki (for inspiration), my Vocal Mist, Manuka honey throat spray, Black currant pastilles, and Burt’s Bees lip balm.

How did you come to performing audiobooks?

While I come from an on-camera background as an actor, I also grew up with a librarian for a parent. My love of reading started at an early age and I was voracious – often staying up until the break of dawn to finish a book. During the pandemic, when acting gigs were very slim, I turned to audiobook narration and did The Great Audiobook Adventure with my coach Elise Arsenault and instantly fell head over heels. I booked my first series, under my pseudonym Dani California, with Tantor shortly after completing the course in 2022 and have been avidly continuing my adventure ever since.

Anything else you’d like a listener to know?

The audiobook community is amazing – incredibly grateful for all the coaches, producers, casting, authors, fellow narrators, directors, engineers, editors, proofers, and marketing people I’ve come into contact with and worked with. It’s such a welcoming community. We’re all working toward the same goal: telling a story. I think storytelling is one of humanity’s greatest gifts and one we should keep close to our hearts. The human experience is something AI will never understand, so it’s important that we keep sharing stories.
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien