Elwood Edwards (born November 6, 1949) is an American voice over actor. He is best known as the voice of the Internet service provider America Online, which he first recorded in 1989. His greetings include "Welcome," "You've got mail," "You've got pictures," "You've got voicemail," "File's done." and "Goodbye.", all recorded in his own living room on a cassette deck. In 1989, Edwards's wife overheard online service Q-Link CEO Steve Case describe how he wanted to add a voice to its user interface. In October, Edwards's voice premiered on AOL's new program. The voice is only heard in the American version of the software. In the UK version, a female voice is heard replacing "Welcome." with "Welcome to AOL." and "You've got mail." with "You have e-mail." Also "File's done." is replaced with "Your files have been transferred."
His voice has also appeared in an episode of The Simpsons (where he provided the voice of a virtual doctor, saying "You've got leprosy"), and in advertising for the movie You've Got Mail.
He started in radio while in high school. After high school he continued into television, working as a live booth announcer. Despite some on-air work, doing a car commercial, reporting news or sports and even a short stint as a weatherman (once proclaiming to New Bern, North Carolina that "You've got hail."), Edwards focused mainly on off-camera work.
Semi-retired, he used to sell personalized .wav files through his website.
On the March 4, 2015 episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Edwards appeared on screen to read humorous phrases. As of November 2016, Edwards was seen on Instagram and YouTube working as a driver for Uber.
Other jobs
- News Graphics Supervisor, WKYC-TV
- General Manager, KVVV
- Operations Manager, WAKC-TV
- Ops Supervisor/ Senior Director, WFTY-TV
- Production Mgr / Senior Director, WCTI-TV
- Senior Director, WITN-TV
- Announcer/Director, WNBE-TV
- Announcer/DJ, WHIT-AM
- Uber Driver
References
