Issa Rae, creator and star of HBO’s hit show Insecure, has just become the new voice of Google Assistant, CNN reports.
The 34-year-old self proclaimed “awkward Black girl” now joins a host of other celebrities lending their voice to the tech world including John Legend, who is also a celebrity voice for Google Assistant and Samuel L. Jackson who is the new voice of Amazon’s Alexa.
Rae said she was really excited and taken aback by the opportunity telling CNN, “I was in talks to do this last year and was just really intrigued, like, ‘What? They want my voice? Why?’ Then, you know I realized that I use Google Assistant frequently anyway and just thought about how cool it would be to do,” she said.
The Google Assistant device helps with everyday tasks and includes everything from news and weather updates to motivational messages. With the new Issa Rae feature, you can now ask your device hilarious questions like, “Hey Google, do you love Daniel or Lawrence more?,” The Verge reports.
The new move is historic for Rae because as Adweek notes, the actress, writer and producer is also the first female celebrity to “lend her voice to a smart speaker.” A job that wasn’t without its share of challenges. She told CNN that she endured “a pretty intensive process” that involved countless hours in a studio “saying various sentences that did not make any sense [and] so many words that I have never ever pronounced before.”
But while it was challenging and a little intimidating, the thought of having your voice recorded virtually somewhere forever, Rae said that she “was very much assured by the Google team that this was all in fun and several conversations were had to make [her] feel comfortable doing it.”
Rae said she plans to try out her voice along with users, even if only for a little while. “I don’t know if I’ll use it consistently, but I definitely will try it out. I’m excited that I get to be helpful to people,” she said.
The new Issa Rae feature is available now in the United States in English on any device with Google Assistant capabilities. Users can access Rae’s voice via their device settings or by simply saying, “Hey Google, talk like Issa.”
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