From LeapFrog to Furby: Meet the voices behind your favorite holiday toys

Nickie Bryar was toy shopping for her nephew when she heard a familiar voice carry over from the next aisle: her own.

Someone had pressed the button on a Fisher Price video game controller-themed toy, and Bryar’s voice began to sing. “Orange, purple, white and pink, green, red and blue. Woo-hoo!”

“I walked over to this kid who was playing with it and I was like, ‘That’s me!’” said Bryar, 52, a Los Angeles-based voice actor. “He was super unimpressed.”

Much of Bryar’s work can be found in video games or TV shows like "Family Guy," but she’s also lent her voice to a singing soccer ball toy, a stroller-themed walker for infants, and a "Shrek the Third"-themed baby doll that burps and farts, just like in the movie.

Bryar – a mother of two – said helping kids learn shapes and colors has been a rewarding job. Being paid to sing and make fart noises is just the cherry on top.

“I’ve been doing this a really long time, and still, I can’t believe this is what I get to do for a living,” Bryar said. “Knowing I have a tiny little part in helping kids learn about shapes or colors, seasons – that makes me really happy.”

Industry experts say voices like Bryar’s help bring toys to life. While the advancement of artificial intelligence has emerged as a threat to jobs, voice actors say AI is a long way from living up to human voice talent.

“Knowing when to smile in your voice, knowing when to sound excited or exasperated, knowing what word to emphasize, what letter to emphasize – that’s a very human thing,” said Joe Davis, a board member of the World-Voices Organization, a trade association for voice actors. “And I think that’s going to be a steeper hill to climb than just sounding overall human.”

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A 'joyful, sweet' job

Alphie the robot. Lily the LeapFrog character. Furby "Furblets," plus a number of international Furbies. Melissa Hutchison has voiced them all.

“Seventy percent of the time, I’m doing a kid’s voice – boy, girl – for these products,” said Hutchison, 49, a voice actor based near Austin.

Her estimate for toys that feature her voice: anywhere from 500 to 1,000.

“If I go to Target, I can guarantee I'm in the toy aisle I'm pressing all the buttons (to search for my voice),” she said. "It's really cool to be a part of the early beginnings of a kiddo speaking this language, learning how to read."

Amy Rubinate, who also worked for LeapFrog as the voice for Lily's brother Tad, said she had enough voice work with toys to cover rent in the 2000s.

“I had a standing gig where I’d go in twice a week for a few hours, then I would get called in other times for corrections or additional toys,” she told USA TODAY, adding that she’s voiced everything from ducks to travel trailer toys. “Any inanimate object or animal that you can make talk, I probably would.”

Now working mostly in audiobook production and narration, she looks back fondly at her time voicing toys, describing it as a “really joyful, sweet period” in her life.

“Some of those toys are helping kids not only learn language, but process their feelings. I thought that was pretty wonderful," she said. “I looked forward to embodying these characters and bringing this joy to kids. And I think that’s another secret to this work. If you’re having a good time, the child listening to this toy is going to have a good time.”

The future of voice acting with AI on the horizon: 'It is a threat'

As AI advances, there are questions on whether toy manufacturers will continue to work with voice actors.

Already, actors are pushing back against AI's encroachment on jobs. SAG-AFTRA, a union representing 160,000 media professionals including voice-over artists, launched a strike this year over AI-related protections for video game voice actors.

George Washington III, president of the World-Voices Organization, said members have yet to see toy manufacturers make “a big push” for AI, but he expects more companies to face pressure to make the switch and cut costs as the technology advances.

“In the long term, it is a threat,” he said.

Kevin Riley, a dialog director at LeapFrog, said the educational toy company has explored using AI but has not yet implemented it in products.

But "as this young technology improves, I can see AI voice acting becoming an industry standard within a few years,” he told USA TODAY, adding that companies may adopt a hybrid model that utilizes real and AI voices or “just go strictly AI.”

Toymakers Mattel and Hasbro did not return requests for comment on whether they plan to replace voice actors with AI.

The industry has "absolutely shifted" in recent years, according to Hutchison, the voice actor based in Texas. While she hasn't noticed toy work going to AI yet, she's seen fewer jobs for jargon-filled roles like reading a tech company manual. Other work she said has gone to on-camera celebrities instead of traditional voice actors.

"We definitely are having to work for our Kibbles 'n Bits a bit harder and really finding our sledgehammer, our power tool. Like mine is doing kids' voices," she said. "AI, they might be able to do that, but they're not going to do that as well as a human. Brad Pitt can't do the voice of a 10-year-old boy. So I have that in my pocket."

Tim Friedlander, president of the National Association of Voice Actors, a voice acting industry advocacy group, expects damage from AI to become "more obvious" in about five years as experienced voice actors leave the industry and entry-level jobs go to AI. The toy industry, he said, could be one of the earliest genres hit because many of the voice actors aren't household names.

“A synthetic voice is always second best to a human,” Friedlander said. But “when it comes down to the companies that are purely just looking at the bottom line or want something cheaper in the long run, you’re going to find that synthetic voices can take a lot of these jobs from humans.”

What AI can’t do

Davis, the World-Voices Organization board member and the founder of a DIY website builder for voice talent, said he imagines cheaper toys will turn to AI first, with major toy brands holding off on using synthetic voices for quality standards.

“I think as time goes on, it may even be a way that brands differentiate themselves where they say, 'We use a real human voice actor versus an AI voice clone,'” he said.

Georgia-based voice actor Alan Shires, 33, agrees AI will “get a piece of the pie.” But he considers voice acting jobs for toys as one of the more well-protected areas because it requires a level of emotion that AI has yet to master.

“AI can only go so far,” he said. “Toys are generally quite animated. We’re leaning more into that complex, emotional sector of voice-over that AI can’t quite get its head around yet, as opposed to the standard monotone narration or conversational sounds which it has seemingly begun to invade.”

Laila Berzins, 41, a California-based voice actor behind a FurReal Friends toy and an upcoming Tonies audio play character, said toy voices tend to be “high-energy” jobs that require a human touch. Even if AI does get close to what voice actors can produce, Berzins isn’t convinced that’s what audiences and consumers want.

As the voice behind the character Xiao from the role-playing video game Genshin Impact, Berzins said she’s been invited to conventions around the world to meet with fans of her character. That sort of connection would never be possible with AI, she said.

“Having a real emotional connection to what you’re seeing and experiencing and interacting with is just so different than saying, ‘Oh, well that sounds pretty good,’” she said. “My hope is that we can find a way to split the difference between AI as a tool and AI as a way to replace hardworking talent in this industry who bare their hearts and souls to others in a form that actually creates an amazing, emotional connection.”

(This story's headline has been updated.)

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Talking toys: Meet the voices behind your favorite holiday gifts