A NORTH East comedian has found a new voice in the form of a Geordie voice actor.

The Consett born comedian Lee Ridley, known as ‘The lost voice guy ’, has announced after much consideration, he has chosen voice over artist Dan Pye, as the person who will provide the new Geordie accent for his communication device.

In his search to find the perfect Geordie accent Mr Ridley has spent the last month listening to almost 500 potential donors from across the Newcastle area.

They were each asked to read a short extract from his book, 'I’m Only In It For The Parking'.

Mr Ridley then listened to each entry in turn, in order to select the voice that he felt best suited his regional and family accent. Mr Pye’s voice fitted the bill perfectly.

Mr Pye, grew up in Whickham, Newcastle upon Tyne and is currently living in Hunwick, County Durham, Mr Pye said: “The idea of being able to lend my voice to an actual human is just such an honour at the best of times, but when that individual is as inspirational as Lee, it’s an even greater one.

“Being able to help Lee communicate in a tone which is more personal to him is fantastic.

“Being a Geordie has a very distinctive, nationally recognisable tone which I am very proud of."“Sharing that with Lee, I hope will give him a sense of identity that the rest of the North East are famed for.

“Tone of voice accounts for so much of our ability to communicate, I’m so thrilled to be able to help provide that element of effective communication to Lee.

“I’m happy that being a donor in this sense means I don’t have to be cut apart, and I get to witness Lee’s performance using my voice. Which is going to be strange I must admit. It will be nice to hear myself tell jokes that are actually funny.”To create a natural Geordie text-to-speech voice, tailored for use on a communication device, CereProc customises the vocabulary during the script consultation process. It incorporates phrases that Mr Ridley will say often, together with regional Geordie slang such as “Whey Aye Man”.

The customised vocabulary will be added into the phonetically balanced script for Mr Pye to record.

He will record in a professional recording studio for around six hours, during which he will recreate a range of vocal emotional styles.

Mr Ridley said: “I’m very excited to finally be getting a Geordie accent, so I can sound more like my family and friends. I had a great response to my request for a voice donor.

“In fact, the number of people willing to help out blew me away.

“So, it was hard to choose the voice that I thought suited me best.

“But, in the end, Dan’s voice was the one that I kept coming back too and listening to over and over again.”