Matt Godfrey
Matt Godfrey is an actor and prolific audiobook narrator. He has narrated books and stories by Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Ray Bradbury, Donald Ray Pollock, Alexis Hall, Roger Zelazny, Harry Crews, and Barry Lopez, among many others. He is a winner of the Odyssey Award, multiple Audiofile Earphones Awards, and an Audie, SOVAS, and Independent Audiobook Award nominee. He is also an acting coach and the founder of Godfrey Performance Studio. He lives in Alabama and spends his days drinking good coffee, reading good books, and hanging out with his excellent family.
The Writer’s Dossier 10/6/2025 – The Matt Godfrey interview
DOSSIER: Regarding your process for delivering exceptional quality in your audiobook narration, how many times do you read through the book and how much book/author research do you do before you hit that record button?
GODFREY: I read through the book once before I begin narrating. I’m not a particularly fast reader, so my schedule really doesn’t allow for more than one read through. But I honestly don’t think more readings would necessarily result in a better recording — as long as I have an understanding of the author’s voice, the arc of the story, and a good grasp of who each character is and what they want, I can be free to play around and have some fun experiencing the book in the booth. As far as research goes, that really depends on the title. Some books require quite a bit of research if it’s an unfamiliar-to-me topic or setting. I’ve also narrated a couple books that have taken place in my hometown, and my research was…pretty light on those days.
Matt has style … of course, he does
DOSSIER: Although you skillfully craft your narration around your interpretation of each book character, do you have a particular style you save for certain kinds of books or specific authors you work with on a regular basis?
GODFREY: I’m not sure I really think of what I do as having a specific style. I’m sure it comes across that way to the audience, but to me I’m just responding to the text however I hear it in my head. Sometimes getting too locked into a style (deep and spooky for horror, frenetic for thriller, etc) can suck the nuance out of a read or can end up sounding expected. Subverting all that can be fun. Slowing down the pacing during a chase scene, letting the horror creep up on you unnoticed instead of doing a SCARY VOICE, etc. All that to say, I don’t think I have certain styles I slip into for specific genres or authors.
Get in that booth
DOSSIER: How many people can comfortably fit in your recording booth?
GODFREY: Comfortably, probably zero. But I get myself in there. (I actually love my booth and feel great in there. I’m just a very big guy and it’s only 4×4.)
A clever fix
DOSSIER: What’s the biggest mistake you made in recording an audiobook and how did that work out with the author and/or audience?
GODFREY: I did a very long and complicated novel one time written in the 2nd person. There was a reveal in the end that the narrator of the book was actually one of the characters, but it was pretty convoluted and I didn’t pick up on it in my prep. When it dawned on me what was happening (after recording 16 hours of the narrator and the character having very, very different voices, even down to an accent), I panicked. But eventually I came up with an idea I thought I’d try and it ended up being the best part of the audiobook. I did an Edward-Norton-Primal-Fear thing where in a paragraph of two before the reveal happened, I started slowly morphing the narrator’s voice into the character’s voice, timing the transformation to finish as it was revealed. Totally a mistake on my part, but I lucked out big time. It ended up being cool but I was questioning all my life choices for a while there.
Great advice to writers
DOSSIER: What’s the biggest message writers (or listeners) need to hear from audiobook narrators about the whole audiobook process that would help you produce the best possible rendition?
GODFREY: Good writing is so much fun to narrate. When I read characters who are clear and individual, it helps me out so much. When all the characters are written in the same way with the same voice, it’s hard to know what to do with that.
Discover more about Matt on Instagram and at Matt Godfrey