NBA star Shaquille O’Neal and actor Melissa McCarthy are joining an elite club with just one other member: Samuel L. Jackson.
They are the latest to lend their voices and personalities to Amazon’s Alexa.
In addition to standard voice-enabled content like weather reports and jokes, McCarthy and O’Neal will provide “unique content” like raps and personal stories.
To hear from Alexa’s new celebrity voices, users simply say, “Alexa, introduce me to Shaq,” or “Alexa, introduce me to Melissa.” After they enable a celebrity personality—and pay $4.99 for the privilege—they can say, “Hey, Melissa” or “Hey, Shaq” thereafter.
“That’s right folks, get ready for the vocal stylings of this nasal midwestern gal!” McCarthy said in an Amazon blog post. “I hope you all enjoy all my dad jokes! Fun fact—if you hear a slide whistle, it’s my personal one that I brought with me to the recording studio!”
For his part, O’Neal added, “It’s on! Shaq is in the house to make your speakers bounce. Boomshakalaka!”
Amazon noted its celebrity partnerships help enhance Alexa’s personality, which “has always been a big part of what customers love most about the service.”
The ecommerce giant added Jackson as a voice alternative in 2019 and “it quickly became the top-selling digital purchase on Amazon.com the day it launched,” per the blog post. A year later, Amazon added a Jackson-themed wake word: “Hey, Samuel.”
“Customers have had a lot of fun with the Samuel L. Jackson experience on Alexa, and when customers love something, we look for ways to give them more of it,” added Toni Reid, vp of Alexa experience and Echo devices.
Since adding Jackson, Amazon has also collaborated on various voice features with Jimmy Fallon, Chelsea Handler and Ed Sheeran. Alexa has also featured prominently in its Super Bowl ads, including in 2021 with Michael B. Jordan and in 2018 with Cardi B, Gordon Ramsay, Rebel Wilson and Sir Anthony Hopkins.
Meanwhile, Google Assistant has tapped singer John Legend’s voice while Google subsidiary Waze has borrowed a range of voices, starting in 2015 with comedian Stephen Colbert, which was followed by actor Morgan Freeman in 2016, Dateline host Keith Morrison in 2017 and DJ Khaled in 2019.
