William Dufris...

William Dufris is best known as the original voice of Bob the Builder (and Farmer Pickles, Mr. Beasley, and Mr. Sabatini) in the popular children’s show Bob The Builder for the US and Canada (series 1-9). “Bill” began his audio career in London (radio plays, audio books, film/animation dubbing, language tapes, etc), where he resided for thirteen years; while there, he had the privilege of sharing the microphone in a number of BBC Radio plays with Kathleen Turner, Sharon Gless, Stockard Channing, and Helena Bonham-Carter, and with legendary director Dirk Maggs on his audio drama productions of Spider-Man (where he portrayed the title role of Peter Parker, aka your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man), Judge Dredd, Voyage, and An American Werewolf in London.

These experiences led him to co-found the audio production companies The Story Circle, Ltd in the UK, and Mind’s Eye Productions, Rocky Coast Radio Theatre, and The AudioComics Company in the US, for which he is producer, director, actor and engineer. Bill also directed Arigon Starr’s audio comedy Super Indian for Native Voices at the Autry in Los Angeles.

He has been nominated six times as an audio book finalist for the APA’s prestigious Audie Award, and has garnered 16 Golden Earphones Awards through AudioFile Magazine and was named by AudioFile as “One Of The Best Voices At The End Of The Century.” Bill has been a guest instructor and performer at the 2005 – 2007 Audio Theatre Workshops in West Plains, Missouri, appearing in the world premiere works The Best Place to Grow Pumpkins, Rewind, Extra-Ordinary, and Histories, and sits on both the organization’s Executive Board and on the Norman Corwin Award Nominating Committee.