--- title: Hear This Uber Driver Voice the Original "You've Got Mail" description: A Hillary Clinton campaign volunteer happened to order a ride from Elwood Edwards, the voice actor behind the iconic greeting. canonical: https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/ author: Raisa Bruner article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-11-08T19:53:13.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:38:30.216Z og:title: Hear This Uber Driver Voice the Original 'You've Got Mail' og:description: A Clinton campaign volunteer happened to snag a ride from the voice actor. og:url: https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hear This Uber Driver Voice the Original 'You've Got Mail' twitter:description: A Clinton campaign volunteer happened to snag a ride from the voice actor. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # This Woman Got an Uber Ride from the Voice Behind AOL's Iconic 'You've Got Mail' Message > Sponsored content. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-brief-2026q3/newsletters?i=5c614622-a7a9-4d6d-b83a-2e1b579fc391&cr=time-nl-brief-2026q3-v1)  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 8, 2016 7:53 PM UTC  by [Raisa Bruner](https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/)  ## Raisa Bruner Nov 8, 2016 7:53 PM UTC A woman was just volunteering before the election in Ohio this week when she ended up in an Uber with a rather famous driver: Elwood Edwards, the [real-life voice behind the iconic “You’ve got mail”](http://time.com/4281892/aol-youve-got-mail-voice/?iid=sr-link1) voiceover that played, indefatigably, on AOL’s then-beloved, now-defunct email service. (It’s also the title and conceit behind the classic Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan [rom-com of the same name](http://time.com/4422735/tom-hanks-meg-ryan-ithaca/?iid=sr-link4), of course.) Brandee Barker, a former PR executive at Facebook, got Edwards to perform the memorable voice for her two times as she was riding in his car, and posted the video to Twitter. (The [YouTube version](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fChTDzxcWI) of the short clip has received more than 150,000 views, too). She was in Cleveland canvassing for Hillary Clinton, and happened to snag Edwards as her driver for her ride to the nominee’s headquarters in Shaker Heights. Like anyone who grew up with Edwards’s voice representing the shining gateway to the internet, Barker was suitably starstruck. As for Edwards? A longtime voice actor, his dulcet tones have been featured on movies like _Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery_ and the TV show _The Simpsons_, according to [his IMDB page](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249977/). He snagged the AOL gig [thanks to his wife](http://time.com/4281892/aol-youve-got-mail-voice/?iid=sr-link1): she was working for early-stage AOL when CEO Steve Case began seeking someone to create a sample recording for the all-important greeting, and suggested her husband could do it. “His voice couldn’t have been more perfect. It was disarmingly friendly, like the voice you’d expect from a stranger who offered to carry your grandmother’s groceries,” Case [wrote in his book](http://time.com/4281892/aol-youve-got-mail-voice/?iid=sr-link1). Edwards’s payout for sharing the voice that would live in infamy was $200, he told Barker. Now, however, he’s turned to the road. So keep an eye out, Uber users of Ohio: you might just get lucky on your next ride, too. > [](https://twitter.com/brandee/status/794934538615005184) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/"},"headline":"This Woman Got an Uber Ride from the Voice Behind AOL's Iconic 'You've Got Mail' Message","datePublished":"2016-11-08T19:53:13.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:38:30.216Z","description":"You've got... a famous Uber driver","url":"https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/","keywords":["Newsfeed","celebrities","viral"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Raisa Bruner","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/raisa-bruner/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4562722/aol-voice-uber-driver/","name":"This Woman Got an Uber Ride from the Voice Behind AOL's Iconic 'You've Got Mail' Message"}}]}] ```