Biography for
Jodi Benson More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

10 October 1961, Rockford, Illinois, USA

Birth Name

Jodi Marzorati

Nickname

Aquagirl

Mini Biography

Jodi Benson, a native of Rockford, Illinois, has received worldwide recognition and critical acclaim as the voice of "Ariel" in the Academy Award-winning Walt Disney animated feature film The Little Mermaid (1989), as well as the bubbly voice of "Tour Guide Barbie" in Disney's Toy Story 2 (1999), winner of the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture. She also gave life to the spirited "Weebo" in Disney's live action Flubber (1997) starring Robin Williams. For Warner Brothers, she created the spirited voice of "Thumbelina", a Don Bluth animated feature, Thumbelina (1994), with songs by Barry Manilow. Jodi's recent projects include The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008) (V), The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000) (V) as "Ariel", Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001) (V) as "Lady", 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure (2003) (V) as "Anita", Dreamwork's animated movie Joseph: King of Dreams (2000) (V) as his wife "Asenath" starring Ben Affleck and in Balto: Wolf Quest (2002) (V) and Balto III: Wings of Change (2004) (V) as "Jenna" for Universal Studios. She appears as "Sam" (Patrick Dempsey's assistant) in Disney's feature film Enchanted (2007) as a real person - with legs!

Ms. Benson received a Tony Award and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical for creating the starring role of "Polly Baker" in the Tony Award-winning Broadway Ira Gershwin musical "Crazy For You". Other Broadway credits include: creating the starring role of "Doria Hudson" in the Howard Ashman-Marvin Hamlisch musical "Smile", "Betty Bursteter" in Cy Coleman's "Welcome to the Club" and "Virginia" in Kenny Ortega's Marilyn: An American Musical". Internationally, Ms. Benson has had the honor of sharing the stage with her husband, Ray Benson, in the European premiere of Ira Gershwin's "My One and Only" starring as "Miss Edythe Herbert". In Los Angeles, Ms. Benson starred in the critically acclaimed Reprise/UCLA production of "Babes in Arms" as "Bunny", "Nellie Forbush" in "South Pacific" (Pasadena Civic), "Flora the Red Menace" (Pasadena Playhouse), "Ado Annie" in "Oklahoma!" (Dorothy Chandler Pavillion), "Eliza Doolittle" in "My Fair Lady" (Alex Theater) and as "Florence Vassey" in "Chess" (Long Beach Civic Light Opera) for which she won the Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress.

Jodi can be heard on over a dozen recordings and has a 6-part DVD series entitled "Baby Faith" from the creators of "Baby Einstein". Her animated-TV series include the hit "Camp Lazlo" (2005) for the Cartoon Network, "The Little Mermaid" (1992), "Batman Beyond" (1999), "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy", "The Wild Thornberrys" (1998), "Barbie", Hercules: Zero to Hero (1999) (V) and P.J. Sparkles (1992) (TV), as well as many others. On the concert stage, Ms Benson has performed as a concert soloist with symphonies all over the world: The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The National Symphony, Cleveland, Dallas, Tokyo Philharmonic, San Francisco and Chicago, to name a few. She has starred in the Kennedy Center Honors for Ginger Rogers, The 25th Anniversary of 'Walt Disney', Central Park Disney Spectacular and Disney's 100 Years of Magic. Ms. Benson is honored to be the resident guest soloist for the Walt Disney Company/Disney Cruise Line and ambassador for feature animation. Jodi gives thanks and praise to the Lord for her family, friends, for her loving and amazing husband Ray and her precious children; son McKinley and daughter Delaney.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Jodi Benson

Spouse

Ray Benson

(19 May 1984 - present) 2 children

Trade Mark

Her beautiful singing voice

Trivia

Received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actress in a Musical and a Helen Hayes Award nomination for creating the starring role of "Polly Baker" in George Gershwin's "Crazy for You".

Won the Drama-Logue Award for Best Actress for playing Florence Vassey in Chess.

Attended Millikin University in Decatur, IL

Son, Mckinley Benson born [January 8, 1999]

Was nominated for Broadway's 1992 Tony Award as Best Actress (Musical) for "Crazy for You."

She started majoring in Law at Millikin University, but after one semester she changed her major and became one of the first students in the BFA program for musical theater.

Her favorite scene in The Little Mermaid (1989) is singing the "Part of Your World" reprise upon the rock.

Loves to snow ski, hike, go to the movies, go bowling, read, and travel.

Gave birth to her second child, a daughter called Delaney (2001)

Was actually the first person considered to voice the part of "Belle" in Disney's Beauty and the Beast (1991), but lost the role to Paige O'Hara. However, she did lend her voice to "Belle" in several episodes of the original Disney cartoon series "House of Mouse" (2001).

Has voiced two heroines in animated feature films based on fairy tales by Hans Christian Andersen, "Ariel" from The Little Mermaid (1989), and "Thumbelina" from Thumbelina (1994).

Where Are They Now

(September 2006) Appeared as part of a cast/crew panel discussion at the premiere of a revival/promotional screening of the 1989 Disney classic The Little Mermaid (1989) at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on September 7th, 2006.