About Dion Graham
Dion Graham’s warm, empathetic voice is like a chameleon, and has distinguished him as one of the most decorated audiobook narrators of a generation. His many accolades include the prestigious AudioFile Golden Voice award as well as multiple Audie awards, Earphones awards, ALA Odyssey awards, Publishers Weekly Listen Up awards, and IBPA Ben Franklin awards.
Graham is a truly versatile voice artist, with credits ranging from young adult books to the Dalai Lama’s memoir to Death by Black Hole by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and even a Western or two. If you’ve listened to an audiobook by Dave Eggers, George Pelecanos, or Chester Himes, there’s a good chance it was narrated by Dion Graham. But some of his most beloved performances are the memoirs, biographies, and works he’s performed by key 20th century luminaries such as James Baldwin, Muhammad Ali, Miles Davis, Carl Sagan, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Graham’s ability to seamlessly cross genres is a testament to his strength in connecting to characters and remaining open to every single story that he performs. When preparing for an audiobook performance, Graham has said “I try to be open. And it’s not like I’m trying very hard. I just dive in. I take the ride.” Like the best audiobook performers, he becomes a conduit for the human experience.
He came to audiobooks in an unusual way, when his friend asked him to narrate James Joyce’s The Dead one Christmas. He obliged — with nothing but a cassette recorder — and the two listened to the recording together in a dark room afterwards. It wasn’t until years later, when he was doing a Tennessee Williams play in London, that he met a narrator who encouraged him to get into the “great world of audiobooks.” It was a natural fit, as Graham has always had a deep love of reading. When he was a kid, he would get to the library early on summer mornings and wait for the doors to open.
Before he started performing audiobooks, Graham enjoyed a successful acting career on HBO’s The Wire, A & E’s The First 48, and several hit television shows. He’s also performed on Broadway, off-Broadway, internationally, and in films. He’s a graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA in acting.
Listener Favorites
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Evicted
- Poverty and Profit in the American City
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
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Former Property Manager
- By Charla on 05-18-16
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The Circle
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.
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A solid, just not great social network dystopia
- By Darwin8u on 10-10-13
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American War
- A Novel
- By: Omar El Akkad
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.
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Best listen in years
- By odin on 04-08-17
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Death by Black Hole
- And Other Cosmic Quandaries
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a talent for guiding readers through the mysteries of outer space with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. This collection of his essays from Natural History magazine explores a myriad of cosmic topics. Tyson introduces us to the physics of black holes by explaining what would happen to our bodies if we fell into one; he also examines the needless friction between science and religion, and notes Earth's status as "an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos".
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Well worth the time
- By Sarda on 04-19-07
-
Evicted
- Poverty and Profit in the American City
- By: Matthew Desmond
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Evicted, Princeton sociologist and MacArthur “Genius” Matthew Desmond follows eight families in Milwaukee as they each struggle to keep a roof over their heads. Hailed as “wrenching and revelatory” (The Nation), “vivid and unsettling” (New York Review of Books), Evicted transforms our understanding of poverty and economic exploitation while providing fresh ideas for solving one of twenty-first-century America’s most devastating problems. Its unforgettable scenes of hope and loss remind us of the centrality of home, without which nothing else is possible.
-
-
Former Property Manager
- By Charla on 05-18-16
-
The Circle
- By: Dave Eggers
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 13 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Mae Holland is hired to work for the Circle, the world’s most powerful internet company, she feels she’s been given the opportunity of a lifetime. The Circle, run out of a sprawling California campus, links users’ personal emails, social media, banking, and purchasing with their universal operating system, resulting in one online identity and a new age of civility and transparency.
-
-
A solid, just not great social network dystopia
- By Darwin8u on 10-10-13
-
American War
- A Novel
- By: Omar El Akkad
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sarat Chestnut, born in Louisiana, is only six when the Second American Civil War breaks out in 2074. But even she knows that oil is outlawed, that Louisiana is half underwater, that unmanned drones fill the sky. And when her father is killed and her family is forced into Camp Patience for displaced persons, she quickly begins to be shaped by her particular time and place until, finally, through the influence of a mysterious functionary, she is turned into a deadly instrument of war.
-
-
Best listen in years
- By odin on 04-08-17
-
Death by Black Hole
- And Other Cosmic Quandaries
- By: Neil deGrasse Tyson
- Narrated by: Dion Graham
- Length: 12 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Neil deGrasse Tyson has a talent for guiding readers through the mysteries of outer space with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. This collection of his essays from Natural History magazine explores a myriad of cosmic topics. Tyson introduces us to the physics of black holes by explaining what would happen to our bodies if we fell into one; he also examines the needless friction between science and religion, and notes Earth's status as "an insignificantly small speck in the cosmos".
-
-
Well worth the time
- By Sarda on 04-19-07