Nicola Walker, Cush Jumbo and Five More Make the APA Narrator Shortlist. Here’s Every Voice in the Running

The UK’s Audio Production Awards have their 2026 shortlist, and two of its categories are all about voices: Narrator and Ensemble Cast. Nicola Walker, Clarke Peters and Cush Jumbo are up for the narration prize next to four narrators who work freelance or run their own children’s series, and 53 audio drama actors are named across five ensemble casts. Here’s everyone in the running, ahead of the ceremony in London on 26 November.

AudioUK, the trade body for independent audio producers, published the shortlist for the APAs on Monday, with Audible as headline sponsor. The winners will be named at BFI Southbank on Thursday, November 26, in a ceremony hosted by the comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean, who hosts BBC Radio 4’s Best Medicine and the podcast All Killa No Filla with Rachel Fairburn.

Most of the APAs go to producers and production companies. The individual prizes are where performers come in, and this year the Narrator award, sponsored by BeeAudio, and the Ensemble Cast award put a long list of working voices on the same page as the big names.

The seven narrators on the shortlist

This is the Narrator shortlist as it appears in AudioUK’s full list of nominees, with the label or credit it gives each one.

• Nicola Walker, Bonnier Books UK, for her narration of T.M. Logan’s thriller The Weekend
• Clarke Peters, BBC Radio 4 and BBC Sounds
• Cush Jumbo, for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Audible Studios, Pottermore and String & Tins
• Helen Zaltzman, freelance
• Melanie Crawley, freelance
• Sara Starling, freelance, for The Bubbling Toad Stories
• Morwenna Rose, The Book of Arralan

One small puzzle: AudioUK’s written summary of the category also names Barney Cooper among the nominees, but he isn’t in the full list on the same page, and the full list is the one Radio Today printed. We’ve gone with the full list.

AudioUK’s own summary singles out Walker’s “gripping narration” of The Weekend, Starling’s stories that “bring magical storytelling to children and families”, and Rose, “who combines traditional oral storytelling with character performances in a children’s fantasy series.”

A winner at the lectern at last year's APAs. Image: AudioUK

Three of the seven built their own stage

The famous names will get the headlines, but the shortlist’s real story for working narrators is the other half of it. Zaltzman, Crawley and Starling are all listed as freelance, and Rose is credited to her own series rather than a publisher.

Starling is the author and the voice of The Bubbling Toad Stories, a children’s series set in a real place, Vogrie Country Park. Yoto’s listing says the stories “are written and narrated in soothing tones by Sara Starling, with stunning soundscapes by Leon Ford.” She’s on the shortlist twice: the Kids Content category also names Sara Starling, Leon Ford and Andy Greenhouse, all freelance.

Rose’s The Book of Arralan is a children’s fantasy series about two brothers who fall into an old book, and its own site now offers “over 40 hours of stories” in an audiobook collection. Zaltzman is best known for The Allusionist, her podcast about language. It’s a reminder that the narration prize isn’t only for whoever a big publisher booked this year.

There’s another voice to watch in the New Voice category. AudioUK describes Louis Critchley as “bringing cartoon-like energy and inventive character performances to audiobook narration.” He’s up against Chantal Romain, Eva Brookes, Georgie Styles, Harley Viveash and the singer Beth Ditto.

AudioUK's announcement, as seen on 30 October 2026. Image: AudioUK

Every actor in the Ensemble Cast category

Audio drama lives or dies on its cast, and the Ensemble Cast award names them. Five of the seven nominations list every actor. Here they are, with the production company AudioUK credits.

• BBC Studios: Carl Prekopp, Yasmin Mwanza, Maddy Lenny, Emma Handy, Laura Dos Santos, Rebekah Murrell, Ben Crowe, Harry Myers, Joe Jameson, Ian Dunnett Jnr., Connor Finch, Jemima Rooper and Robert Glenister
• Digital Drama Productions: Hilary Derrett, Mick Liversidge, Iestyn Arwel, Michael Simkins, Livy Potter, Sebastian Humphreys, Pauline Lynch, Euan Munro, Joyce Henderson, Aarushi Ganju, Adrian McLoughlin, George Stagnell, Daniel Norford, Laura Wilson and Jason Morell
• DLT Entertainment UK: Sian Clifford, Lorna Rose Treen, Jonathan Oldfield, Ada Player, Alice Cockayne, Aruhan Galieva, Ayoade Bamgboye, Caroline Elms, Em Prendergast, Jodie Mitchell and Mofé Akàndé
• Hooley Productions: Rachel Davies, Philip Jackson, Alan Williams, Ralph Ineson, Christine Bottomley, Eden Ottman and Faye Weerasinghe
• Platform Media and Audible UK: Sherise Blackman, Judi Love, Saffron Coomber, Martins Imhangbe, David Ajala, Richard Blackwood and Shiloh Coke
• Almost Tangible: the 400 Strangers ensemble and the Wolf Valley ensemble, listed by title only

Almost Tangible has a strong year all round. Its producers are shortlisted twice in Audio Drama, once as Celia de Wolff and Chloe Sackur and once as Charlotte Melén and Eleanor Mein. Katie Farr’s 400 Strangers is also up for a prize at the British Audio Awards, according to PodcastingToday’s report on that shortlist.

The other categories where voices count

The Audio Drama category itself goes to producers: Nicolas Jackson of Afonica, the two Almost Tangible teams, Lisa Emily Petersen of Anonymous Badger Creative, Fin Kennedy of Applied Stories, and Eloise Whitmore and Tony Churnside of Naked Productions. Jackson is also up for Producer of the Year.

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On the audiobook side, Fiction Audiobook nominates Bonnier Books UK Audio, Rashmi Sirdeshpande and Jassa Ahluwalia for HarperCollins, Alex Morral for Marston Editions, Michael Pender for Penguin Audio, and Alfie Thompson and Chris Ahjem for Penguin Random House. Non-Fiction Audiobook names Bonnier Books UK Audio, the Nosy Crow team of Meg Meloy, Viola Ugolini, Alex Brown and Strathmore Studios, Alfie Thompson, Chris Thompson and Michael Pender for Penguin Audio, and Nicola Alexandrou for The Guardian.

Clarke Peters turns up twice too. Beyond his narration nomination, he’s part of the Loftus Media team shortlisted for Arts and Culture. And the Sound Design shortlist includes the Audible Studios, Pottermore Publishing and String & Tins team behind the Harry Potter production that put Cush Jumbo on the narrator list.

Two awards nights in one week

Audio performers in the UK have a busy end to November. Three days before the APAs, the British Audio Awards, also called the Speakies, hold their second ceremony at the Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on November 23, hosted by Sally Phillips. Their Best Performance shortlists include James McAvoy, Adjoa Andoh, Simon Russell Beale, Steve Toussaint, Mark Gatiss, Clare Perkins and Jason Watkins, with Erin Doherty and Izuka Hoyle among the newer names.

On stage at last year's APAs. Image: AudioUK

One of the Speakies judges, Fergus Morgan of The Stage, put it this way when that shortlist came out: “Audio drama is a thrillingly vibrant and versatile artform, and our shortlists this year prove that.”

For narrators who spend most days alone in a booth, the APAs are a rare chance to be in a room with the producers who hire them. AudioUK says the AudioUK Award for outstanding contribution will be announced on the night, and Voice Over Herald will report every winner in the voice categories once they’re named.

Congratulations to everyone on the list, and good luck on the 26th.

Sources: AudioUK, APAs 2026 shortlist and announcement; Radio Today; PodcastingToday, APAs shortlist and British Audio Awards shortlist (18 September 2026); Yoto listing for The Bubbling Toad Stories; The Book of Arralan; The Allusionist. Photos: AudioUK, from the 2025 APAs.

Lee este artículo en español: Nicola Walker, Cush Jumbo y cinco voces más, nominadas a Narrador en los APAs. Aquí están todos los nominados

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