- Born
- Birth nameJodi Marie Marzorati
- Height5′ 7″ (1.70 m)
- Jodi Benson was born on October 10, 1961 in Rockford, Illinois as Jodi Marie Marzorati. She has received worldwide recognition & critical acclaim as the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid (1989), Tour Guide Barbie in Toy Story 2 (1999), Weebo in Flubber (1997) as well as Thumbelina in Thumbelina (1994). Other projects include The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning (2008), The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea (2000), Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001), 101 Dalmatians 2: Patch's London Adventure (2002), Joseph: King of Dreams (2000), Balto: Wolf Quest (2001), Balto III: Wings of Change (2004) & Enchanted (2007).
She starred in Crazy For You as Polly Baker, receiving a Tony & Helen Hayes award nomination for best actress in a musical. Other Broadway credits include Smile, Welcome to the Club & Marilyn. Internationally, she has had the honor of sharing the stage w/ her husband Ray Benson at the European premiere of Ira Gershwin's My One & Only, starring as Miss Edythe Herbert. In Los Angeles, she starred in the critically-acclaimed Reprise/UCLA production of Babes in Arms, South Pacific, Flora the Red Menace, Oklahoma!, My Fair Lady & Chess, for which she won the Best Actress Drama League Award.
She can be heard in over a dozen recordings & has a 6-part DVD series titled Baby Faith. Her animated works include Camp Lazlo! (2005), The Little Mermaid (1992), Batman Beyond (1999), The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (2001), The Wild Thornberrys (1998), Hercules: Zero to Hero (1999), P.J. Sparkles (1992) as well as many others. On the concert stage, she has performed as a concert soloist w/ symphonies all over the world such as the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The National Symphony, Cleveland Philharmonic, Dallas Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic 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 & Disney's 100 Years of Magic. She's honored to be the resident guest soloist for the Walt Disney Company/Disney Cruise Line & ambassador for feature animation. She gives thanks & praise to the Lord for her family, friends, her loving husband Ray as well as her precious children: son McKinley Benson & daughter Delaney.
- IMDb mini biography by: Jodi Benson
- SpouseRay Benson(May 19, 1984 - present) (2 children)
- ChildrenDelaney Benson
- The voice of Ariel.
- After 20 years of fan speculation, she revealed in a Konami promotional video for Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater (2025) that she had provided the voice of EVA in the original version of the game, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004), under the pseudonym "Suzetta Miñet" due to the content of the project differing from the family-oriented works she is known for. The alias was coined by voice director Kris Zimmerman from the name of Benson's childhood dog, Suzette Monet.
- Is of Italian descent.
- Graduated from Boylan Central Catholic High School (1979).
- American actress & singer.
- Graduated from Millikin University (1993).
- I am blessed to perform in the studio and on the concert stage.
- I think God calls and encourages us to dream big, but sometimes we put God in a box in a very small way, when God wants us to look outside the box.
- I homeschool, so the start of the day is reading Bible scripture, memorization, and prayer.
- The thing that I enjoy about animation is the fact that it is unbridled, and there are no boundaries; when you are in the room, you don't have to focus on your clothing, make-up, hair, your choreography or your blocking; you really do have total freedom.
- I have a lot of mermaid stuff. I did start collecting a lot before I had children because I didn't know if I would have a boy or a girl. So I saved everything.
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