Not many people can claim to have founded an $11 billion company because they were frustrated by badly-dubbed movies, but Mati Staniszewski belongs to this exclusive club. Growing up in Poland with co-founder Piotr Dąbkowski, the pair were often aghast at local language voiceovers, not least the monotonous sound of one voice playing multiple roles, regardless of gender.

In 2021, Staniszewski and Dąbkowski turned to artificial intelligence to find a fix. They established ElevenLabs, which, in the short space of five years, has become a dominant force in AI audio, raising $500 million in February. ElevenLabs’ model is essentially a text-to-speech generator, which has proved more subtle and sophisticated than equivalents like Apple’s Siri.

A good chunk of ElevenLabs’ $330 million revenue comes from corporate giants deploying its technology to field customer service calls. YouTubers are also important advocates, with creators using ElevenLabs to translate their videos into different languages. ElevenLabs is now gaining in influence in the more traditional entertainment realms.

“There is clearly a lot of interest in what this technology can unlock,” Staniszewski says of his conversations with studios. “But to be able to unlock it, you need to figure out how to bring the talent on board. And that’s exactly what we are doing.”

Michael Caine has licensed his distinctive Cockney voice to ElevenLabs, and Liza Minnelli is making music with the company. ElevenLabs resurrected the great James Earl Jones to play Darth Vader in Fortnite, while Gordon Ramsay will now bark instructions at you in your kitchen, thanks to a partnership with MasterClass.

Elsewhere, Matthew McConaughey was announced as an ElevenLabs investor last year. McConaughey is using ElevenLabs to translate his Lyrics of Livin’ newsletter into Spanish, and the Interstellar actor lauds the tech’s “extraordinary storytelling capabilities.” Staniszewski admits it was a “surreal moment” when he first joined a call with McConaughey and teases “additional projects” that will emerge from their partnership.

There is a brutal reality, however, that comes with ElevenLabs’ startling rise: The voiceover artists who helped inspire the company are now at risk of losing their livelihoods. And while ElevenLabs is considered to be doing things responsibly, the firm last year settled a lawsuit from two actors, Karissa Vacker and Mark Boyett, who accused it of misappropriation. ElevenLabs denied wrongdoing.

What’s Staniszewski’s message for those who are nervous about ElevenLabs’ growth? “With any technological shift, it will change how we all do our work,” he replies. “The main thing I would advise is trying out the technology, seeing what it can do, how it can be part of their own process, how we can open up storytelling for them.”