Jodi Benson

Voice actress and singer Jodi Benson is most recognized for being the speaking and singing voice of Ariel in Disney's "The Little Mermaid," her signature song being "Part of Your World." Before she was strictly a voice actress, Benson worked on Broadway, even garnering a Tony nomination for one performance, and working once with lyricist Howard Ashman, who would later write the lyrics for the songs in "The Little Mermaid." During the 1990s, Benson did a large amount of voice work as princesses and other female heroines on straight-to-DVD movies and TV shows, often for Disney. In 1997, she took a bit of a departure from her usual archetypical female characters to do the voice of Weebo, the robot assistant to the professor (played by Robin Williams) in "Flubber." In a notable and rare feature film appearance, Benson played "Sam," the assistant to Patrick Dempsey's character assistant in "Enchanted," poking fun at Benson's most well-known work as Ariel. In another role that playfully jabbed at conventional children's culture, Benson took on the voice of Barbie in "Toy Story 2," later reprising the character, who became even more developed, in "Toy Story 3."