MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
"Jane The Virgin" is a breakout hit on The CW Network. And it's ending its second season tonight. Now, the show has an unusual co-star. You never see his face. You never know his name. But you always hear his voice.
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ANTHONY MENDEZ: (As Narrator) Our story begins 13 and a half years ago when Jane Gloriana Villanueva was a mere 10 years old.
KELLY: Anthony Mendez plays the Narrator in "Jane The Virgin." Kat Chow of NPR's Code Switch team visited Mendez at his home studio in New Jersey to find out where his story began.
KAT CHOW, BYLINE: All right, try to keep up with this. We've got Jane, who you just heard about. She's a 23-year-old virgin, kind of a goody-goody. And she finds herself pregnant through an accidental artificial insemination. I know. The father is a married Playboy Hotel owner. And the doctor who messed up in the first place, the one who did the inseminating, she's his sister. Yeah, hard to follow, right? Well, it's a good thing we have Anthony Mendez as Narrator to explain all this, along with the other drama that happens in the show. And there's a lot of it.
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MENDEZ: (As Narrator) So Jane broke up with Michael, and Rafael broke up with Petra - until Rafael started spiraling and broke up with Jane, which for the record, he really regrets. Also full of regrets - Petra. See, she owns part of Rafael's hotel. But she doesn't have the one thing she really wants, Rafael.
CHOW: Before all this, Mendez's search for his own voice began in his hometown of New York City. His parents were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. His father had a tombstone business, which Mendez left against his family's wishes. And eventually, he began doing professional voice over work. That's when he learned that his Dominican, New York, New Jersey upbringing, the same things that made his voice so special, also worked against him with voice over managers.
MENDEZ: They were like, are you black? I was like, I'm Dominican, you know, so I have black roots. But - he said, 'cause I think you can go up for this role. So he started sending me on African-American voice over roles. But I want general market stuff. And they're like, oh, you've got an accent. You're not going to do it.
CHOW: A couple years later, things started to change. Mendez says he taught himself to dial back his accent. He started booking regular gigs for places like CNN, Miller Lite and the NBA, recording out of the bedroom he shares with his wife. And then, one morning, he got an email to audition for a TV show. Yep, for "Jane The Virgin."
MENDEZ: It said telenovela announcer with a Hispanic accent. And the role literally said Latin lover narrator. And I was like, I don't want to do this. This sounds like a joke, stereotypical stuff. I'd put it away.
CHOW: Later, Mendez thought, well, why not give it a try? Not knowing much about the narrator, he debated how the voice would sound.
MENDEZ: Initially, I was going to do a standard telenovela announcer, which is what I call the Spanish Dracula, the Telemundo guy. You know, (speaking Spanish) Netflix, or something like that, you know? And I said, you know, an hour show with that guy is going to get really, super annoying.
CHOW: So he came up with a voice he thought people would want to spend time with, even if that time included kidnappings, mistaken identity and criminal masterminds.
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MENDEZ: (As Narrator) And Raf (ph) was working with Detective Michael to see if Derek was connected to their mother.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Where were you?
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Right here in this boat.
MENDEZ: (As Narrator) The notorious crime lord known as Mutter (ph).
CHOW: While "Jane The Virgin" has given Mendez some fame, it's not making him rich. He's still working on freelance voice over gigs. But the show has given him the freedom to pursue his own projects. He's creating an animated comic series about a Dominican-American superhero who wants to break from the family tombstone business to become a poet.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JANE THE VIRGIN")
MENDEZ: (As Narrator) I know, straight out of a telenovela, right? Well, imagine this.
CHOW: Kat Chow, NPR News.
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