Out of everything she has done in her career, Oprah Winfrey will forever be synonymous with producing "The Oprah Winfrey Show." First airing in 1986, the talk show ran for 25 years (via Britannica) and changed the landscape of television forever, becoming the highest-rated show of its kind in the process (via Forbes).
Winfrey is a woman of many different talents, confidently branching out into other aspects of the entertainment industry like radio, print magazines, and even creating her own cable network a few months after "The Oprah Winfrey Show" came to an end in 2011 (via The Atlantic). Not only that, but the TV host has carved a significant career in film, too.
A year before "The Oprah Winfrey Show" aired in 1986, she starred in Steven Spielberg's adaptation of "The Color Purple." Winfrey described it as "a seminal moment in her life" that "changed everything," as she told Collider.
In addition to her big-screen roles, Winfrey has also lent her voice to several major projects that might even surprise some of her most dedicated fans.
During her time as a talk show host, Oprah Winfrey would often narrate or host segments in a documentary-like style on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," such as during the "Where Are They Now?" segments with guests she's previously covered like "The Most Hated Mom in America" (via YouTube).
Aside from her talk show, Winfrey has also produced documentaries, including "The Color of Care (via Oprah Daily), "The Me You Can't See" on Apple TV+ with Prince Harry, and "When They See Us Now" - a Netflix special where she talks with a group of exonerated men who were known as the Central Park Five. Aside from these projects, Winfrey has narrated two documentaries, "Cafwa" and "Emmanuel's Gift" (via IMDb), in addition to a docu-series aired on the Discovery Channel, simply titled "Life."
Having initially aired on the BBC with David Attenborough as narrator, Winfrey finally got the opportunity to narrate a nature documentary after previously turning down an offer for the "Planet Earth" series. Instead, that voice credit went to Sigourney Weaver (via Deadline).
As Oprah Winfrey would later write on her website, turning down "Planet Earth" was one of her few "professional regrets." When she was initially approached to take part, Winfrey didn't think she'd have enough time "to narrate the 11-episode series - which turned out to be one of the most visually spectacular television experiences of all time."
Thankfully, she was given a second chance at being involved in such an awe-inspiring project, and this time she said yes. Having watched and narrated all eleven episodes, Winfrey concluded that "Life" is "an all-encompassing, glorious, and sometimes terrifying exposé of how we all cohabit, thrive, and survive here on our beautiful planet."
Described by The Washington Post as giving the docu-series a "soothing, coaxing tone," the former talk show host hasn't narrated a nature-infused docu-series since. However, there are still plenty of Attenborough projects on the go that will probably find their way onto the Discovery Channel in the near future. As Winfrey said about her time narrating "Life," it was "an opportunity I couldn't resist."
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