Scott Kidder

When Walt Disney Co. brought the hit ABC TV series “Desperate Housewives” to Poland, producers found just the right local actor to do the voices of the show’s sexy, tempestuous female stars: Andrzej Matul, a 59-year-old guy with a deep voice and a flat delivery. Mr. Matul is a lektor. In Poland, American shows aren’t dubbed by actors mimicking the original, English-speaking actors. A lektor, the Polish term for voice-over artist, simply reads all the dialogue in Polish. While the lektor drones on, viewers hear the original English soundtrack faintly in the background.