Biographie
Toni Attell is an Emmy-nominated actor with a diverse portfolio spanning television and film. She has trained with renowned masters of performance arts worldwide, including Jean Louis Barroult, Marcel Marceau, and Mamako Yoenyama in mime; Carlos Mazzonne in Commedia dell'Arte; and Bill Ball, David Dukes, Paul Shanar, David Alexander, Nina Foch, and Harvey Lembeck in improvisation, comedy, and acting.
Toni has performed with the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, Theater West in Los Angeles, and toured over 350 colleges across the United States as a mime-comedienne, conducting master classes in movement and acting. She has created and performed five one-woman shows and founded the Comedy Store Players in Los Angeles. Additionally, she choreographed and taught clowns at the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus and worked on choreography for various music videos, including Kim Carnes' "Bette Davis Eyes."
She developed and taught a summer program for actors and writers at the Los Angeles Theater Center. Recently, Toni toured Japan and China, presenting her new one-woman shows and teaching acting. She also founded "The Comedy Pups," a stand-up comedy group of children that was featured on national television. With over twenty-five years of teaching experience, she has instructed children, teens, adults, and seniors. Toni recently performed her new comedy-mime act at Robin Williams’ birthday party at The Throckmorton Theatre in Northern California.
Toni believes that effective teaching requires maintaining strong performance skills so that students experience classes as both academic and grounded in real-world practice.
As a comedian and mime, she has opened for Jay Leno, Steve Martin, and Robin Williams and was named Best Comic from the U.S. by US Magazine. She hosted her own radio show on KRLA Smart-Talk called "The Romantic Intuitive." Currently, Toni continues to act, lecture, and perform.
Her teaching experience includes USC School of Cinema, where she taught acting to writers and directors, and Chapman University's Dodge School of Film, where she taught Acting for Non-Actors. She has led numerous workshops at UCLA Extension covering Acting: The Fundamentals, Acting II, Acting for Commercials, Acting for Non-Actors, Voice and Movement, Improvisation, The Psychology of Acting, Comedy/Improv I-III, Acting for Directors, Acting for the Lens, and The Business of Acting. Toni has authored two books: "Just Kidding: Stand-Up Comedy for Kids of All Ages," a workbook, and "The Little Blue Book for Filmmakers: A Primer for Directors, Writers, Actors and Producers," co-written with Carl Gottlieb, known for screenwriting Jaws, The Jerk, and Dr. Detroit, and Vice President of The Writers Guild. This workbook is published by Hal Leonard, Limelight Publishing.
