Biography
Marjo-Riikka Mäkelä (SAG, AFTRA, AEA) is an actor, and an award winning acting coach.
In August 2021 she received an honorary "IHOLLA"-award for her work in TV / Film industry, for creating safe and inspiring practices as an acting coach and intimacy director, from the prestigious Red Carpet Festival Jury, in Finland.
Marjo-Riikka is known as the "actor whisperer" for her individualized and unique way of working with her clients. She's helped thousands of actors & directors to not only fine-tune their own craft, but also to find inspiration, overcome creative blocks, and communicate more effectively with each other. Her Los Angeles based acting school, Chekhov Studio International, has offered an artistic home, and a creative haven, for actors, directors and other fellow artists since 2009. Many well known industry professionals have either trained with her in Los Angeles, or if out of state, coached with her online. Marjo-Riikka resides both in Helsinki, Finland, and Los Angeles, USA and has a dual citizenship. She continues to coach clients around the world.
Marjo-Riikka has specialized in a variety of different techniques, including the Michael Chekhov Technique, Non-Violent Communication, and Intimacy Direction. Marjo-Riikka is a long-standing faculty member of the Michael Chekhov Association. During her years as a teacher, she has also taught most of the Stanislavski based techniques, including Meisner Technique. Marjo-Riikka is a faculty member at the National Theatre Academy in Helsinki Finland, and a guest lecturer at Aalto University, teaching acting and intimacy coordination for MFA actors and directors. She is also a member of the National Alliance of Acting Teacher's in USA.
On top of her theatre and film education Marjo-Riikka has a practical nurse degree, and an Equestrian degree. She has volunteered working with Equine Facilitated Therapies, and as an acting teacher she's worked pro bono work with the Young Story Tellers, and the Actors Gang, in Los Angeles. Marjo-Riikka is also an Arizona Trauma Institute Certified Trauma Support Specialist & Resilience Coach, and has a Mental First Aid certifications from the Association of Mental Health Coordinators and National Council for Mental Wellbeing.
Marjo-Riikka does weekly private coaching for many successful TV and film actors and actresses*. She has coached actors for Films, and TV series such as True Blood, Madmen, West World, Billions, Unknown Soldier, Her, The Office, Silicon Valley, CSI, Californication, Mentalist, Castle, Nip Tuck, Alphas, Body of Proof, Ghost Whisperer, Entourage, How I Met your Mother, General Hospital Night Shift, Bones, Numb3rs , Deadwood, in Treatment, Manifesto, Beforeigners ... to mention a few. She has clients around the world, and she has been featured in Back Stage, the Los Angeles Times, American Theater Magazine and several major European publications.
Marjo-Riikka started her acting career as a theatre actor in Finland. In USA some of Marjo-Riikka's favorite roles as an actor include Medea in direction of David Bridel at California Repertory Company, Yelena in Uncle Vanya at the Classic Stage Company in NYC (in direction of Rachel Chavkin), and her work with Sarah Kane and Andrei Malaev-Babel at the Stanislavsky Theatre Studio in Washington DC.
Her theatre directing credits include Shakespeare, Chekhov, Schiller, and plenty of devised work.
Marjo-Riikka is an honorary member of the Stanislavsky Institute and Latin American Film Institute & School of Cinema, in Sao Paulo Brazil, and the founder and Artistic Director of Helsinki West Theatre Ensemble and Chekhov Studio International in Los Angeles. She is a faculty member at the National Theatre Academy in Finland, and has lead acting workshops for the country's leading acting repertoire companies such as at the National Theatre of Finland, and Helsinki City Theatre. She has also worked with the European Theatre Collective, Stanislavsky Institute, California State University, Acting Corps, ActorFest, Chapman University, Loyola Marymount University, The Insurgo Theater Movement, The Actor's Movement Studio (NYC), the INTAR Theater (NYC), The Actors' Gang (LA), University of Southern California, and CalArts MFA programs.
Marjo-Riikka is an avid animal lover, and has several rescued animals in her care, at all times. She dreams of having even larger animal sanctuary one of these days soon!
