Biography
Mel is an international screen acting and voice coach. Starting as an actor, Mel moved to theatre directing and voice coaching. She was in the voice department of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and ran the voice and text department for 12 years for the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. She has directed show reels and taught in most of the major London drama colleges, was Head of Voice at Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama, and advised on the setting up of the MA in Screen Acting at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. She has worked at Zurich University of the Arts, Prague Film school, IFS in Cologne, Die Tankstelle in Berlin as well as numerous institutions in the US. She currently directs show reels for Max Reinhardt Seminar in Vienna.
In 1992, Mel was asked to coach on the original film of The Secret Garden, shortly after that on The Fifth Element. She has now worked on around 65 major film and TV productions. Some of the many actors Mel has coached (for acting or dialogue): Gerard Butler, Henry Cavill, Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch (theatre), Jason Donovan, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Joel Edgerton, Sally Hawkins (theatre), Mads Mikkelsen, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Milla Jovovich, Angelina Jolie, Felicity Jones, Jet Li, Keira Knightley, Rachel McAdams, Lena Olen, Clive Owen, Stellan Skarsgård, John Turturro, Ray Winstone, Michelle Yeoh, Billy Zane & Zhu Zhu.
Mel has written three books: Acting for Film: Truth 24 Times a Second (Random House), A Screen Acting Workshop+ DVD (Nick Hern Books) and The Elemental Actor (Nick Hern Books) published in 2023.
