Mel Churcher: Biography

Biography

MEL CHURCHER was an actor and broadcaster for twenty years. Her work included leading roles at the National Theatre, New Shakespeare Co. and extensive film and television work including classic series such as Upstairs Downstairs, Edward VII & Duchess of Duke Street. Mel did enormous amounts of voice-over work, dubbing and documentary presentation and was a full time presenter with the BBC World Service from 1983-85. She was also part of the team recording The Longman's Pronunciation Dictionary onto CD-ROM. In 1999 she appeared in the successful four-hander The Beastly Chronicles of Saki at the Jermyn Street Theatre which has also been released as a CD.

Mel is now best known as an international acting, voice and presentation coach. She has run voice and text courses in America, Singapore, Norway, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Republic, Croatia and Germany, and has worked with one of Japan’s leading theatre companies. She was responsible for voice and text work at the Barbican for the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1991/2 and then became Head of Voice at Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama 1992/4. Since then, she has directed and taught in most of the major London drama colleges and recently directed a film for Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. Her theatre voice work includes The Royal Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare’s Globe Education Department, Manchester Royal Exchange, Birmingham Repertory Theatre.Young Vic and The Royal Court as well as the New Shakespeare Company at Regents Park Open Air Theatre where she has been resident voice and text coach for the last twelve years.

Mel is also one of the top dialogue and acting coaches in movies. Her work includes Control, Eragon, Tirant lo Blanc, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (ADR only), Beowulf & Grendel, Twilight of the Gods (ADR only), Truth about Love, King Arthur, Tristan & Isolde, Danny the Dog/Unleashed, The Fifth Element, Joan of Arc, The Secret Garden, Madeline, 102 Dalmatians, Snatch, The Count of Monte Cristo, Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone (Green-screen only), The Hole, Secret Passage and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. She runs regular film acting workshops at the Actors Centres in London, Richmond, Manchester and Newcastle. She has been involved in Screen Acting courses at LAMDA and Mountview College and helped to set up the MA in Screen Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama.

Some of the artistes Mel has coached (in alphabetical order):

Victoria Abril, Liam Aiken, Rafael Amargo, Thora Birch, Katherine Borowitz, Gerard Butler, Henry Cavell, Daniel Craig, Hugh Dancy, Stephen Dillane, Jason Donovan,Joel Edgerton, Christopher Egan, Alice Evans, Benno Furmann, Giancarlo Giannini, Ioan Gruffud, Sienna Guillory, Desmond Harrington, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Djimon Hounsou, Kathryn Hunter, Kate Maberly, Ivano Marescotti, Milla Jojovich, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley, Jessica Lange, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jet Li, Mads Mikkelson, Samanta Morton, Clive Owen, Sam Riley, Rodrigo Santoro, Til Schweiger, Stellan Skarsgård, Edward Speleers, Ray Stevenson, Joss Stone, Harry Treadaway, Tricky, John Turturro, Leonor Varela, Jon Voight, Leonor Watling, Ray Winstone & Billy Zane.

Film directors she has worked with include:

Vicente Aranda, Luc Besson, Anton Corbijn, Uli Edel, Stefen Fangmeier, Antoine Fuqua, Sturla Gunnarson, Nick Hamm, John Hay, Agnieszka Holland, Hugh Hudson, Louis Leterrier, Kevin Lima, Franc Roddam, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Kevin Reynolds, Guy Ritchie, Simon West and Andy Wilson.

She also directs in the theatre and has her own producing company, Trojan’s Trumpet.

Mel has an MA in Performing Arts (Mddx), an MA in Voice Studies (C.S.S.D.) and an Institute of Phonetics Association Diploma. She is a member of The Writers’ Guild, Society of Authors, Equity, The Directors Guild, Women in Film and Television, a life member of the British Academy of Film & Television Arts, a voting member of the European Film Academy and served on the Council of the British Voice Association 2001/4. Mel has had numerous articles published. Her new book Acting for Film: Truth 24 Times a Second was published by Virgin Books in January 2003.

Check out Mel's page on the Internet Movie Database