MEL CHURCHER (Ann Churcher) worked mainly as an actor and broadcaster for her first twenty years in the business. 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 a frequent contributor to BBC Radio and Television’s national and regional programmes.

on script

on script

 Although Mel does still act and broadcast, she is now best known as an international acting, voice and presentation coach, which has been the main part of her work for the last twenty or so years. She has run voice and text courses in America, Singapore, Norway, Portugal, Hungary, Czech Republic and Croatia and regularly runs ‘Acting for Film’ workshops in Germany. She has also 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 regularly runs workshops for schools like LAMDA, Central School of Speech & Drama, RADA, Drama Centre and Mountview School 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 was resident voice and text coach from 1996 to 2007.
Mel is also one of the top dialogue and acting coaches in movies. Her work includes The Lady, Berbarian Sound Studio, The Door, Chalet Girl, The Last Station, Sherlock Holmes, Control, Eragon, Tirant lo Blanc, Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (ADR only), Beowulf & Grendel, 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 work), The Hole, Secret Passage and Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. She also runs regular film acting workshops at the Actors Centre in London and at ifs in Cologne, Interkunst and Monika Schubert’s Acting Studio in Berlin and advised on the setting up of the MA in Screen Acting at Central School of Speech and Drama.  She also directs in the theatre and has her own producing company, Trojan’s Trumpet. As well as actors, Mel teaches leaders of business and commerce charisma, confidence & presentation skills.

Some of the artistes Mel has coached (voice, dialect or acting) in alphabetical order:

Victoria Abril, Liam Aiken, Rafael Amargo, Thora Birch, Raymond Blanc, Katherine Borowitz, Gerard Butler, Henry Cavill, Noel Clarke, Kerry Condon, Charlie Cox, Daniel Craig, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Dancy, Day (Thaitanium), Stephen Dillane, Jason Donovan, Joel Edgerton, Christopher Egan, Alice Evans, Laurence Fox, Benno Furmann, Martina Gedeck, Paul Giamatti, Giancarlo Giannini, Ioan Gruffud, Sienna Guillory, Desmond Harrington, Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Djimon Hounsou, Kathryn Hunter, Milla Jovovich, Angelina Jolie, Felicity Jones, Keira Knightley, Jessica Lange, Alexandra Maria Lara, Jet Li, Kate Maberly, Ivano Marescotti, Rachel McAdams, Mads Mikkelson, Johnny Lee Miller, Samantha Morton, Esther Nubiola, Frances O’Connor, Clive Owen, Mica Paris, Sam Riley, Michelle Ryan, Rodrigo Santoro, Til Schweiger, Sheridan Smith, Stellan Skarsgård, Edward Speleers, Ray Stevenson, Joss Stone, Harry Treadaway, Tricky, John Turturro, Leonor Varela, Jon Voight, Leonor Watling, Ray Winstone, Michelle Yeoh, Casper Zafer & Billy Zane.

Directors she has worked with (as coach or actor) include:

Bill Alexander, Vicente Aranda, Bill Bain, Derek Bennett, Luc Besson, Michael Blakemore, Bill Bryden, Harry Burton, Tim Burton, Ken Campbell, Alasdair Clayre, Chris Columbus, David Conville, Anton Corbijn, John Dexter, Richard Donner, Uli Edel, Stefen Fangmeier, Gerald Fox, Antoine Fuqua, Sarah Gavron, Brian Gibson, John Gorrie, Terry Green, Sturla Gunnarson, Nick Hamm, John Hay, Dominic Hill, Michael Hoffman, Agnieszka Holland, Helena Kaut-Howson, Hugh Hudson, Ken Hughes, Katherine Hunter, Rachel Kavenagh, Edward Kemp, Louis Leterrier, David Leveaux, Kevin Lima, Sharon Maguire, Charles Marowitz, Daisy von Scherler Mayer, Sam Mendes, Jonathan Miller, Silvio Narizzano, Adrian Noble, Roman Polanski, Vanessa Redgrave, Kevin Reynolds, Franc Roddam, Guy Ritchie, Jimmy Sangster, Timothy Sheader, David A Stewart, Alan Strachan, Peter Strickland, Tim Supple, Istvan Szabo, Ian Talbot, Phil Traill, Pete Travis, Simon West, Andy Wilson, Philip Wilson and Peter Wood.
on script

on set of ‘I Dreamed of Africa’

 Mel has a BA Hons. (Open) an MA in Performing Arts (Mddx), an MA in Voice Studies (C.S.S.D.) and an Institute of Phonetics Association Certificate. She is a member of The Writers’ Guild, Society of Authors, Equity, The Directors Guild, Women in Film and Television, The English Speaking Union, The Voice Care Network, 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. She has written two books Acting for Film: Truth 24 Times a Second published by Virgin Books and A Screen Acting Workshop/DVD published by Nick Hern Books.