Dialect, Accent and Audition Coaching
Besides being an actor and comedian, I am an accent, dialect, and audition coach, with a lot of experience doing voices for a living and helping people feel comfortable and creative with their character voices.
Check out the story of my unique vocal skill set and some of my client reviews below!
Here are just a few of the characters I’ve had the pleasure of being the voice actor for over the years, including Pansage, Amoonguss, Colress, Volkner (Pokémon), Yuma Tsukumo, Halldor, Breo (Yu-Gi-Oh), Greg the Goose (P. King Duckling) and lots more!
MY VOICE ACTOR STORY
Since I was a kid, I had a special talent for accents, character voices and impressions. Over the years, the study I’ve made of human speech has allowed me to book lots of acting roles. I went from trying to imitate other people’s sounds, to understanding how different people made their sounds, to eventually exploring the underlying questions of why different people talk the way they do. I’ve continued to hone my dialect training through courses at Knight-Thompson Speechwork. My dialect work can be heard in world-famous cartoons including Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokemon, P. King Duckling, Robin Hood: Trouble in Sherwood, and Beast Boy: Lone Wolf, video games (Killing Floor 2, Dungeon Star Wars: The Old Republic) and on Broadway (The National Theatre’s New York production of One Man, Two Guvnors), Off-Broadway (Rutherford & Son, Temporal Powers), and regional US theaters (The Invention of Love, Gross Indecency, Howie the Rookie).
HOW I CAN HELP YOU
I specialize in teaching the many varieties of American, British and Irish dialects, plus some European accents. If you’ve got an audition, live-action role or voiceover job, or just want to adjust your speech for any kind of public speaking, I can get you where you want to go. Rather than throw a bunch of symbols and charts at you, I prefer to focus on sound placement, ear training, mouth and tongue shapes, and most importantly, understanding where you or your character might be coming from and going to.
REVIEWS FROM ELI’S COACHING CLIENTS
Working on accent training with Eli was a brilliant experience! His dialect coaching was so helpful - not just in developing an accent for one piece: I felt I was able to really develop multiple regional accent skills in my lessons with him. He is very knowledgeable and I got to explore some really fun texts. As an acting coach, he is very easy to talk to and learn from, and is so so helpful in preparing a piece for performance, or just working on one skill such as an accent, as well as making that learning fun!! — ARIELLA, ACCENT COACHING CLIENT, UK
“Eli is more than a coach--he's a born teacher! He is thoughtful, specific, and encouraging. Was able to target the collective group challenges we were having as well as identify hurdles we were experiencing as individuals. Gave very thorough notes and wasn't afraid to stop us when we were totally off-track. All of us are in 301--he helped us simplify our premises and further hone in on game. “
— DANAE, IMPROV COACHING CLIENT, NYC
“Eli has the rare gift of being able to provide extremely constructive notes to keep you improving your scenes, without making you feel completely awful in the process. My practice group always leaves his sessions feeling positive and eager to come back next week and keep improving. I highly recommend!”
— HEATHER, IMPROV COACHING CLIENT, NYC
“Eli has been helping my son Simon with a couple of audition tapes. The brief required the actor to speak American English. Eli, who is an experienced screen actor with a native US accent, was a perfect coach for these occasions. They analysed the script and worked through the emotional journey of the character. They then practised the lines in a US accent. After that, Eli and Simon recorded the scene with Eli reading as a second character behind the camera. Eli is a brilliant reader which made Simon’s job so much easier as they “bounced off” each other in a very natural tempo and Simon’s accent was so much better as he was fully immersed in the US language environment. It is a win-win-win. Acting coaching, accent coaching and professional reader on the tape! Triple threat. The self-tapes ended up of a very high quality and Simon’s agents were very complimentary of them. As for me, Simon’s mum, it was important that my work schedule was uninterrupted, and I could carry on with my life. Win#4! 😊”
— ANNA, ACCENT/AUDITION COACHING CLIENT, LONDON
