Louis Colaianni is a Voice and Speech innovator and coach for Broadway and regional theatre, film and television. He is visiting associate professor at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and Syracuse University Department of Drama. He served as Don Cheadle’s coach for the voice of Miles Davis in the film Miles Ahead. He was Will Ferrell’s vocal coach for the Broadway and HBO productions of “You’re Welcome, America;” dialect coach to Bill Murray for the films French Dispatch, Hyde Park On Hudson and St. Vincent; voice and speech coach for Michael Gandolfini for the film The Many Saints of Newark; and dialect coach for Will Power’s “Fetch Clay, Make Man” with Ben Vereen and Evan Parke, directed by Des McAnuff. He coached Trudie Styler for the FX series POSE; and Craig Roberts for the Amazon Prime series Red Oaks. He has been Voice and Text Director for productions at: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Yale Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Milwaukee Repertory Theater, Arizona Theatre Company, Shakespeare Festival of St. Louis, Shakespeare & Company, Trinity Repertory Theatre, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare Santa Cruz. For fifteen years was resident voice, speech and text coach at Kansas City Repertory Theatre (formerly Missouri Repertory Theatre); taught workshops in voice, phonetics, sound and movement, and text in Europe and U.S.; taught in numerous theatre programs including Pace University/Actors Studio; Vassar College; SUNY Purchase; The O’Neill Theatre Center; Columbia University; Ohio University, Dartmouth College, Trinity Repertory Theatre/Conservatory (Anne Bogart, Artistic Director); Hunter College, The New Actors Workshop, American Conservatory Theater, University of California: Santa Cruz, University of Pittsburgh, University of South Carolina, University of Missouri-Kansas City and Shakespeare & Company. His innovative approach to phonetics and stage accents is used in dozens of training programs. Louis has acted with Shakespeare & Company, American Shakespeare Theatre and New York Shakespeare Festival. He has written several influential texts on Voice, Speech and Shakespeare Performance: The Joy of Phonetics and Accents; Bringing Speech to Life; How to Speak Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s Names: A New Pronouncing Dictionary. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association (AEA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and, formerly, The Players.
