WHAT MY CLIENTS SAY ABOUT ME…
“Very friendly, professional and brilliant at what she does".
Bayo Gbadamosi, Actor
“Maeve is simply brilliant at what she does, and has helped me enormously in building confidence and skill in my voice work. She is a very skilled and attentive coach and brings immense knowledge and experience to every session. Working with Maeve has been empowering, exciting and inspiring and has helped me to “dig deep” and find voices that I never knew were in me. It has actually helped me to grow as a person, not to mention given me so much more confidence in my work. I can’t imagine that I could have found a better teacher and guide.”
Clive Johnson, Voice artist
“Maeve is really good and helpful. She has a complete technical understanding of how the accents work, she takes you through every aspect and builds you up until you have the confidence to deliver properly. Highly recommended for anyone struggling with accents. She’s brilliant and fun too! She made me feel at ease during the embarrassing first bit, and I left with a far deeper understanding and confidence with the accent.”
“It didn’t just come out of me. I worked with a dialect coach. I worked with the wonderful Maeve Diamond for, like, months.”
- PAUL MESCAL, OSCAR NOMINEE, AFTERSUN
“Maeve is my first port of call whenever I begin developing a character. She is wonderful at making even the most daunting of accents seem very manageable and has a particular talent for breaking down and explaining technical aspects of dialect in easy-to-understand terms. However the reason I return to her over and over is that she never lets the accent work get in the way of performance. She has a way of helping me use the accent work to allow the character to develop and take shape rather than be diminished or restricted by it. Working with her always feels like a fun exploration of a character and by the end I’m always left with a sense of confidence and ownership in the work going forward.”
“Working with Maeve is wonderful because the whole process is acting first. Rather than just focusing on making the right sounds, she helps reveal how an accent necessarily affects a speaker’s whole attitude and mindset. After a course of lessons with her, I had built a personalised checklist and numerous samples from which to work from, as well as a number of resources to aid troubleshooting. But it is all geared towards unlocking the character first and foremost, making something grounded and credible.”
“Maeve completely changed my perspective of and approach to voice ‘work’ (case in point: I’ve now removed the word ‘work’ from my understanding of it altogether!). Her holistic and personalised methods taught me how to appreciate and respect my voice and develop a true interest in its capability. This not only worked wonders with my text work as an actor, but also just generally in life - as me! When we shifted focus to accents, every session was enormously eye-opening (evidenced by my full, scribble-filled notebook!) and I now feel well-equipped and in control when tape requests for new accents come my way. Thank you, Maeve! ”
“Working with Maeve gave me the confidence to improvise in a different accent - no mean feat! She was recommended to me by another actor and I can see why. In just a few sessions we had covered a huge amount of material, and Maeve is obviously very good at adapting her teaching methods to suit the specific needs of each student. I also felt I could have called her from set at any time to check a word or line. However, thanks to our sessions, I didn’t need to.”
“After leaving drama school I always felt daunted by accent work when a quick turnaround was involved. Since working with Maeve, I’ve discovered a process which is not only quicker to the mark but much more practical, specific, fun and freeing! It’s out of your head and into your body. I now feel so excited to continue exploring accent work in a way that simply doesn’t get taught at drama school and by other accent coaches.
Maeve really is a Diamond!!”
“Maeve is an exceptional and very well prepared coach and I had a great time working with her. She pointed out what I needed to correct and improve and taught me in a very relaxed atmosphere. She provided me with a lot of useful material and recorded every session which has been very helpful as I could listen back and understand my mistakes. I wish I had started lessons with her sooner! I highly recommend her.”
“Precise, consistent and with a unique insight into how actors work, having trained as an actor herself, Maeve gets the best work possible from you, with authentic and truly believable results.”
“Maeve’s sessions are always enjoyable, but more importantly they are always concise. I don’t have a great ear for accents but Maeve gives me the skills and confidence I need, so I can get on with the acting. She understands that different actors respond to different approaches, whether it be using the body to influence the accent or a more scientific approach. She figured me out straight away. I highly recommend her!”
“Don’t waste your time looking anywhere else for an accent coach - Maeve is as good as they come. Professional, fun and engaging. She makes what can originally seem like very difficult, technical work into an easy, stress-free experience without compromising at all on results.
Maeve simultaneously manages to challenge you to reach outside of your comfort zone whilst also lending a gentle, encouraging hand when you feel like you don’t quite have a grip on an accent.
I spent months going to different accent coaches before I found Maeve and now I wouldn’t see anyone else. I started my work with her thinking that I didn’t have “an ear” for accents and now we’re working on our seventh accent together!
Our work together has not only meant that my casting opportunities have broadened, but also that I feel more free and agile as an actor. Every time we have a session, I leave feeling like I’ve grown and developed.
Most importantly, Maeve has given me a confidence in my ability with accents that I never thought I’d have. I cannot recommend her highly enough.”
“I would 100% recommend working with Maeve. She is so welcoming and creates such a safe space for you to work in and feel free to explore different voices. Maeve goes on a journey with you to create not only the accent you need but also the voice of the character as well. She has taught me so much about working with my own voice and helped me to develop a greater understanding of accents in my work.”
“Everything was explained to me in a clear way and I felt comfortable enough that it didn’t matter if I made any mistakes - in fact I was encouraged to! It was a lot of fun and I noticed changes surprisingly quickly! I listen to accents a lot differently now. I’m a lot more confident in my approach and learning to trust my instincts more. I would definitely recommend Maeve. ”
“I’ve noticed mammoth changes in my accent work.
Before working with you, I was forever just winging it, getting the gists of accents, but not understanding what I was doing and not being specific or detailed enough to be really accurate or authentic.
Through working with you I've not only learned specific accents but also how accents work, including my own. Now I'm able to pick up and understand how to do new accents more easily, and adapt more quickly to new ways of speaking.
I really love & appreciate your specificity & precision. I had worked with two dialect coaches before you who were frustratingly vague. Even when I could feel something wasn't right, they couldn't identify what wasn't working, nor how to fix it. With you I feel like there are always ways to improve and not only do you identify those ways but you are also great at explaining and helping me to understand why.
I have recommended you to a number of friends. You’re the best.”
Daniel Monks, Actor
“Right from the very beginning I felt at ease. There’s always that fear of going for lessons and being bad, being so bad that they can’t actually believe you’re that bad... Even if I had been that bad though, it wouldn’t have mattered as you would have just focused on making me better.
I trust you completely.
I’ve never ever got the feeling you’re doing this for the money, not once. It always comes across that you want me to succeed and improve with each lesson. I get the impression that you are invested in me getting the accent as much as I am. You’re never ever going through the motions and you will try lots of different ways to make sure I get it.
I’ve loved feeling that we are in it together. Plus the lessons are really fun.
I’ve already been recommending you to all my actor mates. The improvement I’ve noticed, particularly in my Gen Am, is incredible. I went from sounding like a bad parody of Janice from Friends to someone who actually sounds like a native US speaker. Yes there’s always work to do to keep it ticking over… but you’ve given me homework to ensure that happens.
Now I’m way more aware of where my voice should be placed for each accent and I’m very aware of the rhythm and muscularity of each accent. It’s those things that can be the giveaway and they’re the key elements that you’ve taught me. ”
