Denise Woods is an Internationally Renowned Vocal Coach and author of the book, The Power Of Voice. In the insightful book, Denise shares the secrets, tips, lessons, and stories that have helped the biggest film stars, including Will Smith, Halle Berry, Kirsten Dunst, Idris Alba, Rachel Weisz, and Jessica Chastain, to become confident, effective communicators. Academy Award winner Mahershala Ali wrote the Foreword.
Woods has been the “voice behind the voice” of a stellar array of actors for the last twenty years. She was the creative consultant for Halle Berry’s directorial debut of the film Bruised, contributing to the authenticity of Berry’s performance in the starring role. Denise was also the vocal coach for Mahershala Ali’s Academy Award and Golden Globe winning performances in Green Book and the 3rd Season of HBO’s True Detective. She is currently coaching the Sony Pictures, Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” and she also just completed work on the Tyler Perry feature film, A Jazzman’s Blues. Last season, Denise was the dialect coach for the Netflix film, The Harder They Fall, starring Idris Elba and Regina King, and she coached Don Cheadle in the critically acclaimed Showtime series, Black Monday. Her other clients include Academy Award winning actor Common, Golden Globe winner David Oyelewo, Academy Award nominated actor Will Smith for the title role in the film Ali and Ken Watanabe for his work in the film The Last Samurai.
Denise worked with Audra McDonald on her fourth Tony Award winning performance for Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess on Broadway, and was Zoe Saldana’s Dialect Coach in the feature film based on the life of Nina Simone. Her dialect coaching talents can also be heard in the 20th Century Fox film, Hidden Figures, starring Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer and Janelle Monae, and the Focus Features film, Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo in the title role. Denise coached Tyler Perry for his role as Colin Powell in the 2018 Annapurna Pictures film, Vice; and she is featured in Perry’s 2018 film, Acrimony, starring Taraji P. Henson, as the ‘only-heard’ Therapist.
Denise has trained executives for public speaking at corporations such as US Borax, UPS, and Bear Stearns. She has coached broadcast news anchors at NBC Nightly News, CNBC, Bloomberg News, The Today Show, CNN, Inside Edition, KTLA News, and the TV Guide Channel; and she has prepared NBA and NFL athletes for on-camera commentary.
For over two decades, Denise’s clients have included Queen Latifah, Will Smith, Halle Berry, Jessica Chastain, Amber Heard, Anthony Mackie, Phylicia Rashad, Ellen Burstyn, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Soledad O’Brien, Morris Chestnut, Taye Diggs, Paul Rodriguez, David Alan Grier, Victoria Rowell, Kellan Lutz, Ray Liotta, Portia De Rossi, Rachel Weisz, Mekhi Phifer, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeffrey Wright and Mike Myers.
She is a graduate and former faculty member of The Juilliard School, and a long time faculty member of California Institute of the Arts. Denise is committed to giving disenfranchised voices the courage and tools to use their words, their thoughts and their stories in ways they never thought possible by dismantling fear, shame and insecurity. Her first book, The Power of Voice is published by HarperCollins Publishers. www.speakitclearly.com
