Who
is Paul Meier ?
In Brief
Paul Meier is a dialect coach and instructor for theatre and film; a voice-over artist with many commercials and audio books to his credit; a theatre professor specializing in voice, speech, dialect and text; and works with clients on accent reduction and English as a Second Language (ESL). This has been his calling for over 25 years, both in his native London, in the United States where he is now based, and all over the world. Paul Meier Dialect Services has been a leading presence through the internet since 1998, attracting thousands of clients all over the world with its dialect books and CDs, and "show-specific" dialect designs.
He has taught at some of the most famous theatre schools such as The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA), Webber Douglas, North Carolina School of the Arts and currently at the University of Kansas, where he is Full Professor and Head of Voice in the Theatre and Film Department.
He has coached feature films, including Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's Ride With the Devil, starring Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich and Jewel, and close to two hundred plays and musicals for the theatre in more than a dozen countries.
With his wide range of character voices and dialects, Paul is much in demand as a voice-over artist (listen to his Voice-over Demo), and has been heard internationally in commercials for such clients as Ford, Coca-Cola, Sprint, Bayer and Wal-mart -- he was the voice of the Wal-mart icon, Smiley, in 2003.
Beginning in 1975 with his reading of Of Mice and Men for the BBC, he has recorded numerous audio books; Ayn Rand's famous novel, Anthem, recently released by HighBridge Audio, is his most recent. During his membership of the famous BBC Drama Repertory Company, Paul acted in over 100 radio dramas, working alongside such colleagues as Richard Burton, Derek Jacobi, and Paul Scofield. This body of work continues to be available on CD and cassette.
He is the founder and director of the International Dialects of English Archive (IDEA), a growing archive of nearly 1000 primary-source dialect recordings of subjects reading and conversing in their native accents and dialects. This archive is widely used in dialect research, and provides his clients, and those of his associate editors, the vital real-life models needed as part of dialect instruction.
Paul makes his home and has his studio on ten acres nestled among the rolling hills of eastern Kansas, U.S.A.
Of Note...
On February 25, 2005, Paul was heard on All Things Considered on National Public Radio. They discussed the dialects of Hillary Swank from Million Dollar Baby, Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda, and Johnny Depp in Finding Neverland. Hear his interview with Michelle Norris in the All Things Considered archive (Click on the red "Listen" button near the top of the screen). requires Real Player.
Education
Rose Bruford College of Speech & Drama, London; Dip.Ed., Honours in
Phonetics and Dialects
University of Kent at Canterbury, England; BA (Honours), English & American
Literature
University of London, Certificate of Proficiency in Phonetics (first
class).
Actors Coached (short list)
John Ales, Jonathan Brandis, A.J. Buckley,Jewel Kilcher, Jim Caviezel, Simon Baker Denny, Peter Coyote, Stewart Finlay-McLennan, Louise Fletcher, Bill Irwin, Gabrielle Fitzpatrick, Diana Hardcastle, Tom Hulce, Kris Kristofferson, Elizabeth Lackey, Tobey Maguire, Stephen Mailer, Terrence Mann, Callum Keith Rennie, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Kim Myers, Mark Ruffalo, Skeet Ulrich, Celia Weston, David Wenham, Valerie Wildman,Peter Wingfield,Tom Wilkinson, Jeffrey Wright.
Accent & Dialect Teaching
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), London, UK
London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art (LAMDA), London, UK
Webber-Douglas School of Drama, London, UK
Department of Theatre & Film, University of Kansas, USA
The Drama Studio, London, UK
The City Literary Institute, London, UK
The North Carolina School of the Arts (NCSA), USA
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