Anne-Marie Speed

Anne-Marie Speed is an internationally recognised voice, singing, accent and performance coach working across film, television and theatre.

As Head of Voice and Spoken Word on the Academy’s Musical Theatre course, she brings extensive professional experience directly into her teaching, connecting detailed technical understanding with the artistic demands of performance across multiple genres. Invited by course founder Mary Hammond to develop and lead the actor voice training component, Anne-Marie has taught on the course since its inception in 1994. Her teaching helps students develop vocal clarity, versatility, expressiveness, power and stamina while retaining their individuality. Working across voice, singing, accents and acting, she prepares performers to meet the varied demands of professional practice with confidence and expressive freedom.

Her theatre credits include My Fair Lady, Dear Evan Hansen, Mrs Doubtfire, Mean Girls, An American in Paris and Ivo van Hove’s Opening Night and Obsession. Film credits include Wicked, Back to Black and Beauty and the Beast, with television work including The Regime, Kaos, Pistol and Cilla.

Founder of The Voice Explained, Anne-Marie teaches performers and voice professionals internationally. She worked closely with Jo Estill over many years and is an Estill Mentor and Course Instructor with Service Distinction and Advanced Testing Privileges. She received the Estill Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and is a former President of the British Voice Association. Her pedagogical interests include the relationship between vocal function and artistic choice and in particular, the shift between speaking and moving into singing. She developed Responsive Breathing™, a task-based approach to breath training for speaking and singing, through her work in postgraduate teaching, professional coaching and role preparation.