Holly Renaut

During her studies, she performed consistently both in and out of the academic setting, and had the opportunity to study further at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London, where she spent a month singing the role of Sally Bowles at their musical theatre intensive, and at East 15 Acting school, where she studied physical theatre. These formative years revealed an innate ability when it came to vocal technique for actors, and a specialization in accent and dialect coaching, which she has done for the past 17 years.

Having finished her studies, Holly moved to London, where she toured the country twice as part of an English/Spanish bilingual theatre company. She continued to be passionate about voice and classical theatre, studying with industry legends such as Patsy Rodenburg, Cicely Barry, John Barton, Simon Callow, and Greg Doran. She was privileged to be one of only a handful of actors invited to participate in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s International Classical Training Conference, which led her into teaching Shakespeare as well as voice and dialect. Holly began organising workshops and intensive courses in and around London, but felt she was in need of a change of scenery.

Theatre roles include:

Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor, RSC, the Dell Stage, UK

Sugarplum Fairy in Rudolph the Musical, National tour, Ireland

Viola in Twelfth Night, RSC, the Dell Stage, UK

Kate in Kate the Great, Wide Open Puppetry tour, Canada

Joni Mitchell in Songs of a Prairie Girl, Greystone theatre, Canada

Holly’s accent and voice training methods have an international reputation for being effective and fun. She is professional but by no means ‘serious’ and is delighted to be bringing all of her tools, skills, and experience into the studio with Compass Arts. Her passion is helping other artists to find their voice and use it to confidently express their full potential in whatever creative endeavours they feel drawn to. 

But, the world of Shakespeare was calling yet again, and she found herself at Shakespeare & Company in the USA, training with the country’s top professionals and performers, before heading off to Dublin, Ireland. In Dublin, she became a full-time coach and performer, working on productions for the BBC, HBO, and going back and forth to the UK to perform at the RSC’s outdoor venue in Stratford upon Avon, and to sing in the UK concert premiere of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice the musical. She organised workshops for voice and accents at the Fringe Lab and created a specialised voice program for at-risk youth at the Ballymun Regional Youth centre. She taught acting and Shakespeare at the Abbey School of Theatre, as well as Summer Stage. 

Again, in need of an adventure, (and missing the sun) Holly hopped over to Spain, where she has been ever since. She now works full time as a voice-over artist, presenter, actress, and accent and voice coach in both English and Spanish. She continued to train as part of the advanced voice and Shakespeare training with Kristin Linklater at the Kristin Linklater Voice Centre in the Orkney Islands in Scotland. She now runs a very successful accent coaching business, working with actors all over the world, as well as locals here in Madrid such as Ingrid García-Jonsson and Tamar Novas. She has presented and voiced for over 30 companies including Accenture, Coca Cola, and Proctor & Gamble, as well as directed the dubbing of a series, and hosted an episode of the new Travel Series ‘American Uproot’.