ABOUT

                                        BACKGROUND

I trained in London and have a B.A. in Drama and Theatre Studies as well as an M.A. in Voice Studies: Teaching and Coaching from the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. 

Born in 1977, I have been passionate about the theatre, cinema and music since I was a child. My first role on the stage was aged 11 in a production of Lionel Bart's musical Blitz! Throughout my teens, I had various roles in other musicals including The Sound of Music, Hans Andersen, Bugsy Malone as well as the Repertory Premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Aspects of Love. I also acted in a number of dramatic roles including productions of The Irresistible Rise of Arturo Ui, The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Kafka's The Trial, 'Tis Pity She's a Whore, The Bacchae, The Architect and Emperor of Abyssinia, A Clockwork Orange, Infernal Machine and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, The Tempest and A Midsummer Night's Dream. I was the first student in my secondary school's extensive history to direct a play which led to a permanent drama department being founded.

I worked as a model in my teens on several photoshoots for projects including among others the video game company Sega, the food brand Findus and the publisher Penguin. I was also in a TV commercial for the home computer company Commodore Amiga directed by the photographer and film director Terence Donovan.

From my late teens to early twenties, I performed original material singing and writing the lyrics and melodies in a band that played a number of concerts on the London circuit and in the South East of England.

After graduation from university in 2000, I travelled extensively. I gained a CELTA for teaching English as a Second language in 2002 and moved to Japan in 2003 where I worked for two years. This was followed by three and a half years in Warsaw, Poland. In 2009, I relocated to Italy where I now live in Rome. I have over twenty years experience teaching English as a second language with nationalities from all over the world.

During these years I also devised several tailor-made courses in Educational and Corporate sectors including universities, colleges, government ministries and multinational companies in retail, banking, advertising, tobacco, fashion and pharmaceutical industries. I have helped several clients prepare for meetings, speeches, negotiations and presentations. Selected clients I have worked with include Prada, British American Tobacco, Unicredit Italia, Benetton, BancaSistema, Iccrea Banca, Enel, Empik. Universities include: Sapienza Universita di Roma, Roma Tre, UNISTRASI: University for Foreigners of Siena, London Metropolitan University, University of Northampton.

I continued to devise and direct theatre productions with both professional and amateur actors while I lived and worked in Japan, Poland and Italy.

After gaining my M.A. from Central School of Speech and Drama, it was evident that these experiences were fundamental in informing my pedagogical approach to voice work.

Since 2012, I have specialized in training and supporting actors in coaching the voice, including work on text, dialogue as well as accents. I support actors in preparing for auditions and self tapes as well as assisting in preparation for roles with the dialogue and accents.

I have worked in the Film and TV industry since 2015 as a dialect/dialogue/voice coach on various acclaimed international productions with a number of internationally renowned actors. I initially specialised in working with the full cast focusing on non-native English speakers, (L2) actors, from all over the world which allowed me to develop my ear for accents. Now I have gained considerable experience coaching many different accents in a variety of contexts which has allowed me to develop the necessary work ethic essential for the collaborative approach to working with the film directors, producers and actors I have worked with. As a result, I am able express myself with clarity and detail when required to develop a vocal universe for a production.

In 2023, I worked for over a year with Roland Emmerich on Peacock's Those About to Die. This production was an important turning point for me, as I was once again tasked with working on the vocal universe only on this occasion I was required to invent an African sounding language which I created from scratch. I developed a phrase book for the African language which I based on Swahili and developed an accent for the English dialogue for the African family in the production using the identifiable Kenyan accent as a model. I also developed dialogue in Proto- Celtic, Proto- Germanic, Greek and Arabic and coached all the other accents and languages on the production.

I have an excellent linguistic awareness with scripts and dialogue and have also translated different scripts and treatments from Italian into English.

                                     POETRY AND SONG

When I am not working, I enjoy writing and performing poetry and songs and created a solo project in 2007 called THE YURI GAGARIN CONTRABAND.

"The Yuri Gagarin Contraband truly is a fascinating and unique little project. It's the brainchild of Ben Shilling, who effectively puts himself in the mind of the first man to go into space and shares with us his hopes, dreams, nightmares and fears (of which there are many) via an audio-visual medium. Thought-provoking, arty, wonderfully odd and curiously cool, the YGC are wittily and boldly original." 

PAUL MILLS (2010)

YOUTUBE CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKtMIdYpQHiJa--kU9UxG9g/featured