Denise Woods was a Drama Division faculty member at The Juilliard School for seven years and has recently been appointed to the Voice and Speech Faculty at the California Institute of the Arts. Woods currently works as a vocal coach with NBC Nightly News, CNBC, Bloomberg News and the Today Show. Some of her clients include Maria Bartiromo, Martha McCallum and Sharon Epperson of CNBC, Soledad O’Brien of the Today Show, Kerry Sanders and Donatella Lorch of NBC Nightly News, Stacey Sweet of Inside Edition, Erika Miller of Nightly Business Report and Rachel Boesing of KNBC News.

Woods’ work as a dialect coach in film includes Ving Rhames in the HBO feature film Only in America: The Don King Story, which earned him a Golden Globe Award for “Best Actor in a Made for Television Movie” and a NAACP Image Award Nomination. She collaborated with Rhames on the Warner Brothers film Rosewood and the Miramax film Dangerous Ground. Woods was hired as the acting coach to young Miko Hughes in the film Mercury Rising which stars Bruce Willis. She also instructed Taye Diggs (Angela Bassett’s love interest) in the 20th Century Fox film How Stella Got Her Groove Back. Ms. Woods was honored to be the dialect coach for the film Once in the Life, written, starring and directed by Laurence Fishburne and co-starring Eamonn Walker. She was the dialect coach for the film The Hurricane starring Denzel Washington and directed by Norman Jewison. Most recently she has coached Danny Glover, Glen Thurman, Stan Shaw and Vicellous Shannon in the TNT television film Freedom Song directed by Phil Olden Robinson. She coached Jeffrey Wright in the Paramount Pictures film Shaft starring Samuel L. Jackson, and Will Smith in the Columbia Pictures film Ali directed by Michael Mann. Private coaching clients include Ellen Burstyn, Phylicia Rashad, Morris Chestnut, Gloria Reuben, Victoria Rowell, Holly Hunter, Ray Liotta, Porscia Derossi, Rachel Weisz, Mekhi Phifer, Forest Whitaker, Daniela Amavia and Mike Myers.

In addition to her work with some of theater and film’s most respected actors, Woods is using her experience to help WNBA, NBA and NFL athletes improve their communication and media skills. She has worked with some of professional sports’ most popular athletes, including players from the New York Knicks, the New York Giants and several retired athletes looking to further their careers in broadcasting and business.

Raised on New York’s Lower Eastside, Denise Woods was the youngest student admitted into the eighth graduating class of the Juilliard School of Drama. She later became the first African-American female faculty member in the Drama Division. To date, Woods’ most rewarding achievement has been the creation of “Express Yourself,” a program she founded in 1996 where she teaches voice, speech and acting to urban teenagers from the Harlem community. “Of all my professional accomplishments, teaching voice and speech to inner-city kids has got to be the most gratifying,” says Woods. “It’s an absolute joy to watch teenagers develop their voices and a sense of themselves and know that I was instrumental in that development.