Leigh Wilson Smiley

Leigh Wilson Smiley is the former Director of, and Associate Professor at the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland College Park, and a professional voice, dialect, acting, and presentation coach. She has taught acting, voice, and accents at Emerson College, University of Pennsylvania, University of the Arts, NYU, and Fordham University. Smiley works with artistic teams at Center Stage, Everyman Theatre, Round House Theatre, Fords Theatre, Arena Stage, John F. Kennedy Center, and The Folger Shakespeare Theatre. She has coached NBC on-camera news spokespeople, Cirque du Soleil performers, lawyers, doctors, scientists and numerous other professionals in performance and presentation skills. At the University of Maryland she combined chairing the department with producing nine professional Main Stage dance and theater performances per year. Smiley developed and maintains the Visual Accent and Dialect Archive, a web based resource for dialect and accent samples. She is a member of Actors Equity Association, Screen Actors Guild, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, Association for Theatre in Higher Education, and the Voice and Speech Trainers Association.