About Professor Higgins
John Higgins is world renowned for his work as an Acting and Accent Coach,
Speech & Drama Teacher and Theatre Director. In Australia, John is in high demand as an American accent
and dialect coach for Australian actors appearing in films, television, plays, musicals and commercials.

Professor Higgins has assisted some
of the world’s most talented actors
like Shirley MacLaine, Denzel Washington
and Burt Reynolds. He has also taught Australian stars who have broken into the US film industry,
like Chris Hemsworth (Star Trek, Thor), Rose Byrne (Troy – opposite Brad Pitt and Damages),
Luke Ford (The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor), David Wenham (Public Enemies with Johnny Depp),
Yvonne Strahovski (Chuck) , Nicholas Bishop (Past Life), Xavier Samuel (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse) and
Tammin Sursok (Spectacular, Flicka 2 and The Young & the Restless).

career history

As a Dialogue Director and Accent Coach, John has worked for Company B with the Artistic Director Neil Armfield, on Suddenly Last Summer by Tennessee Williams, My Zinc Bed by David Hare and Stuff Happens by David Hare which won the 2006 Helpmann Awards for Best Play, Best Actor – Greg Stone, and Best Supporting Actor, Russell Dykstra.

Also for Company B, John has worked with the Directors, Kate Gaul on The Laramie Project by Moisés Kaufman, Gale Edwards on Buried Child by Sam Shepard and Marion Potts on The Goat, or Who is Silvia? by Edward Albee. This play won the 2006 Helpmann Award for Best Director.

At the Stables Theatre, John was the Accent Coach on Hurlyburly directed by Iain Sinclair and written by David Rabe and The United States of Nothing, directed and written by Stephen Sewell. John was the Dialogue Director on Pugilist Specialist, directed by Michael Pigott and written by Adriano Shaplin at the Darlinghurst Theatre Company.

John was also the Dialogue Director on several American feature films that were shot in Australia. These include: Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, The Condemned directed by Scott Wiper, The Quiet American, directed by Phillip Noyce, Redhead: The Lucille Ball Story, directed by Glenn Jordan, Counterstrike, directed by Jerry London and Dynasty: The Making of a Guilty Pleasure, directed by Matthew Miller.

John was also the Dialogue Director for the Australian movies, Gabriel directed by Shane Abbess, and The Gates of Hell directed by Kel Dolan.  Both of these films required all of the actors to speak with American accents. All of the actors were Australian.

John worked as an English Accent Coach and Judge on the hit TV series, Australian Princess. John was also the Dialect Coach on the Australian Stage Musical Productions of Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

John has worked as an acting teacher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), the Actor’s Centre (London), and in Australia at On Camera Connections, The Ensemble Studios, the Actor’s Centre Australia and for the NIDA Open Program.

In Australia, John specializes in teaching standard American and all American dialects. John is also qualified to teach standard and regional British dialects and various European accents. As a teacher and director John has worked in many different styles of Theatre, from Gay Plays in San Francisco to Anti-Apartheid Theatre in South Africa to Shakespeare in London and The Method in New York.

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