Brenda Beck (she/her) has been an educator, director, coach, and actor for over 35 years. A nearly native Californian (born in Hawaii), she received a dual BA with Honors in Theatre and History from the University of Nevada, Reno. Her MFA in Acting cum laude came from the University of Southern California. She is passionate about engaging students with heightened text and language-rich material as well as contemporary, solo, and devised work, to help them discover, explore, and trust their voices and their talents.
As an actor, she has performed on the West Coast and in Europe and Asia, and she has appeared on film, television, and web series. Past representative roles include Margaret in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Pegeen in Playboy of the Western World, Agnes in Agnes of God, Susan in Loose Ends, June in Fifth of July, Abigail in Sisterly Feelings, Kate Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer, Betty/Ellen/Mrs. Saunders in Cloud 9, Lady Plyant in The Double Dealer, Olivia in Twelfth Night, The Princess of France in Love’s Labour’s Lost, Popova in The Sneeze, Jennet in The Lady’s Not for Burning, Katharina in The Taming of the Shrew, Mary in On the Verge, Hilda in Daughters of Heaven, Young Phyllis in Follies, Beth in Merrily We Roll Along, Louise in Gypsy, Paquette in Candide, the Teacher in The New Normal. She was a founding member of Plays on Words, a brief but highly regarded language-based theatre company based in LA.
Before joining CalArts, she served as the Interim Director of Instruction at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles (2023-25), where she led through a dedication to service. She was the First Year Coordinator there from 2019-25, and she taught Voice and Speech, Dialects, Vocal Power/Somatic Practice, Theatre History, Script Analysis, Acting, Shakespeare, and Classical Styles. She has also taught at USC, AMDA, Stella Adler, The Acting Corps, and LACAE. She has directed more than 30 productions, including Whale Music; Brighton Beach Memoirs; The Country Girl; August, Osage County; And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little; Train Tracks/Chuck Mee; The Shadow Box; Almost, Maine. For many years she has travelled extensively scouting and recruiting potential actors, and she has given workshops (Dialect, Speech and Articulation, ALBA Emoting, Stage Fright, Acting and Archetypes, Acting Assessment and Accreditation) at various conferences and festivals around the world, including for VASTA and ATHE. She is a Board member of Mojo Ensemble.
In other professional work, she coaches privately in Voice, Speech, Dialect, Acting, Audition Prep, and Self-Taping, and text analysis in film, video/television, and theatre. In non- theatrical coaching, she has worked with business and legal organizations. She’s been blessed and enriched by students from nearly every US state and more than 57 countries. She has coached over 200 theatrical productions, including the world premiere of the musical Great Expectations with Ellen Crawford; Bent at Theatre 68 with Jameson Jones and Tyler Christopher; Please Do Not Touch the Indians, On Turtle Island, and Tales of an Urban Indian at Native Voices at the Autry; and SubUrbia at the Odyssey. She has coached in films such as Chasing Indigo and for television, commercials, and web series. She is a member of AEA, SAG, VASTA, ATHE, and a Level 4 practitioner of the Alba Method of Emotions.
Brenda was trained by and carries on the valuable techniques and examples of James Bernardi, Robert Dillard, Tad Danielewski, Deborah Ross-Sullivan, Stephen Book, Judith Bohannon, and Jack Rowe, among others. Specific workshop training that has influenced her work comes from master teachers such as Rocco Dal Vera, Anne Schilling, Patsy Rodenburg, Kristin Linklater, Catharine Fitzmaurice, and Shakespeare and Co.
Personally, she is devoted to animal welfare, the study of history and art, pop/rock music of the ‘60s, and solo travel.
