One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Christopher will be happy to arrange your first English speaking lesson.
Christopher
One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Christopher will be happy to arrange your first English speaking lesson.
- Rate US$108
- Response 2h
-
Students50+
Number of students Christopher has accompanied since arriving at Superprof
Number of students Christopher has accompanied since arriving at Superprof
US$108/hr
Contact
- English speaking
- Business English
- Accent Reduction - English
- American English
- British English
Certified Knight Thompson Speechwork Accent Modification and Dialect Coach. Teach voice at world leading drama schools like LAMDA and Mountview. Dialect Coach on Amazon and Netflix shows
- English speaking
- Business English
- Accent Reduction - English
- American English
- British English
Lesson location
Ambassador
One of our best tutors. Quality profile, experience in their field, verified qualifications and a great response time. Christopher will be happy to arrange your first English speaking lesson.
About Christopher
Hello, my name is Christopher Lakewood. I’m a certified Knight-Thompson Speechwork coach and a professional Speech and Performance Coach and Actor based in London.
I work as a voice, text, and accent coach at leading drama schools including LAMDA, Mountview, Rose Bruford, Millennium Performing Arts (MPA), Emil Dale Academy, and ALRA (North and South). I also coach actors and productions for major companies such as Netflix, Amazon MGM, BBC, and ITV.
Subjects I Teach:
Accent Modification (also known as Accent Reduction or Accent Softening)
Public Speaking and Vocal Coaching
Dialect Coaching for Actors
Drama School Audition Preparation and Acting Tuition
Experience:
I am a Knight-Thompson Speechwork Certified Teacher and have coached actors and productions for a wide range of TV and film projects including:
TV & Film Coaching:
Wheel of Time III (Amazon)
Highlander (Amazon MGM)
The Thomas Crown Affair (Amazon MGM)
Toxic Town (Netflix – dialect prep)
Crookhaven (BBC – dialect prep)
The Hardacres I & II (Channel 5 – dialect prep)
Isle of Shte (w/t)* (Channel 4)
Untitled film with Lennie James (dialect prep)
Emmerdale (ITV – dialect prep)
DI Ray (ITV – dialect prep)
Andor II (Disney – shadowing Naomi Todd)
Eklo – I (Nepalese sci-fi feature)
Theatre & Audio Credits:
Witness for the Prosecution (West End, dialect prep)
The Woman (Birmingham Rep & UK Tour, dialect prep)
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (Chance Theater, California)
Paddington Lo-Commotion (Blenheim Palace)
Bad Seed (Audible)
Miss Julie, King Charles III, A Monster Calls, Three Sisters, The Courage to Right a Woman’s Wrongs (LAMDA)
Everlasting Lily (Associated Studios)
Actors Coached:
Chris has coached acclaimed and award-winning performers including:
Dave Bautista (Dune, Guardians of the Galaxy, Blade Runner 2049)
Adria Arjona (Morbius, Hit Man, Good Omens)
Shohreh Aghdashloo (Emmy winner & Oscar nominee)
Kate Fleetwood (Tony nominee)
Abdul Salis (Love Actually, F1, Mufasa: The Lion King)
Meera Syal (BAFTA Fellowship)
Professionals Coached:
Chris also supports CEOs, doctors, lawyers, authors, presenters, influencers, corporate trainers, politicians, and TED talk candidates to communicate with greater clarity and impact.
As an Actor:
As an actor, I’ve worked for BBC1, BBC3, Netflix, Amazon, Apple, and at Trafalgar Studios.
I play Col. Thomas Jeffrey ("Col Jeff") in Masters of the Air (executive produced by Spielberg and Tom Hanks), and have won three Best Actor awards for the film Secret Chamber directed by Jonas Grimås.
My work can also be seen in Instrument of War (Amazon Prime), X Company (US Netflix), and Just a Couple (BBC iPlayer).
Training:
Certified Knight-Thompson Speechwork Teacher
(Experiencing Speech, Experiencing Accents, Phonetics Intensive, Pronunciation Intensive, Posture Intensive, Certification)
Summer Course in English Phonetics (SCEP) – University College London
BA (Hons) Professional Acting – London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA)
National Youth Theatre
Other:
Member of the International Phonetic Association
Interviewed in The Stage on accent bias in the acting industry
Guest on UCL’s “Teach Inspire Create” podcast
Mental Health First Aider
Hold an Enhanced DBS Certificate
Pricing:
Accent Modification / Public Speaking / Dialect Coaching: £80 per hour or £110 for 1.5 hours
Drama School Audition Prep / Acting Tuition: £65 per hour or £85 for 1.5 hours
Availability:
Flexible — please inquire for details.
Ages & Levels:
I work with clients of all ages. From children to CEOs and professional actors.
Teaching Location:
Sessions are primarily online via Microsoft Teams or Google Meet, with tools for slowing and analysing speech, recording samples, and sharing personalised resources.
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About the lesson
- Secondary School
- Première
- Terminale
- +17
levels :
Secondary School
Première
Terminale
BTS
Adult Education
Facultate (Licență)
Master
Diplomgrad
Doctorate
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1
C2
Elementary
Intermediate
Advanced
Professional
MBA
- English
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
Coaching offered:
Accent Modification (also known as Accent Reduction or Accent Softening)
Public Speaking and Vocal Coaching
Dialect Coaching for Actors
Drama School Audition Preparation and Acting Tuition
Accent Modification
Improve your speaking skills with accent modification coaching. Boost your confidence and clear any communication confusion.
Also known as Accent Reduction or Accent Softening, this work focuses on eliminating any confusion in your speech so that listeners can understand you clearly.
Our individual accents are a fundamental part of our identity, and all accents should be valued equally. It’s important to remember that an accent is not a reflection of intelligence, importance, or value. While it’s natural to have personal preferences for certain accents, the problem arises when we start to judge people’s intelligence or personality based on the way they speak. An accent is not a reflection of character it is simply a way of speaking a particular language.
That being said, to ensure we are easily understood when speaking English and not causing confusion for listeners, it is important to produce distinct speech sounds for each of the 44 English phonemes (sounds). If you hear the same word twice when reading the pairs below, you might be using a single sound for two different English phonemes. This could mean you are unintentionally saying a word you didn't intend to.
Examples:
• 'Day' and 'They'
• 'Tin' and 'Thin'
• 'First' and 'Thirst'
• 'Sheep' and 'Ship'
• 'Luke' and 'Look'
• 'Sat' and 'Set'
• 'Mate' and 'Met'
• 'Mud' and 'Mad'
• 'Rage' and 'Wage'
• 'Gnaw' and 'Know'
• 'Lesson' and 'Listen'
• 'Back' and 'Bag'
• 'Great' and 'Grade'
There may also be prosodic aspects (stress and intonation) that are helpful to address. For example:
• Are we making statements sound like questions when we don’t intend to?
• Are we stressing every syllable in a multi-syllabic words, saying' PHO TOG RA PHY' instead of 'pho TOG ra phy'?
• Are we placing stress on the wrong syllable, such as saying ‘DEsert’ when we mean to describe a barren stretch of land, instead of ‘desERT’ when talking about abandoning something?
• Are we emphasizing a word in a phrase unintentionally, which changes the implied meaning? For instance, in the sentence "I never said she took my book," emphasis on different words changes the interpretation:
o I never said she took my book. (Someone else might have said it.)
o I never said she took my book. (I didn’t say it at any time.)
o I never said she took my book. (I might have implied it, but didn’t actually say it.)
o I never said she took my book. (Maybe someone else took it.)
o I never said she took my book. (She might have borrowed it or found it.)
o I never said she took my book. (She might have taken someone else’s book.)
o I never said she took my book. (She might have taken something else of mine.)
We will discuss the phonology (sound system) and prosodic tendencies of your native language(s) versus English and explore how they differ. There is likely to be significant overlap, and where speech sounds occur in both languages, there is usually no issue. However, for ‘new’ sounds, you might find that, when speaking quickly, you substitute a more familiar sound from your first language.
Before our first session, I’ll gather information about your language background and ask you to record a short reading. This allows me to gain a detailed understanding of your speech tendencies and identify the highest priority areas for us to work on.
We’ll focus on key sounds, and I'll help you hear and produce the difference between the vowels and consonants you habitually use and those of the accent we’re working towards. I’ll teach you how to produce any new sounds and provide exercises to help you incorporate them into your everyday speech.
Minimizing confusion and ensuring clarity is our top priority. However, depending on your goals, we can also work to modify your accent completely towards a specific English accent of your choice, such as Standard Southern British English/Modern RP or General American. This deeper work often involves analyzing the vocal qualities of particular accents and languages and understanding how they differ.
We typically work through Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. These platforms are convenient for screen sharing and sharing practice resources. We may use software that allows for recording and slowing down speech, as well as observing intonation and stress patterns.
My rate is £80 per hour, with a discounted rate of £110 for an hour and a half. I find that the extra time is particularly valuable in the initial sessions, as there is often a lot of content to cover before we can start integrating the work into your everyday speech and practicing vowel contrasts.
Public Speaking, Vocal Coaching and Communication Skills
Everyone can benefit from Public Speaking tuition. I’ve worked with CEOs, politicians, TED speakers, viral content creators, doctors, lawyers, small business owners developing pitches, beauty contestants, and extensively with younger students preparing for their public speaking LAMDA examinations.
Alongside this, I teach Voice, Text, and Accents at several world-leading drama schools and on major productions. I help actors and professionals gain excellent control, flexibility, and expressiveness in their voices. My coaching draws on the same techniques used in top actor training — practical, embodied work that builds both skill and confidence.
We’ll work to develop more clarity, connection, and confidence in your voice and speech. Together, we’ll explore what happens to your voice and body under pressure, identify habits or fears that may block authentic communication, and learn to reduce that tension so you can speak with ease, flow, and presence.
You’ll also learn how to:
• Build rapport and engage meaningfully with different audiences
• Communicate with authenticity and authority
• Structure both prepared and impromptu speeches
• Warm up and prepare your voice effectively for any speaking context
My rate is £80 per hour or £110 for 90 minutes.
Dialect Coaching for Actors
Master any accent with confidence.
Whether preparing for a role, exploring a new accent, or refining one already studied, I tailor every session to your goals as an actor. My approach is rooted in Knight-Thompson Speechwork (KTS) — a practical, exploratory method that helps you understand how an accent truly feels in the mouth, not just how it sounds.
Together, we’ll explore:
• Posture – the physical “home base” of the accent (jaw, lips, tongue, and soft palate)
• Prosody – the rhythm, melody, and musicality of the speech
• Pronunciation – key vowel and consonant shifts
• People – the cultural and social identity behind the accent
• and, finally, Performance – embedding the accent into the acting itself so it feels effortless and authentic.
I adapt my methods to suit your learning style, production demands, and the emotional truth of the scene — helping you sound fully lived-in rather than “performed.”
Credits include: The Wheel of Time III (Amazon), The Thomas Crown Affair (Amazon MGM), Highlander (Amazon MGM), Toxic Town (Dialect prep - Netflix), Isle of Sh*te (Channel 4) Crookhaven (Dialect prep - BBC), The Hardacres I & II (Dialect prep - Channel 5), Witness for the Prosecution (Dialect prep – West End) etc.
Actors coached include:
Adria Arjona (Andor, Morbius, Hit Man, Good Omens),
Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy, Dune, Blade Runner 2049),
Shohreh Aghdashloo (Emmy winner & Oscar nominee),
Kate Fleetwood (Tony nominee),
Abdul Salis (Love Actually, Mufasa: The Lion King),
and Meera Syal (BAFTA Fellowship).
Drama School Tutor: LAMDA, Mountview, Rose Bruford, Millennium Performing Arts, Emil Dale, and ALRA (North & South).
Rates: £80/hour | £110/90 mins
Acting Coaching & Drama School Audition Preparation
I work with both emerging and professional actors to help you perform at your best — whether that’s preparing for drama school auditions, developing a self-tape, or rehearsing for an upcoming role.
I have been part of the audition and interview panels at LAMDA, and I regularly coach Voice, Text, and Accents at leading drama schools including LAMDA, Mountview, Rose Bruford, and Emil Dale Academy.
Sessions are always tailored to your individual goals and may focus on:
Selecting and refining monologues that show range and authenticity.
Developing a deeper connection to text and character.
Preparing your voice and body for performance.
Exploring accents, dialects, or vocal work specific to a role.
Building confidence and presence for both live and filmed auditions.
Our work is practical, drawing on tools from Uta Hagen, Laban, Stanislavski, Meisner, and Grotowski, helping you find freedom, precision, and truth in your acting.
Past students have gone on to train at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, LAMDA, and National Youth Theatre, and professional clients have secured roles in major TV and film productions including Ridley Scott’s Raised by Wolves.
Rate: £65/hour or £85 for 1.5 hours.
I look forward to working with you!
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Review
All of our reviews are collected by us and are 100% reliable. They correspond to a real experience lived by the students of Christopher.
5 (25 reviews)
Perfect! Christopher is a wonderful teacher, classes were literally a mind-blowing experience since he drew my attention to something I had never noticed before. Definitely going to have a couple of classes every time when my work schedule allows. Highly recommend to all non-native speakers or actors/performers!
Perfect! very flexible tutor, willing to adapt to the needs of the student. Thanks a lot!
Perfect! Chris is just the best teacher, pleasure to interact with and just a lovely person to get to know. I cannot recommend him enough as an accent tutor. He is incredibly patient with how tone deaf I am and always so kind and understanding. I have learned so much thanks to him and his knowledge is incredible. Thank you Chris!
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Recommendations
Recommendations come from relatives, friends and acquaintances of the teacher
22
I am elated to share my experience working with Chris Lakewood over the past 10 months. As my elocution coach, Chris has been nothing short of incredible. From our very first session, I felt supported and motivated to improve my speaking abilities.
His expertise, tailored guidance, and constructive feedback have made a significant impact on my communication skills. I have gained not only clarity in my speech but also confidence in my delivery, to the point where I've started receiving compliments on my public speaking skills—something I never even dared to dream of. Chris has a unique ability to adapt his teaching methods to fit my needs, making me feel at ease even when my sound isn’t right, and ensuring that each session is both engaging and productive.
I truly value Chris’s input and appreciate the dedication he brings to each lesson. Thanks to Chris, I am now able to articulate my thoughts with greater ease and poise. I wholeheartedly recommend Chris to anyone looking to enhance their elocution and or public speaking skills!
Christopher is very flexible and accommodating, tailoring his classes to his students' needs.
I really benefitted from his help with presentations and received excellent feedback from my boss after his tutoring!Christopher is a real patient, and supportive tutor who will guide you in the best way to get you the best outcome that you want out of his lessons. Whether you are looking to study a new accent, you need help in building your actor tools for character analysis and text analysis or strategies to help you overcome audition or performance nerves, he will help you unlock all that work at the best standard possible so you can use all those tools in the industry.
Amazing teacher . Really helped me to develop my public speaking by allowing to level up my public speaking skills. My diction wasn't always the best but Chris helped me through this by going through different articulation exercises to help me through this problem. He also emphasised the importance of being concise which made my speeches feel more refined. Chris is very organised and for my grade 8 exam has never missed a lesson and in the rare event he would like to reschedule he allays tells me well in advance.
Christopher was insightful and patient throughout our lesson together. He offered practical advice to sharpen my performance and left me feeling confident and prepared for my auditions.
Absolutely brilliant accent coach. Chris helped me for 2 hours nail the General American accent and helped me with my self tape. I couldn’t recommend highly enough, he was able to pick out what I was doing wrong and fix the issue straight away. Thanks Chris, will be booking again!
Christopher is truly an expert in his field who pays attention to every detail and aspect of accent training. It feels comfortable taking lessons with him because you know and can feel that he truly knows what he's doing. He also gives exercises and resources to continue your practice on your own in between classes, which I really appreciate. Most of all, Christopher knows how to make the lessons really fun and not stressful at all, whilst managing to still cover lots of material every week. I would recommend him to anyone!
I have had three sessions with Chris and I am really enjoying it. He is very professional and has a lot of knowledge and patience. I definitely enjoy working with him and I recommend Chris 100%.
Having done several session for accent reduction with Chris, I can confidently recommend him as a great tutor. Not only is he knowledgeable about the subject overall, but he is also familiar with the issues facing speakers from different language background. Together with an approachable and engaging manner of teaching, I can highly recommend Chris to anyone wishing to reduce their accent.
Chris is brilliant! He probably knows everything about accents in general, not just RP. That makes him a perfect tutor, as he knows exactly how to explain mistakes and correct them with right exercises.
Chris is incredibly warm and relaxing to be around, as well as being knowledgeable in all things voice. His approach to vocal training make him a pleasure to learn with and he will always go the extra mile to help and finds way and tips to improve your voice. I’ve appreciated his ability to bring out the best of my voice and the correct pronunciation of words. I absolutely recommend Chris! You’ll find a great teacher and a friend.
Chris is an amazing teacher, always punctual, always prepared, but most importantly he is very professional and very knowledgeable. My accent improved tremendously with Chris!
Christopher helped me tremendously to improve my accent. He is a very professional accent couch with a deep knowledge on pronunciation of different languages, and, on top of that, he knows linguistics and phonetics too. I really enjoyed the lessons and I hope to continue in the near future.
I have worked with Chris on RP, General American, New York and Southern American accents for acting jobs and have found him to be a terrific tutor - helpful, encouraging, clear and friendly. I'd highly recommend getting in touch with him for accent work.
Seylan Baxter, actress (Dr Who, Macbeth, Outlander etc)Chris has a great understanding of phonetics. He also has loads of experience in working with students of various backgrounds. I've only had several classes with him but I can already see I've significantly improved my understanding of vowels and consonants and am also more conscious of various sounds of the English language. I wholeheartedly recommend Chris as an excellent accent tutor.
Chris has been absolutely great with my son. We initially started with Chris while trying to complete skills section of DofE but went further to complete Grade 5 Public Speaking certification through LAMDA.
We found Chris to be a very patient, articulate, open-minded, experienced, and intelligent person. His critique is always constructive which has benefited my son very much. I am hoping that he will be helping my son through the future levels of Public Speaking.Chris is great tutor , my son found his confidence in public speaking after he met Chris, he passed his Grade 5 level after 2 months tutoring, that’s really amazing! Now he wants to challenge to grade 7, he feels he can do it under Chris’ helps, I really want to say thank you and recommended Chris to everyone!
Christopher is a great tutor, his knowledge and approach were really well tailored to the premise of what I want to deliver publicly, and his critique was honest and constructive. His communication was swift and he offered flexible appointment choices. Very highly recommended.
Christopher's expert help really made the difference with my audition pieces. He helped me access characters in ways that made them very human and real. He has a deep knowledge about acting and how the drama school audition process works and he was incredibly supportive. Having these sessions made me feel a lot more confident, relaxed and open to direction in the audition room. I came out of the process a much better actor and I would highly recommend Christopher to all ages. I wish I'd found him sooner.
I found Chris' advice and endless support a massive help! He has a great approach to teaching – we worked together to achieve what I wanted from the speech. Chris has a great eye for Shakespearean language and helped me find honesty behind the text, as well as giving me exercises to bring the words off the page. I've recently been offered a place at The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for three years, without Chris's help this wouldn't have been possible! Thanks for everything Chris!
Fantastic, professional, astute to various factors which can affect the performance and able to provide tools to oversome these barriers in addition to providing necessary acting skills. Great at time management and reaching client's objective - also in a very creative lateral way - i.e. creating a video pitch at a moments notice - within the session. Highly skilled, professional, non-plussed re working with any age.
My lessons with Chris were filled with new way to hear English pronuciation. It was very fun and challenging at the same time.
I am now able to hear the difference of voices which I was not able to do before and someone in office recognized my change. Thank you.View more recommendations
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Rates
Rate
- US$108
Pack prices
- 5h: US$542
- 10h: US$1 083
online
- US$108/h
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