Founder and innovator of Brighter Voice, Debra specialises in coaching and mentoring business clients to achieve high level presentation and communication skills.
Debra Leigh
MA Voice (RCSSD), NLP Master Practitioner
As a voice coach her past clients include doctors, academics, journalists, politicians, lawyers, bankers, actors, authors, artists, architects and the clergy. She has worked extensively corporate and academic sectors, with companies including Ashridge Business School, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, EBRD, EY, the Foreign Office (FCO), Imperial College, Merrill Lynch, RNUAL and UBS.
Debra delivers workshops in house as required, as well as delivering individual training over Skype. She also provides voice over and microphone technique. This, together with accent softening where required, forms the basis of her preferred method of study. She also runs a private voice practice in London near Liverpool Street.
She has also worked as a voice and communication coach for the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama for the past seven years, having gained an MA in Voice Studies from Central (studying under the guidance of Jane Boston from 2010-11). As a Master Practitioner of NLP, she favours working from a holistic standpoint as a coach and facilitator.
With a rich background in acting (15 years) in the Theatre and TV (mainly under the name ‘Leigh Samuels’, when her real name was unavailable from Equity), working in broadcast, (including a two year stint at the BBC as a TV Continuity Announcer) she also presents for the Homestyle division of QVC (16 years) and has delivered many voice overs (18 years) with a particular liking for dense technical scripts!
Carol Noakes is a specialist voice coach, with wide experience in developing clients’ skills in presentations and public speaking, team communication and confidence-building - with groups and individuals.
Carol Noakes
MA Voice (RCSSD), Insights Practitioner
Carol works with clients in business, the media, education, government and the arts, and at all levels of organisations, from entry to executive performance. Her role is to develop your presence, credibility, persuasive power and confidence. She also enjoys working with groups in education on confident speaking and voice for performance.
As a voice coach in theatre and television, projects include: ‘Shameless’ and ‘Skins’ - Channel 4, ‘The Jury’ - BBC and ‘The Worst Witch’ - Granada Television, and productions at Contact Theatre, Manchester Royal Exchange and the New Vic, Stoke.
She also works with the wider remit of communication in business, delivering programmes for management and leadership development, performance management, interview skills and diversity, incorporating forum theatre and applied improvisation.