• €150 or 2 monthly payments of €75

The Accent Challenge: With feedback

The Accent Challenge is the most fun, affordable, comprehensive and practical accent program for actors available online.

The best part? You get a personal feedback video from Holly for every single accent!

A month-long intensive program for actors looking to dramatically improve their skills, so that they feel confident and comfortable performing in another accent. We cover 5 accents:

British RP (heightened and contemporary)

General American

New York

Australian

AND an accent of your choice.

You get lifetime access to the skills, materials, templates and resources you need to tackle these any accent in the future.

Want the same content without the personal Feedback videos? You can access that here.

Want a sneak peak?

Course trailer

You can expect to work hard, laugh hard, and dramatically improve your skills throughout the month.

Who am I?

Holly Renaut

I wear a lot of hats in this industry, and I've been working with actors like you for 20 years now. I'm currently in production as the Acting and Dialogue coach on HBO's "When Nobody Sees Us" and I've worked with thousands of actors all over the world, from those starting out to Oscar nominees, and absolutely every level in between.


What to expect

This program covers 5 different accents in 4 weeks. You will have 5 days of classes followed by two days off to practice and record.

  • Week 1: British RP (both heightened and contemporary)

  • Week 2: General American

  • Week 3: New York and Australian

  • Week 4: An accent of your choice

Every weekday for a month: you'll receive a message from Holly, your class video, and all supporting materials. Over the weekend, you'll record yourself doing the accent you've worked on all week, and send it to us. Shortly after that, you'll receive a personal feedback video from Holly going over what's sounding good, what needs a little more attention, and how to continue to improve.

You'll have permanent access to all of the materials. Work at your own pace and come back as often as you'd like!

Introduction to Accents

A quick message from Holly
Preview
Introduction to Accents
Preview
Intro to Accents: Meet your mouth
Preview
The mouth exercises
Preview
Interesting links and articles
Preview
Today's tasks
Preview

RP day 1

Message from Holly
Maggie Smith
Benedict Cumberbatch
Joanna Lumley
On to today's class, but first...
Today's class
Today's tasks
Speeches for RP
voiced:voiceless sound chart.pdf
RP consonants.pdf
Consonant Specificity exercise.pdf

RP day 2

Greetings from Holly
A bonus challenge to warm up
Today's class
Today's tasks
RP R replacement sounds.m4a
RP R replacement sounds .pdf
RP monophthongs.pdf
Rp vowels-monophthongs.m4a

RP day 3

Hello on day 3
Today's class
Shhh...
Today's tasks
Holly's RP posh chart.pdf
Diphthongs and other sounds.pdf
Diphthongs and other sounds.m4a
Diphthongs and other sounds.pdf
Holly's RP posh chart.pdf
Diphthongs and other sounds.m4a

RP day 4

Happy day 4 lovely RPeople
Today's class
Bonus listening. (Highly recommend!)
Answers to yesterday's accent lip-read
Today's tasks
Tongue twisters and nursery rhymes.pdf
RP day 4- rhythm and stress.pdf

RP day 5

Intonation time!
Your final RP class: Intonation
Wrapping up RP
RP speakers list.pdf
RP day 5- Intonation.pdf
Intonation listening challenge audio.m4a
Intonation listening challenge1.pdf
Imitation game intonation.pdf
Saving Mr Banks intonation.pdf
Downton Abbey intonation.pdf
Stephen Fry intonation.pdf

Listening challenge answers

Answers

General American day 1

Welcome to the USA
Today's class
On vocal fry
Observation/listening recommendations
Today's tasks
American Monologues.pdf

General American day 2

Consonant day
Today's class
Today's tasks
Listening: podcast recommendation
Hard R Listening exercise.pdf
General American Consonants.pdf
Hard R listening.m4a

General American day 3

Happy General American day 3!
Today's class: vowels
How it sounds to foreigners 1
How it sounds to foreigners 2
Reference: Brian Williams
R-listening answers
Today's tasks

General American day 4

Diphthong day!
Your video today
Today's tasks
Tongue twisters
Diphthongs, can vs can't.pdf
RP:Gen American word comparison.pdf

General American day 5

Last day of General American
Today's class
Newsroom clip
Joining words exercise pg 3.m4a
General American- joining words.pdf
General American connection, rhythm, intonation copy.pdf

New York day 1

Welcome to NY!
Your class
Today's tasks
New York references.pdf
NY placement, vibe, consonants.pdf

New York day 2

New York day 2
Your class
Today's tasks
New York vowels, rhythm, intonation.pdf

Australian day 1

Welcome!
Step one
Step two
Step three
My Australian Detective work.pdf
Australian Accent References.pdf
Step four, tasks

Australian day 2

Aussie day 2
Today's class
Today's tasks
Answers- My Australian Detective work.pdf
Australian placement, vowels .pdf

Australian day 3

Final Aussie day!
Today's class
Australian diphthongs.pdf

Your choice day 1

Let's start!
Today's video
Template References.pdf
Accent reference guide.pdf

Your choice day 2

A new day!
Your video today
Template culture and placement.pdf
Culture and placement guidelines.pdf

Your choice day 3

Wednesday day 3!
Your video today
Consonants Template.pdf
Helpful Links.pdf

Your choice day 4

Week 4 day 4
Your video today
Vowels template.pdf

Your choice day 5

Final day of week 4!
Your video today
Template Stress, rhythm, intonation.pdf

Wrapping up

A final message
Final video
The Accent Challenge is for you if you want to see dramatic improvements

What are people saying?

"I've encountered a few Dialect Coaches, but Holly is the best. Her knowledge is fantastic, but it's her method of getting the information across that makes it really understandable, and ultimately gives me belief that I can do the same. Her attitude and demeanor makes you feel she's really on your side. I can't recommend this course enough."

Coleman

IMDB

"After completing the Accent Challenge, I feel much more confident in ALL accents, and more excited rather than scared. Holly makes these sessions so much fun and enjoyable it doesn't seem like a hard task at all! Before learning accents with Holly I was so scared of doing it 'wrong' but she reminded me to have fun with it and laugh at the mistakes because that's the only way we'll learn! I'd recommend the challenge and Holly to everyone!"
"I had wanted to develop my accent skills for ages, but never felt I had a reliable method to do it myself. Holly's month-long workshop helped me build a framework to approach accents, and also helped me take the whole thing a little less seriously, and just enjoy the process. The feedback was always timely and very specific, which really helped me focus on specific areas to work on. I loved getting the daily emails and approaching a different accent each week, and at the end of it I feel like I can bring my new skills to other accents on my own."

Kate Sketchley

Spotlight

Holly is an amazing instructor, wonderful personality, very patient, and she has the best ears ever (many native speakers can't even tell you what you're doing wrong, but she can). Lastly she is fun. SUPER fun! 

Alessandra

IMDB

Frequently asked questions

What is the time commitment?

About an hour per weekday, plus 2 hours of extra time to rehearse and practice. There are no classes over the weekend, so you can happily catch up then if you fall behind! 

Can I do this course if English isn't my first language?

Absolutely, although to get the most out of it, you'll need at least around a B2 level of English so that you can focus on the accent and not the language. 

When do I submit for feedback?

You can submit your videos week by week as we go, or at the end of the course. You'll have an additional two weeks after our final day to practice and get your videos in. 

But seriously, I'm really bad at accents... is it even worth it?

Trust me when I say you won't regret it. You're likely not nearly as bad as you think you are, you just don't know how you learn them yet. But you will. I promise!

How do you learn an accent? I listen and repeat but it doesn't seem to work.

That's because accents are complex things, and making them believable is far more involved than "listen and repeat". My method is based in linguistics, developing your ear, attention to detail, physicality, anatomy, neuroscience, and 20 years of experience and trial and error. It works.