Daniel Martinez has been working with Emily for almost one year now and we feel so blessed to have him as her acting coach. Initially, we had worked with some other coaches, but saw Emily grow the most under Daniel’s tutelage. Daniel always goes beyond the call of duty for the children he coaches... he cares about their successes and failures... and about their emotional response to the acting industry, which can be daunting to a young child.

However, although he cares greatly for Emily, he is not afraid to pick apart Emily’s performances, sometimes changing very subtle pieces which one might not think would have much of an affect on her total performance... always delivering a better end product which gives her an edge at her auditions. Daniel has taught us that the difference between good and great acting lies in the subtleties of her performance.

Emily has walked out of auditions on numerous occasions saying, “When (this) happened, I did just what Daniel coached me to do.” For example, one time she forgot a line, but knew not to break character, and to stay in the emotion her character was portraying when asking for the line. She did... and got a callback. On another audition, someone entered the room when Emily was in the middle of a monologue; because of Daniel, she knew not to turn her head and break character... but to just keep going, ignoring what was going on behind her. Recently, she auditioned with a casting director who delivered the lines extremely fast, but Emily was prepared, and did not let it influence her performance as she delivered her own lines slowly and took her beats at the appropriate times. This is the type of training Daniel delivers because he has been there. He has done numerous auditions and prepares his actors for every possible scenario.

In addition to audition training and scene work, Daniel has worked with Emily on object training, monologues, interviewing techniques, improvisation, crying on command, cold reads, and comedic timing. He has worked tirelessly with her. I remember one night at around 7:30 when Emily and I were driving home from an audition in LA and I received a phone call from Emily’s agent that she had received an audition notice for a pilot requiring her to be there the next afternoon. She had school the next day and we were going to need to leave for the audition straight from school, so I phoned Daniel from the road and asked if there was any way he could work with her that evening. I was still an hour from home, so Daniel agreed to meet us at 8:30 that very night... and worked with her until 10:00 (it was a 7 page script). This is not an isolated incident. He has met us early, late, for a short time, for a long time... all to ready Emily for important auditions. In addition, he never fails to follow up on how the audition went, so he can figure out where he needs to focus his next lesson.

Daniel is extremely honest and we trust him! There have been times when Daniel reads through a script for an audition, or watches Emily perform something, and he doesn’t feel that she needs to work with him on it. He is extremely honest and he won’t waste Emily’s time or my money working on something that doesn’t need to be worked on. Daniel’s favorite saying is, “Acting is hard work Emily”. Daniel knows when to push Emily and when to let her rest. When he pushes her for more, he does so in a loving and patient manner... but Emily knows that he will not settle for anything less than the best she can give him. I would not hesitate to recommend Daniel as an acting coach! I just hope Emily doesn’t have to compete against one of his students in the future... because that would be some stiff competition!...............................Jennifer Skinner (Emily's mom)