About Julian

Acting classes for me began at the age of 6. My mother was my first teacher and the class was taught through parks and recreation in Toronto. My siblings and I never had many toys but we always had a huge costume box, from plays my parents had done in the past, and we had our wonderful and infinite imaginations.

Growing up my with my parents as actors, meant we always had professional actors around us, who they loved and coached and made a part of our family. There are three people in my life who carved an image of the passion and freedom of what it means to be an actor:

My Dear Uncle Dennis Simpson who is no longer with us but inspired me in so many ways until he left us but still watches over and guides us everyday.

The loving, talented and fiery Suzanne ‘Zan’ Coy.

The man who defined “cool” for me, Damon D’Oliveira.

My parents are still very active in the theatre on Vancouver Island - acting, directing, producing. I have had the extreme honour of coaching them in their work.

So the student became the teacher but this didn’t happen overnight, this is a continuing journey for me. When I was 19 years old my father sent me to his agent and former student Jerry Jordan who set me on a righteous path of finding and supporting the ethical agents and teachers in this industry. I first went to the Actors Workshop and trained with Alan Jordan for a year. At the time Uta Hagen taught master classes out of the Actors Workshop so there was a real classical and magical feeling in the air. I did every course that Alan Jordan offered. I never got to train with Uta but read her books and later in life found a video series of her class at the Library. I then moved to Sears and Switzer and studied there for 2 years. The simplicity and the love in their technique are still with me today.

At the same time I was training in Chi Gung and Kung Fu with a Master from Hong Kong Dr. Terry Hui. I began to understand that everything was energy. That first lesson from my mother, when she taught me about speaking from my core, from my diaphragm, really started to translate into the same vibration I was feeling from this energy work. I could not help to begin to marry acting and Chi Gung and started to bring it into every audition and every role. In my late 20s I moved from Toronto to Vancouver and trained with Mark Brandon who’s book, Winning Auditions: 101 Strategies for Actors, I highly recommend as great trade book that covers so many answers for the actor. I then followed a classmate and trained with Andrew McIlroy at McIlroy and Associates. I was also in and out of Anastasia Bandey’s amazing audition drop-in classes out of her studio ActorWorks. I loved all the work. Although I learned a lot, it all wasn’t quite clicking.

My agent suggested I try Shea Hampton’s Acting from Source classes and that’s when things really started to resonate for me on the inside. This was what I was already doing and deep down I knew I was home. Shea had simplified the acting process and made it accessible.

After my initial training with her I went on a booking spree. At that time I was already working as an audition coach. My personal philosophy of what it means to be truly present in the work was growing and moving both as an actor and a teacher/coach.

To this day I am still in Shea’s class and use her techniques in my coaching and private classes. Shea challenges me every week so I can keep growing and learning as a performer. An actor must never arrive, and say “This is a good as I am going to be. I know how to act,” for we are only as good as our next role. I learn from my new students, from my old students who have been with me 10 years plus and from my classmates and cast mates. My story continues and I hope for you to join me so that we may continue to evolve, grow and learn together in this craft that we love so much.