Michelle Danner

Acting Coach / Director

There aren’t many people who can point to a career full of success as a performer, teacher, storyteller, entrepreneur, and expert. But Michelle Danner can.

The legendary acting teacher and founder of the Creative Center for the Arts and the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory, Danner is also now well-established as a successful film director.

Her most recent film, “Miranda’s Victim,” stars Abigail Breslin, Luke Wilson, Ryan Phillippe, Emily VanCamp, Mireille Enos, Enrique Murciano, Brent Sexton, Josh Bowman, Sebastian Quinn, Taryn Manning, Nolan Gould, Dan Lauria, Kyle MacLachlan, Andy Garcia and Donald Sutherland. The film tells the true story of Trish Weir (Breslin) who was kidnapped and brutally raped by Ernesto Miranda. The subsequent trials went all the way to the Supreme Court and led to creation of the Miranda Rights. “Miranda’s Victim” opened the Santa Barbara Film Festival in February.

Her last film “The Runner” is an action thriller and true-life coming of age story starring Cameron Douglas, Elisabeth Röhm, Eric Balfour and newcomer Edouard Philipponnat as a troubled teenager forced to go undercover to expose a drug kingpin. The film screened at 28 festivals around the world winning countless awards. It was distributed by Saban Films.

A dedicated mom of two (one is an aspiring filmmaker), Danner still has her “day job” – overseeing the faculty of the Los Angeles Acting Conservatory, and conducting her weekly acting class. Michelle has worked privately with Christian Slater, Salma Hayek, Gerard Butler, Seth MacFarlane, Penelope Cruz, Chris Rock, Gabrielle Union, Zooey Deschanel, Henry Cavill, Isla Fisher and James Franco. A longtime student of legendary acting teachers like Stella Adler and Uta Hagen, Danner’s eclectic approach (which she calls “The Golden Box”) allows actors the freedom to employ a wide variety of techniques.

Raised in a show business family and with a deep appreciation for all of the performing arts, Danner also continues to run the boutique “Cinema at the Edge” film festival and is currently preparing to direct a new one-person play, Bonnie Culver’s “Norris,” starring Anne Archer, based on the memoirs of the widow of writer Norman Mailer.

Simply put, there’s almost no one in the business who knows as much about acting and success as Michelle Danner – and her continued success in multiple creative fields makes her one of the most successful women working in the industry today.