Welcome to henryjmah.com!

Welcome to my website.  Aside from being a performer, I am also active in supporting and building a vibrant local film and acting community.  I do this through my work in the medium and through facilitating the Performer's Mastery workshop, teaching acting classes at  home and around the city. 

As well, I also support locally produced shows and events.  I attend or promote many of the plays that my friends are in, and I support the community efforts of local industry professionals.

I believe that the more we support each other to succeed the stronger we will become as a community.  My vision is to have an acting and film industry that is comparable to any of the big name places in the world, so that we continue to challenge ourselves and each other to be better.

Acting
I began my professional acting career in 1996, when I got my first professional paid job as an actor.  Prior to that, I had done some plays and a lot of work as a background performer.

Since then I have had various roles on films and TV series shooting in the Vancouver area (see resume).  Acting has become one of my passions in terms of the performing and the story telling aspects of the art form.

I have since added screenwriting to my curriculum vitae, and to date I've written or co-written feature films, TV series episodes and short films for myself and for my friends. 

Since the January 2010, I've been teaching acting classes at home (see more on the Classes page). I'm also the enrollment person for Linda Darlow's classes and workshops, including the 2 Day Commercial Workshop. You can view information about Linda's classes here. In the meantime, I continue to act when and wherever I can in the local community and to support the efforts of my friends and colleagues when they produce and present projects either on line, in theatre or on stage.

Comedy 
I started out in stand-up comedy in the late 80s.  My first time on a comedy stage was August 8, 1988.  On a dare from a friend at the time I went up on stage and did my very first three minutes of material.  After that, I fell in love with the art form and began to perform at local venues to develop my material.

At the early stages of developing my craft I also entered many comedy contests, and placed quite well in all that I had entered.  It was also at this time I started to explore improvisation as a comedy vehicle and an art form.  The tools I had learned from participating in this type of performance had enhanced my ability to be spontaneous and tell better jokes.

Over time, I had accumulated enough material to take my act on the road.  I toured throughout the provinces of BC and Alberta, and parts of Saskatchewan, and all up and down Vancouver Island.  I put my comedy prowess now mostly into my screenwriting.  However, on the odd occasion I will write the occasional comedy bit, and at times I can still be found lurking at a local open mic night.

Voice Over
My biggest win to date is doing all the voices on an NFB short claymation film that was produced in Montreal.  It was seven totally different voices, with nuances and accents for each character.  That was a fun challenge!

I have studied voice over technique with both Cathy Weseluck and Marcy Goldberg, two of the best voice over professionals in the industry.