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 and teaching at Schoolcreative. 

As well, I also support locally produced shows and events.  I attend 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.  I am currently in the midst of working on a TV series idea.  Look for more news on that in the future.  In the meantime, I continue to act when and wherever I can in the local community.

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 jokes 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.  I am still in the midst of creating a voice demo, and once that is accomplished it will be put up in the audio section.  Listen for that in the future.