Robert Hook

Education

About me

Well, as you already know by now my name is Robert Hook. I was born and raised in Kent, England but for those not so familiar with Kent, it is an hour from London and is known as the "Garden of England". I come from a small village so I guess I could be a 'country bumpkin' considering my departure from the village was in the local paper! "Boy leaves to pursue dreams of acting to Hollywood" - big news in the village...but an every day tale in Los Angeles.

From the typical 'big fish in a little pond' syndrome that I felt for so long back home, I have now joint the swarm of actors and artists pursuing their dreams. Mine is one that started with a little community theatre group in the village hall opposite my house, I'd come home from school and go and rehearse at night. I found I could escape the clutches of the real world and felt more welcome than anyplace I'd yet been...I found a home from home. By luck, I secured a role since someone had dropped out. I donned my elaborate costume, wig and accent and went on stage in a pantomime version of 'Treasure Island' - I took my 3 page scene and kept it going for about 20 minutes, the audience wouldn't stop laughing...therefore, I refused to stop entertaining much to the disgust of the director and pianist. I quickly learnt that I had a knack for comedy considering I had only myself and a prop coconut to go by. I also found a voice on the stage that night and the next morning went back to school, the shy introverted kid that liked art - seriously, sometimes I think I'm a walking cliché...but perhaps I'm one of those that clichés come from?

Anyway...jump forward to when it's time to leave school and I had sent my applications off for university and I was going to be....a psychologist! On the day of my interview for a proposed place of study, I told my parents those dreaded words; "mum, dad, I'm going to be an actor". I then dropped the pschology idea and went to an acting college in London, learning there that acting was not memorizing my lines and entertaining my next door neighbour (as i had only known), but that it was about depth, about an art of bringing a human soul to life, the telling of a story because that person's story NEEDS to be told and most importantly, the pursuit of TRUTH within character. I completed 2 years of studying in The Miskin Theatre and then jumped the pond from the big smoke to the big orange (Los Angeles). I graduated in May 2012 from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts - the conservatory where I chose to finalize my training with teachers that learned their craft first-hand through the likes of Strasberg, Meisner and Hagen; it is here I began to deepen the techniques I'd learnt in the UK and forever expand my knowledge and work on craft.

I have combined training tools from both sides of the pond to create my own method in order to find the character within, to find their soul and bring a realised human being to life...I possess a vivid imagination which I don't think I ever lost from my childhood and use it in pursuit of widening the parts I am able to play. After having spent 4 years in Los Angeles, I have now re-located to London permanently.
Why am I an actor? Because I went to the theatre one day and I never left..

License & Passport

Skills

Accents/Dialects	American - General, Australian, English - Cockney, English - England South East (Oxford, Sussex), English - General, New York, Southern American, US West Coast (California, Portland)
Dance Styles	Ballroom, Jazz