Talk entertainment speech therapy. Do you know the excitement that comes to you when you hear your favorite actor or actress fit right in as a foreign character, mannerism, accent and all? This is the kind of work that Cynthia Blaise is known for.
Blaise has long worked as an actress, speech trainer and dialect coach in the industry and has gone on to train actors on popular films like Timequest (2000) ; 8 miles (2002) ; Miami Vice (2006) ; and The Tiger Hunter (2016) . As an actress, her credits include Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989); Key & Peele (2012 – 2015) and a few others.
Although Blaise, born in 1958, is both an actress and a dialect coach, she has much more experience in the latter. Here are a few things you need to know about Cynthia Blaise.
6 things to know about the Dialect coach
1. She has always loved the arts
A quick look at her early life and history should come as no surprise that Cynthia Blaise has generally stuck with the entertainment industry and academics. The actress and speech therapist who has always had a flair for the arts earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oregon where she studied acting. For her MFA, she moved to the University of California, Irvine, where she earned an MFA in theater.
Beyond his education, Blaise was once a member of the Detroit Acting Community. She has also conducted speech and acting classes at various universities such as Wayne State University, Temple University, and University of Illinois. Blaise has also acted as academic director for projects that include: Crimes of the Heart, The Cripple of Inishman, and Equus among others.
2. Blaise burst onto the scene as an actress
When you put her credits as an actress and dialect coach together, Cynthia has worked on over 25 projects in either capacity. She is better known and has accumulated more experience as a speaking coach, but she first tried to cut her teeth as a big-screen actress.
His first effort came in the 1989 film Star Trek V: The Final Frontier. In the film, Cynthia Blaise played the character of Amanda and worked with big names like William Shatner as Kirk and George Takei as Sulu. His next acting assignment will come 11 years later Timequest. Her character in the film was a teacher and she also served as a dialect coach during the filming of the film.
In the years that followed, she worked as a dialect coach and speech organizer for films. The Spitfire Grill (1996); Bad Apple (2004); Miami Vice (2006); Justice (2006, 7 episodes); Faster (2010); and Hardcore Henry (2015) among others. In her career she has also worked with and as Kim Basinger, Eminem, Penelope Cruz, Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Colin Farrell, Jamie Foxx, Chris Hemsworth, Keegan-Michael Key and a host of other entertainment A-listers.
3. She married Keegan-Michael Key in 1998
It’s unclear when Cynthia Blaise met comedian actor Keegan-Michael. However, they met when she was a member of the Detroit Acting Community. Both Blaise and Key were working at the Detroit Repertory Theater when they met.
Their relationship soon turned into a romance that saw them tie the knot on December 27, 1998. Blaise, 14 years older than Keegan, reportedly supported him financially early in his career before his name finally became more bigger than his.
The pair worked on one of Keegan-Michaels Key and Peele’s popular projects together. Cynthia Blaise played the character Mrs. Carruthers in 5 episodes of the show from 2012 to 2015 when it was cancelled.
4. Her road to divorce was messy
Cynthia’s romance would finally begin to unravel in 2015 when they separated and Key filed for divorce. The union officially ended on November 16, 2017.
Although Key stated the reason for the divorce as “irreconcilable differences,” it turns out that part of the reason for the marriage breakdown was his relationship with Boy Meets Girl producer Elisa Pugliese whom he allegedly saw before. while he was still with Blaise.
During the divorce settlement, it was agreed that Key would pay Blaise monthly spousal support in the amount of $34,000 and also 21% of the gross earnings of all his efforts. She also got part of a timeshare plan for their vacation home in Mexico and their 2016 Subaru Crosstrek. The couple had no children together.
5. Cynthia Blaise suffered from divorce-related health issues
Maybe it’s because she invested so much, but whatever the reason, Blaise took the divorce very hard. She was reportedly taking five different medications to treat different health issues at the time Keegan filed for divorce.
According to a post from TMZ, some of the health issues that Cynthia suffered in the aftermath of the divorce included severe anxiety, depression, and PTSD. She also lost weight and also suffered hair loss, which caused her to stop working.
6. Her ex Keegan-Michael remarried
Although Cynthia Blaise is most likely still single, her ex-husband moved on with her new beau Elisa Pugliese. They have never hidden their affection for each other and have been performing in public events together since 2017.
Keegan proposed to Elisa within weeks of finalizing his divorce from Cynthia Blaise. On June 8, 2018, he walked down the aisle with the producer and they started their life together.