BIOGRAPHY
Marissa's passion in the arts formed when she trained as a classical musician at the Junior Royal Northern College of Music from the age of 11-18. Since then she has explored many areas of the arts including acting, writing, directing, composition, performing in a band and more.
Whilst at RNCM she was taught by the incredible flautist Jonathan Rimmer who she still claims to this day is the reason for her drive and hard work. She also studied opera, saxophone and conducting as well as being the principal flautist in the RNCM orchestra as well as the National Youth Chamber Orchestra.
She went on to study BA drama at Queen Mary University where she found her love for writing absurd comedies and directing. She formed Baloney Theatre Company in her final year producing many shows including 'A NON-EMERGENCY', 'The Cat's the Thing', 'The Room Upstairs' and 'WOODROW AUDITIONS LIVE'.
She then trained in Musical Theatre for her first Masters at Mountview and has since been working as a professional actor alongside her other creative pursuits.
Composition came later for Marissa but she has found that it is the skill that potentially comes the most naturally. She started writing her debut musical during the lockdown and has never looked back.
Marissa was the Laurence Llewellyn scholarship holder for her MMus in Composition at London College of Music.
She has composed pieces for several theatre shows and continues to find exciting theatre projects to work on. She is also now working on short films and enjoying this new venture. She can create professional backing tracks using orchestral instruments and synthesisers.
Marissa has taught across genres for over a decade in singing, acting, piano, music theory, saxophone and flute and has been a guest artist and visiting lecturer for Chester University in acting.