Kay Xander Mellish, humorist and keynote speaker in Denmark

Humorist, keynote speaker, author
based in Copenhagen, Denmark

Kay Xander Mellish

Book Kay for coaching or a workshop

Kay Xander Mellish is a popular speaker who has appeared all over Denmark to welcome newcomers and explain the unwritten rules of Danish working culture. Kay also tailors speeches and offers coaching for companies with specific challenges, such as how to work better with American colleagues, customers or suppliers. And her Drop Dit Danglish presentation is a hit with companies and students who want to speak smooth, professional English.

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Get Kay’s books or audiobooks

“How to Live in Denmark”, Kay Xander Mellish’s first book based on her long-running podcast, is a contemporary classic sold at the Danish National Museum in Copenhagen. The follow-up “How to Work in Denmark” has been purchased in bulk by Danish companies for newly-arrived international employees. Kay is also the author of “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes” “Working with Danes: Tips for Americans” and the entertaining little book “Top 35 Mistakes Danes Make in English.”

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Moving to the USA?

Are you and your family relocating to the USA on a short or long-term basis? Book a coaching session with Kay, the author of “Working with Americans: Tips for Danes”, to find out how to make the most of your new life. How will you make friends, choose schools for your kids, find food that isn’t full of sugar? What should you bring along, and what should you leave at home? Kay can help you avoid culture shock. Here are a few fun tips.

Read the tips

What customers say

”Vi er en stor offentlig organisation, som samarbejder tæt og på daglig basis med vores amerikanske it-leverandør. På en temadag i sektionen (35 pers.) holdt Kay Xander Mellish et foredrag om den amerikanske kultur og sprog, med fokus på som dansk institution at have amerikanske samarbejdspartnere. Det var et yderst underholdende og lærerigt arrangement, hvor vi alle havde aha-oplevelser. Vi gik derfra med en større forståelse af vores amerikanske kollegaer, som vi har samarbejdet med gennem flere år. Ved forskellige øvelser, blev vi udfordret på det amerikanske sprog, og lærte forskellige tips og tricks som vi vil gøre brug af fremover. Vi kan varmt anbefale Kay, som fanger sit publikum med sin humoristiske tilgang til kulturelle og sproglige forskelle mellem Danmark og USA.”

THOMAS DALSGAARD CLAUSENREGION H, CIMT

“I invited Kay to Horsens to hold a workshop about “How to Work in Denmark and How to be Successful” for international engineering students and some company representatives. Kay is a charismatic speaker who holds the attention in the room and makes a talk enjoyable. Her presentation received only positive feedback from the participants. It was full of useful information structured in a humorous way. She engaged in constant communication with the audience that gave an extra understanding to her points. She used her personal story and experience to create a connection with the crowd, which made the speech relatable and unique. ”

ENIKO TOTHSTUDENT REPRESENTATIVE, THE DANISH SOCIETY OF ENGINEERS

“Tak til Kay for et underholdende indlæg til vores konference. Vi blev opdateret på den sproglige udvikling i amerikansk engelsk og ikke mindst forskellene i dansk og amerikansk kultur. Det er så vigtigt, at vi med sproguddannelser stadig følger med i den sproglige udvikling, især nu hvor sproglige uddannelser beskæres/nedlægges. Derfor er det godt, vi har Kay til at holde os ajour. Vi anbefaler hendes forestilling, hvor hun involverer deltagerne med humor og indsigt.”

LENE LILIAN BRAUERENGELSKE SPROGNØRDERS NETVÆRK I HK

“We had the pleasure of having Kay Xander Mellish as a speaker at our seminar with the theme ‘Cultural Diversity in the Workplace’. Kay kicked-off the seminar with a great spirit and she kept her audience enthralled during the whole presentation. As one participant ‘she could have spoken about anything – we just wanted to listen to her’. She is a speaker who can ‘energize’ her audience in a calm way. Her knowledge, her understanding of cultural diversity and personal experiences were extremely valuable and made the presentation honest and credible, and for certain we all learned something new. Kay is a very professional speaker, and she is very concerned about making sure that her workshops create value for the participants.”

TINE KAMPMANNNOVO NORDISK DEVICE R&D

“Kay fik eleverne til at lave små rollespil på engelsk, hun fik dem til at rette ukorrekte sætninger på engelsk, og hun fik gang i flere debatter på engelsk, hvor eleverne bl.a. diskuterede, hvilke engelske bandeord der var “go” og “no go”. Eleverne fik på en sjov og aktiv måde finpudset og trænet deres engelske.”

RIKKE ARNHOLZDANSK- OG SPANSKLÆRER PÅ ALLERØD GYMNASIUM

We invited Kay to speak to our young international talents from our Postgraduate Program at Danfoss. Kay left a great impression in her fun, inspiring and informative way of delivering her presentation. Here are some of the comments the Postgraduates left: – Having workshop with Kay helped to realize the reason why colleagues in Denmark work and behave in a certain way – Super interesting, it explained so many things I never realized I did not fully comprehend! – Great content to immerse yourself in Danish culture – Kay is a great & engaging speaker and she helped shed a lot of light on the DOs and DON’Ts in order to fit in and have a successful working experience in Denmark! – It was so easy to understand Kay’s approach to Danish culture from a foreigner point of view, because you could tell she lived the same culture shock! Kay has my biggest recommendation.

Rami IsmailPostgraduate Program Consultant at Danfoss

Kay’s voiceover work

Kay’s voiceover career started when Danske Bank – where she was on staff at the time – asked her to voice some internal corporate videos. The sound engineeer noticed that she had a good voice for corporate work.

Since then Kay has voiced hundreds of corporates, advertisements, podcasts, movie trailers, and e-learning modules for both local and international clients.

She is known for her “no drama” approach and her ability to deliver most projects with just a few takes.

You can book Kay for your voiceover directly or via Lydbror or Stemmer.dk in Copenhagen or Multimediestudiet in Hillerød, Denmark.

Want to hear Kay’s voice samples? You can download them or hear them on Soundcloud.

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The “How to Live in Denmark” project

When Kay first moved to Copenhagen, she wrote a few blog posts about her experiences – and then forgot about them, as she focused on her corporate work and building a family.

But to her surprise, she would regularly receive notes from newcomers to Denmark who had discovered the blogs online and found them helpful.

Later, Kay turned some of the blog posts into a podcast, originally designed to promote her voiceover business. The How to Live in Denmark podcast took off and has run continuously since 2013, with more than a million downloads.

Meanwhile, the How to Live in Denmark website became the basis for the How to Live in Denmark book, first published in 2014 and updated in 2017. Kay now travels all over the country with her How to Live in Denmark welcome presentation for newcomers.

Visit the website

See Kay’s videos

Read Kay’s Blog

Listen to Kay’s podcast

Follow Kay on Quora

Book an event with Kay

Who is Kay Xander Mellish?

Kay is a writer, keynote speaker, and voice artist who grew up in the USA and has lived in Denmark for more than 10 years. She has been on staff at large Danish companies including Danske Bank and Carlsberg and now runs KXMGroup, which provides writing, editing, and voiceover services in Copenhagen.

A native of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, Kay attended New York University in Manhattan, where she graduated cum laude with a degree in journalism and art history.

She worked as a journalist in Berlin, Germany and Hong Kong before returning to Manhattan and working in the media industry at Dow Jones/the Wall Street Journal, CNN, and ABCnews.com before moving to Denmark.

Kay lives with her family in Copenhagen Northwest. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, weightlifting, and watching old Hollywood movies.

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