About

Yanniv Frank is a NYC based artistic creative with a focus on telling uplifting stories through puppetry. Yanniv holds an MFA in Puppet Arts from the University of Connecticut and a BA in Performing and Visual Arts from CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies. Yanniv is on the board of the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York, and he is an alumnus of The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Puppetry Conference and Sesame Workshop’s Puppeteer Training. 

Yanniv has performed as a puppeteer all over the country for audiences as large as 13,000. Select performance credits include Off-Broadway: The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show, Sesame Street The Musical, The Pocket Park Kids. National Tour: AJR The Maybe Man Tour, The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. Off-Off Broadway/Regional: Runaway Rue (Skirball Puppet Festival), Exagoge (La MaMa), Little Shop of Horrors (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), and Food For The Gods (Connecticut Repertory Theatre). 

As a writer/director, Yanniv creates work that is impactful to both the audience and the artists involved. Collaborative artistic exploration is crucial; every voice in the room is considered and valued. Yanniv led a team of 40 to create Boyish Charms, a puppet film aimed at challenging and expanding young audiences’ understanding of masculinity. The film has screened internationally and was nominated for Best Film About A Social Issue at the Student World Impact Film Festival. Yanniv wrote the original stories and characters for Feel Your Best Self, an online SEL puppet series which took home the 2023 Kidscreen Award for Best Original Web/App Series. Outside of puppetry, Yanniv has directed over a dozen productions at Riverdale Y in the Bronx starring budding artists ages 6-18. 

Yanniv has designed and built puppets for stage and screen including Boyish Charms, The Climate Fables: Ogallala, and The Six Paths. When creating puppets, Yanniv emphasizes expressive movement, visual appeal, and responsible building practices. Rooted in methods he learned at the University of Connecticut, Yanniv has developed his own fabrication practices to best balance these goals.

In addition to his work in puppetry, Yanniv is a Berklee-trained musician with a catalog of over 50 original songs, including those featured on his three albums Common Human Soul, As I Am, and The Bittersweets which releases on December 19th.