Oliver Hymans is an award-winning puppetry artist and director, and currently serves as Associate Director at Little Angel Theatre, the UK’s leading puppet theatre. He has worked internationally across four continents, directing and designing puppetry for theatre, opera, film, dance, circus, and music video. His puppets have been featured at prestigious venues including Tate Modern, the V&A, Salone del Mobile in Milan, and many more.
A QEST Scholarship enabled Oliver to advance his puppet-making skills, focusing on traditional wooden string and marionette techniques. He completed a three-week marionette design course at Puppet Craft in Devon, trained with Stephen Mottram to study marionette making and the logic of movement, and undertook one-to-one tuition with a master carver Lyndie Wright to refine his ornamental wood carving skills.
Oliver trained emerging talent, Ash Appadu, through the prestigious Homo Faber Fellowship, and was recognition as a finalist for Heritage Crafts’ Woodworker of the Year 2023. He has developed training programmes, taught at leading institutions including Guildhall, Central Saint Martins and Royal Central, and built a global following of over 65,000 on Instagram, with his viral cat puppet viewed more than 42 million times on Instagram.
