I’m Uel. I Bring Puppets to Life.
I’m a San Francisco based puppeteer, puppet builder, and all-around puppet obsessive. I perform, I build, I teach, and I take my puppets absolutely everywhere because as far as I’m concerned, the whole world is a stage. life long puppet fan turned puppeteer. from building my own characters to building to rejuvenating adopted characters. My life is devoted to the puppetry. every day I am performing or learning this beautiful art in some way.
My approach to puppetry is what I call brute force puppetry. No waiting for the perfect venue, the perfect audience, or the perfect moment. I take my puppets into the streets, festivals, art studios, the woods, and into whatever space I can find. The puppet goes where I go. The show happens wherever I am.
How It Started
My style grew out of improvisational acting, comedy and historical revival. my goal is to be timeless and contemporary in equal measure. I didn’t come to puppetry through formal theatre training, I came through the raw, reactive, in-the-moment energy of improv, and that foundation shapes everything I do. When I perform, I’m not just moving a puppet. I’m listening, reacting, finding the character in real time and meeting the audience wherever they are.
That improvisational instinct is what makes every performance feel alive, whether I’m performing for a group of children and their guardians in an immersive woodland experience, performing original work at a puppet festivals, entertaining at puppet slams, or doing five straight hours of walk-around puppetry at a community event.
What I Do
I perform across a wide range of formats and contexts:
On Stage & In Production — From theatrical productions like The Wylding Woods to Telly Award-winning video work as a assist puppeteer, I bring characters to life for camera and live audiences alike. I work with hand-mouth puppets, live hand puppets, marionettes, rod puppets, and monitor puppetry.
Walk-Around & Street Puppetry — Some of my favourite work happens outside, unscripted, in the middle of ordinary life. I busker, I street perform, I show up at markets and parades and festivals and let the puppet do what puppets do best. Stop people in their tracks.
Giant Parade Puppetry — I have served as the centre/weight-bearing performer for giant parade puppets, including a giant wizard at the Mill Valley Parade and a giant osprey at the Vallejo 4th of July Parade.
Puppet Slams — I regularly perform original slam pieces at puppet festivals and open events, including the Ignite SF Puppet Slam and the Napa Valley Puppet Festival’s Forbidden Cabaret.
Building & Commission Work — I design and hand-fabricate custom puppets from scratch, including portrait puppet commissions, character puppets for productions, and puppet kits for sale at markets and events.
Teaching & Workshops — I design and lead workshops in improvisational puppetry and monitor puppetry for aspiring puppeteers of all levels.
The Puppet Show at the End of Time
Since December 2022 I’ve been developing my own original puppet series, Puppet Show at the End of Time. An ongoing independent project exploring existentialism and absurdist humor through puppetry, built for social media and adapted for live performance. I write it, build the puppets, perform it, and produce it entirely independently. It has grown from a social media project into live festival appearances, puppet slams, and street performances across the Bay Area.
It is also, honestly, a good excuse to take a puppet somewhere ridiculous and see what happens.
Community
Since April 2023 I have served on the board of the Bay Area Puppetry Guild as Head of Programming, planning events, running the Programming Committee, and working to build a thriving puppetry community across the Bay Area. Puppetry is not a solitary art form. It lives in community, in collaboration, and in the shared joy of an audience discovering something unexpected. check out https://sfbapg.org/
My Skills
🎭 Performance Skills
I perform across a wide range of puppet styles, formats, and contexts. Whether I’m on a stage, in a street, or in a recording studio, I bring the same commitment to character and improvisation to every performance.
Puppet Styles & Techniques
- Hand-mouth puppetry
- Live hand puppetry
- Moving mouth, hand and rod puppetry
- Marionette performance
- Monitor & TV puppetry
- Giant parade puppetry — center/weight-bearing performer
Performance Formats
- Walk-around & street puppetry / busking — solo and collaborative
- Stage performance
- Puppet slams
- Social media puppetry & content creation
- Collaborative puppetry — in person and virtual
- TV & live puppetry assist
Audience & Context
- Puppetry for children including direct interaction
- Adult shows and cabaret style events
- General public interaction and street performance
- Improvisational performance
- Scripted & memorised performance
- Puppet performance coaching
🔨 Building & Fabrication Skills
My own personalised puppet I perform started somewhere, usually on my workbench. I design and build my own puppets from scratch and take on commissions for clients who want something truly custom and handcrafted.
Fabrication & Construction
- Foam puppet fabrication & fleece skinning
- Machine enhanced stitching
- Hand puppet repair & modification
- Marionette repair & modification
- Building under limited time or budget constraints — including 48 hour film festival builds
Design & Consultation
- Puppet caricatures & portrait puppets
- Design consultation for clients
- Performing demonstration of completed puppets for clients
- Extensive knowledge of puppet building history
🎬 Production & Content Creation Skills
Beyond performing and building, I work across the full creative pipeline from concept to camera to audience.
Film & Video Production
- Script writing & concept development
- Performance for camera
- Cinematography, lighting & audio recording — independent productions
- Rapid production under tight deadlines — 48 hour film competitions
- Telly Award-winning production credit
Content & Social Media
- Original puppet series development
- Social media content creation & distribution — including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
- Audience building & community engagement online
Live Event Production
- Puppet kit design, fabrication & vendor sales at live markets
- Street performance & busking — solo and collaborative
- Festival and parade performance
🎓 Teaching & Leadership Skills
I have designed and led workshops, chaired committees, and helped build the Bay Area puppetry community from the inside.
Workshop Facilitation
- Improvisational puppetry workshop design & facilitation
- Monitor puppetry workshop design & facilitation
- Puppet building workshops
- Zoom & remote teaching
Community Leadership
- Bay Area Puppetry Guild Board Member since April 2023
- Head of Programming & Programming Committee Chair
- Event planning & coordination
- Venue liaison & vendor coordination
- Volunteer management & committee leadership
- Arts administration & strategic planning
Let’s Work Together
I am available for:
- Live performance bookings — walk-around, stage, street, parade, children’s events, adult shows
- Monitor and TV puppetry
- Custom puppet commissions and portrait puppets
- Puppet building and performance workshops
- Collaborative and creative projects
- And more!
If you have an idea and you think a puppet might make it better — you’re probably right.