About Us

Jim has been a puppeteer and producer since his first job at 17 working for an amusement park in the Adirondacks in Upstate New York. Jim is a puppeteer, live entertainment consultant, and character driven brand designer. Carrying a Masters degree in puppet arts design alongside credits as the puppet master for Broadway’s The Lion King, he has over 25 years experience in the field. Jim specializes in producing international festivals, theatrical productions and viral web/mobile content.

Joann Yarrow is a professional director and producer with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Joann worked at La Mama ETC and with Broadway director, Harold Prince on the New York productions of Parade, Whistle down the Wind, Candide, Show Boat, Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Phantom of the Opera. She has since worked in Denmark, London, Madrid, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Texas, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil. She is a member of the Latinx Theater Commons and is an alumnus of the Director’s Lab West in Los Angeles where she has contributed for the last 18 years.

Carlson is a chameleon of creativity, as an accomplished artist in several mediums from traditional fine arts to augmented reality, she has worked in museums, universities, and with businesses and organizations to create award winning designs. As a technophile, Carlson is constantly building her digital skills, and exploring new ways to use technology to create innovative experiences. In recent years she has focused on building interactive websites, mobile applications, and games, including working with augmented and virtual reality platforms. In 2015, she started at Puppet Network as a web designer, but has become an invaluable part of the core creative team.

Ronni has collaborated with Jim Hammond since 1998 on various puppet adventures designing and fabricating puppets for stage, festivals and television. She is one of Palm Beach counties lead arts educators and one of the founding instructors of Project LEAP, focusing on theatre production, script writing, puppetry and acting.

After years in Graphic Design in 2013, Sonia moved to becoming Puppet Designer by working on the giant puppets with the Florida Day of the Dead Celebration. Soon after she was invaluable to puppet Network designing and building puppets for the Fort Lauderdale St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Dr. Sistrunk Festival among several theatrical performances.

Nazli received her BFA from University of Tehran-Iran in Puppets Art Design. After her graduation, she worked with varied theater groups as a puppet designer/fabricator, mask designer/creator, stage designer, and photographer. She also pursued her career as an instructor/educator by teaching at universities and art institute.

Originally from New York City, Paul trained at AMDA. He's written and directed over 25 children's theater, puppetry & TV productions. In 2015, he co-starred Off-Broadway in his show, “REAL MEN: the musical”, which incorporated live actors and puppetry. On TV, he played “Marvin” on the international series, “S Club 7 in Miami”. He’s a character voice actor for radio, television, and film, creator of “Jelly Bean Jungle” (the former nationally syndicated puppetry TV series), and author of the eBook, "Make Money With Puppets". Paul has been the puppetry coach for several theater productions, including "Avenue Q", "Little Shop of Horrors", "Hand to God", and "Nunsense". He was also a puppeteer in the film, "Team America: World Police".

Dan Jackson is a professional video-editor, videogrpaher, and motion graphics artist from Fort Lauderdale, FL. Starting his career in print graphic design, he's since moved on to video production, animation, and voice-over. He's produced or worked on various projects ranging from commercials (both live action and animated), music videos, short films, live concert video production, independent feature films, and field news pieces.

Manny has illustrated for many high end clients including Disney, and Carnival Cruise Lines. His illustrations have been used on everything from vehicle wraps, t-shirts, and promo items as well as advertising and packaging. When he's not drawing for clients, he's lending his artistic talents to causes like St. Jude's and the American Cancer Society for all different kinds of fundraising efforts.

Luis has always been intrigued by the arts and performed in concerts and stage productions until his early 20s. He started working with Puppet Network in 2010 and has assistant managed various festivals, events, workshops and staged performances. His specialty is creative trouble shooting and knowing where everything is in our ever packed studio.

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Kristi Ballew has lived in Broward County most of her life. Kristi has many years of experience in both technical and legal support, as well as graphic design and video editing. She is currently working in real estate. Kristi first joined the Puppet Network family by volunteering for the 2016 Day of the Dead Celebration, and now serves as their bookkeeper. Kristi is an introvert, who loves traveling and practicing the flow arts like juggling, poi, and flower/devil sticks.