Jo is a puppet designer, maker and puppeteer. She works across stage and screen for UK and international productions.
Jo trained at the Curious School of Puppetry, and The Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama—BA (Hons) Theatre Design—where she was awarded The Phillip and Christine Carne Prize for Theatre Design, and The Paul Kimpton Prize for Innovation.
Jo’s work explores puppetry as a complete process, from concept to performance. She is fascinated with the symbiotic relationship between the design, making, and manipulation of a puppet. Over the past decade she has forged strong working ties with leading practitioners in the field, and has amassed an impressive body of work.
Credits include: puppeteer for Don’t Hug me I’m Scared (Channel 4/Blink Industries), puppeteer for The Makery (Terrific TV/Sky Kids), puppet designer for Christmas Carol A Fairytale (Wilton's Music Hall), puppet co-designer and supervisor for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Birmingham Repertory Theatre), puppet maker and puppeteer for the Transpennine Express ‘Where Next?’ advertising campaign (Brunksill and Grimes, Blink Productions, Engine Creative), puppet maker for the Daddy music video, Coldplay (Aardman Aniations), The Wolves in the Walls (Tobie Olié, Little Angel Theatre), Wie Versteckt Man Einen Elefanten? and Circus 1903 (Significant Object), The Four Seasons (Gyre and Gimble), Alice’s Adventures Underground (Les Enfants Terribles), Le Rossignol and the Puppet Monologues (Blind Summit), and Crow (Handspring UK). Puppet supervisor credits include, The Wizard of Oz and 101 Dalmatians (Birmingham Repertory Theatre). Puppetry direction credits include, As You Like It (Shakespeare’s Globe), Jacaranda (Pentabus & Theatre by the Lake).
Jo has experience teaching and facilitating workshops. Most recently, she ran a socially distanced puppet making and puppetry workshop at Southwark Playhouse in London, as part of Setting the Stage: A Series of Events by Freelance Theatre Artists. Jo has also facilitated shadow puppetry workshops at the Fairwater Pottery in Cardiff, as part of local charity Vision 21's Creative Choices summer school program, for young people with additional learning needs.
Jo is also an experienced model maker and has assisted various theatre designers such as Francis O'Connor, Rhys Jarman and, most frequently, Jamie Vartan.
