Toby Olié

English director, designer and performer of puppetry Toby Olié made his Royal Ballet debut in 2011 on the puppet concept and design for Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and returned in 2012 to work on the revival of Will Tuckett’s The Wind in the Willows in the Royal Opera House’s first West End transfer.
Olié grew up in Northumerbland and trained in puppetry at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Olié’s credits include co-directing and designing the puppets for The Elephantom (National Theatre and West End) and designing and creating puppets for The Light Princess and Hansel and Gretel (National Theatre), Disney’s new staging of The Little Mermaid (Holland, Moscow and Tokyo), The Secret Garden (Sarasota Ballet), Little Shop of Horrors (Manchester Royal Exchange), Goodnight Mister Tom (West End and UK tour) and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Firework-Maker’s Daughter and Peter Pan (Chichester Festival Theatre). He is a founder and co-artistic director of Gyre & Gimble, a theatre company specializing in puppetry.