FELIX PIRE
ACTOR-PUPPETEER • FILMMAKER
Puppeteering Pics & Reel: http://www.felixpire.com/puppeteering/
Felix Pire is a Cuban-American actor-puppeteer-filmmaker in Los Angeles.
STAGE ACTOR: 1997 New York Outer Critic's Circle Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for the one man, multiple character comedy show, Men on the Verge of a His-Panic Breakdown, Off-Broadway; Winner of Best Play in a Smaller Theatre at 1995 Los Angeles Ovation Awards.
FILM ACTOR: Terry Gilliam’s 12 Monkeys (opposite Brad Pitt & Bruce Willis), Phat Girlz (opposite Mo’Nique), Garry Marshall’s Dear God, It's My Party.
TELEVISION ACTOR: Bel-Air (NBC/Peacock) How to Rock (NICK) Prison Break (FOX), NYPD Blue (ABC), Gideon's Crossing (ABC), The Rerun Show (NBC), Matt Waters, series regular (CBS).
PUPPETRY: Felix learned how to speak English from watching Sesame Street as a little boy, wondering how in fact you do get there, because he desperately needed to hug Grover! …
As an adult, Felix was first exposed to puppetry with Brad Williams, builder-puppeteer on Nickelodeon’s Pinwheel… Because the world was simpler then, while in college, about to make a short film with puppets, he called up the Henson Company in New York and the good people there kindly invited him over and gave him an exclusive tour!
He created his own YouTube “Spanglish Latinx Muppet Show for grown-ups� puppet web series in 2007, LosTiteres.TV which led to mentoring and hiring by Swazzle.com and the Jim Henson Company.
Felix is the first Latinx puppeteer cast member in training at the original Jim Henson’s “Puppet Up!� company of puppeteer/comedy improvisers. Trained by the show’s host Patrick Bristow in improv, and master puppeteers, Victor Yerrid and Alan Trautman, plus Patrick Johnson & Sean Johnson of Swazzle.com. In that ongoing 3 year workshop, he got to work alongside the likes of Leslie Carrera-Rudolph, Brian Henson, Drew Massey, and many others.
Felix was honored to be hand-picked by The Jim Henson Company to puppeteer & voice a pitch to integrate puppets into ESPN’s Spanish language sports themed show, “Nación�.
Felix served as puppeteer of multiple characters and puppet captain on 88 JADE WAY, a YouTube webisode series from the mind of puppeteer Christian Anderson, a winner on America’s Got Talent. Through another project of Anderson’s, BARRY GOOD, he got the opportunity to work with puppet wrangler and Sesame Street writer: Liz Hara.
For Swazzle.com, Felix has performed in multiple projects, including live stage productions as well as television pilots like: THE POPPETS (*where the class included Tyler Bunch!
This year, Felix worked on a pilot TV sports show for his with puppets, called TEAM SMITHEREEN (2021), alongside newly minted Sesame Street puppeteer: Megan Piphus Peace.
TELEVISION WRITING: Television’s TEAM SMITHEREEN, featured Felix puppeteering and writing as part of a team of comedy writers on the pilot episodes of this television series by Dan Clark Company, W!ldbrain, and Jetix Europe for Disney XD. A show populated by off-beat, rubbery puppets who despite all their reckless stunts, don’t ever die.
PUPPET CONTENT PRODUCER: As the producer of the Latinx puppet web series @LosTiteresTV (which means The PuppetsTV in Spanish), Felix was noticed by the Producer’s Guild of America, which awarded him a fellowship to develop a pilot in their Producers Guild Diversity Workshop. There, he developed his high minded puppet comedy, The Señor Loco Show, which received a live staging at the Voodoo Comedy Lounge in Denver, Colorado in 2018-19.
SHORT PUPPET FILMS: Beautiful Doll selection of the 2018 Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry Film Festival, Quarantine Theatre with Ronaldo presents Franz Kafka’s La MetamorfosÃs selection of the 2021 Bite Size Film Festival.
PLAYWRITING: The Origins of Happiness in Latin, a solo play written at the Mark Taper Forum's Latino Theatre Initiative about growing up Cuban-American in Miami, won the California Community Foundation's Brody Arts Grant and the Arizona Theatre Company’s 2001 National Latino Playwriting Award. The play was produced by ATC in 2003, and subsequently Off-Broadway, produced by Urban Stages.
EDUCATION: BFA in acting and directing with an emphasis in film from Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
New World School of the Arts high school in Miami, Florida
The Groundlings Comedy School, Los Angeles
TEACHING: Former Solo Performance and Improvisation instructor at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) for over a decade. Professor of Film Acting, Improvisation, Acting, and Solo Performance at UCLA & UCLA Extension. Professor of Film Acting: American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA)
(Felix Film & TV Reel & Fun Facts: http://felixpire.com)
