About

JULIA MILLER is a visual storyteller working in puppetry, theatre and film with an inexplicable interest in breathing life into the inanimate and telling stories without words. She is a director, puppeteer and designer based in Chicago, IL. Julia is founder and is Co-Artistic Director of the Emmy Award winning Manual Cinema, a cinematic shadow puppet company founded in 2010.

Outside of Manual Cinema Julia dedicates her time to storytelling in many forms that often feature tiny objects and time based mediums.

With Manual Cinema she is a deviser, performer, puppet designer and director. Their work has toured the world including performances at The Public Theatre (NYC), Brooklyn Academy of Music: BAM (NYC), The Kennedy Center (DC), The Detroit Institute of Art, The Tehran International Puppetry Festival (Iran), Singapore International Festival of Arts, The Noorderzon Festival (Netherlands), the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (Scotland), Santiago a Mil International Festival (Chile), The Adelaide Festival (Australia) and Jacob’s Pillow. In 2021 Manual Cinema’s shadow puppet animations was featured in the film remake of Candyman directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.

Julia has created videos for Monkeypaw Productions, The New York Times, L.A. Opera, AMC, The Poetry Foundation, StoryCorps, Third Coast Audio Festival, Curious City, Esperanza Spaulding, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Chicago History Museum.

You can reach me at thejuliamiller[at]gmail.com

Instagram @thejuliamiller

AwardS

PRESS

“Here’s How Nia DaCosta’s 'CANDYMAN' Pulled Off That Powerful Shadow Puppetry”

SyFy.com interview with Julia Miller, August 2021

“Swipe To Kill: Post-Henson Puppetry”
Mementos Mori Interview with Director Julia Miller and Sarah A. Spitz, Santa Monica Daily Press April 2019

“Chicagoans of the Year: Directors of Manual Cinema have created a whole new art form”
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune December 2018

“With puppets, projections and a Rust Belt story, Manual Cinema works magic”
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune The End of TV, July 2018

“Manual Cinema’s Julia Miller Discusses The Company’s Strange, Meticulous Theatre of Creating Films in Real Time” Flavorwire, January 2017

“Mariko’s Magical Mix: A Dance Adventure’ at The Kennedy Center’s Family Theater”
Kendall Mostafavi, D.C. Metro Theatre Arts, October, 2015