High school is around the time people begin to ask, “what do you want to do with your life?” Some students might say something like teaching, or others might opt for the medical field. For others, they might say something like puppeteering. Or, at least, that’s what Monkey Boys Productions co-founder Michael Latini decided he wanted to do, and he made his way to North Penn to tell students exactly how that became his reality.

Located in Hatfield, PA, Monkey Boys Productions is a production company focused on puppets, props, and practical effects for the entertainment industry, having worked on projects for big television names such as Saturday Night Live and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and Broadway shows such as Little Shop of Horrors and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

In a presentation for North Penn students, catered towards those hoping to go down an art-focused path, Latini shared his background and road to success with his company and gave time for students to ask questions of their own. 

Growing up in the eighties and nineties, Latini’s exposure to practical effects through film was like love at first sight. Keeping himself afloat through his father and grandfather’s home remodeling business- something that later down the line would provide a useful background of business skills-, Latini worked in whatever artistic jobs he could find in between. In school, Latini found his place in art classes and theater, both on and off stage. 

“I was more of a C or B student until I really found that art class was right for me. I also started performing in the school shows around seventh grade, and also became part of a stage crew because I needed and wanted to do both things. I saw those kids backstage looked like they’re having fun, so I ended up being both,” Latini explained. 

Latini then made his way to Temple University’s Tyler School of Arts and got more hands-on experiences in art through his metals, jewelry, and CAD/CAM major, and found that his passions combined into puppetry.

For students looking to explore art-centered majors and careers, Latini advises finding “pathways that you can focus on what you’re good at. Once you get to choose your college, choose something you’re good at and going to enjoy taking.”

“Puppetry was the perfect combination of all of these things that I’d been doing up to that point. I loved all of these movies and performing on-stage and off-stage, taking things apart and building things. It’s a very comprehensive art form, and that’s one of the reasons it worked for me; I’m never bored, there’s always something new to learn about,” Latini said.

After touring as a puppeteer for around five years post-graduation, Latini’s connections in New York turned into four puppeteers working together to form Monkey Boys Productions. Forming a company meant for the four co-founders a solid stream of work; after about ten years, the company became a full-time job for the team. 

“I was lucky, I was privileged,” said Latini. “I understand my privilege. My parents were able to support me and my weird puppetry dream, but then I also backed it up with work ethic and some raw talent and free labor and all of those kinds of things. It’s work ethic, it’s showing up, it’s being responsible. It’s being able to provide what people are asking for. I told people I wanted to be a puppeteer, and when I told the right person, they got me a position. That’s really what got my foot in the door.”

The company, now employing a team of around thirty- some even being North Penn alumni- has tackled many ambitious projects, like an Audrey II for Little Shop of Horrors and a large-scale mechanical Wooly Mammoth. Diversification outside of puppets opened up even more doors for the company, who now makes many projects for Saturday Night Live.

“It’s really complicated to make puppets, but we can make less complicated things called props, and it seems there’s a lot more need for props in the industry than there is puppets. That opened up the world to having more work and not pigeonholing ourselves into the puppet industry. Getting onto SNL diversified us, and now we’re basically the puppet department, and it’s all kind of crazy. They call us and give us a bunch of things, ask for a bunch of ideas, and we’re in charge of it, and give us the keys to do whatever,” Latini explained.

Latini describes the experience as surreal, noting run-ins with Lady Gaga and Lin Manuel Miranda, or even shaking hands with Paul McCartney. Latini also recalls his first post-Covid interaction with a celebrity, only adding to the unreal experience. 

“A funny post-Covid story is, once we started doing SNL again, one of the first hosts was Timothée Chalamet, and we were doing a cake sketch where we made this chocolate cake that starts to actually eat his arm. The way you do that is, you make a cake with a hole in it and have a bunch of pudding in it, and I was under the cake and Timothée just puts his arm in the cake and I’m grabbing it and wrestling with him. So, Timothée Chalamet is the first human I touched outside of my family after Covid started to shut down,” Latini recalled. 

Following his presentation about himself and Monkey Boys Productions, students got to ask questions, such as how to find their own way in such careers and the ups and downs in doing so. The event was a mark of the diverse pathways North Penn students can take, and the resources given, like guest speakers, that show it’s possible.