Gwen Bowman, Owner and Founder of Ventrilo-Tarot, has been a Professional Puppeteer and Ventriloquist for over 18 years. Along with being a member of Puppeteers of America and The International Ventriloquist Society, Gwen is also bilingual, and has been happy to provide her services to both English and Spanish-speaking clients. She is a Cum Laude Honor Graduate from Bethany College, where she received a B.A. in Spanish and a minor in Communications.
She comes from a family of Puppeteers and Ventriloquists and every year growing up, one of the family vacations was attending the International Ventriloquist Convention. So, at an early age Gwen began attending workshops about ventriloquism, puppet manipulation, comedy writing, character voices and much more. In 2004, after working as a performer for Walt Disney Entertainment, Gwen decided to take the leap and pursue a career in puppetry. She immediately created her first company, Pittsburgh Puppet Works, and has been writing and performing puppet productions ever since!
For many years, Gwen juggled two careers, performing puppetry and being a Delta Air Lines flight attendant. She later combined them and has been seen all over the Pittsburgh area performing educational programs, as “The Flight Attendant Ventriloquist”, taking audiences on a trip around the United States while using their imaginations as they meet comical puppet characters at each stop along the way!
Gwen also had the pleasure of teaching puppetry and ventriloquism full-time for Propel Charter Schools during a 5 year span where she shared her passion for the arts with approximately 6,500 students K-8.
Just prior to the Covid pandemic of 2020, Gwen was performing school shows full-time for Creative Safety Products and brought her original version of The Officer Phil Safety Program to thousands of children before the lockdown and quarantine prevented assemblies such as these from happening.
Covid hit the entertainment world hard and Gwen searched for a way to pivot her career accordingly. Through conversations with friends, Marla Edgar (marlamedium.com) and Josette Deutsch (Find Your Inner Empress), Gwen was inspired to use her creative talents and skills to help others facing life’s challenges.
Gwen spent much of her time during the pandemic getting in touch with her spiritual side and it wasn’t long before she picked up her first deck of cards. Under the mentorship of Marla and Josette, Gwen learned quickly that she too could provide insight and guidance in this way by further developing her own intuition. Boom! Ventrilo-Tarot was born!
